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Cisco Defense Orchestrator vs FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

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

Cisco Defense Orchestrator
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
14th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
FortiGate Cloud-Native Fire...
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Firewall Security Management category, the mindshare of Cisco Defense Orchestrator is 1.0%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF) is 1.7%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewall Security Management
 

Featured Reviews

Vivek Balaji - PeerSpot reviewer
Useful guides, excellent support, integration could improve
Cisco Defense Orchestrator has useful guides for the steps that need to follow by users Cisco Defense Orchestrator can improve by providing more support for third-party security components. I have been using Cisco Defense Orchestrator for approximately eight months. The Cisco Defense…
MuhammadJahangir - PeerSpot reviewer
Provided us with a good experience, making it the best firewall for our needs
We are using two Fortinet firewalls. One is as an office firewall for all users behind it, configured with remote VPN for users working from home. The other firewall is for production use, with our applications behind it, ensuring PCI DSS compliance. It is deployed in AWS Cloud FortiGate has…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The bulk changes feature is definitely the most valuable."
"The initial setup was straightforward. We spun up the VM onsite. We generated the key that it needed to talk to the Cloud Orchestrator. After that, as I started adding devices, it was relatively quick and easy."
"If our server is blocked, this solution shows us why it is blocked and allows us to update the network routing."
"We use a lot of image upgrades. We take some 20 devices and then we update everything at once, including the policies. We apply policies for groups. For certain groups, like anti-viruses, we send out policies and apply them to every single device. It's really easy and simple."
"Cisco Defense Orchestrator has useful guides for the steps that need to follow by users."
"There are a lot of templates that are already built-in. They give you quick-to-create and quick-to-apply policies that are typically a little more complicated for people."
"The most valuable feature is the automation, as it reduces user intervention and allows us to focus on other tasks."
"With Cisco Defense Orchestrator, we can manage the complete Cisco Security solution. It provides a simple and centralized way to manage all products."
"The ability to launch third-party software is one of the best features because of the variety of software available. For me, it's one of the best ones."
"The focus is on the comprehensive coverage of threats and the reliability of the chosen solution. Ease of use and familiarity are crucial."
"The platform has good stability."
"The solution is very advanced and has good monitoring features."
"Unlike other products, the FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall has many features under one appliance."
"I have configured some SD-WAN features, and it's worked pretty well. It manages pretty well, connecting all links to the firewall. It can lower balance and traffic management."
"The tool's documentation and online resources availability have been valuable."
"FortiGate's offering of many features in one license is cost-effective."
 

Cons

"It would be a better product if it incorporated device control for third-party products easily."
"The main thing that would useful for us would the logging and monitoring. I have to check it out, to get the beta, because I don't have access to them... I wanted CDO to be a central place so where I could do everything but right now I don't think that's possible. I really don't want to go back and forth between this and FMC. Maybe the logging portion, when I look at it, will give me some similarities."
"It should have more features to manage FirePOWER appliances."
"I'd like CDO to be the one-stop-shop where we could do all the configurations easily. It would be nice, for ASA upgrades, if we could do them from a central repository and not have to reach out to Cisco. That would be a definite plus."
"Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall."
"They need to work on the user interface. It needs to be improved to make it more user-friendly."
"When logging into the device, we sort of had problems with it staying in sync. If somebody made a change onsite, it wouldn't do an automatic sync. It would have to wait, as you would have to do a manual sync up."
"If I make a change locally to the firewall, CDO gives an alarm or an error message and says there's a change in compliance: "The firewall has this configuration but the last time it was compiled it had that configuration." That view of new changes versus the old could be better... I had to log in manually, locally on the firewall, to check which version, which configuration was actually running. I couldn't see it in CDO."
"They should offer more affordable renewal options or flexible plans for license upgrades."
"Unfortunately, FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF) is not very scalable. For businesses that grow or develop further, only about ten percent can handle the increase."
"The product is very expensive."
"There is room for improvement in terms of support."
"I'd like them to add a DNS option for FortiGate."
"There are some bugs that need to be fixed, and they can take some time to resolve."
"The solution needs to improve on box clustering and IPS configuration."
"The solution is not stable in terms of switching."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If you compare to what is available on the market, they are in the same range with respect to pricing."
"It is about a $100 per year for an ASA 5506 firewall, and from there it keeps going up if you have a bigger box. For example, the 5516 is $200 to $300 per year."
"I work with a lot of clients, and the price or value of the Cisco Defense Orchestrator can vary from one client to another. If you have a lot of Cisco solutions, the price of the Cisco Defense Orchestrator is justified. Whereas if you have some security components from other vendors, such as Check Point or Palo Alto. This solution would be a pretty expensive proposition considering that they don't integrate with them well."
"It's around £500 per unit for a three-year license."
"After our free trial was done we got a subscription for three years and it was under $3,000 or so. It's part of the EA we already paid for, so I don't know what it would be if it was a la carte."
"It is covered under the CIsco Enterprise License Agreement (ELA). So, it is licensed and ours."
"FortiGate's price is really good."
"It is an expensive platform."
"FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall is not an expensive solution."
"The tool's licensing costs are cheap and yearly."
"The pricing is competitive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
52%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Legal Firm
3%
Manufacturing Company
18%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Media Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Cisco Defense Orchestrator?
Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall. Currently, to use it effectively, one must be specific with the rule set that needs to be set up. Additionally, I suggest impro...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Defense Orchestrator?
Our primary use case for Cisco Defense Orchestrator is the automation of playbooks. We primarily use it for this purpose to streamline processes.
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Defense Orchestrator?
Those who want to use Cisco Defense Orchestrator should build their own use case and see if it fits their environment. The most significant benefit for us is the response time because it automates ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF)?
The pricing of FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall is very good and is not considered expensive compared to other products.
What needs improvement with FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF)?
I would be glad if there were free solutions to help manage migrations. Migration can be quite challenging when moving from a different firewall to FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall. Solutions like F...
 

Also Known As

CDO
No data available
 

Interactive Demo

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Insurance Company of British Columbia, Shawmut
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Defense Orchestrator vs. FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF) and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
846,617 professionals have used our research since 2012.