Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access Reviews

We use FortiSwitch in conjunction with a FortiGate Firewall, as it simplifies the configuration process. The firewall will push all the configurations via the FortiLinks to the switches, meaning that we don't need to configure them separately. This is particularly useful for customers who require the use of a FortiGate Firewall. FortiSwitch can be used to connect various endpoints, such as cameras, workstations, IoTs, WAPs, IP phones, and doors, as well as servers to the network infrastructure.

We use FortiSwitch a lot in the UAE and have not had any critical issues with the switches.

Deploying the solution is a breeze, even a novice can do it. All we need to do is use the web browser, and we can configure all our servers. The licensing is also straightforward and easy to understand. The graphical user interface is very user-friendly, so we don't need to be tech geniuses to use the solution.

I believe that stacking, a feature that is available in Huawei and Cisco, is not available in Fortinet products unless when managed by FortiGate. Adding stacking would be beneficial if Fortinet could incorporate it into their switches.

I have been using the solution for a few years.

The solution is very stable.

The solution is scalable.

We have approximately three big clients (with approx. 10,000 users) who are utilizing Fortinet switches.

When we encountered a FortiGate Firewall that had expired, our client asked for a new license. The response from their support team was incredibly fast, and we were able to get the license right away with the client present. Their support was nice.

Positive

The initial setup is easy. The solution comes with a default IP address and we only have to enter it in the web browser to connect.

Deployment was not difficult, depending on the size of the environment. For a single switch, it could take around two to three hours to complete. Overall, it was a straightforward process.

The solution is cheaper than Cisco but more expensive than Huawei.

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

Having the opportunity to use the entire Fortinet ecosystem, will make our life much simpler. As opposed to buying separate vendor products, with Fortinet we can use FortiNAC, Fortinet Access points, FortiSwitch, and FortiGate. This will save us time and effort and we can rest assured that Fortinet is always looking to provide great customer support.

It's not fully for Secure Access, it's just for LAN Access. It's just to give access to the local LAN user. It's primarily used for this concern.

FortiSwitch is manageable. We can manage it via FortiGate. And FortiSwitch can participate in the Fortinet security fabric. We can deploy the fabric as well. It is the main feature we use for managing FortiSwitch.

It's stable.

The solution is reliable.

It is easy to set up.

The technical support is helpful.

We find the pricing to be less expensive than Cisco.

Some people know Cisco or other products when they were doing university or studies, so they feel more confident with them rather than FortiSwitch. This is a barrier. 

Most people know Fortinet as a security product bundle, and if you tell them to opt for FortiSwitch, it's a little bit complicated for them to swap their Cisco product for Fortinet. 

I'd like to see more integration with different platforms. 

We deployed the solution about five years. 

The solution is stable and reliable. We deployed it five years or so ago and still have not had a problem. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

It is pretty simple to scale. 

Fortigate can manage FortiSwitch, and there are a lot of things that you can do with your FortiGate at configuration. When you have to deploy FortiSwitch, you just need to plug it in, push the configuration from FortiGate, and go.

We are not using FortiSwitch as a company. We have a lot of clients using it. However, we only use FortiSwitch for clients that already have a Fortinet product to have the benefits of the Fortinet fabric. We have about five customers using FortiSwitch.

We don't use tech support often since we already are an integrator and we have expertise in it. For cases where we need support, like the RMA or things like that, support is pretty simple, quick, and fast.

FortiSwitch is not our primary choice in terms of a switch. We often use Cisco Switch, however, sometimes we also use FortiSwitch.

The initial setup is straightforward. It's not overly complex. We have a lot of experience with Fortinet products, so with FortiSwitch, the experience is good. We know it well, which makes it easy to deploy.

It's easy to set up. It is really simple and quick. We can deploy it in maybe one or two hours if we do all the engineering stuff beforehand.

I'm an integrator. I can deploy the solution easily myself.

The solution is less expensive than, for example, Cisco.

We pay for licensing on a yearly basis. 

I'd rate the solution three or four out of five in terms of affordability.

I would recommend people to use FortiSwitch as it is less expensive than other products. They can use it with FortiGate. It will be pretty simple if they already have experience with FortiGate. FortiSwitch provides a lot of companies with big enterprise functionality, and it is less expensive than products like Cisco Switch. 

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.

Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access has essential features for managing switches.

The product's pricing needs improvement for small and medium businesses.

We have recently installed the product six months ago. We never received stability-related complaints from customers. It is a stable product.

I rate the product’s scalability a seven out of ten.

We use Sophos, Aruba, and Cisco.

The initial setup process is simple as we have experience working on various networking products.

The product is costly for SMB customers compared to other brands available in the market.

I rate Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access a six out of ten.

The feature I value most is the connection from other devices to the Fortigate, so you can manage them from the Fortigate device. You can also use the cloud to manage them and for protection. They know how to talk well to the firewalls.

In the next release, I would like to see more outdoor products. It would be great if the APs and the physical box could be weatherproof.

I have been using Fortinet for years.

I would rate the stability of this solution a 10, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

I would rate the scalability of this solution a 10, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

I would rate the initial setup a nine, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

My advice those using a firewall Fortigate is: use their APs because they work very well.

We use this solution for access-level connectivity for phones and computers. Using it as an access point to connect to the switches directly for their POE.

The most valuable feature is that I can completely isolate devices that are compromising the network. 

I get all of my analytics from the FortiGate point of view. I have FortiGate, FortiAnalyzer, and FortiManager for all of my analytics. The analytics are collected from the switch and everything that is connected to the switch. I get a physical view of every single device that is connected to every point in my network.

I love the view, because I know which computer is connecting to what access point, as well as which computer or node is connecting to what switch and to what port. 

I don't like the way it's managed. For some of the smaller switches that we have, I was not able to log into it and manage it. I am not sure if it is something that I am missing or something that I am not doing correctly or if this applies to all switches. 

It had to be managed through the FortiGate firewall appliance, which to me is one of the downsides.

I am not sure if they have management outside of FortiGate itself.

The switches should have the capability to be managed without having to connect to FortiGate. You might have clients who are using Cisco or other solutions who would have to use FortiGate at the access level but won't be able to log in into the switch, then it would be completely useless to them and it becomes unmanaged.

There is no console port and nothing in the default IP that could help with this issue. I checked online and there was nothing available.

The dashboards are easy but a bit cloggy. The more switches that you connect the more cloggy it becomes.

We started using this solution three months ago.

This solution is stable. I love it!

I don't have to do anything. I can just see it from the FortiView, and I can point it out.

I never have issues. I don't even need to do many analytical watches, it makes life very easy.

This solution is scalable. We are a small site running only three switches, but from what I have heard, it's pretty easy to scale because of the looping feature. It uplinks and can automatically be used from your management console. I haven't done a big system, so I don't know what that would be like.

My entire company is running on Fortinet, and we have two people managing the entire environment for over forty users.

Fortinet support is fantastic, except for the morning hours. Morning hours, my time, they are very slow. I am GMT+3. Anything after three in the afternoon is very fast.

The support is generally fantastic. You can call them or write to them and they always give you a solution.

The KB online is on point.

Previously we were with Cisco, but we were already using FortiMail and received the distribution for Fortinet. We purchase Fortinet firewalls.

The firewall and the mail were already working for us, so we thought that would just do everything with Fortinet. Then we can use our company to demonstrate what Fortinet has to offer.

We have multifactor authentication running on Fortinet, FortiAnalyer, and FortiManager.

The initial setup was straightforward, it was pretty easy. Anyone can do it.

It took fifteen minutes to deploy.

I implemented this solution and did not use an integrator or a vendor.

It's affordable and there are no additional costs, just regular support, and license fees.

I am working on a roadmap to ensure that everything is running on a Secure Access and not just from the switches. I am currently working on introducing SSO and Active Directory. It's going to be extensive, where everything will be running on a secure level. 

This solution is affordable, it makes sense, and it's easy to manage so it saves you time in both practice and in technical training. You don't have to train anyone to work with Secure Access. If you are going to invest in training, just invest in the training for FortiGate. After that, your environment is good to go because everything else is self-explanatory and easy on the interface for the Secure Access and all of Fortinet solutions.

It makes economic and security sense for any organization that is intending to deploy this kind of solution. I wish that it had come sooner.

There are several switches that I have looked at, and when I am looking at the capabilities of other switches there is still much to be discovered on Fortinet. They don't have all of the capabilities, especially when it comes to the throughput.

I would rate this solution a six out of ten.

I'm a technical support engineer and we are a partner, buying and reselling the solution here in Israel. Our primary use case is core switches, The switches are on the customer's data. We use the product as an extension for core security reasons. Around 50% of our customers buy this product from us. It's a central product we sell for extended features of 4G switches.

The most valuable feature of this product is its simplicity. The one portal that we are using in FortiGate from Dell is the point for managing everything. The other good features are security-related, it's very easy to use those switches.

The product could be improved with additional security-related features, you can never have enough. Otherwise, I find it quite an easy product to use. Scalability could also be improved. 

For additional features, I would again mention the security and it would be nice if the 4G system was directly on the operating system.

I've been using the product for four years. 

For now, the stability is okay. 

There aren't special features that resolve any scalable requirements. There are scalable possibilities with other features of the 4G Gates unit but this is not so scalable.

I can't really answer this question because we've never had to use technical support. 

We used to use HP only and we still sell that. We now sell 50% FortiSwitch and 50% of our customers are staying with the HP switches.

The initial setup is very straightforward, it takes a few seconds. 

We do the deployment ourselves. 

I think this is a great product and everyone who chooses it will enjoy using it. 

I would rate this product a nine out of 10. 

The most valuable feature is the security switch. The deployment is also better than competitors like Cisco and HP.

An area for improvement would be the segmentation and network in logic networks. In the next release, I would like to see a new dashboard with more information.

I've been using this solution for three months.

This is a stable solution.

This solution is easy to scale.

Fortinet's technical support is good. 

Positive

I would give this solution a rating of eight out of ten.

The management from Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access is very good.

The range of products could improve from Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access.

I have been using Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access for approximately five years.

The stability of Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access could improve.

Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access has good scalability.

We have used other solutions, such as Cisco.

The deployment of Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access is straightforward.

The price of the solution could improve, it is expensive.

I rate Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access a six out of ten.