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

"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."

"If we have a firewall go down, I can hop into CDO, pull the latest configuration off and apply it. That's really good. It helps save time."

"The ability to do operations on multiple firewalls at once is valuable because it saves time and mental effort. The solution's ability to make bulk changes makes it very convenient to manage things at once on multiple targets."

"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."

"The most valuable feature is the Intrusion prevention."

"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."

"I like the upgrade feature. That is pretty valuable to me because I have dual ASAs and when I go through CDO it does it for me pretty well. It's all done in the back-end and I don't really have to be involved. I just initiate, pick the image, and I pick when I want it done and it just does it, whether I have a single ASA or have a dual ASA."

More Cisco Defense Orchestrator pros

"Our customers implement this solution so that they can be assured of security in their environment."

"You can control the solution anywhere from the cloud."

"It's easy to use."

"The solution responds more quickly to attacks or issues in the field."

"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."

"It's user-friendly."

"It covers all needs of our customers and works well. It is also easy to deploy and troubleshoot."

"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

"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."

"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."

"It should have more features to manage FirePOWER appliances."

"The dashboard needs to be more customizable to provide better reporting for our network."

"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."

"CDO doesn't have a report, an official report that I can check daily. It has another module called FTD, but it doesn't have that specifically for ASA. In the reporting, there are a lot of things that aren't there. There is also room for improvement in the daily monitoring."

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

"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."

More Cisco Defense Orchestrator cons

"Some configuration changes would be helpful."

"Everything related to the graphical user interface should be improved."

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

"There are some areas that need improvement regarding customer support."

"If you need to scale, you do need to trade up to a new Fortinet solution."

"Fortinet needs to improve the FortiGate Cloud dashboards that provide information about logs. This type of solution presents a lot of technical complexity from a management standpoint, making it somewhat difficult to understand."

"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."

"We need some integration or communication between the endpoint and the firewall."

More Fortinet FortiGate Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"It's around £500 per unit for a three-year license."

"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 is covered under the CIsco Enterprise License Agreement (ELA). So, it is licensed and ours."

"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."

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

"Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is cheaper than VMware and Cisco in the Bangladeshi market. Its pricing is reasonable."

"Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is a cost-effective solution. I rate its pricing a six out of ten. Pricing depends on the firewall model. If the firewall model's pricing is high, the solution's pricing also increases."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is reasonable when compared to Juniper and others, we are happy. We have a three-year subscription."

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

"When comparing this solution to others it is less expensive and there is an annual license required."

"The price of the product is approximately 10,000 Qatar Riyal ($2,750 USD), and another 10,000 Qatar Riyal for a three-year license."

"I rate the product pricing as seven out of ten."

"Every year, the product's prices go up and it has been continuing since the past three years. I have seen that the feedback related to the product from our department is that there is always a need for new devices without which there would be no security."

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