I use Fortinet FortiADC for load balancing for different data centers.
Full support analyst at Gruppen
A stable solution with good SD-WAN and security capabilities and a good load balance with DNS intelligence
Pros and Cons
- "I like the solution's load balance with DNS intelligence."
- "The configuration is relatively complex."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
My experience with Fortinet has been very positive. It provides a great layer when it comes to SD-WAN and other security capabilities. It offers many models for a host of environments.
I like the solution's load balance with DNS intelligence.
What needs improvement?
The price of the product is problematic.
The configuration is relatively complex.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
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Fortinet FortiADC
November 2024
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How are customer service and support?
I have had no need for customer support.
How was the initial setup?
The solution has a relatively complex setup.
What about the implementation team?
We used resellers for the deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution could be more cost-effective.
What other advice do I have?
The solution is deployed both on-cloud and on-premises.
I rate Fortinet FortiADC as an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Technical Director at AXIOBASE
Easy to manage, stable, easy to configure, and has good support
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the SSL offloading capacity."
- "The initial setup could be simplified."
What is our primary use case?
I am an IT integrator and we sell ADC, mainly Fortinet FortiADC.
In our last project, we used Fortinet FortiADC for load balancing some specific applications for telecom.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the SSL offloading capacity.
It is easy to manage and easy to configure.
What needs improvement?
The initial setup could be simplified.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
They have different appliances to cover low performance, less performance, and big-box data that supports large capacities.
With our customers, we have 200,000 end-users.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support for me is okay and I don't have any problems with them. I have no complaints.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was not complex, but it was not simple either.
These types of machines have complexity, but with a good engineering team, it is much easier to do the jobs.
We have a team of two to deploy and maintain this solution.
The design, installation, and configuration took one week.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Fortinet FortiADC a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiADC
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiADC. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,660 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Tech Writer
Helps provide workload distribution to the servers, but L7 Persistent load-balancing not working for me
Pros and Cons
- "Because ADC is the intermediary between the servers and the end-user application, it gives thorough information about the traffic, what the problem is."
- "The L7 Persistent load-balancing algorithm has not worked for me after having tested it many times with my customer's in-house application. I'd like to suggest that the company make sure that all load-balancing algorithms work properly with most applications, even those that are in-house apps."
- "Setup could be easier. The company's homework is to redesign those menus to configure with the smallest number of steps."
What is our primary use case?
The situation is a seminar session for about 250 users who need access to a BI server through their client in-house application. It's look like this:
Five Servers -> FortiADC -> FortiWLC-> Meru Wireless
How has it helped my organization?
Even though FortiADC is not completely working for me, overall it helps me provide workload distribution to the servers, as expected.
What is most valuable?
Of course the troubleshooting tools. I think the troubleshooting command is easy and useful. Because ADC is the intermediary between the servers and the end-user application, it gives thorough information about the traffic, what the problem is.
What needs improvement?
The L7 Persistent load-balancing algorithm has not worked for me after having tested it many times with my customer's in-house application. I'd like to suggest that the company make sure that all load-balancing algorithms work properly with most applications, even those that are in-house apps, because this is the main requirement of ADC.
After I created a virtual server, the servers are still reachable from the client side by a Ping command. That did not happen with F5. I have to work around it
by setting up a traffic policy.
I did not test the SSL decryption feature but it's an essential point that FortiADC ensure they can support all the newest encryption methods and always be up to date.
For how long have I used the solution?
Trial/evaluations only.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No issues with scalability.
How is customer service and technical support?
I have not engaged ADC support.
How was the initial setup?
I think they can make it easier. The company's homework is to redesign those menus to configure with the smallest number of steps.
What other advice do I have?
If FortiADC wants to compete - and having used F5 LTM for a year - in my opinion:
- They should make the Knowledge Base easier to access. They need a "cookbook" like Fortigate. They should modernize their web community appearance.
- From my experience with the F5 support team, it is quite easy to access and very fast to respond. I was very impressed with them, compared to other vendors.
- They need to provide a longer test license (30-45 makes sense, not 15 days which is what they offer currently). Have your partner manage the test
license. With F5, for example, I can manage the license through the web with a few clicks to select product - done. - They should go advanced by providing a set of APIs to customize for specific requirements.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Supervisor at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
User-friendly interface makes it simple to use and the technical support is excellent
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is its simplicity."
- "It would be good if they built in a fully functional web application firewall."
What is our primary use case?
We use this product for application delivery control and global load balancing.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is its simplicity.
The interface is user-friendly.
What needs improvement?
It would be good if they built in a fully functional web application firewall.
They should update this product more often.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using FortiADC for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
FortiADC has been pretty stable and reliable for us.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have a fixed integration so scalability is not relevant for us.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is excellent and we have no issues with them. You can call them from the device itself, after which they come online and they are pretty good.
How was the initial setup?
We had some complexity when it came to the initial setup, although I think that it was because of us, rather than the product. It took us a total of five days before we went online, which included setup and testing. This involved connecting to our backend networks, creating the VLANs, and so forth.
Overall, it was not difficult and the vendor gave us great support.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated application delivery controllers and global load balancers from other vendors before choosing FortiADC.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, this is a good product, it does what it's supposed to, and I would recommend it to anybody. My main complaint is that the WAP functionality is very primitive.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Operations Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Global Server Load Balancing scales applications across multiple datacenters
Pros and Cons
- "The main feature that we use is GSLB (Global Server Load Balancing). GSLB makes the customer's network more reliable by scaling applications across multiple datacenters. GSLB as a disaster recovery solution can direct traffic based on site availability."
- "I think it would be helpful if Fortinet put more video examples on their cookbook site."
What is our primary use case?
We use FortiADC as a disaster recovery solution. We deploy FortiADC as a high-availability (HA) cluster at the datacenter, and as a standalone unit at the DRC.
How has it helped my organization?
FortiADC helps application availability and improves user-response time. In addition, the price is competitive.
What is most valuable?
The main feature that we use is GSLB (Global Server Load Balancing). GSLB makes the customer's network more reliable by scaling applications across multiple datacenters. GSLB as a disaster recovery solution can direct traffic based on site availability.
What needs improvement?
I think it would be helpful if Fortinet put more video examples on their cookbook site.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The system is quite stable so far.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Security Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Simple to use and easy to integrate; we had issues with SSL and encrypted traffic
Pros and Cons
- "Simple to use and easy to integrate."
- "Issues with SSL and encrypted traffic."
What is most valuable?
I like all the products in the Fortinet family, they are simple to use and you can integrate a virtual server in a couple of minutes. If you have the topology, if you have the network, you can make a virtual server batch in a couple of minutes. It uses the same FortiOS regardless of the product.
What needs improvement?
The product needs more development because it has issues with SSL traffic and encrypted traffic. It's been a little while since I used it and maybe things have improved but with Fortinet you can use a lot of features near the load balancing mechanism.
Fortinet decided to cut the product into two pieces, because FortiWeb has a lot of security features, but FortiADC has a load balancing mechanism. Customers need a fast solution with a load balancing solution and a web application firewall. If you are using FortiWeb, you can use FortiGuard Intelligence Service. But in the FortiADC, it has more load balancing features, but it lacks security features.
For how long have I used the solution?
I used this solution for one year.
What other advice do I have?
In comparison to its competitors, I rate this solution a five out of 10.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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