Fortinet FortiGate-VM Reviews

Whenever I need to deploy a Fortigate firewall, I go on Fortinet and do a trial license and work on it.  

The use case depends on the requirements. The requirements change from client to client. 

The virtual firewall feature is very good.

The solution is easy to deploy and manage, which makes it easy to test.

The products never disappoint us.

There are a lot of features that overlap and are similar to other products.

The setup is simple.  

I haven't had much of a chance to work on the VM environment too much. I don't have any notes for improvement. 

Technical support could be better. 

I've used the solution for two or three years on and off. 

The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches when handling testing in the lab environment. 

The solution is scalable. You can expand it easily. 

I'm not sure if there is a local person in Pakistan. Whenever I try to contact support, there is always a delay and I have not been so happy with the support services on offer. 

I also use Sophos. 

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. With the deployment of any type of firewall, you do have to do some workarounds. As long as you know the specifications, you are good to go. I'd state the ease of setup eight out of ten. 

The deployment, so long as it is not a migration, only takes a few hours. 

They do offer a one-month free trial. 

They offer affordable pricing. It was not expensive. I'd rate it seven or eight out of ten in terms of affordability. 

We are Fortinet partners. 

The solution is pretty good. 

I would recommend the solution to others. I've had a great experience with the virtual environment. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. 

We are a reseller of FortiGate, but also a customer. I have configured it in my office. Our primary case use includes equipment installed with customers.

We have Fabric Security that integrates with other FortiGate family products like firewalls and switches. This means that we don't need to buy other licenses and it's easy to configure.

With every new version, there are issues and new parts due to the improvements. But the improvements are not always easy for the customer, especially when making a big configuration. Rather than being an improvement, it becomes more complicated.

We have been using FortiGate for almost 12 years.

The support is fine now, however, our last purchase was not as good. They have changed their situation and improved support again.

I had used Sophos UTM, the Endpoints, Access Points, and XG for two years in my office. We switched because of FortiGate's service and because it is a more flexible solution.

Installation does not require another license so it is inexpensive and easy to configure. 

Sophos has a nice interface and is easy to configure. The XG products are good and so are the endpoints. Sophos access points and on-premise are not good.  Sophos also doesn't have enough support to get into the console. Sophos has a Linux box, which is easy to try to resolve most issues, but Sophos support is not good.

We use FortiGate-VM to access clients' networks. These are generally Azure cloud environments in which we set up resources for clients to use.

The most valuable FortiGate-VM features are the ease of use and setup. 

Sometimes, FortiGate-VM is a little different to set up than other firewalls that I've managed. It would be better if it was just a little more mainstream. Some more documentation would be nice as well. Documentation has always kind of been our problem with FortiGate-VM. 

There's a lot of stuff I like about FortiGate-VM, but like I said, we still do a lot more Palo Alto firewalls than anything because they have true layer-seven attack prevention. FortiGate-VM does have that too, but it doesn't work as well. I would like to see more layer-seven functionality and expect to realistically block things at the top level.

We have been using this solution for two years. 

FortiGate-VM is stable. They have been okay for everything that I have done with them.

I have worked on some of the largest and smallest solutions that Fortinet sells and they all scale really well.

The initial setup is straightforward and only takes hours to deploy. 

We implemented FortiGate-VM in-house. 

Make sure that you're on the latest stable versions when you update code and stuff like that. That's one of the things that we've had some issues with in the past. 

Fortinet FortiGate-VM is easy to use.

The performance could be better. Some features need to have quality control when the switch is working. The dedicated bandwidth for some users is not reliable.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate-VM for approximately one year.

I have found Fortinet FortiGate-VM to be stable.

We have approximately 150 people using the solution.

The technical support could improve. They took approximately one month to solve a firewire issue to update. I would not recommend it.

I have used Sophos previously and I could it to be better. However, we have found the performance to be the same as Fortinet FortiGate-VM.

The company that provided the solution that was installing it took approximately three days.

I can do the implementation by myself. I do the maintenance and support of the solution.

There is an annual license required to use the solution.

I rate Fortinet FortiGate-VM a seven out of ten.

We're using FortiGate-VM on-prem for our firewalls. The Fortinet component in the cloud is FortiGuard. We get our virus definitions regularly updated from the cloud, but the FortiGate firewalls are all on-prem. While the virtual firewalls are created inside the physical firewall, there is an option for a virtual machine firewall where we'll give you the VHD file, and you can install it to a server.

Virtual machines aren't widely used in Brunei because the Brunei government isn't ready for these things yet. They're more confident in hardware, but everything is slowly starting to head in this direction. Others are watching what will happen when people use the apps before they try them.

Some customers prefer VM, especially those customers already leveraging the virtual machine environment. Typically, they don't want to spend on the hardware because they already have all these VMs, so they choose the VM option. But in most deployments, they still prefer the hardware for their firewall because it's already hard-coded.

To improve FortiGate-VM, Fortinet needs to harden it more. For example, if you are using Hyper-V, then you need guidelines for hardening FortiGate-VM that are specific to the Hyper-V environment. If it's VMware, there should be at least a guideline on how to harden the firewall.

We've been working with FortiGate-VM since 2010.

Fortinet-VM is more scalable than the hardware version. If you're using an appliance, there are limitations in terms of hardware specs. So if you want a more scalable firewall, you can get a VM and install it on a high-end server. From there, you have more leverage on how many virtual firewalls you want to create based on that VM. In other words, it's already fixed hardware in the appliance — it's already hard-coded in the appliance. So if you are using a VM and installing it on a high-specs server, then your machine has much higher performance in packaging all these policies and all these hardware security features. 

We proved the frontline support for our client organizations or customers. So far we are satisfied with Fortinet support. We have currently have Fortinet-certified engineers in our company, so we don't have to contact support unless it's a complex issue. We have an NSE7-certified engineer, so we are quite confident with our deployment now.

FortiGate-VM setup is pretty straightforward. It depends on the implementation size, but it takes a week for an organization of around 100 users. Normally Fortinet helps their customers with deployment and post-deployment adjustments, so you don't have any problems. If anything goes wrong, Fortinet is there to support you. 

Like most similar products in the market, Fortinet's enterprise customers need to pay for annual support. They call it FortiCare, and it's direct support from Fortinet. FortiCare is renewed annually and covers support for new releases, purchases, and updates. 

I rate Fortinet FortiGate-VM eight out of 10. However, based on experience, we usually don't recommend using VM firewalls. We still prefer using a hardware-based firewall when that's appropriate. It depends on your needs and the size of your user base. With FortiGate-VM, you can control the size of your firewall if you're using VMs. But on the other hand, if you are using Microsoft Hyper-V, you need to address all these vulnerabilities of Microsoft. And if you're using VMware, then you need to deal with VMware's vulnerabilities. The hardware version of FortiGate has already been hardened based on FortiGate standards. That's the main difference between the FortiGate appliance and FortiGate-VM.

We use the solution for creating IPsec tunnels and web and application filters. We use it for monitoring virtual traffic on platforms including VMware solutions. 

I only know a little bit about the solution's firmware.

This said, the solution is stable and user-friendly. 

The solution should provide more useful GUI features. This would prevent us from having to resort to CLI or certain basic commands. 

There should be an IPsec failover. 

We have been using Fortinet FortiGate-VM for around four years.

The solution is stable. 

The technical support is very good. It does not need to be improved. 

The installation is very easy and user-friendly. 

We have two teams, involving PLM managers, whose sole job is to support the customers. 

We pay for a yearly license. 

We deployed the solution in a vCenter, using VMware. We do so solely on cloud. 

We have around 10 clients who are making use of on-premises deployment. 

We usually recommend SonicWall and Sophos in place of the solution since, with this IPsec solution, if one configures to an HPE with the IPsec failover, it fails to work. 

I rate Fortinet FortiGate-VM as a seven out of ten. 

FortiGate is an Exhibition Firewall that comes with the Antivirus, IPS, and Web Applications

The most valuable features are the IPS and Antivirus.

The firewall functionalities are fine.

It has a lot of features.

It needs an Application Inspection. The threat landscape is very high. Anyone can exploit the flow-based policies. It is always better to have intern-based policies.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate-VM for more than two years.

We are using the latest version.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM is a reliable product.

It is easy to scale this solution, but there are some challenges with Azure and high availability.

My experience with technical support was good.

We are also using Palo Alto.

The initial setup was simple.

We don't require a lot of maintenance. Most of the maintenance is carried out by Microsoft.

It is a custom operating system that is available on FortiGate Firewall, and Palo Alto Firewall.

Microsoft doesn't do anything in terms of upgrades of the patches. They only do basic maintenance at the host level and the VM level.

We only have one person managing the device.

We were able to complete the installation on our own.

Pricing is somewhere in the middle. It's a mid-ranged product.

There are additional fees with this solution.

I would recommend this solution to others. It is a stable firmware, with many releases. It has a lot of features. Apart from the firewall, it comes with antivirus, IPS, and Web Application Firewall.

It has a lot of integration with external connectors, such as Teams, that are protected from threats that come from external sources.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate-VM an eight out of ten.

I work for a telecommunication company. We are a service provider, and we use it for our internal network and for providing services to our customers.

The firewalling feature is used the most, but we also have a particular use case for the SD-WAN service. 

Its interface is good. It comes with a lot of features, and its performance is also very good. 

It is a very good product, and it is good at standing by itself. It can maybe have a little bit of integration with other products, but it is not that important for most use cases.

I am quite new to this product.

Its stability is very good.

For the SD-WAN use case that I am researching, it seems more suitable for medium-sized customers. It is a little bit difficult to use for a big customer.

Their technical support is good.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate-VM a 10 out of 10. It tops others in terms of performance.