What is our primary use case?
Fortinet FortiClient is used for remote users or users when they are back home and wanting to access their application in the office. Users connect to the firewall through Fortinet FortiClient and then access their internal resources, which is the major use case.
What is most valuable?
Fortinet FortiClient offers easy deployment and ease of use, unlike other solutions where significant installations on the user computer are sometimes required. It can be deployed remotely, making deployment beneficial and straightforward.
Fortinet FortiClient helps with security policy enforcement because all communication is encrypted when using the VPN. If you want to access internal resources, the connection path is entirely encrypted. This has helped reduce the attack surface significantly.
FortiGate has increased in pricing compared to the previous year due to extensive research and development. Nevertheless, it remains competitive compared to other brands and is quite a good product. However, there are many other brands emerging now, including Hillstone and WatchGuard, which will be stiff competition in the future.
Fortinet FortiClient is saving us time and money. Compared to other brands like Palo Alto or Check Point, those two are definitely more expensive. FortiGate pricing has increased compared to the previous year.
Fortinet is easier to configure than other solutions. Our engineers prefer to deploy Fortinet rather than other brands because those are more complicated from a technical side. Fortinet FortiClient is essentially a VPN client that is easier to install compared to others, and I cannot think of anything that needs improvement.
The VPN part requires configuration of all parameters to ensure the VPN is operational and the connection is established. When it is up and running, it feels like you are sitting in the office, making it very convenient for the customer.
What needs improvement?
Performance could be improved today. People are now moving toward SASE, which stands for Secure Access, Secure Edge Solution. Fortinet also has that offering, which would be easier since it operates through the cloud, acting as a first line of defense. When the user connects to the internet, they connect to the cloud first for posture assessment and monitoring before connecting to the outside world.
The impact is significant because nowadays people are adopting SASE. During COVID time, many users were trying to connect back to their office, causing the performance or CPU utilization of the firewall to increase tremendously, which slowed down performance.
I have not worked with endpoint telemetry in Fortinet FortiClient that could have been helpful for threat mitigation.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been dealing with Fortinet FortiClient for more than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiClient is stable. I would say Fortinet FortiClient is a stable product with no glitches or latency issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There is a limit of clients for the free version, but the free version means no support from Fortinet. Most of our clients are using the free version rather than the paid version due to the high range of maximum users available for the free version.
How are customer service and support?
I interact with technical support from Fortinet, but only two years back, as mostly we liaise with the distributor. Our engineer can log cases to the principal when they do support, and for anything that needs help, they deal directly with Fortinet's technical support.
My experience with support is good, and the response time is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I work with Palo Alto once in a while, but not very frequently. I have only worked on one or two projects with them.
How was the initial setup?
Deployment is very simple and involves easy clicking, making it simple for the customer when discussing VPN capabilities. The VPN part is free with a certain user limit.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment is all on-premises with on-site deployment when discussing the firewall from Fortinet.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is not cloud-based; it comes from the firewall itself.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Fortinet FortiClient is a stable product with no glitches or latency issues.
What other advice do I have?
We are a systems integrator company and we work with all networking products including KEMP and Fortinet.
We have extensive experience with FortiGate and work frequently with both Fortinet and KEMP, though KEMP is not as frequent.
We have sold Fortinet Firewall, FortiAnalyzer, FortiWeb, and we do a lot of firewalls, particularly Next Generation Firewalls. FortiWeb is a firewall service, specifically FortiWeb Cloud, which is Web Application Firewall as a service.
We are using Fortinet FortiClient and have deployed it for customers. There are some Fortinet products we have not yet worked with, including Fortinet Managed IPS or FortiOS.
We are integrators for the product and purchase through distributors because Fortinet only sells through them, not directly or through some marketplace.
Fortinet FortiClient is very simple to deploy with easy clicking and simple deployment for the customer when discussing VPN capabilities.
I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten on a scale from one to ten.