Fortinet FortiGate Reviews

E-commerce environment, enterprise data center.                                                                                                                                                                                                        

It has improved the security posture and visibility of our traffic. The OS and the firmware updates are very straightforward.                                                                                         

All the features are very good, straightforward licensing, Fortinet product integration, standardized FortiOS and automatic uninterruptable firmware upgrade. Easy to use support and licensing portal as well as activation process.                                                                 

I would like to see improvements made to the dashboard and UI, as well as to the reporting. I would also like them to consider offering more predefined security templates.                       

One to three years.

No issues.

No issues.

Customer Service:

An eight and a half out of 10.

Technical Support:

They are able to identify an issue and resolve it within a pretty short period of time.

We previously used Cisco ASA. We switched to Fortinet Fortigate because it was easy to manage, and it uses a Single OS for the whole product. We were also able to learn how to use it very quickly.

It is very straightforward.

We implemented it ourselves with some assistance from vendor. Because of the limited assistance from the vendor, we do not know what the level of expertise was.

No

They have very competitive solutions across the entire product line.

They also offer very clear licensing and pricing.

Checkpoint, Cisco, Palo Alto, Sonicwall, Huawei, and Sophos.

I found that the memory usage for the Fortigate firewall are relatively higher than other firewall brand when compared to same traffic volume. It might be the scan engine do their job well or the scan engine not well tuning. If there is a details information about this would be good.

We use Fortinet FortiGate as our firewall and Layer 3 switch. Together, they connect all our locations for internal and external access with an MPLS as the primary connection and a backup VPN over a secondary DSL/Cable ISP.

Fortinet FortiGate has improved our routing and made us more secure. Using OSPF tables with an MPLS VPN, along with the combined security of the firewalls, has made a huge difference in our organization.

• The ability to customize UTM features and add or remove features as we like.
• Availability of different locations as options.
• The VPN features are easy to deal with.
• The CLI and GUI do a good job of putting a lot at your fingertips.

It could use more templates for third-party site-to-site VPN setups other than FortiGate and Cisco.

Their proxy-based inspection is responsive and secure.

We use it for security. It performs okay.

It controls the traffic in the organization and the navigation of the Internet. It blocks some sites and permits limited access to our information through the web. We can detect any attack of viruses or malware at the first point of contact.

• The security
• Monitoring
• Alarms

It is a very strong platform.

There are problems with the custom reporting of the unique traffic. The data is there, but it is too difficult for us to extract. 

Just today, our platform was down seven hours today. We called the technical support and they told us that there was some maintenance in the cloud for the platform.

The scalability is good.

The technical support is good.

The initial setup is not difficult, but tricky. It's easy, but it's important that their technical support will help you during the configuration of the platform. Procedures that appear logical are not always so.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: The security of the platform, because we are very concerned about cybersecurity. Also, the customer service response is important.

It performs well.

We have a lot of bandwidth.

• Box stability
  
• Security features, like SSL scanning. 
• Their service: Whenever we raise a complaint with FortiGate, their response and resolution times are minimal.

They need faster serviceability and more security features.

It has good stability compared to its competitors.

It is scalable. We are making a cost savings on the scalability.

We have been using technical support. Their response and resolution times are good.

Our previous solution had performance issues.

The initial setup was straightforward and easy.

We evaluated Cyberoam and Cisco.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: stability and service.

We use it because it is a good device.

It has improved our organization with control data.

The rules.

The reports are very basic.

It is performing fine, there is no problem from FortiGate. The firewall engine is very good, Very suitable for picking up Zero-day threats. It has protected us from two or three instances, thanks to this engine.

From 2014 when they started using it, I was not associated with the company. I have only been associated with the company for the last year.

Valuable features include the Web Application Firewall, and it even has DLP (data leak prevention).

After four years it has started to fail. The firewall engine is not so strong as of now, in my opinion. For that reason, we want to migrate to Check Point. This is one of the concerns that I have right now. 

My second concern is that, while they have Zero-day vulnerability and anti-malware features, the threat engine needs to be strengthened, its efficiency can be increased.

I also need user-behavior analytics, to find threat scenarios from inside the organization, insider attacks. That would be very helpful for us. In addition, I would like next-generation features for small and medium businesses. These businesses require UTM, all in one product. Fortinet must include it.

Scalability is fine as of now. Compared to other firewall products, it's a little cheaper in terms of pricing. So scalability is good. 

But right now, due to a greater focus on security, I think FortiGate needs to improve on the security features, and they need to do so for their small and medium business products, in order to compete.

Technical support is pretty good. We had to call FortiGate support once, and they really helped us. In one of the configuration files from FortiGate, during an upgrade of the hardware, something was changed. They were very helpful in resolving it for us. There is no problem with support.

Previously, in 2013, I believe we were using WatchGuard.

In the process of selecting a vendor, the most important criteria will be to go through threat assessment reports - the NSS testing reports that are published every year. Our decision will depend on that.

If price is a constraint for you, you should go with Fortinet. But security is a very big factor right now. If you want to be compliant with GDPR and all the other things that are coming up, you should go with another good vendor. Even though Fortinet is a big competitor, in one to three years, when they include many new features in their products, they will be a good solution.

I would rate FortiGate at eight out of 10 because the support was very good. Considering the current scenario, I would not give it nine or 10 because they need to include many features in the smaller products, not only in enterprise-level products.

I have deployed several of the following models for customers: 200D, 60E, 60D. This review focuses on the FortiGate 200D.

The first implementation I performed of a FortiGate 200D was to replace a Juniper SSG-140 in a main corporate office.  This implementation provided improved network administration and network performance.

We also received more timely security updates, and it became easier to connect all of the other offices together (via an IPsec VPN mesh).

As additional FortiOS releases have come out, we have obtained more flexibility in device identification and WAN load-balancing, among other things.

• The CLI is robust and powerful, enabling rapid, consistent changes via SSH. 
  
  The device identification is very flexible, facilitating the creation of rules to regulate all sorts of devices that might spring up on a network, especially via WiFi.
• The IPsec tunnels are very easily created, and quite interoperable with devices from other vendors.
• WAN load-balancing has improved, but needs some refinement.
  
  You can set up a different DDNS config for each WAN link.
  
  It is great to be able largely use the same OS features across the family of devices.

WAN load-balancing could be a lot better at detecting when a link is poor or inconsistent, and not just flat out dead. There are lots of options for routing traffic over a specific path when you have WAN load-balancing enabled, but they are not as clear and consistent as they could be, and most can only be set at the CLI.

Some configuration elements cannot be easily altered once created.  For instance, there is no way to rename an interface (say, for a VPN tunnel), unless you create an entirely new one and perform a little gymnastics to switch from one to the other. Or, you export the config, rename the elements in question, then re-import the entire config.

Creating a meshed VPN connection (Office A with two WAN links connecting to Office B with two WAN links) requires a massive bundle of four IPsec interfaces, with two policies. It would be nice to have a cleaner, simpler config for that functionality, something not very uncommon today.

I have found that if you have a console cable in the device when you reboot it for a disk check, it will boot to the device firmware. This will not happen for a regular reboot.

If you have more than a very basic environment, you quickly have to escalate past the first level of support. The initial level is so-so.  The next level up has been stellar for me, and quick to figure out issues and resolve them.

I've only experienced stability issues a few times.  One was with the v5.4.0 and .1 releases. Also, there was an issue during the v5.2.x series where there was an SSD issue that was fixed with later firmware. Overall, the devices have been very stable.

No. Scalability is good, and performance increases are great as you move to higher products.

Customer support is okay. They are fairly responsive for level three and higher (one and two) issues, but if your issue is a little complex, you will want to ask them to escalate to a second level tech. They don't always read all the info you provide in the first pass, but overall, they are helpful.

I previously favored NetScreen/Juniper SSG solutions, but Juniper stopped supporting the SSG line, and FortiGate provides more value and performance for the dollar.

I've also tested the Sophos solutions, but found them not compelling enough to switch from the FortiGate devices.

The devices are very easy to setup, even if you need to configure VPNs. You could have an HA config up and running within 60-90 minutes, with the latest firmware installed, and a couple of policies and tunnels.

If you do not regularly work with enterprise-class firewalls, you might need to add an hour to the above scenario, but the provided wizards make it pretty easy to address the basic functions.

In-house deployment all the time.

In almost every case, I've experienced (or had customers experience) an ROI within 12 months, based on better performance for the same price or increased functionality for the same (or less) price.

Licensing and setup costs are generally pretty clear with Fortinet. If you go with centralized management or their Log Analyzer tool, these carry some additional pricing that you need to look at.

Check out the price matrix, and go with a value-added reseller that understands how to help you size out the equipment. Remember to always look at the performance with the assumption that you will have many of the unified threat management (UTM) features on, not off.

Yes, I tested and evaluated solutions from pfSense, Sophos, and Palo Alto.

I highly recommend, and often try to deploy Fortinet solutions for my office network and for my customers. They run for a long time, they are supported for many OS updates, and they are pretty solid.

Don't upgrade the OS right away when it is released, if a major new version has come out.  v5.0 was problematic early, but v5.2 was great. v5.4 was a problem child, but v5.6 had only a minor issue. v6.0 was surprisingly smooth and had only a minor issue. I could have avoided most of these problems if I waited an additional month or so before updating, but I updated because I need to advise customers on what they should be doing.

I've had to interact with support a lot, and overall they've been good (with the caveat mentioned earlier).

When we looking for a device, we wanted to control incoming and outgoing traffic into our network to protect our organization, like have a barrier before anyone could send something in or anyone could send something out. We also use this for our DHCP.

The greatest improvement was on security. If you put rules that will not allow certain traffic, it won't happen. You can close the traffic that you don't want in your network, because of malware and people fishing and spamming.

• DHCP functionality: The object tab where we manage our IP addresses and static. The DHCP monitors them.
• FortiClient: You can easily connect when you are home, check out what you want to do, and connect to your network when you are not at work. You can switch on servers and you can check what is wrong.

It should come integrated or have its own type of network monitor tool in a module. There should just be one package, and you are good to go.

Stability is excellent. It is so stable that it is the best in the market. I would rate the stability as a 10 out of 10.

It has the capacity to change in size. It comes in different sizes. E.g., for a smaller organization, you buy smaller package, then for bigger entities, you buy the bigger one. If you have fewer users in a certain entity, they would get a package of 50 each. If it's a head office, then you'd get something like 201. So, it accommodates for all sizes.

Technical support has been great. We have used it before because sometimes you get issues that you can't handle, then you have to call it in, send emails, and they assist you. 

We also work through our partners, which has been good.

We were previously using Netgear, which was smaller. It didn't have the advanced technology in terms of what we wanted it to do. It was an older version. We thought that if we were going to change the firewall, then we should make a good, future investment. Thus, our partners advised us that FortiGate was one of the best, so we invested in them.

The initial setup was not straightforward. You need some training and to learn some of these things through the experience of using it.

We were guided by our partner, so we worked on our devices with our partners. They were the ones who helped us and who have been working with us, even for upgrades, and it has not been straightforward.

We evaluated Cisco, Netgear, and Cyberoam.

You don't need to reinvent the wheel, as FortiGate is the best solution.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: 

• The ability of the brand
• Best of breed
• Reliability
• After hours sales service, because we know technology comes with renewals, upgrades, and support. This is quite critical to our functionality and efficiency.

We have been using the FortiGate antivirus software for a couple of years, as of mid-July. The hardware solutions for the firewall, we have been using for less than a year.

We are using FortiGate 80E for a medium-sized office. I am pretty satisfied with it. It has performed well. The primary use is to protect the internet traffic for a medium-sized office, up to fifty users, using a local domain with a not so intensive cloud traffic. Generally, it is just to protect the internet access for all the users in the network.

Also, we are using VPN at external locations to the office, which FortiGate supports.

It give us the liberty to let us do our jobs.

• There is an easy process for configuring it, and it is straightforward to implement the device from scratch.
• It has a somewhat diverse device interface, but if you have one day to play with it, you can easily find whatever you need. 
• All types of policies need to be installed, then all the parameters are configured. It is not very demanding,

At first glance, the interface for the device is very confusing. However, every version is getting better.

I have had no concerns with the stability so far.

We have been in no position to upgrade our number of users. So, I cannot judge this aspect of the product.

They provides local support. I have been using them only for some site blocking. They are pretty efficient in this. They say they will respond in 24 hours, but I have received responses in a maximum of one hour, which is impressive.

We had a server acting as our service-based firewall, so no solution for firewall. 

FortiGate is my first actual solution for firewalls.

The initial setup was very straightforward.

It provides mid-sized company pricing.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: We have specific procurement rules, then we specify the technical specifications. After that, whoever is cheapest should get the job.

• Security
• Monitoring and controlling
• VPN
• Active Directory integration
• Servers
• All components related to an enterprise environment.

We replaced Sophos with FortiGate and found it better than the Sophos product. It has better control, insights, and prevention from crypto malware and other threats.

The most valuable features are centralized monitoring, policy management, and virtualized appliances so we can have control over public and private Infrastructure.

Cisco Meraki products are rising very quickly in the cloud and the connected era. Meraki products are future proof and offer much better ROI, upgradability, and manageability.

IT is continuously evolving, and every few days or months, there is something new. Whoever evolves first will take the lead over the competition. Adopting and evolving is the key to success.

These products are solid and stable.

We have not had any issues with scalability.

Our experience with support has been fine. No trouble or hassle.

Sophos: It was good for small businesses, who are evolving and improving. Though, I found Cisco Meraki to be much better.

Part of the setup was straightforward and other parts were complex. They need to work on feature placements and menus.

We did the implementation through a vendor, who had good experience.

Two to three years, depending on usage type, number of users, and organizational size.

Yes, we did, Palo Alto and other solutions, but we found FortiGate to be the best solution at that point in time.