Fortinet FortiGate-VM Reviews

In a recent scenario, a manufacturing company, was in need of migrating its services, specifically their ERP SAP application, to a cloud-native environment. They chose to migrate their servers to GCP for hosting. Since they required a firewall, they opted for cloud-native firewall solutions. They acquired two firewalls, one for internal usage and another from the GCP marketplace. Both firewall vendors provided yearly subscriptions. Following this, we proceeded with the configuration.

They established a VPN connection via the internal Forti firewall. Simultaneously, an external firewall from Palo Alto was set up. This external firewall, positioned at the perimeter, handled incoming traffic from Internet users. Our configuration focused on enabling ECPs for the Internet-based cloud network.

The ease of access and user-friendly setup is a valuable feature. Fortinet proves to be particularly straightforward to configure, offering simplicity without complexity. Moreover, visibility is easily attainable due to certain factors. Price, implementation, and budget considerations play a role. When it comes to Cisco implementation, the process tends to be more intricate, which many customers find unfavourable for their business needs.

Fortinet devices are acknowledged as highly potent and come with a notable cost. These devices offer extensive visibility, an array of configurations, and a range of security features. However, there's room for enhancement in their routing and switching security aspects, akin to Cisco's offerings.

A noteworthy aspect here is Meraki, which offers cloud controllers. If FortiGate were to introduce a similar cloud management solution, it could strongly compete with both Meraki and Cisco products. Cisco operates in two sectors: enterprise and SMB. Particularly in the SMB market, they hold sway due to their convenient cloud management features. For instance, Meraki's cameras and wireless access points can be easily controlled through their cloud management portal. If FortiGate were to provide cloud-based management solutions for SMB customers, it could cater to a significant portion of the market, considering that a substantial number of customers fall within the SMB and mid-level enterprise categories.

I have experience with Fortinet FortiGate-VM.

Hardware performance is a determining factor. A recent case made me notice that in comparison to the other vendors, Fortinet exhibited superior scalability. This was mainly due to their package-oriented approach, which involved scaling the VM version based on the number of customers. They offered various packages, and depending on the package, the VM version would be adjusted.I would rate it an eight out of ten.

I would rate scalability an eight out of ten.

The customer service and support is good. Within this domain, we have local support in place. They are primarily responsible for initial support. However, if a situation exceeds their capabilities, they escalate it to level two support. This setup is highly satisfactory.

Positive

FortiGate offers straightforward planning and a user-friendly interface. This simplicity is seen through graphical user interfaces (GUIs), enhanced visibility and effective troubleshooting. I would rate it eight out of ten. 

In the industry landscape, approximately seventy per cent of businesses predominantly rely on on-premise solutions. Specifically, our focus is directed towards banking clients, who are aligned with the guidelines of the Central Bank due to their emphasis on security, governance, and compliance protocols. However, the manufacturing sector and telecommunications companies are more inclined towards cloud adoption. This inclination is rooted in factors such as cost efficiency and power savings, internal infrastructure maintenance and resource allocation, including power and human resources.

In Sri Lanka, the banking and finance sector still prefers on-premise solutions. This choice is aligned with their security compliance needs and regulatory considerations.

In our proposals involving FortiGate, it's common practice to include FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer. Over the past two years, many clients have adopted FortiManager for cloud-based management. We've facilitated this by providing cloud subscriptions, allowing them to manage their FortiManager through the cloud. This approach is well-received, and it's worth noting that even in the banking sector, some customers prefer on-premise setups for their FortiManager.

It would be beneficial for Forti to expand its cybersecurity solutions even further. While solutions like FortiSolor exist, there's room to enhance feature sets in line with the increasing requirements of compliance and private security needs. These can effectively address client-side security needs. Comparing Forti's offerings to competitors, certain strengths stand out. There are notable visibility and flexible configuration options. The client-side experience benefits from robust management capabilities accessible through this solution and the troubleshooting becomes seamless because of good visibility and an effective controller. I would rate it an eight out of ten.

We use the solution for securing our network.

The solution's intrusion detection feature is excellent.

The solution's web-filtering configuration could be more straightforward. It takes a long time to configure.

I have been using the solution for eight years.

The solution is primarily stable. Although, some time ago, there were performance drops where it was freezing as the logs were full. We managed to resolve the issue. I rate its stability eight out of ten.

It is a very scalable product. The solution users in our organization include IT managers, finance officers, accountants, and chief financial officers. I rate its scalability a nine out of ten.

The solution's support team is excellent and efficient.

Positive

The solution's initial setup and configuration are straightforward. But if someone is trying to put policies and restrictions in place, then one has to understand many things. It takes one and half hours to configure and requires two executives for maintenance.

Initially, the solution's price was high for us. But it decreased on the purchase of more than one license.

I recommend the solution to others and rate it a nine.

We primarily use the solution as a virtual machine for firewalling.

The solution is very user-friendly. 

We have a next-generation firewall and can lock things in on a parameter level very effectively.

It is easy to set up the solution. 

The solution is stable.

I've found the technical support to be helpful and responsive. 

I can't recall any aspects that need improvement.

The pricing could be a bit better.

We'd like to have more customization and easier customization of policies. 

The scaling can be a bit better. 

I've been using the solution for the last two years. 

The solution is okay in terms of stability. We have not had issues. It's not too difficult to work with it. 

I'm the only person working directly with the product.

The scalability is limited. If we have to scale, we need to upgrade licenses after the license is up for renewal. Otherwise, we need to buy replacement licenses on top of the licenses we've already purchased instead of just expanding and adding onto what we have.

I've worked with technical support in the past. They are very good. When we open tickets, they respond quickly. I'm happy with the level of support overall. 

I have worked with other firewalls. Which is best depends on the requirements. It is also dependent on the budget. We need to consider performance and scalability and take onto consideration how much support will be available as well. 

The solution is easy to set up. There is a lot of documentation provided. For 70% to 80% we can do just fine, and for the rest, we just request documentation and can finish the job. 

We do not need much maintenance. We handle that ourselves, and it's not too difficult. 

The solution is set up and configured in-house. 

The pricing is okay. However, it could always be better. When you need to scale, you need to buy bigger, different licenses. 

We are using the latest version of the solution. 

I'd recommend the solution to others, depending on the business requirements. It's a pretty good solution in general. 

I'd rate the product eight out of ten. 

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 use Fortinet FortiGate-VM for managing inbound and outbound internet traffic through our environment. Sometimes, we also use it for managing the site's internet outbound and routing. We also use it for IPSec on Azure. We also have an on-premises environment, and we're using it for IPSec on that environment. 

All the routing happens through it because we're swinging all the traffic on the Azure side through a firewall which is basically the gateway. It acts as the gateway and manages outbound traffic in that environment. We have also set up the SSL VPN for users. We do have FortiGate on-premise, and we set up the SSL VPN connection for users.

It made the routing of traffic seamless and it helped us with SD-WAN as well as load balancing.

I like the visibility and monitoring features because they're easy to use to monitor traffic. Features like geo-blocking and more have AI, and we're currently using all of it. But for now, we're only using geo-blocking, and we're able to block traffic from different countries. I also like that it's highly responsive. VM04 is also very powerful.

It would be better if it could provide you with options before completely blocking anything through the web filter. If you are doing a deep SSL inspection on the site if it says it's expired, it doesn't give you the option to continue at your own risk. I can't say that it's bad, but SSL internally isn't really a requirement. However, its security features can help. Right now, we have people going out and spending on purchasing the SSL certificates for internal sites. 

I have been using this solution for three years.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM is a stable and very reliable solution.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM is a scalable solution. It's very powerful, and I've never seen that machine running out of resources. It always worked.

Tech support is okay, but we do a lot of management by ourselves. We have a third party that we use when we do implementations, and I haven't contacted Fortinet even though I have access to it. The local support that we use costs much less. 

I still remember using Check Point, and it took a long time to apply a policy. To install the policy, you had to wait for ten to 20 minutes or even 30 minutes. Fortinet FortiGate-VM instantly applies the policy on the FortiGate itself.

The initial setup was difficult because we were all new when it came to the Azure environment. It was a little difficult to create space and understand that you have to have more than one interface. But once you get used to it. It's pretty straightforward.

It's straightforward if you have all that is required when you're clearing your traffic. If you're clearing your traffic already into your internal length to communicate with the firewall range, and you have information and understand it before the implementation, it will be very seamless. It will be stress-free when you understand the environment where you're going to implement it.

Our license is yearly, but we're thinking of going monthly. I think it's somewhere around 100,000 for VM04. Nowadays, everyone wants to be a hacker, so we believe in security. That's why we also have third-party people that we involve to make sure that we're secure. 

I don't think the costs are too bad. You still want to get advice from people who worked in security for many years, so you add a third party. The third party also said they would give their share like 100K, or 200K or something like that, so I don't think it's too expensive for security. I think it just adds more trust. 

We have been using Check Point Firewall so it was easy to identity the difference.

I will recommend the solution. If it's a first-time deployment in Azure, they need to understand a couple of things, like the interfaces we need to create. The good thing about FortiGate is that they don't hide how their devices work. You can go to their website and get every instruction that you need at any time. It's straightforward and even has pictures showing you what you should expect. I've done a few changes for the first time, and I didn't have to stress. But you must know the infrastructure well.

On a scale from one to ten, I would five Fortinet FortiGate-VM a 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 are using FortiGate-VM for the protection of our internal network and also for VPN services. Right now, there are about 200 end users in our main office and in other business units we have an additional 100-200 end users. We have about five different firewalls, yet almost all of our units are using FortiGate-VM. So, in total, we have about 500-600 users. 

The best part about FortiGate-VM is its strong security. Besides that, it's nice that there are different models for different sizes of businesses. For example, there are models tailored to enterprise companies and small organizations, and the model that we are using is perfectly suitable for our usage.

One thing that can be better is added automation. And, on top of that, enhanced security when it comes to the automation itself.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate-VM for five years.

I think it is stable. 

I am impressed by its scalability, given that we are already using it for over 500 users. And, in future, we plan to increase usage even more. 

We have used Palo Alto before, but we switched because at that time Fortinet was more scalable and there were more options available.

I also use Sophos Firewall, though not within the organization, but rather just for small business or personal use.

Currently, we only require the services of three engineers and administrators on our technical team when it comes to deployment and maintenance.

The license we pay is a yearly fee. I can't say it's very expensive; it is a good price and is highly suitable for our usage.

FortiGate-VM is a good solution, and I would say one of the best solutions on the market.

I would rate it an eight out of ten. 

I occasionally implement Fortinet for clients. 

In the most recent instance, we had a cloud implemented and I was driving the infrastructure. The client had separate areas inside it purposely. They needed to implement a FortiGate solution in the same client, with different VMs, for different clients, to make different areas for these clients. 

It's great that we can have separate services for the same client. 

It's a complete solution. You only need to deploy it once. You can have many clients and many services for these clients in the same VM. It's a solution that works very well for companies that may need separated sections.

It makes things less expensive for clients. The pricing is good.

The interface is decent.

Technical support has a lot of knowledge.

The initial setup is simple. 

The solution is stable.

It can scale well.

The solution could use very well-defined support for resellers. There isn't necessarily 24/7 support and resolution.

The interface could be improved. 

The product could have more protocol routing options. 

I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.

The stability is good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

If you need to scale, this is a good option.

The technical support is pretty good. We are quite satisfied with the level of service on offer. 

The initial setup process is very easy and straightforward. It's not difficult or complex. 

We only need three people for deployment and maintenance. It's not a solution that requires a big team. You might need one or two field engineers. 

I'm working in a Fortinet partner company. I'm a reseller.

I'm dealing with the latest version of the product.

I like the 100F version, and it may be a good option for most clients, however, it might not be right for every company. It's a good idea to figure out what you need before you decide to avoid purchasing something that's not right for your company's needs.