Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access Reviews

 Fortinet is working well for us overall. It can integrate well with other Fortinet products.

All the parts of VPN are working well. The performance has been reliable.

The security of the solution could be a bit better. We've tried to mobilize the infrastructure of the network, however, with security, it's tricky.

We've had issues with faulty switches. Right now we have only two firewalls and we're trying to change to a new firewall and fix a faulty switch. We're looking to change in the next three to six months to help us move away from faulty lines.

The fiber optic switch needs to be changed a bit. The specifications need to be adjusted.

We are also using Aruba, although we are considering switching over completely to Fortinet.

We're customers and end-users. We buy the product and arrange an online portal for customers.

We are going to upgrade some of our switches from 300, which we have, to the 300E.

In general, I would rate the solution at a ten out of ten. We're mostly happy with it, although we've had some issues.

Our general focus as a company and partner with Fortinet is to act as one of the Security Fabric solution providers. We are trying to deliver the whole solution of the Fortinet Security Fabric to our customers. The Secure Access component is a part of that solution. 

It gives us the option to offer different solutions to our clients that fit their needs and budget.

The integration between the FortiGate and FortiSwitch — the reporting and monitoring — is perfect. The reporting and monitoring of the endpoints could not be better. So, for me, this is the best feature of FortiSwitch. 

I think that Fortinet needs to focus on its pricing and improving the packages offered to users. When our company offers a client the FortiSwitches product, the customer ends up comparing FortiSwitch's pricing directly with HP and Cisco. Both of these other products cost less but they have fewer features. Fortinet needs to bring the price down to levels that are more competitive at-a-glance with these other products. If they do that, they will take more of the market because they have more features and clients will compare by features rather than by price. It is actually justified as it stands to charge more, but customers often only see the price tag.

Another thing that could be improved, although it is not actually part of the product itself, is the technical support. The technical support team is slow to respond and the responses are not always complete.

Based on my experience with the product, I think it is very stable. Up until now, I have never seen a problem with stability.

We have clients who use the same product with a different number of users — between 20 to 100 users. I do not see any problem with performance or scalability in different implementations or different network architectures.

My customers may contact technical support directly at times. Usually, we will not need to. When we do have contact with them it is not very good, and we hear the same thing from our customers. They need to improve the technical support service. Right now, they take a lot of time to reply to tickets. Then, when they respond, they are not as helpful as they could be. They need to adopt a different approach to their method of responding to customers.

Installation is very easy, especially now that Fortinet has made a lot of videos available to understand the configuration. We have done this many times as resellers, so it is easy for us. If a person has no experience at all, he or she might be able to do it themselves, or they may need someone to help them. It depends on the person's level of experience with similar products. If he has any experience with other products, he or she will probably be able to do it without any help.

We are official partners with Fortinet so we do installations for ourselves and other companies as well.

The product is one of the most expensive that customers can consider, but the pricing is justified by the functionality. It would probably be best if they reconsidered pricing so more people will use it and they will understand the value.

As a reseller, we have evaluated many options and we use whichever one seems to be the best fit for the client.

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate this product as an eight. Nothing is perfect. The technical support is a bit of an issue.

We have different use cases in different sectors including in education, banking, health care.  You can say it's suitable for all types of businesses like small and medium enterprise. We use this product inside security fabric solutions. We assign switches and then integrate it with FortiGate. We implement this solution for our clients. We are a partner of Fortinet and I'm the CEO of our company.  

The security fabric is easy and the ability to manage FortiAP, FortiClient, and FortiGate all from a single console is great. Configuration and installation are quite simple. You can manage the wireless users, and the network users, the security status of all your devices including the laptops, and PC and mobile devices. I think this is one of the top features of Fortinet.

There are currently issues with some of the switches, problems with the firmware. I think they need to check the firmware, especially, with the new FortiGate firmware integration and they need to offer a strong switching feature like Cisco, especially in the VLAN management systems and integration.

I've been using this solution for almost three years. 

This is a stable solution. 

With my experience I think the scalability is pretty good for medium size businesses. 

I think the technical support is quite good although we don't have much contact with them.

Initial setup is relatively simple and quite easy for any person who has good experience with Fortinet products. Deployment takes 10 - 15 minutes max and for small or medium projects it takes one or two people. Maintenance is usually carried out by one person. 

The licensing costs are on an annual basis and cover warranty and support. There are no additional costs.

If you want to run full integration with the secure network architecture from a single point, you can use Fortinet. It's suitable for small and medium size business. You can run all your products like the wireless access points, and switches, and FortiGate and firewall from the single vendor. It will give you the security fabric features to take you to a high level of reporting and management skill.

It's important to keep up with the technical news. They have released multiple versions of the firmware with new updates and it's important to follow the new version of firmware update for Fortinet. I think there are some features where Cisco is better than Fortinet. The decision to purchase one product over another depends on your needs, your budget, and your skill.

I would rate this solution a nine out of 10. 

We primarily use the solution for different reasons. It depends on our customer security requirements and the projects that we are implementing for banks, hospitals, etc. 

The visual scope of the solution is very good. It allows me to see and download all of the network information.

In terms of improvements, the solution has SD-WAN but it doesn't have SDN. This should be added.

The solution can only be managed by FortiGate.

The stability of the solution is good.

The solution can scale, but there are some limitations. Our partner just started using the solution so I'm not sure how many people they have on it at this time.

Technical support is good.

The initial setup is straightforward; it's not complex.

I handled the implementation myself.

I've been using the solution for five years. We use both cloud and on-premises deployment models.

The solution is secure for small and medium-sized companies. For larger companies, you need to have an LPM on it. 

I'd rate it eight out of ten.

The customer wanted to have a switch, but then we managed to buy a console: FortiGate. This has been deployed to control the switching. This switch has 40 access points for WiFi access. This has been deployed to the university for student access. We have the controller using FortiGate with the access point being FortiGate. So, we chose FortiSwitch to uniformize our entire equipment and the WiFi for students access.

The version depends on the version of FortiOS which is running on the switch.

The interface is great because we can do all the administrative tasks with a user vertical interface. FortiSwitch can be managed by the FortiGate, so a lot of tasks are doable using FortiGate. If you master FortiGate, you won't have a lot of difficulty mastering FortiSwitch. What I really love in FortiSwitch: its usability, the graphical user interface, and the ability to be managed by FortiGate.

The technical support could be improved.

I have been using this solution for two years.

It's stable. The installation was deployed two years ago. We haven't had any big problems with it. If there are problems, they are related to the configuration, passwords changes, and sometimes the access point loses connection. 

FortiSwitch can be managed and controlled by FortiGate. The configuration is done on FortiGate. To scale, you just need to purchase some other switches, even they are not really the same model of the one deployed. With two or three clicks, we can scale them to the other switch.

With the university example, where it is not fully functional, there are almost 2000 or 3000 students who are using the access points to access the WiFi, which are connected to the switch. 

I am almost an expert on the solution, so I don't often need support. But, if you contact Fortinet, it's a bit difficult. Most of the time, they send you just links and documents to read for troubleshooting. When you contact support, you don't need documents. You want someone that can understand your problem, give a hand, and help you. I'm not impressed by the support really.

Initial setup is like plug and play. It's really simple.

I can deploy a FortiSwitch in a maximum of one hour.

Maybe Fortinet can improve FortiSwitch's functionalities, because they are not the best on the market. Cisco switches offer more functionalities regarding access control and other features, like WLAN security. They can improve these on FortiSwitch.

It's affordable compared to other switching products, like Cisco switches. 

I can recommend the solution.

I would rate the solution as a seven (out of 10).

FortiSwitch is a member of what Fortinet calls its security fabric. 

The most valuable feature is the breakability after integration with the FortiGate firewall.

The central management needs improvement.

The initial setup could be easier.

I've been using this solution for about two years.

Up to the present, it has been a stable solution.

It is easy to scale. We have about 3 to 400 users and plant to increase the number of users.

I would rate technical support at nine out of ten.

Positive

We switched to Fortinet FortiSwitch Secure Access because it can integrate to the firewall in FortiGate. This means that we can centralize the management console on the firewall to manage the security and network on one brand. It lowers the cost of management.

The initial setup is a little complex. It takes about five minutes for one device.

You will need five engineers for deployment and maintenance.

We implemented it through an in-house team.

We have an annual licensing cost. There are no additional costs.

I would rate Fortinet FortiSwitch Secure Access at eight on a scale from one to ten.

We use Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access for enhanced network security.

I have been using this solution for approximately one year.

The solution is stable.

I have found the solution to be scalable.

We have between 100 and 1,000 users using the solution in my organization.

The technical support has been very good.

The installation is not difficult. However, some features have to be activated from the CLI.

I did the implementation of the solution.

We have one technician who can operate the solution.

Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access requires a license and the price is expensive.

I would recommend this solution to others. 

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

We are a customer and end user of Fortinet.

Integration is good, as well as price and technical support.

When we started using the solution, it was quite complex but then it became easier to use. It takes a while to get used to the interface.

I have been using this solution since the beginning of 2018.

The stability is fine.

The scalability is fine.

I haven't had any issues in technical support.

We worked with an integrator, so that wasn't completely my area.

The price is good.

I would rate this solution 9 out of 10.