IT Engineer at a aerospace/defense firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
Helps reduce our cybersecurity risks, enhances security, and performs well
Pros and Cons
  • "The email protection and VPN features are the most valuable."
  • "The process of configuring firewall rules appears excessively complex."

What is our primary use case?

We utilize the Fortinet FortiGate firewall to safeguard our network and provide secure VPN access from external locations.

We implemented FortiGate because we needed a firewall to protect our data.

How has it helped my organization?

FortiGate helped us meet our ISO requirements.

In the time we have been using FortiGate, we have not had any security breaches. 

FortiGate has reduced the risk of cyberattacks that can disrupt our production. Since implementing FortiGate we have not dealt with any such attacks.

I'm unsure whether centralized FortiGate management enhances efficiency, but our experience with it has been exceptional. We haven't encountered any issues, and the operational aspects have been seamless. Additionally, there was no downtime, which is crucial for our operations.

Our Fortinet security fabric has enhanced security across our industrial control system. By safeguarding our production environment and ensuring the security of VPN access granted to individuals, we have achieved comprehensive data protection. We have not experienced any incidents that would have occurred if our firewall was inadequate.

FortiGate does a lot of research, and the product is regularly updated, especially in the ransomware area. I know of a couple of other companies around us that had some ransomware incidents, but we never have. From that perspective, FortiGate has helped mature our approach to cybersecurity a lot.

What is most valuable?

The email protection and VPN features are the most valuable.

What needs improvement?

The process of configuring firewall rules appears excessively complex. While FortiGate offers greater functionality than other firewall solutions, its user interface could benefit from simplification.

I would like the log viewing process to be improved to provide a clearer understanding of the logs.

Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate
June 2024
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2024.
787,033 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the stability of FortiGate ten out of ten. We have never had any issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We used the limit of our FotiGate firewall which was around 150 users and we never noticed any performance issues. 

I would rate the scalability of FortiGate eight out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is good.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Our decision to switch from FortiGate to Sophos was solely driven by the seamless integration with our existing Sophos antivirus system. Had this integration not been an advantage, we would have maintained our FortiGate system.

How was the initial setup?

The initial deployment was straightforward due to our understanding of the product and its operation. It was completed in one day by a team of two.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of FortiGate is comparable to that of most other firewall solutions and is more affordable than Cisco.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate eight out of ten.

Except for the firmware updates we have to do now and then, there is no other maintenance required for FortiGate.

We had FortiGate deployed in one location in a big server room. We have 150 users.

I would recommend FortiGate to anyone. FortiGate is an out-of-the-box firewall with good pricing and excellent features.      

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Flag as inappropriate
PeerSpot user
Ibidapo Ibrahim - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of IT Infrastructure at a non-tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Includes many valuable features, is extremely stable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of the solution are SD-WAN, filtering testing applications, web filtering, and the new VPN."
  • "The routing capability on the FortiGate devices has room for improvement."

What is our primary use case?

We use Fortinet FortiGate for the protection of our perimeter, VPNs, web filtering, application filtering, and general edge protection.

How has it helped my organization?

I received four tickets a year when I joined my current company, and what the solution has really done is enabled the SD-WAN feature. This has given us more value and reduced the amount of time spent on the manual management of our edge device. We are now able to set our SLAs and be on autopilot.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of the solution are SD-WAN, filtering testing applications, web filtering, and the new VPN. The new web flash is especially noteworthy because it supports Google and the single sign-on for our VPN activities.

What needs improvement?

The routing capability on the FortiGate devices has room for improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for three and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is very scalable. To scale our firewall we only need to add more hardware. We currently have over 2,000 users.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Mikro Tik before the organization decide to switch.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. As long as we know what we are doing the deployment can be completed within one business day.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was completed by a partner and two people were required. We completed the configurations ourselves.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is flexible. We pay for our device and our subscription according to our needs.

What other advice do I have?

I give the solution a ten out of ten.

One interesting and critical thing about Fortinet is the add-ons they have included with their firewalls, such as SD-WAN, which would cost a lot of money with other providers but is included with Fortinet's firewall.

When looking for a solution that can better optimize our connectivity and also keep providing security along the website for our branch offices, Fortinet FortiGate is the best solution. The solution is worth every cent. I use FG-61E and for the size of the device it has been very stable for the three years with only occasional reports to apply updates. Fortinet FortiGate has been very responsive to vulnerabilities that have been released. Our business is 24/7 and we don't have leaks. Our servers are always available.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiGate
June 2024
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiGate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2024.
787,033 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Secure, beneficial load balancing, and useful management UI
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is load balancing. It can provide central management and VPNA. Additionally, it has enhanced our security environment."
  • "Fortinet FortiGate could improve by adding FortiAnalyzer to its solution, we should not have to use another solution. FortiAnalyzer can provide more detailed information."

What is our primary use case?

We use Fortinet FortiGate for a UPP solution. For example, DNS filtering, IPS, and VPN access.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is load balancing. It can provide central management and VPNA. Additionally, it has enhanced our security environment.

The management UI is more user-friendly than Cisco's solution.

What needs improvement?

Fortinet FortiGate could improve by adding FortiAnalyzer to its solution, we should not have to use another solution. FortiAnalyzer can provide more detailed information.

I hope that Fortinet FortiGate provides a software define network(SDN) solution.  and provide the interface for the user. If we have the SDN interface we can develop our system to manage Fortinet devices.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for approximately one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Fortinet FortiGate is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have found Fortinet FortiGate to be scalable.

Our company is across many locations. For example, Europe, South America, America, China, Taiwan, and Asia. At this moment all of the sites are using Fortinet FortiGate. There are approximately 10,000 users that are using Fortinet FortiGate.

How are customer service and support?

I have not used technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I previously used Juniper. I did prefer the Juniper OS but not anymore because the Junos firewall seems not to be very stable. Since Juniper had stability issues is why we went with Fortinet FortiGate.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There is a license to use Fortinet FortiGate.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have evaluated other solutions, such as Cisco.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Taimoor Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Operations Engineer at Inara Technologies
Reseller
Top 5
Helpful support, good UI, and provides excellent visibility
Pros and Cons
  • "It's very good and very stable for businesses. It works very well."
  • "They should offer special pricing to premium partners and customers."

What is our primary use case?

We've deployed FortiGate on some customer premises. We've also deployed other Fortinet products, such as FortiMail and FortiManager. We often bundle Fortinet devices. We use FortiGate as a firewall. It is for security and protection. 

How has it helped my organization?

The solution has helped our clients secure their network efficiently. It offers security across multiple sites and helps monitor traffic effectively.

What is most valuable?

It's very good and very stable for businesses. It works very well. 

The UI is better than the alternatives. 

We like using Fortinet devices. They integrate well with one another.

Fortinet provides good visibility and segmentation.

Fortinet's devices are purpose-built to operate in various environments. It operates well across clouds. We can run Fortigate as an MSP.

It helps with intrusion prevention specific to various environments. It provides us with details about the traffic for better monitoring. 

FortiGate has helped reduce the risk of cyberattacks that might disrupt our client's production. 

The product provides policies for strict monitoring to make the network secure. If something hits against a policy, it will be blocked.

What needs improvement?

We'd like to see the product offer higher discounts to users. They should offer special pricing to premium partners and customers. 

For how long have I used the solution?

The company has been using the solution for the last five or so years. I've maybe used it for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability depends on the FortiGate model. You need the right model for the amount of GB traffic. If a customer deploys a smaller model on more traffic, there may be issues. Otherwise, it handles traffic well. Overall, it's a stable solution. I'd rate stability nine out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Our clients are quite sizable. One of them is one of the biggest telecoms in our country. We also have smaller customers that deal with smaller FortiGate models. We have a variety of customers of different sizes from around the country.

It's a scalable solution. I'd rate it nine out of ten. 

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is good. They offer very accurate solutions. We learn a lot from them. We're happy with their level of service. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

We typically deploy the solution to our client's VMs. The deployment sometimes takes about a month. We have a team of 12 people who work on the FortiGate side. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Their services are good, and we are happy to work with them, however, the pricing could be cheaper. 

What other advice do I have?

We're a Fortinet partner. 

If we have the option of which firewall to choose, whether Fortinet, Cisco, Juniper, et cetera, we will choose Fortinet. We're very comfortable with their devices. We have a very skillful team, and we've become very comfortable with Fortinet. They have good support as well.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Flag as inappropriate
PeerSpot user
Network Engineer at a logistics company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
A simple-to-configure and stable product with VPN concentrator and competitive pricing
Pros and Cons
  • "The simplicity of the configuration and the stability of the product are most valuable. The VPN concentrator is very useful."
  • "It is quite new for us, and we need to go more in-depth into the monitoring tools. It provides different features that we need to do what we want. So far, it is okay for us. In terms of improvement, in the future, they can provide a faster implementation of features. Some of the features are first available in other solutions. Fortinet sometimes takes a little bit longer than other solutions, such as Check Point, to implement new features."

What is our primary use case?

We are using it in our data center. It is being used at the perimeter of our data center to protect the applications that we have inside the data center. We are at the beginning of its installation in our data center. We have recently installed a new cluster for IPS functionality, and we have to check if this cluster does the job.

We are using its latest version.

What is most valuable?

The simplicity of the configuration and the stability of the product are most valuable. The VPN concentrator is very useful. 

What needs improvement?

It is quite new for us, and we need to go more in-depth into the monitoring tools. It provides different features that we need to do what we want. So far, it is okay for us. In terms of improvement, in the future, they can provide a faster implementation of features. Some of the features are first available in other solutions. Fortinet sometimes takes a little bit longer than other solutions, such as Check Point, to implement new features.

For how long have I used the solution?

It is quite a new product for us. We started using it only about six months ago.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Its stability is okay for us. Since we have put this new cluster, we haven't had any problems or crashes. It's okay for us from this point of view.

We got this firewall just less than a year ago, and we hope to see good performance in three or four years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There are around 10,000 people in our company, and they are all using FortiGate because they all need to go through this cluster of firewalls.

How are customer service and support?

I have not yet interacted with them. That's because we didn't encounter any important issues. When we have any technical questions, our partner has been able to answer our questions. So, I don't have any experience with Fortinet support.

How was the initial setup?

It is straightforward at the beginning.

What about the implementation team?

We worked with a partner. Usually, when we have a project, we do the initial setup with this partner. After that, we are able to manage the firewall without any outside help. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Its pricing is competitive with other solutions.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We chose it after comparing different solutions on the market.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this product. It is very easy to use. We are happy to use this product.

I would rate it an eight out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Volodymyr Khorenzhyi - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at Thunder Software Technology Co., Ltd.
Real User
Top 5
Reasonably priced with many great features and excellent reliability
Pros and Cons
  • "The pricing is great and very reasonable."
  • "It would be good if they had fewer updates."

What is our primary use case?

It is our primary router here in the office with all the firewall policies.

What is most valuable?

The solution has many valuable features. I like all of them.

Its stability is great. On a previous job, we set probably up to 100 FortiGates, and during the three years they were set up none of them failed.

It's a very scalable solution.

The pricing is great and very reasonable. 

The initial setup is simple. 

We use a yearly subscription for a unified protection model. I like the features that it gives me. It is actually a built-in proxy server and it allows me to use great protection and so on. In terms of application control, the built-in anti-virus is okay. One of the things that I like the most is it has a built-in SD-WAN solution - its price is included in the hardware. I don't need to buy anything else to use SD-WAN. This is the feature that I like, in Fortinet, probably the most. All other vendors sell SD-WAN as a separate solution and you must buy a separate controller which has to be installed somewhere, on-premise or on the cloud, and it costs money. Fortigate does not.

What needs improvement?

I can't think of an area of the product that needs improvement. Even the cost is okay. I have no real complaints. 

It would be good if they had fewer updates. Almost every update has bots that are either critical or something small yet valuable. Whenever I try to do an update, I always fear that something will break.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for a few years. I used it on a previous project and I use it now as well.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability has been excellent. It's very reliable and the performance is great. They have not failed in three years. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of the product is great. If a company needs to expand it, it can do so.

Up to 100 people use it right now, and likely we will increase usage so that it covers 150 to 200 users. 

If our other branch offices open in other cities or other countries, I will buy another firewall for them as well.

How are customer service and support?

I've contacted technical support in the past.

For example, I tried to update my firewall to 7.0.4 and there was a block with the DHCP server. Some devices did not acquire an IP address. Really, it was something about FortiGate. I asked Fortinet for technical support and I created a ticket, and the next day they replied to me they agree that this was a bug that they would work on. As far as I can see now, there is already an option of 7.0.5. While I didn't test it myself, in the changelog I can see that this bug is fixed.

So far, we have been satisfied as they have answered us by the next day typically.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I did not previously use a different solution.

How was the initial setup?

It's an easy setup. Everything is very straightforward and simple to understand. It's not complex, not difficult. A company won't have any issues with the process.

The deployment might take up to one week. I don't remember exactly. I continued to add some features, however, in the instant deployment, when it came here I had another router here, it wasn't too long of a process. Later, I asked my bosses to buy a firewall and when it arrived, on a Friday in the evening, I installed it and everything was fine. It was very fast.

I handle the deployment and maintenance myself. We do not need a big team to manage everything. It's pretty low-maintenance. 

What about the implementation team?

I handled the implementation myself. I did not need a consultant or an integrator.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is very fair for a firewall. There's nothing to complain about in terms of licensing.

The price model is fair. I have to pay only for the features that only Fortinet gives me. Things like routing are free. Other vendors like Cisco, make me pay for things that should be free.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend the solution to others.

Fortinet has an education platform that is named trainingfortinet.com and many courses are on there. All the video lessons are free. Users can view them to learn about the features that Fortinet has. It's an excellent resource.

I would rate the solution at a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Senior ICT Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Reseller
Competitively priced, user-friendly security solution with good technical support, but has issues with scalability
Pros and Cons
  • "User-friendly and affordable security solution that's recommended for SMB customers. This solution has good technical support."
  • "Scalability for Fortinet FortiGate needs to be improved. SD-WAN security for this solution also needs some improvement."

What is most valuable?

Fortinet FortiGate is user-friendly. When it comes to firewall enterprise security and email security, this solution is at the top. It's better and it's affordable. If you compare it with some other email security like Mimecast and similar solutions, those products are better than Fortinet, but here in the Fiji region, Fortinet FortiGate has better service. In some other regions, this solution may not be doing well, but in Fiji, it's working out well. Fortinet has so many customers in Fiji.

What needs improvement?

What I'd like to be improved in Fortinet FortiGate is for it to have advanced WAF functionality. Even in FortiADC, WAF functionality is not supported for advanced attacks, e.g. mobile bot attacks. Fortinet FortiGate needs to improve its WAF function.

SD-WAN is also good in this product, but it still needs improvement, particularly in security. We saw some attacks last year, so they need to improve on that.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been dealing with Fortinet FortiGate for eight years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There are some issues with the scalability of Fortinet FortiGate. Certain products and models need to be scalable, but they're not. For example, if you go with 400F, they only have two SFP+ ports, while the F5 has four ports.

When you're expanding the number of users for this solution, they'll ask you to replace the model, and this can be a big cost to customers, which could affect scalability.

How are customer service and support?

We are happy with the technical support for this product, because the Fiji region is supported by New Zealand, where support for Fortinet FortiGate is better.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Fortinet FortiGate is an affordable solution, but when expanding the number of users, they'll ask you to replace the model, so that's an added cost.

Pricing for this product is comparatively lower than other products. If you compare it with Forcepoint, Cisco, and other products, Fortinet FortiGate pricing is reasonable, and that includes all the service and support we need. Whenever we need support as a partner, they're able to deliver that support to us, unlike with F5 where there's premium support and standard support, which means you'll have to pay F5 extra.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I evaluated Cisco and Forcepoint solutions.

What other advice do I have?

We are an IT infrastructure company, and we are dealing with one of the banks here. They need a solution which they'll use for application delivery, load balancing, and as their web application firewall.

We are a reseller and partner of Fortinet, but only for their firewall product, e.g. FortiCloud WAF, not FortiADC. We've also been working with Fortinet FortiGate.

The solution we're looking for which will be implemented for our customer, e.g. a bank, is a solution with basic functionality, e.g. FortiGate. It will only be used for two or so web applications. If our customer needs a bigger functionality, then I would propose a different solution: F5. For the government, we always propose F5.

My advice to people who want to implement this solution is simple: It's an affordable product for the SMB customer, but for customers with bigger environments, I would recommend that they go for other products with premium support.

My rating for Fortinet FortiGate is seven out of ten, if you consider the Fiji market.

We saw that Fortinet is working towards the ZTNA model, e.g. SASE, and also working towards zero trust products, which is good. They're also improving slowly in privileged access management, e.g. they don't have one, but they're trying to introduce it by the end of the year.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Managing Director with 51-200 employees
Real User
Secure, reliable, and support included
Pros and Cons
  • "Fortinet FortiGate is stable. It's used across all the countries, this is the way most multinationals run their system."
  • "Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall solution and once it's deployed, you can rest assured that your system is secure."

What is our primary use case?

We use Fortinet FortiGate to filter information, to ensure that we secure our network. Additionally, it's for overall security and to ensure that no information is leaking out.

What is most valuable?

Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall solution and once it's deployed, you can rest assured that your system is secure.

Since we have been using Fortinet FortiGate, we've not had anyone breaking into our network. We've used some penetration tests, and the system is very secure. However, the security of the network is dependent on the personnel itself.

For example, if you have a phishing email, you click on it, it takes you to the wrong server, and you put your credentials there, they can use those credentials to attack your system. In terms of somebody trying to break into your network without having the necessary credentials, Fortinet FortiGate is very good.

What needs improvement?

The solution could improve by being more secure.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for approximately six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Fortinet FortiGate is stable. It's used across all the countries, this is the way most multinationals run their system.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable.

If the business expands into other geographical zones, we will need to expand the network and secure it. This is when we will expand the use of Fortinet FortiGate. However, because of this pandemic, businesses are slowly getting back to normal. 

I don't think that expansion will come up in the next one or two years. Maybe in the next three years once they start to pick up their business, then there might be such an expansion or increase in hardware needed.

How are customer service and support?

Each of the devices is licensed every year and in case you have a serious critical issue we can contact the support from FortiGate directly. We contact them every once and a while but not often. We have to purchase a license that allows us the support to use them.

The support could be faster to come out with a solution.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were using Cisco previously.

How was the initial setup?

The Fortinet FortiGate deployment is not difficult. It's not simple, but it's easy for someone to learn. The whole process took approximately three hours. Cisco solutions are more difficult to deploy.

What about the implementation team?

We have experts in-house with experience and we did the deployment in-house. They used the deployment resources internally to deploy it.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution requires a license annually, it is not a user license, you can have as many users as your want. I must renew the license regularly per device.

The support is included in the license.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiGate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiGate Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.