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FireMon Security Manager vs Fortinet FortiGate Cloud 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

FireMon Security Manager
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
56
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
75
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Firewall Security Management category, the mindshare of FireMon Security Manager is 16.4%, up from 16.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is 5.4%, up from 5.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewall Security Management
 

Featured Reviews

Ganesh-Khutwad - PeerSpot reviewer
Rapid policy insights with robust dashboards and cross-vendor automation
FireMon Security Manager is excellent for real-time compliance management. It allows us to quickly retrieve any policy needed for testing and easily analyze it for loopholes. If a loophole exists, FireMon provides comprehensive details within the policy manager. It alerts us to firewall rule additions or changes that violate compliance policies. It supports various firewall platforms, including Checkpoint, Zscaler, Fortinet, Cisco, and AWS, and provides centralized management for all configured policies through a single console. FireMon Security Manager provides many features, like whether my firewall is compatible with required standards such as NTP and SNMP. Each compliance included in our RFPs is shown in the UI of FireMon. It gives robust and clear dashboards, making it easier to understand risks because the policies have ratings showing usage, and the number of hit attacks. It streamlines our compliance reporting processes by providing comprehensive risk and compliance assessments. It offers a range of features, including verification of firewall compatibility with protocols like NTP and SNMP, and detection of signal charges. FireMon effectively addresses all compliance requirements outlined in our RFPs. For instance, it can determine if firewalls or proxies within a stack are configured in Secure Mode or Active-Active mode. FireMon Security Manager enables us to generate reports on all these aspects, ensuring thorough compliance monitoring and documentation. FireMon Security Manager is robust and can help automate firewall policy changes across large multi-vendor enterprise environments. FireMon Security Manager helps automate firewall policy changes across various environments, including on-premises, cloud, hybrid, SASE, and SD-WAN. It also simplifies cleaning up firewall rules in our environment. The time required to accurately create, approve, and deploy firewall policy rules has been reduced. Tasks that took 30 minutes can now be completed in just five minutes using FireMon. FireMon provides immediate visibility into our policies through a robust and clear dashboard, making it easy to identify errors or misconfigurations based on the policy rating.
IgnitiusMolepo - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Overall, I would rate this solution a nine out of ten."
"I like the Security Manager console where we can see any changes that have been made or pull the results of an assessment and control the policies that we implement."
"The Security Manager part of FireMon... gives me an eye on everything that's out there, everything that I cannot see. Because I'm not a network admin, I cannot go to a firewall itself, but at least I have FireMon so that I can go in and view everything that I want to view. And I can eliminate whatever I see that is wrong,"
"For the cleanup of firewall rules, it performs really well for us. We utilize it in our regular rule cleanup tasks, several times a year. FireMon is our primary tool when doing that, either by going through its out-of-the-box compliance rules or using it to search for certain things in our rules that we want to prune from our firewalls."
"The most valuable feature is that everything is recorded in the historical logs, including the firewall rules, headcounts, object-level usage, and the rule documentation. The rule certification details are also there, which means that someone can be held accountable for a specific firewall rule."
"It provides us with a single pane of glass for our on-prem environment, to see configuration. We have not implemented into the cloud yet. We can search for an object group and see where it lives on any firewall in the enterprise or find security rules, no matter what firewall they're on."
"Policy test, access path analysis, and change reports."
"I've been using the reports to see what is going on, and that is a helpful feature. We can track down unused rules, which helps with compliance. We can see rules that have not been used or that are duplicates or overly permissive."
"The main advantage of FortiGate Cloud is its reliability, scalability, and pricing."
"It’s easy to implement."
"Fortinet FortiGate Cloud has good pricing compared to other firewall and security products."
"The functionality of the solution is excellent."
"I have found centralized administration, cloud UI, and visibility and security on all networks valuable features."
"The solution offers good network performance and efficiency."
"The ability to manage everything from the cloud is going to be the most valuable by far with this solution."
"The tool is a mature product, ahead of brands like Sophos, though not quite at the Palo Alto or Checkpoint level. I'd rate it nine out of ten for being cost-effective and offering features similar to high-end options."
 

Cons

"The support response time has room for improvement."
"The training for configuring new users or operators is confusing because the UI is not user-friendly and has room for improvement."
"We're working on implementing FireMon with our ticketing system service now. Having that would be an improvement."
"When it comes to documentation, they need to start putting together a basic command manual. With Cisco, you can look up a command and it gives you examples of three or four different ways that command can be used. It tells you how to put it into the GUI and the CLI. FireMon does need to start doing that."
"Its reporting can be improved. I am the only one who works a lot with it, and I am having problems in terms of reporting. In the case of Palo Alto, I'm okay with it, but with some of the Cisco devices, such as routers, when I provide the reports to other teams for review, they always say that the hit count is incorrect. So, I was struggling for a long time to work with them. When working with other teams, they have a lot of questions about reporting, such as how it reports, and we are still struggling with that."
"To my knowledge, there's no cloud component to FireMon whatsoever. We're on the hook for any updates to versioning of the operating system or the application that runs on the operating system. It would be nice if it was a little bit more automated."
"The advanced features are complex in setting up the rules."
"One area for 7.x customers that needs improvement is the migration. It is an involved process so get ready to spend some time getting your environment back to the way it was."
"There is room for improvement in the VPN connection."
"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."
"Reporting is an area that can be enhanced."
"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."
"When it comes to technical support, the problem we have found is that if an issue comes, it takes a day to get everything resolved. It could be faster. They can be better at optimizing how they answer tickets in terms of response times. There must be ways to make the process more streamlined. It would make it easier for their 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."
"The console or demonstration tool could be more user friendly."
"We need some integration or communication between the endpoint and the firewall."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Relative to what it offers, the price is fair."
"It's a good value. From a licensing standpoint... it's very simple to understand, and gives us a good bang for the buck."
"The pricing is very good, very straightforward. It also came in cheaper than AlgoSec and Tufin."
"Pricing is reasonable."
"The pricing was very good during our initial year, but they increased it this year a little bit. The price is okay. It is not cheap, but it is still average."
"We pay for it yearly."
"FireMon is cheaper than AlgoSec."
"Its pricing is good. Compared to others, it is not so expensive."
"The solution is mid-priced when compared to other products."
"As with us, our customers need not pay for a license. One brings one's own."
"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."
"The price of FortiGate Cloud is generally cheaper than other similar products."
"The costs are reasonable."
"Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is cheaper than VMware and Cisco in the Bangladeshi market. Its pricing is reasonable."
"The solution is relatively cost-effective compared to alternatives."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
Computer Software Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about FireMon?
I like the Security Manager console where we can see any changes that have been made or pull the results of an assessment and control the policies that we implement.
What needs improvement with FireMon?
Although configuration is not the most difficult aspect of FireMon, a basic understanding of cloud computing and firewall principles is necessary for successful implementation. Therefore, simplifyi...
What is your primary use case for FireMon?
FireMon Security Manager is a highly intelligent and useful device that consolidates all our security policies, including those for Zscaler proxies, into a single console. This centralized view eli...
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 ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
FortiCloud, FortiGate Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Convey, MGM Resorts International, Southwest Airlines, Alkami, Costco, Aetna, IBM, Verizon, Wells Fargo
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about FireMon Security Manager vs. Fortinet FortiGate Cloud and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,640 professionals have used our research since 2012.