Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs FortiSASE comparison

Cato Networks and Fortinet are both solutions in the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) category. Cato Networks is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.9, while Fortinet is ranked #6 with an average rating of 7.6. Cato Networks holds a 11.3% mindshare in SASE, compared to Fortinet’s 7.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Cato Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of Fortinet users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 6, 2024

Cato SASE Cloud Platform and FortiSASE are advanced solutions in the secure access service edge landscape. Cato is applauded for its competitive pricing and support, while FortiSASE has robust features that justify its higher cost, especially for users looking for rich functionalities.

Features: Cato SASE Cloud Platform includes comprehensive security features, efficient integration capabilities, and straightforward deployment. FortiSASE boasts enhanced threat protection, advanced analytics tools, and a deep security feature set giving it an edge in functionality.

Room for Improvement: Cato SASE Cloud Platform could improve in scalability, intuitive management, and overall flexibility. FortiSASE might benefit from improved documentation, greater flexibility in its offerings, and enhanced ease of deployment for less complexity during setup.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cato SASE Cloud Platform is praised for its straightforward deployment and effective customer service, offering a smoother experience. FortiSASE is powerful but sometimes seen as complex during setup, though it compensates with proactive support.

Pricing and ROI: Cato SASE Cloud Platform is appreciated for competitive setup costs and rapid ROI, making it attractive for cost-sensitive users. FortiSASE, despite higher initial costs, offers significant ROI through enhanced performance benefits, reflecting the strong return on investment with its comprehensive utility.

To learn more, read our detailed Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs. FortiSASE Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs. FortiSASE

September 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

iboss

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) category, the mindshare of iboss is 2.1%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cato SASE Cloud Platform is 11.3%, up from 9.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FortiSASE is 7.2%, up from 6.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cato SASE Cloud Platform	11.3%
FortiSASE	7.2%
iboss	2.1%
Other	79.4%

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)

Featured Reviews

Matt Crockford

Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water

It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless

One aspect we value about iboss is its simplicity. Their customer service is brilliant, and they are super responsive and knowledgeable. It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless. We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times. The user interface is highly intuitive. Our IT team picked it up with minimal training. It's arranged so that it's easy to find where things are. Another advantage is the single pane of glass console, which gives you visibility into what's happening. We're not fully there yet because we haven't implemented zero trust, but we're excited about the possibilities from the demos we've seen. We launched a POC of iboss' ChatGPT Risk Protection feature two weeks ago. AI is a great tool, but you need to be careful what you put into it. My biggest fear is employees inputting sensitive corporate information or customer PII data into one of these chatbots. I was impressed by our trial of the feature. It's exactly what we wanted. Now, when a user goes to ChatGPT, there's a banner warning them not to share information, and we can block conversations containing customer data like bank details and email addresses. I don't want to stop people from using it, but we need visibility. We've only tried it on a test group of 15 people. You can configure it to look for specific keywords or integrate it with your DLP policy if you have that configured

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YOGESHSINGH

Chief Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Have streamlined policy configuration and improved network adaptability with some need for better reporting and observability

I may not be that equipped now, but there are certainly growth areas for them, especially around how they provide reporting and monitoring and then flexibility of combining it with an observability part attached to it. This would remove the need to integrate another specialist tool for observability or monitoring part. They would certainly employ AI, especially agentic AI. I think that should be already part of their roadmap as a transversal. But certainly, the kind of integrations they offer today, in the future, I would think they would add more and more feature sets, especially around where they remove the dependency of having specialist solutions on a typical monitoring side. I think it's a fair price. It's positioned very well in the market. It's not low or very high. In the future, I hope that with more services being bundled as part of the solution on the cloud side, they should reduce the price being, provide bundle service. I think in the future they will come up with reduced pricing, more competitive pricing. But today it's fair. It's not very low or very high.

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Yusuke Murasato

IT Network, Security Engineer at Zuken Netwave

Efficient access control and authorization with easy configurations

The important aspects are twofold. One is authorization, and the second is access control. FortiSASE can operate in a cloud environment with client certificates for authorizations and access control using features like PostureCheck. The service assesses device security, checking updates on antivirus software and confirming Windows OS specifications. I can use it anywhere I want as long as I have an Internet connection. It's very easy to configure the environment.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The iboss system is highly reliable. The false positive rates are small compared to some other systems we've experienced through other partner agencies who use competing solutions."

"I would rate the technical support of iboss a solid 10 without a shadow of a doubt."

"The solution has massively improved our security posture, giving us full visibility into what our staff does online."

"iboss has significantly lowered the number of security incidents. It is crazy how much it blocks and how much it is aware of the outside danger."

"It was a very easy product to install. It can be deployed very fast."

"Its initial setup was straightforward."

"Our primary use case for this product is DLP,"

"Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss."

More iboss pros

"The product's most valuable features include advanced firewall capabilities for robust security, a secure gateway for safe data transmission, and next-generation anti-malware for threat prevention."

"The main features we use are the firewall and secure web gateway."

"When I first encountered Cato, I didn't know how to use it, but after a week of training, I could onboard our systems to it, so the solution was easy to learn and navigate."

"The tool's advantage is that it provides a hassle-free solution that is easy to manage across all customers. For instance, we have a few customers with as few as 50 users, including one with a branch in Vietnam and others with thousands of users."

"The Cato SASE Cloud Platform is a remarkable solution for managing and controlling all aspects of Zero Trust network access functions through its SASE capabilities. It's designed with an exquisite and practical architecture, making it a worthwhile investment for organizations looking to optimize IT spending and streamline management processes."

"Cato SASE Cloud Platform's self-healing model is the most valuable feature."

"I would definitely recommend Cato Networks to other users."

"Unified management and internet duplication are our most valuable features. They provide a seamless experience for end users—if one link goes down, they can still work without noticing."

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform pros

"Deep packet inspection is easier to deploy in the FortiSASE environment. It's much simpler to configure one-touch deployment. It was considerably more convoluted to get that to work using FortiClient. All that processing horsepower is happening in Fortinet's cloud infrastructure, reducing the load on our local routers and on-prem FortiGate firewalls."

"The technical support from Fortinet is highly commendable, and I rate it as nine out of ten."

"I feel that it is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."

"This advantage is having the ability to create an SPA unit of FortiGate."

"FortiSASE can operate in a cloud environment with client certificates for authorizations and access control using features like PostCheck."

"It is highly scalable."

"It has AI-based detections for any signature-less virus or any unknown vulnerabilities."

"I find Fortinet to be competitive with its firewalls."

More FortiSASE pros

Cons

"The dashboards for local use could be better."

"File integrity monitoring would be very advantageous as an additional feature."

"Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctly."

"I am currently doing a PoC of the zero trust aspect of it. Compared to other similar solutions, it is hard to get around each feature. It takes a while to get used to it."

"Their on-premise hardware's network interface is capped at one gigabit, which is sort of a problem. If you stand a filter up where all traffic flows through that, according to them, in order to go above a gigabit, you have to have multiple devices, which in today's IT seems a little bit silly. They could easily put in an SFP port into their device that could accommodate 10 gigs or at least offer a box."

"The area I would like to see improvement in is the ability with in the reporter to navigate directly to the content the user is traversing. It is kind of there, but it's not perfect. Quite frequently, I receive links that lead me to pages with error messages."

"Sometimes when you call in support, you get someone who is just following a sheet. It feels like a runaround. You feel that you are running into that support wall."

"Iboss is growing so fast that it is often hard for them to keep up with the challenges."

More iboss cons

"There isn't much to improve as we have a close relationship with them, providing information for research and development."

"The solution is not cheap."

"I'd rate Cato SASE Cloud Platform's pricing as about five or six out of ten. It's not the cheapest solution, but it is cheaper than Palo Alto and even VeloCloud."

"There should be a Web Application Firewall feature in the product nodes."

"The solution could be made more user friendly for the administrator to use the portal. It is difficult to use it for people who are not experienced with Cato Networks."

"The different languages in the user interface should be enhanced."

"They should include a web application firewall feature in the solution."

"Web application firewalling (WAF) is a feature we would like to have in this solution and does not exist yet."

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform cons

"FortiSASE is an expensive product and the cost is indeed high."

"Stability issues persist."

"I do not recommend FortiSASE for everyone."

"The current high-tech version of FortiSASE is not recommended due to its heavy loading."

"While connectivity from outside to inside is okay, inside to outside is not."

"FortiSASE is a work in progress. One area where there is room for improvement is the ability to use FortiSASE on an endpoint that doesn't have the client on it. Other solutions do that by building a VPN tunnel from their on-prem router into the SASE environment. FortiSASE doesn't have that feature yet, but it is on the roadmap for Q3 of this year. I've seen it in their development environment."

"Improvements should focus on security. Although FortiCASB performs well in many areas, I believe its security aspects could be enhanced further."

"Improvements should focus on security."

More FortiSASE cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."

"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."

"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."

"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."

"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."

"The platform is expensive."

"I'd rate Cato SASE Cloud Platform's pricing as about five or six out of ten. It's not the cheapest solution, but it is cheaper than Palo Alto and even VeloCloud. We've been working with them for a while and have significant discounts. Our licensing costs vary because we keep adding sites, but it's about 280 per month per site. This includes additional features beyond the base product, starting at around 200."

"The solution has reasonable pricing. It has a yearly subscription. The pricing depends on the permit to code. Sometimes, we need to increase the permit, and the cost will automatically change. There's no fixed cost. Unless we request additional modules such as DNS security, ELP, and decent features, there will be no additional cost."

"The pricing of the solution depends upon the bandwidth required for different branches"

"The price is not an issue for us, as it is priced more competitively than some other vendors."

"Cato Networks seems more expensive than Cisco Meraki."

"I rate the price of Cato Networks a four out of five."

"The product is very competitively priced, and that's compelling. They don't charge the customer based on the operational cost like other brands such as Palo Alto. Cato has its own fully-fledged cloud, with their own data centers, equipment, and so on, which is an advantage. I rate the solution five out of five for affordability."

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform pricing and cost advice

"I can only speak about the pricing for education users because we get discounts. Other users aren't going to get the same price, but FortiSASE is competitive with the other products out there. All the solutions came in at the same price, so it just came down to the product that works best for us."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten."

"I rate the product's price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."

"I rate the product price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is high price, and ten is low price."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	10

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	5

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?

For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company Exxon...

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What is your primary use case for iboss?

Previously when I used iboss, we did the POC for iboss for ExxonMobil. Four or five people wanted to move from our ol...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?

Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern. There are cheaper alte...

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What do you like most about Cato Networks?

The solution is a simple WAN solution. We've onboarded the socket on the Cato platform, and it provides connectivity....

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What is your primary use case for Cato Networks?

Actually, we propose Moogsoft as a solution. Previously we were using the solution for our customer, and we were basi...

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What advice do you have for others considering Cato Networks?

My experience would be four out of five. I personally need to understand it more deeply. But it appears good at this ...

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What do you like most about FortiSASE ?

The integration with the company's existing security infrastructure enhanced our security posture since it was a stra...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FortiSASE ?

The pricing, licensing, and setup costs of FortiSASE are very advantageous if you are already a Fortinet customer. If...

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What needs improvement with FortiSASE ?

The secured browser of FortiSASE has room for improvement. Palo Alto has a more mature security browser than Fortinet.

See all answers

Comparisons

Netskope vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Zscaler Internet Access vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Twingate vs iboss

Compared 3% of the time

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Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 15% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 11% of the time

Netskope vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 10% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 9% of the time

Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 2% of the time

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform Competitors

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs FortiSASE

Compared 19% of the time

Zscaler Internet Access vs FortiSASE

Compared 16% of the time

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs FortiSASE

Compared 14% of the time

Netskope vs FortiSASE

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs FortiSASE

Compared 4% of the time

More FortiSASE Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

October 2025

Download iboss product report

Buyer's Guide

Cato SASE Cloud Platform

November 2025

Download Cato SASE Cloud Platform product report

Buyer's Guide

FortiSASE

November 2025

Download FortiSASE product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

Cato Networks

No data available

Overview

Iboss offers a comprehensive cloud-based security platform valued for its scalability and autonomous features, ensuring robust security with easy deployment and management capabilities.

Renowned for its robust security architecture, Iboss integrates seamlessly within diverse networks, delivering efficient granular filtering and advanced content categorization. Its single pane of glass console provides ease of management, allowing rapid scalability suitable for rapidly deploying environments. Operates in BYOD setups due to inline filtering without device installation. Integration with cloud-based applications enhances user control, and features like SASE, SSL inspection, and ChatGPT risk protection stand as highlights. Despite its strengths, users have pointed out areas for enhancement like direct navigation in reports, SSL decryption, and better cloud integration while having room to improve data loss prevention.

What are the most important features of Iboss?

Scalability: Supports rapid deployment across diverse networks.
SASE: A consolidated approach to secure access.
SSL Inspection: Ensures safe data transmission.
Granular Filtering: Detailed control over accessible content.
Single Pane Management: Unifies control through a centralized console.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Cost-effectiveness: Offers competitive pricing with robust features.
Autonomous Operation: Reduces management overhead.
Responsive Support: Provides assistance when needed.
Flexible Deployment: Available for both cloud and on-premises environments.

The usage of Iboss spans educational institutions, specifically K-12, to enforce internet policies, protect data, and support remote work environments. It provides web filtering and security frameworks to ensure safe browsing. Its platform-as-a-service model offers flexibility for both cloud-based and on-premises requirements, integrating seamlessly to deliver enhanced security features suitable for various deployment needs including zero trust, CASB, and network security for work-from-home setups.

iboss

Cato Networks is a leading SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) platform, combining SD-WAN and network security to obtain a cloud-native service. Cato Networks optimizes and secures application access for users and identities. The platform delivers a next-generation secure networking architecture that minimizes legacy IT infrastructures’ complexity, costs, and risks. The goal of Cato Suite is to connect any user to any application securely and optimally.

Cato Suite runs on a private global network of more than 65 PoPs (points of presence) connected via SLA-backed network providers. The service can connect branches, data centers, users, and clouds. Cato can be deployed in stages to augment legacy network services.

Cato Suite delivers end-to-end route optimization for WAN and cloud traffic. The architecture is self-healing, enabling a high service uptime.

Cato Features

Cato Cloud has a global backbone to deliver a reliable, global network. Here are some key SD-WAN features of Cato Cloud.

Optimizes traffic flows: The Cato Suite can individually optimize traffic flows in the last mile - from the customer’s location to the point of presence, and also between PoPs. This feature eliminates the need for internet providers to hand off traffic to each other, avoiding the resulting latency and congestion.
Controls and manages bandwidth: The software-defined overlay is encrypted across the entire cloud infrastructure. This overlay uses application-aware routing, analyzing latency and loss data to choose the best route according to network conditions. These features, like protocol priority marking, enable the system to ensure the performance of real-time applications.
Delivers redundancy and failover: By connecting the points of presence with multiple Tier-1 IPs, Cato builds the redundancy needed to ensure security and highly available service.
Cloud-native: Cato is built as a scalable, resilient, and elastic cloud service.
Converged: The platform converges SD-WAN and network security into a single infrastructure framework.
Secures all edges: Cato Network can secure and optimize traffic from all users, locations, applications, and clouds.

What challenges does Cato Network solve?

Migration to SD-WAN

MPLS (multi-protocol label switching) networks are usually expensive and limited in their capacity. Cato simplifies migrating to a faster, higher-capacity internet and SASE cloud. Cato SD-WAN appliances enable customers to improve usable capacity and resiliency.

Global connectivity optimization

Customers who suffer from the challenge of high latency and network inconsistency can use Cato to deliver a consistent connection and user experience to access on-premises and cloud applications.

Securing branch internet access

Cato’s complete network security stack connects all branch locations to the Cato cloud, therefore protecting all traffic, both internet-bound and WAN, with enterprise-grade, cloud-based security services. This capability avoids having to backhaul internet traffic to a data center or hub or having to implement stand-alone cloud security solutions.

Cloud acceleration and control

Organizations using Cato notice an acceleration of cloud traffic. Cato achieves this by routing all traffic from the edges to the PoP closest to the data center. Because of the close distance between the two, the latency is near zero.

Reviews from Real Users

An IT manager/project coordinator at a healthcare company says that “[Cato is] a cloud-based solution that integrates well with everything. They are the classic SaaS solution.”

Yeong-Gi L., a network engineer at Snetsystems, notes that “The solution is very stable. The scalability is quite good. Technical support was always helpful and responsive. The integration capabilities are not a problem at all.”

"The most valuable feature is that it also works as a next-gen firewall because it has security features," says Lorenzo S., senior solutions consultant Lead at MDI.

Cato Networks

FortiSASE is a comprehensive security solution that combines SD-WAN, security, and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) capabilities in a single platform. It provides secure access to applications and data from any device, anywhere, and at any time. FortiSASE offers advanced threat protection, real-time visibility, and control over network traffic, ensuring that organizations can securely connect their users and devices to the cloud and on-premises resources. With FortiSASE, organizations can simplify their security infrastructure, reduce costs, and improve their overall security posture.

FortiSASE Benefits:

Easy to use and set up
Good value for the price
Provides accurate and reliable results
Compact and portable design
Comes with helpful instructions and customer support

FortiSASE combines the following key elements:

Networking: FortiSASE provides networking capabilities, including SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network), WAN optimization, and network traffic routing. It allows organizations to optimize and secure their network connectivity.
Security: FortiSASE integrates multiple security services, including next-generation firewall (NGFW), secure web gateway (SWG), secure web application firewall (WAF), and zero-trust network access (ZTNA). It offers comprehensive protection against various threats, such as malware, intrusions, and data breaches.
Cloud Security: FortiSASE includes cloud-native security services to protect cloud-based applications and workloads. It offers secure access to cloud services, cloud-based firewalls, and security for multi-cloud environments.
Zero Trust Security: FortiSASE follows the Zero Trust security model, where all users and devices are treated as untrusted and must undergo strict authentication and authorization before accessing resources. It enforces granular access controls and micro-segmentation to limit lateral movement within the network.
Secure Web Access: FortiSASE includes secure web access capabilities, enabling organizations to enforce web filtering policies, block malicious websites, and protect against web-based threats like phishing and malware.
Visibility and Analytics: FortiSASE provides centralized visibility and analytics to monitor network traffic, security events, and user behavior. It helps organizations detect and respond to security incidents and provides insights for ongoing security improvements.

FortiSASE aims to simplify and streamline security operations by integrating multiple security functions and network services into a single platform. This approach allows organizations to reduce complexity, improve efficiency, and enhance overall security posture.

Reviews from Real Users

Peter VanDorp, Cyber Security Analyst and Network Operations Supervisor at a non-tech company, says that "Deep packet inspection is easier to deploy in the FortiSASE environment. It's much simpler to configure one-touch deployment. It was considerably more convoluted to get that to work using FortiClient. All that processing horsepower is happening in Fortinet's cloud infrastructure, reducing the load on our local routers and on-prem FortiGate firewalls."

Jose-Rivera, Account Manager at Telefónica, that FortiSASE is "Reliable with good security and helps with network optimization".

Fortinet

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.

Paysafe, AdRoll, Pet Lovers Centre, Arlington Orthopedics, Humphreys & Partners Architects

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs. FortiSASE

September 2025

Free Report: Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs. FortiSASE

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