Fortinet FortiNAC Reviews

The customer required centralizing control to control access, detection, and network control. He requested processing a simple management point, the access, the devices, and distribution, and wanted to manage all the customer devices. He had a history of working with FortiNAC devices and wanted us to do the same. So I installed the product to understand it. 

The features are more expandable. 

The interface works fine, but it could be better.

It was for a one-time product solution for a customer for about one year, and I'm still maintaining it. So far, we've had one client for it.

The solution is stable.

The product is scalable.

We never had to use customer service or support, so it expired.

It was easy to set up the product. 

I would rate this solution seven out of ten.

There are some features that are working well.

Technical support tries to be helpful, however, they just don't understand the technology.

We have tried to do a small POC and it failed. 

I had a bad experience with FortiNAC. The customer was asking for a NAC solution. I suggested FortiNAC. The switch with the customer was Cisco and it was not integrated with Cisco. We tried to provide him with a FortiSwitch as the core switch and the solution worked. It's working, however, not the expected way for the customer. The issue is it just doesn't integrate with Cisco switches. 

They need to change or upgrade the technology in the product.

The solution is not stable.

We have not been able to scale the product.

It's very hard to set up.

The solution is not stable. We've had some issues with the performance. It hasn't gone well. 

The product does not scale. 

The technical support is not the greatest. Some of the people need more training in the product. They aren't very helpful. 

The technical team from Fortinet, they are working with us. They have supported us. However, the problem is they don't have the knowledge on this product. This is the problem. The support team is good and is the best support team in all the products I work on it. However, the problem is they don't have knowledge about the FortiNAC. 

Neutral

It's not easy to set up. In terms of the ease of setup, I'd rate it at a one out of five. It's very difficult. 

I'd rate the pricing at a three out of five. It was not expensive, however, it is also not cheap. 

I've also looked at HP and compared the two solutions. HP is less expensive, however, it's not a huge difference. We're talking maybe a 1% to 2% difference in price if you compare them. A customer will pay more for HP if they do a POC. 

We are a partner and reseller of Fortinet solutions.

We did not have good luck with this product. It didn't work for my client. Maybe it works in other setups better, however, for us, it just was a disaster. 

I'd rate the product at a three out of ten.

It is mainly used when we integrate the solution with Fortinet firewalling, sandboxing, and the security fabric of Fortinet. In an all-out implementation where we implement different solutions, FortiNAC is one of the components in the entire ecosystem.

Its deployment is virtualized but on-prem.

The network segmentation is the most important part of the solution. The integration with the Zero Trust Access solution is a crucial part of segmenting your network.

There could be better integration with legacy equipment. It integrates perfectly with all Fortinet solutions, but if you look at other third-party integrations—not on the networking part; but more on the security infrastructure part—it's more limited.

Its stability and scalability can be better. Aruba ClearPass is better in these aspects.

I have used it only in the last few years. I had to do a few propositions. It has been only two or three years since I have been familiar with the FortiNAC solution.

Its stability and scalability are slightly lower than Aruba. I have a personal preference for Aruba ClearPass, so I would rate FortiNAC a seven out of 10 in these aspects.

We have internal support, so I don't have any issues with it.

It is pretty easy and straightforward. A default implementation can take two days. It is not that complex, but it also depends on the use cases that you have for the FortiNAC solution. So, it can be a really simple implementation, but it can also be months of implementation depending on the use case.

I would advise really considering the use cases that you want to implement. That's because Fortinet has multiple license models. There are Base, Plus, and Pro licenses, and depending on the license model, you have more possibilities for integration. If you want to implement something like a premium device or guest management, you can't take the Base model. You have to directly go to the Plus model or even Pro. Similarly, if you want incident correlations and incident management, you have to go to the higher license version. So, you must consider all the use cases that you want to implement before you make a decision so that you take the correct version.

I would rate it a seven out of 10.

I was a distributor and system integrator of FortiNAC. We were opening a lot of tickets and there were lots of bugs, so I replaced it with Forescout very easily. Within two days, I replaced everything. With FortiNAC, I was just doing the implementation, making things work properly, and beginning testing after five days.

FortiNAC is deployed on-prem. They're not major enough to be on cloud. Even on-prem is not doing good.

Version 9.1 has been an improvement on previous versions. It's a good solution for SMB.

Any NAC solution has three to four phases. The first phase is discovery and classification. They do discovery, but they are lacking a lot of features in terms of classification. Also, they don't do a lot of classifications. They cannot help you if, for example, you're classifying Windows, and you want to check which Windows version it is, like Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10. It's a little bit difficult. It's not easy like the other products. 

Classifications and visibility need to be improved a lot. They have to start work on being agentless. Agentless means they need to have strong integration with Windows. They need to use the RTC. They cannot force people to have an agent for people who are going to the domain. There needs to be compatibility with switches. For any NAC solution, all the inputs will be through switches. So if it is not compatible with switches, this is a big disaster. When I was doing their switches, there were a lot of customers whose switches were not compatible with FortiNAC.

If these things are well-designed, then they can compete in the NAC market. And also in terms of IOT, they cannot discover the IOT things perfectly or the OT, operation technology, things.

In terms of HA, they're having a lot of problems. You just need to put the HA between two clients, and you have a lot of problems. There are problems with the classifications. In terms of control, they're not doing well. They cannot do integration with SCCM, for example. They have a lot of things missing.

I started using FortiNAC since Fortinet bought it in 2018. They bought it with Bradford, and I was one of the few people in Saudi who knows FortiNAC. I have known FortiNAC since it was 7.2, and there were a lot of bugs. Even now, 8 has a lot of bugs.

Now they have jumped to 9.1 and 9.2. I used version 9.1.2. They just changed the dashboard, but it's still agent based. I deeply know what FortiNAC is doing, and it's not doing good. I used to work with them, and then I left. Now, I'm purely working with Forescout technology.

It's not a stable solution. If you want to do the HA, suddenly both appliances will be gone. Both FortiNAC and Forescout are being built on CentOS Linux. Doing HA with FortiNAC, which should be very simple, is just a disaster. I know three customers who are complaining.

I have switched to Forescout because in regards to technology, application, visibility, and control, Forescout is unbelievable. Forescout is a great platform for OT things.

I would rate this solution 5 out of 10. 

It's a difficult solution. I used to be the FortiNAC guy, so I will be tough on them. In Saudi, I was the number three FortiNAC guy.

I can recommend FortiNAC for SMBs: small and medium businesses, but they will still suffer. I would recommend Forescout more.

We installed Fortinet FortiNAC in a large company in a VM environment. They have a lot of end-users and complex user account needs. For example, some of the VIPs and different guests all need different access permissions and some of them are connected through the Active Directory credentials which we have to have a portal page for them to gain access. 

Another layer of complexity is different users are receiving accounts from many departments. For example, the customer's IT department gives them access and they send the credentials to the guest by email. The IT department can limit their account in different ways, such as only allowing the account access for a period of time.

Fortinet FortiNAC has good user account customization. 

We can change the logo for the portals to meet the customer's needs. The portal default language is English but it supports all languages, such as Turkish. The portal can be optimized very easily. 

Device profiling is a good feature, we can block devices, such as iOS or Android.

Endpoint compliance is a great feature that allows us to restrict and quarantine devices. For example, if a device is not using the latest version of an operating system or antivirus program we can detect it and prohibit their access. If certain conditions are met with the customer's policies, we can let them have access. Otherwise, our endpoints compliance rules block or quarantine their devices on the network.

Integration is hard in Fortinet FortiNAC, but they are evolving and getting better. For example, with Cisco, Aruba, Huawei, and Extreme devices, Fortinet FortiNAC is working properly, but some other devices have problems.

I have been using Fortinet FortiNAC for a couple of months.

The solution is stable.

Fortinet FortiNAC can extend your existing network. For example, if you have to put another switch, access point, or another networking device to complete the site we can with one or two clicks add these devices and the same rules and policies. It is highly scalable and can extend your infrastructure.

We currently have two customers using Fortinet FortiNAC

The installation is not straightforward, it can be hard.  The documentation should be better in explaining to process in more detail. The installation requires too much experience and knowledge about network infrastructure. It's not easy, you have to be an expert.

The difficulty level of the installation and time depends on many factors. For example, one of our customer's installations was simple because they only had to block one site and only had one hardware vendor, such as Cisco. 

Our second installation was more difficult because the customer had many different hardware vendors, such as Cisco, Huawei, Aruba, and Extreme as part of their infrastructure. This requires configuring different settings on every device, it can be complicated. This can take a lot of time.

We do the implementation and the amount of staff needed depends on the size of the infrastructure and hardware vendors involved. If it is a smaller environment with a single vendor then the process could take two to three days.

If the customer size is very large and they are using the different sites and cities, and many different network infrastructures, the implementation would take time and you would have to manage everything well. When you have a complex network, it can take approximately15 days to implement. The number of vendors they're working with can increase the implementation time duration. If companies only have one vendor, it's easy, but two or three different vendor integration is a little bit harder and takes time. 

Customer's needs are very important, because some customers, only want that 1x configuration. However, other customers want 1x configuration, custom portal pages, and many endpoint compliance rules. The more features the more time it will take.

The price of the license required is based on how many users are going to be using the solution. If you want more users you can upgrade your license.

I have evaluated other NAC solutions.

I would recommend Fortinet FortiNAC to others because we did evaluate other NAC solutions and this solution is very good compared to the others. The best benefit of Fortinet FortiNAC is the stability and it can work with other vendors. Some NAC products only work with their products and do not support other vendors.

The major benefit I have found is that this solution can work with other products. A customer typically has more than one vendor, such as access points, printers, and other network products. A lot of the other vendors only are working with their products. It's very important for me that Fortinet FortiNAC can work with the other vendors properly and can integrate easily. When I check the Fortinet website, it shows every vendor's details with an explanation about the integration of the Fortinet FortiNAC. For example, you can find out how to integrate the Fortinet FortiNAC with the Cisco wireless controller. I can find the documents, turn to the pages and find all the information I need. I can find it very easily.

I rate Fortinet FortiNAC a nine out of ten.

I use the tool to maintain strict network control. It blocks suspicious connections and only allows specified access. You can control it through MAC addressing. It's all about managing the network so it's not accessible to any unauthorized user or machine.

What I like best about Fortinet FortiNAC's solution is its strong security measures. They're very strong compared to other firewalls. It has good threat detection and strong protection features.

The tool is effective because it won't give access to any unregistered equipment. If a laptop isn't registered, it can't just plug in and get access. It blocks any unregistered company or network device.

I haven't personally used the AI capabilities, but I know they're used in the security risk process. In threat detection, AI can automate incident management and handle suspicious cases automatically.

The solution needs to improve its AI capabilities. 

I have been using the product for one year. 

So far, we haven't had any stability or performance issues. It's been stable.

The solution is scalable and my company has 50 endpoints. 

The initial setup process wasn't too difficult. It's been okay so far, though there might be ways to make it a bit easier. 

During implementation, we faced some minor issues, like trying to get firmware when there was no internet, but nothing I'd call a real problem.

When deploying Fortinet FortiNAC, we first register the budget and understand the client's design. This matters because we need to know what the client wants to protect and where exactly. The scope comes from the design.

For the deployment I was involved in, we only needed two people. It didn't require a big team. The deployment took less than 30 minutes, which was very fast.

Maintenance is pretty normal. There haven't been any specific maintenance requirements beyond normal admin activities.

I would recommend the solution to others and rate it a nine out of ten. 

We use the tool to support critical systems in sectors like energy and water companies.

The integration between switches, access points, management, analyzer, and other components is excellent. Everything is stable and can be managed from one place.

The tool's usability isn't very comfortable, and there’s a gap between what we need and what it currently offers.

I rate the tool's stability an eight out of ten. 

I rate Fortinet FortiNAC's scalability an eight out of ten. My company has 250 users. 

My impressions about Fortinet FortiNAC's support are not good. 

The solution's deployment is complex. Deployment typically took around three weeks with two people involved. We had to open several tickets with Fortinet for support, but not all issues were resolved, so the system isn't fully optimized.

I rate the overall solution a four out of ten. Its integration with existing infrastructure is easy. 

We use Fortinet FortiNAC to control user access and enforce system policies.

Fortinet FortiNAC helps add an extra layer of security.

The ease of deployment is valuable.

Fortinet FortiNAC's device compatibility could be improved, particularly for VoIP devices.

I have been using Fortinet FortiNAC for two years.

We have experienced stability issues, particularly with the latest firmware versions. The extended development cycle for these updates makes us hesitant to adopt new products immediately upon their release.

I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiNAC a seven out of ten.

Fortinet FortiNAC is scalable.

When I compare the support of Fortinet to Cisco, I find it to be good but not as good as Cisco's.

Neutral

We previously used Cisco ISE and switched to Fortinet FortiNAC because the users found it more user-friendly and it was cheaper.

The deployment is straightforward and takes around 60 days to complete.

Fortinet FortiNAC is reasonably priced.

I would rate Fortinet FortiNAC a seven out of ten.