Fortinet FortiWLM Reviews

We are an internet and telecom service provider, so we are not the final customer. We provide secure wireless LAN solutions to our customers, and for internal services as well.

We show how we can bring many positive results to different businesses.

We merge with the customers' bring-your-own-device solutions. It's easy to manage the WiFi, the customer does not need to buy more equipment, like tablets, for their employees. They can reuse equipment. And employees are definitely comfortable using their own devices and, from the IT and security perspectives, we are bringing security to these employees, with our solution. We innovate the business process. We innovate how employees work in their companies.

Also, in the case of stores, we are bringing new results and new income. We help them to grow their sales. Their customers like to go to their stores because they can access the information they need. They can connect to the wireless LAN, they can compare prices. We are making the business process faster and more secure, and customers like that. They can engage with the retail store.

Using this technology, the stores' loyalty programs are growing because, when customers go into the stores, they can connect with the loyalty programs to receive discounts and special items. This makes their customers more loyal to the stores, who are our customers.

We have some international retail customers, such as H&M, from Sweden, and another one from the U.S. and, in both cases, monthly sales have increased about ten to 15 percent. In these cases, income was one of the benefits that they received in the quarter after we installed the solution. The results were very quick.

In addition, we make the business process, the internal process of distribution and logistics, more efficient and connected. We're reporting, online, how they are distributing all the items to the different stores. And the inventory is connected to the wireless LAN solutions, so they know, online and in a centralized way, what the inventory levels are in the different stores.

Security is the feature we like most from Fortinet. In general, their security architecture is really great, because it involves everything: firewalls, wireless LANs, the user. Everything is really secure. That's a great feature from Fortinet. It's very valuable.

Sometimes we feel that we are buying the top-of-the-line technology and, six months or eight months later, we feel it is already obsolete. New smartphones bring new technology, new ways to connect. Sometimes we have this bad feeling that, even though we are investing tons of money, technology is moving faster than us. So even with this huge amount of investment, one year later we are totally obsolete compared with the new technology.

They need to make it move faster. They need to make it easier to configure, easier to monitor, easier to report.

We have great tech support from Fortinet, here in Mexico. But if we have a big issue, like a big bug, and they need to produce new versions of the software in their R&D departments, this is the slowest part.

It is very stable. In the last 16 to 18 months, there have been no big issues related to the solution.

It is really scalable. That is one of the decisive, key points we consider in all our projects. In the case of Fortinet Wireless, it is really scalable.

We get good response from the tech guys at Fortinet. Our experience with them is absolutely positive.

We used to have some HPE equipment. We switched from those old access points. We use Fortinet as a preferred vendor, but if a customer wants or needs to use equipment from other vendors, we sell equipment from other vendors.

Setting up the solution is really straightforward. The amount of time it takes depends on the customer. If it's a really big customer, the implementation process could take from three months to almost ten months. Once you have all the plans and you start installing, it's really straightforward and it can move fast.

For Mexico, a big customer is the one that has more than 200 retail stores. They are not as big as in the U.S. or in other countries, but for Mexico, a retail store that has 250 stores is a huge company.

The deployment strategy depends on the project manager and his staff. Because we are telecom service providers, we usually start with all the internet connections, and voice and data connection, using fibre. Once we have all that in place, we start building the local area networks.

In terms of deployment and maintenance, on average, I would estimate it's about eight to ten percent of the investment. It depends on the customer and the approach we have with the customer. We usually have two or three engineers, per customer, giving support. But that's not just for the wireless, that's also for the networking. For a huge retail company, we may have between five and ten certified engineers working on daily support for the customer.

ROI depends on the customer but it could be from six months to 12 months, on average. It's a good return on investment. More sales. More savings. It reduces the TCO, but I don't have the numbers. It could be a reduction of, maybe, 15 percent, compared to other solutions.

It's definitely a great solution.

Negotiate with the vendor to activate the licenses at the moment that they install and configure the equipment. If you initially have a big project with a lot of equipment, and you have a six-month plan, licensing will start before you are using all the equipment, and that doesn't make sense.

In terms of how extensively it's being used and whether its usage will grow, it's really organic. People are using the internet and using all kinds of applications on a daily basis. It's growing, more people are connected every day. Usage is changing dramatically, exponentially, really. As more people use the internet and applications on a daily basis, our customers are required to increase services and, obviously, in a secure way.

We use it for a very large K-12 environment servicing 80,000 concurrent users.

Being able to leverage Virtual Cell in our environment has been a major advantage. Creating small cells of APs using Single Channel Architecture has improved roaming of our more mobile clients and provided stable and fast network connections to our stationary clients.

The Fortinet product is intuitive, scalable, stable, and easy to manage. Seamless roaming by leveraging Virtual Cell is a major advantage which reduces roam times and issues related to roaming. Code stability has been excellent and the hardware quality is second to none.

We leverage Fortinet WLM (formerly EzRF) as a single pane of glass to view all controllers and access points. We use WLM to deploy all of our wireless service profiles, collect analytics, deploy upgrades, etc. This is our primary way to manage all of our equipment. This makes it really easy to replace equipment if needed because there is no locally stored configuration (for the most part).

There is very little publicly available information about Virtual Cell and Single Channel Architecture. Promotion of the overall technology is limited as well. Being more vocal about a product that has many advantages would go a long way to eliminating a lot of the confusion and negative perception about Virtual Cell and Single Channel Architecture.

Stability issues are very infrequent. If an issue is encountered, a temporary solution is quickly found while a permanent fix is developed.

With roughly 100 schools and over 6,200 access points servicing 80,000 concurrent users, we have not run into scalability issues. We still primarily use Single Channel Architecture across all of our schools but employ variations of Virtual Cell in special situations.

The technical support is great. I have not had any issues with it. The support staff knows the product well and responds to support requests in a timely manner.

Although I have worked with Fortinet (Meru) for several years, my current employer chose Meru prior to my employment.

The initial setup is straightforward and intuitive. A simple and reliable network can be set up very quickly using Fortinet wireless equipment. Using Fortinet Single Channel Architecture is not a replacement for having solid wireless network fundamentals. Wireless network knowledge is critical for deploying any wireless equipment.

Licensing has become easier. There is no longer a per-AP license needed on the controller.

This is a very viable solution for all verticals. Do not discount the technology based on what was said several years ago. Just like any other wireless solution out there, a wireless network can be set up incorrectly without the proper wireless networking knowledge. Proper wireless network fundamentals are critical for all wireless network solutions. Combining a solid wireless network foundation with Fortinet will provide a very good experience for several years to come.

We use it for wireless at our remote locations.

We're using SD-WAN at all of our locations now, which helps increase and aggregate and lower response time and improve application performance.

Another thing we have seen is increased security awareness.

• UTM (Unified Threat Management)
• Centralized management
• Cost
• Ease of use

Manageability is a key.

The centralized management features could be improved. I think they're good, but I think they could be better.

I can't recall any stability issues.

Scalability is fine.

Their tech support is average. Their response time is average. Their first-level support is okay, but it's not terrific. The few times we've had to open tickets, we've had to escalate to get to an engineer who could help. Usually, when we call, there is something really wrong and the front-liners are not geared toward high-end support.

We switched primarily due to feature functionality and cost. It offered a lot more value.

It was fairly straightforward. With any new product you need training because it's different.  We needed a little bit of training but it wasn't anything that was difficult.

The product's pricing is a good value. 

Licensing is the only area where I think they are below average. They need enterprise licensing, an all-encompassing license to cover all products for a company.

We evaluated a lot of different solutions including Palo Alto, Cisco, SonicWall.

Overall, putting it in place was fairly straightforward. As with anything, I would plan it and test it before implementing. That's for any product, it's not specific to Fortinet.

I give it a nine out of 10. The price performance is unmatched. If they came out with enterprise licensing, I would give it a 10.

We had many blind spots at one point, so we changed the whole leverage. Under the new leverage and the FortiATs, we have our base.

The security is a valuable feature. 

The range needs some improvement and also the stability. 

I have been using Fortinet FortiWLM for two years.

The rate the stability an eight out of ten. 

I rate the scalability a seven out of ten. 

The initial setup is straightforward. 

I have seen a return on investment.

The solution is fairly priced. 

I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten. 

The most valuable features are the roaming profile, the mesh, and the performance.

Areas for improvement would be the compatibility with Apple products and cross-platform integration. In the next release, I would like them to include accessibility authentication for user authentication.

I've been using this solution for two and a half years.

The technical support is good.

The initial setup was easy.

I implemented using an in-house team.

Once you install this solution, it just runs properly and gets the job done. I would rate it as ten out of ten.

Our primary use case revolves around network security, particularly in environments where FortiGate firewall integration is essential.

The central configuration possibility on the FortiGate firewall is a particularly good feature.

The platform's pricing needs improvement.

We've been utilizing FortiWLM for approximately three to five years.

The solution is very stable. I rate the stability a ten.

The scalability of this solution is comparable to competitor products like Cisco or Aruba.

The setup was easy. Only one part was a little difficult when we connected the FortiWLM network to the network access control and had to use RADIUS authentication. This issue is more related to network access control rather than Wi-Fi. I rate the process a ten.

The deployment time depends on the size of the network and the number of devices. It can range from a few hours to up to two weeks.

The product is highly expensive. I rate the pricing a ten.

When used in conjunction with FortiGate, FortiWLM proves to be more effective. I would rate it a ten.