Cisco Defense Orchestrator vs Fortinet FortiGate Cloud comparison

Cisco Defense Orchestrator vs. Fortinet FortiGate Cloud

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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

Cisco Defense Orchestrator

Ranking in Firewall Security Management

14th

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Fortinet FortiGate Cloud

Ranking in Firewall Security Management

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

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 Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is 5.1%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewall Security Management

Featured Reviews

Vivek Balaji

Technical Director - Cyber Security at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees

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…

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IgnitiusMolepo

Senior IP Network Defense at MTN

The hub-and-spoke setup is useful because I can manage security from where I am, while the IT engineers in branch offices can handle it on their end.

When we're upgrading, it's sometimes quite challenging, especially firmware. We usually don't upgrade unless we have a bug, and we still feel it's not safe to react instead of being proactive. We often have some delays when updating FortiGuard, too. Nevertheless, I believe that it's okay most of the time with proper management. We also run into some problems using FortiGate as a UTM solution. I feel like maybe they're not giving me a full view of the other components that they have in that box. Their box has some DDoS defense, but I need complete DDoS protection. I must not have light DDoS protection on other UTM boxes because if I'm uncertain about the security posture, it will compromise me. We like having everything in one box because running multiple boxes eats up more resources on the computing level. We need a total solution, not half-half.

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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

"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 ability to see the uptimes on the different VPNs that we have configured for site-to-site."

"We have quite a few Active Stone by pairs. If they fail over... I'll see that there's a change on it and I'll have a look. The only change on it is that now this one is the standby, it took over the active role. I can go into that firewall and find out what happened... and troubleshoot based on that. That's pretty cool too."

"The bulk changes feature is definitely the most valuable."

"The most valuable feature is the Intrusion prevention."

"This product provides excellent centralized device controls and reporting."

"If our server is blocked, this solution shows us why it is blocked and allows us to update the network routing."

"Cisco Defense Orchestrator has useful guides for the steps that need to follow by users."

More Cisco Defense Orchestrator pros

"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud are the IPS, SSL Wireless, and VPN. Additionally, packet inspection and point-to-point VPN application control are useful."

"It’s easy to implement."

"I find it particularly helpful for certificate inspection and setting up anti-DDoS, intrusion prevention, antivirus, and file inspection policies."

"I have found centralized administration, cloud UI, and visibility and security on all networks valuable features."

"The intel we get from Fortinet is its most valuable aspect."

"I definitely recommend Fortinet FortiGate Cloud as it is a stable, easy-to-use, and economically viable option for customers."

"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is the logs are stored longer on this cloud version. If you have the on-premise version you will not be able to store the logs for more than one or two months."

"We use the solution for routing and cloud security. We have multiple offices nationwide, all connected through the MPRS network, which is terminated at our FortiGate firewall. We consolidate our networks, filter packets, and segment our network through this firewall. My company has around three lakh firewalls."

More Fortinet FortiGate Cloud pros

Cons

"I've found dozens of bugs over the year we've been using it. The more I use it for different things, the more problems I find... Most of the problems have to do with the user interface. A lot of thought and work has gone into the back-end component to make the product do what it's intended to do, but the way it is presented for use hasn't gotten nearly as much thought to make it smart and bug-free."

"It would be a better product if it incorporated device control for third-party products easily."

"Cisco Defense Orchestrator can improve by providing more support for third-party security components."

"There could be some slight improvements to navigation. In some of the navigation you've got to go back to be able to get into where you need to be once you've made a change. If I make a change, I've then got to go back to submit and send the change."

"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."

"They can centralize all products and provide a correlation about an incident and the response. They can also provide an on-premises solution. Currently, Cisco Defense Orchestrator is just for cloud deployments, not for on-premises deployments. Customers have to manage it on the cloud. We are based in Vietnam, and most of the customers here prefer to have on-premises deployments. Customers, especially from banking and government sectors, do not prefer to do anything on the cloud. Some of the small enterprises use the cloud."

"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."

"Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall."

More Cisco Defense Orchestrator cons

"They're still trying to digest that Meru acquisition and need a plan."

"We do find we get a bit of a lag."

"Improving the platform's intuitiveness and consolidating functionalities, such as reporting and firewall features, could enhance user experience and reduce the need for multiple product purchases."

"The Linux version currently lacks some of the latest features, notably in the IPv6 tool stack, which is available for Windows clients."

"We needed to do some training to be able to implement Fortinet FortiGate Cloud and after the training, we did the implementation in-house."

"I would like to see more reporting from the analysis improved in the future."

"It would be better for us if Fortinet provided a private cloud, and they should provide more security on the public cloud. There are some minor issues with security with the public cloud. For example, anyone with a link can access the public cloud."

"There could be more network-related information like interpretation response. All the flows are limited and related to devices, certificates, and switches."

More Fortinet FortiGate Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If you compare to what is available on the market, they are in the same range with respect to pricing."

"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."

"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."

"We have a yearly license because we have a huge environment, so we need to upgrade regularly. We do it annually because quarterly updates would overwhelm the staff. Cisco was doing it at half-year intervals."

"The solution is relatively cost-effective compared to alternatives."

"The price fits the needs of our clients and it is adjustable by Defender."

"All the consulting and deployment charges are included in the product's licenses. There are no additional costs."

"I would not say that the product is cheaply priced. If I consider the long-term value for the service I receive, the price of the product is excellent."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is affordable. However, lowering the price would be good for the end-users. The cost of the solution was approximately $800 per year. There are some additional features you can add in addition to the regular features."

"The solution is neither cheap nor expensive."

"The solution requires an annual license but the cost is reasonable in comparison to competitors in the same category."

More Fortinet FortiGate Cloud pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

51%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Legal Firm

Computer Software Company

20%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

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 do you like most about Fortinet FortiGate Cloud?

Fortinet FortiGate Cloud has valuable firewall, SSL VPN, and web filtering features.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiGate Cloud?

The pricing of Fortinet FortiGate is very competitive when compared to other industry-leading products such as Palo Alto and Cisco devices.

What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiGate Cloud?

There are some areas that need improvement regarding customer support. Fortinet could enhance their customer service by offering more direct remote sessions to resolve issues, as relying solely on ...

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Product Reports

Cisco Defense Orchestrator

Download Cisco Defense Orchestrator product report

Fortinet FortiGate Cloud

Download Fortinet FortiGate Cloud product report

Also Known As

CDO

FortiCloud, FortiGate Cloud

Interactive Demo

Cisco

Demo not available

Fortinet

Overview

Cisco Defense Orchestrator (CDO) is a cloud-based management solution designed to ensure streamlined and consistent security policies across the Cisco security portfolio. Specifically tailored to manage all Cisco Secure Firewall form factors (running either ASA or Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) software), CDO offers real-time visibility and troubleshooting capabilities, effectively enhancing overall network security.

CDO addresses the challenges of migration, supporting transitions from on-premises to cloud environments and facilitating the shift from ASA to FTD configurations. As organizations embark on their cloud adoption journey, CDO simplifies provisioning workflows for remote branches, reduces operational expenditures related to inventory management, and offers scalability for multi-cloud deployments.

Cisco

FortiCloud can help with your wireless and security challenges in a number of ways. Our solution addresses common IT difficulties including time-consuming provisioning, high investment costs, complex management, vulnerability to advanced threats, and the need to easily scale with growth.

Fortinet

Sample Customers

Insurance Company of British Columbia, Shawmut

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data

Cisco Defense Orchestrator vs. Fortinet FortiGate Cloud