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Mikko Mäki-Valkama - PeerSpot reviewer
System Specialist at Databros
Reseller
Top 5
Easy to get reports and read specific logs
Pros and Cons
  • "With Fortinet FortiAnalyzer, it is easy to get reports and read specific logs."
  • "Fortinet has a new bug every month, which needs to be improved."

What is our primary use case?

Our clients use Fortinet FortiAnalyzer to analyze and locate the traffic in their network. Since it's a big customer, they have both Fortinet FortiAnalyzer and Fortinet FortiManager.

What is most valuable?

With Fortinet FortiAnalyzer, it is easy to get reports and read specific logs. It provides fast log analysis for getting information. The solution helps locate if a destination is blocked or a machine communicates with the right port or server. Basic debugging can be done quickly using Fortinet FortiAnalyzer.

What needs improvement?

Fortinet has a new bug every month, which needs to be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Fortinet FortiAnalyzer for four years.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is a really stable solution and does not have any bugs.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is a scalable solution.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have previously used the Kibana tool.

How was the initial setup?

The solution's initial setup is easy because it's a virtual machine. You have to upgrade it once every two to three years, which is a slow process. However, there aren't many features that need to be updated because the product is good.

What was our ROI?

The solution has been in our organization before I joined. Based on that, I have to say it's a good investment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is quite an expensive tool.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

Users should never upgrade to the newest firmware. In the last decade, we have learned to always wait and see. Fortinet has had some bad releases. You must have good quality assurance that the product is bug-free. It is easy to maintain the solution.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
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Alberto Vallesa - PeerSpot reviewer
Team Lead Manager at Wizlynx
MSP
Top 10
We can collect all gateway information and logs in one location, but it is difficult to modify rules
Pros and Cons
  • "The ability to gather all gateway information and logs in a single location is the most valuable feature."
  • "I don't find Fortinet FortiAnalyzer to be as robust as Check Point Security Management."

What is our primary use case?

I utilize Fortinet FortiAnalyzer to gather various logs from FortiGate, enabling me to conduct specific investigations in particular cases.

What is most valuable?

The ability to gather all gateway information and logs in a single location is the most valuable feature.

What needs improvement?

I don't find Fortinet FortiAnalyzer to be as robust as Check Point Security Management. However, this perception might be attributed to my limited familiarity with Fortinet FortiAnalyzer. For instance, with Check Point, I can easily make modifications to rules such as identifying issues, making corrections, or adding new features. This includes creating exceptions or adding elements to the current rule set.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Fortinet FortiAnalyzer for four months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In our current environment, Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I am currently utilizing the cloud version of Fortinet FortiAnalyzer, and the scalability it offers is exceptional. Unlike the on-premises version, I have not encountered any issues.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. The deployment takes a few minutes and the configuration is easy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I would rate FortiAnalyzer's price a seven out of ten, with ten being the most expensive.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Fortinet FortiAnalyzer a seven out of ten.

We are paying for vendor maintenance support, and so far, the maintenance has been minimal.

I recommend completing training before utilizing Fortinet FortiAnalyzer. I was suddenly tasked with using the solution when my organization decided to change technologies, and it was initially challenging to understand how it operates.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Fortinet FortiAnalyzer
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Fortinet FortiAnalyzer. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Moises Castillo - PeerSpot reviewer
Technological Infrastructure Coordinator at IEST
Real User
Easy to configure and integrate with a straightforward setup
Pros and Cons
  • "Support is helpful."
  • "We are concerned about the compliance of our policy and institutional philosophy."

What is our primary use case?

The product is for reporting about the use or detecting some issues or activities.

What is most valuable?

The ability to track the activities of our users and some topics about security risks are the most valuable aspects.

It's simple to use.

It is not hard to set up.

The configuration is easy.

It offers good integration capabilities.

Support is helpful.

There is a lot of great documentation to be found online. 

What needs improvement?

We are concerned about the compliance of our policy and institutional philosophy. We are a university and provide the tool to the users and to the infrastructure for the right use.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for six years. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have around 2,000 users.

How are customer service and support?

Support is good. We also use the documentation online and find help via some tutorials on the internet.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very simple. 

The deployment took about six months. 

What about the implementation team?

We deployed it via our team, however, we used an external consultant from the reseller.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We pay a standard licensing fee on a yearly basis. 

The pricing is complex since we need to add some other products or tools to assure our infrastructure, then the amount of every one of the items of software otherwise the solution is expensive in the end.

What other advice do I have?

We are a customer and end-user.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Zsolt Zalka - PeerSpot reviewer
Corporate IT Manager at PRopex Furnishing Solutions
Real User
Stable log management support system that offers a centralized view of incident reports
Pros and Cons
  • "This solution offers one view of incident management which has been the most valuable feature."
  • "When using this solution, you need a high-level expert to make it work as it should."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution to centralize the monitoring on Forti Fabrics. We monitor all firewalls and use this solution for incident management.

What is most valuable?

This solution offers one view of incident management which has been the most valuable feature. 

What needs improvement?

When using this solution, you need a high-level expert to make it work as it should. We hired IT support who had knowledge of the network and firewall. For the initial step, you need a Forti expert. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We have used this solution for one year. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a stable solution. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is a scalable solution. 

How are customer service and support?

We have a support expert who contacts Forti when we have a problem. If we come across a bug, we need to involve Forti and open a ticket for support.

How was the initial setup?

We hired a consultant to complete the setup as it is not straightforward and requires an expert. The setup took a few days. Four IT staff look after maintenance of this solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The enterprise version of this solution is costly. We have considered FortiAuthenticator for network control, but the pricing was focused on the larger companies and didn't suit our needs as a smaller business.

The pricing for this solution is on an annual basis. Databases, a virus scanner, and intrusion detection is included.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We have previously looked into Sophos UTM and Palo Alto.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2255289 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Notifications and alerts are helpful, and it is a natural choice for Fortinet security devices
Pros and Cons
  • "Special notifications about compromised phones are valuable because we have some guest networks, and sometimes, people are connecting phones that are connected to compromised websites. We want to be informed about it. We sometimes have some cases where we want to analyze the connection from inside to outside ports. So, it helps with a lot of things. It depends on our needs."
  • "The interface or GUI does not work properly on Microsoft Edge. The behavior or the view is different on Microsoft Edge versus on Chrome or Firefox. When some buttons do not work, I am forced to switch to Firefox."

What is our primary use case?

We take all the logs from FortiGate. 

We have it deployed on-premises, and we are definitely using its latest version because we are creating a new virtual machine.

What is most valuable?

Special notifications about compromised phones are valuable because we have some guest networks, and sometimes, people are connecting phones that are connected to compromised websites. We want to be informed about it. We sometimes have some cases where we want to analyze the connection from inside to outside ports. So, it helps with a lot of things. It depends on our needs.

What needs improvement?

The interface or GUI does not work properly on Microsoft Edge. The behavior or the view is different on Microsoft Edge versus on Chrome or Firefox. When some buttons do not work, I am forced to switch to Firefox.

There could be better analysis from the client's perspective. If you have FortiClient EMS, you should be able to analyze users more than the connections.

For how long have I used the solution?

We started using Fortinet FortiAnalyzer this year. It was bought by our main company in the Netherlands.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is now stable, but our previous instance was unstable. We had problems with connectivity. It was strange because it is a virtual machine, and it was on the same hypervisor or host, but only Fortinet FortiAnalyzer had connectivity problems. The connection was dropped, and it was not always possible to log in. We moved it to a different environment. We have now moved it to a Hyper-V cluster on a different site in Poland, and it is now stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. We could change the size. It was easy.

We have mainly two people working with Fortinet FortiAnalyzer. My colleague and I from the Netherlands work on it. All IT departments also can access it. In total, we have five or six users, but mainly, two of us work on it.

How are customer service and support?

I use their technical support when I have problems. They solve my problems, but sometimes, they take time because it is difficult to understand each other. I prefer a phone call over the email or ticket system because we can share more information in a short time. I would rate them a nine out of ten. They sometimes do not have a fast solution, but they always resolve an issue in the end.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I did not work on any similar product previously.

How was the initial setup?

It was easy to deploy. It took one hour.

What about the implementation team?

We deployed it ourselves. We know the product. We know how to register devices and how to join devices. It was easy. We used our knowledge.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I do not know the price of Fortinet FortiAnalyzer. I did not pay for it, but I know the price of other Fortinet products. They are not cheap. I am from Poland. We have Zloty, not Euro, so for us, everything is expensive. 

I had also tried to buy it in the past, but it was too expensive.

What other advice do I have?

If you have FortiGate and FortiClient EMS, FortiAnalyzer is a natural choice. You can have notifications and alerts. Some things are automatically done by FortiAnalyzer. From a security perspective, it is a very good product.

Overall, we are satisfied with it. I would rate Fortinet FortiAnalyzer an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
MOHAN RAUT - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Architect at NTT Global Networks Incorporated
MSP
Top 10
Stable, but the initial setup is complex
Pros and Cons
  • "The analyzer is the most valuable feature."
  • "The deployment is complex and has room for improvement."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for log analysis.

What is most valuable?

The analyzer is the most valuable feature.

What needs improvement?

The deployment is complex and has room for improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is complex. The deployment took a few hours.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was completed with an integrator.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We pay for an annual license.

What other advice do I have?

I give the solution a six out of ten.

I do not recommend the solution.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Solutions Consultant at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Easy to deploy, stable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of the solution is reporting."
  • "The solution can improve the incident response function to provide more detailed information on where the incident is originating."

What is our primary use case?

The customer purchased a Fortinet Firewall in order to run it as a decentralized block and collect amazing security logs from their internet usage or other data from the box. The benefit of having an on-premise firewall is that they don't have to worry about any subscription, and the storage space it consumes is minimal due to the internal hard drive of the FortiAnalyzer. Furthermore, the firewall does not consume a lot of traffic from the internet due to it being on-premise.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of the solution is reporting. The report that accompanies the solution includes the top 10 usages, threats to be aware of, and any highlights. Additionally, the API can be connected to other systems to receive more notifications.

What needs improvement?

The solution can improve the incident response function to provide more detailed information on where the incident is originating.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for three months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable and we have never experienced downtime.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I give the scalability of the solution an eight out of ten.

This solution is suitable for enterprise customers with a large number of devices and logs. Fortinet FortiAnalyzer enables the compilation of log files over a period of time, such as 90 days in Thailand. This is especially useful for gathering and analyzing data.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is simple. Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is an out-of-the-box solution, so we can start customizing as soon as we finish the installation.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I give the cost a seven out of ten. I believe that Fortinet is a cost-effective brand, making it a competitive option in terms of pricing.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

An alternative solution is SolarWinds, which analyzes server performance, and could be a competitor's CM solution or a managed service that sends data from sensors on the site to their facility. The primary distinguishing feature of SolarWinds is its form factor. SolarWinds must be installed on a server and requires server resources. In the past, a large amount of OS and other resources were necessary, but the form factor has remained the same.

What other advice do I have?

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

Due to the high cost, Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is not feasible to use for certain office or branch office environments. A possible compromise could be to use a combination of two solutions: for banks, the file-based solution may be beneficial, but for on-premises locations, it could be worthwhile to make use of the existing value and use it to centrally control and manage the data.

I recommend utilizing the FortiAnalyzer if our log volume is sufficient and we have a FortiGate.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer930837 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager (Engineering Department) at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Real User
User-friendly, easy to deploy and simple to create reports
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is quite easy to deploy."
  • "The solution should be more price competitive."

How has it helped my organization?

The clients using this solution have wifi for their guests and for their own users. They want to know which user has used their wifi to access the internet, and probably use this knowledge for a kind of security management purpose.

What is most valuable?

The solution is quite easy to deploy. For the user, they don't need to have a lot of technical know-how. It is easy to generate the report for review by the management.

The solution is stable and reliable.

We have not faced any scalability issues.

What needs improvement?

The solution should be more price competitive.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for one or two years. I used it on a recent project.

However, the first time I used this product was in 2006 for our own infrastructure. We are not using it in our infrastructure anymore.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. The performance is reliable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In terms of scalability, it really depends. For our customer, the SME customer, not that many people need it. If you talk about scalability around analysis, related to the hub and space, the hub disk size, and the capacity of the box, for the on-prem model, we need to choose it with some buffer. We can't foresee any scalability issue for that customer. 

We only have one client on the solution. 

How are customer service and support?

While I haven't directly dealt with technical support, I have not heard any complaints from my colleagues that may have. I would say that the support has been satisfactory for the moment.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. That said, I didn't handle it directly. We had an internal team that did the implementation. 

Most of the time, one engineer is sufficient for a small deployment, just two AP, one firewall, and one analyzer.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation work was done by my engineers. We did not need any outside assistance from any integrators or consultants. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I can't remember if they have a new license for software maintenance. They have maintenance that is charged annually. Unlike a firewall, they have a UTM license you need to pay annually and then only an annual maintenance cost for the hardware, for FortiAnalyzer.

I'm not sure what the exact price is at the moment. However, my understanding is the pricing could be better.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend the solution to others. We have been happy with its overall capabilities. I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiAnalyzer Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: January 2025
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Fortinet FortiAnalyzer Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.