Fortinet FortiGate Cloud Reviews

SD-WAN tunneling is the primary function of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud. It is also used for filtering or browsing, as well as application filtering and blocking of all unwanted applications, viruses, and malware, which is the main goal.

The SD-WAN tunneling is the most valuable. Everything is valuable, especially the SD-WAN tunneling, filtering of email, application, and browsing. Everything has value.

This Fortinet equipment meets our requirements. They offer what we wanted.

The most recent version of others is not yet complete. For the time being, we are content because it is a significant help to us. Durability is something that can be improved.

It is currently durable, but they may be able to improve it further. They can adapt Cisco technology because of its durability.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate Cloud for seven years.

We are working with versions 100D and 60E.

Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is reliable. It's been seven years, and everything has been good.

Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is a scalable solution.

It is being used extensively. It is running 24/7.

We intend to implement and upgrade another model in order to meet a new requirement.

Technical support is very helpful. Support is not a problem because Fortinet is user-friendly to manage, even my technical team can handle it.

On our end, setting up Fortinet FortiGate was easy. It was not complex.

You can deploy the firewall in an hour without difficult requirements. You can set up the firewall in an hour. It's plug-and-play, ready to use.

We collaborated with a vendor in the first deployment, but we handled the subsequent deployment ourselves. Even though we dealt with the first deployment, we contracted for support just in case, but for the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth deployments we did not require vendors.

The cost of equipment and its renewal is valuable. Unlike other firewalls, the cost of Fortinet FortiGate is low, and the functionality is nearly identical, which is why we chose it.

Then there's the cost, which we compared to Palo Alto, Cisco equipment, and others, and we were impressed with the cost, the cost of the renewal, and the cost of the equipment.

The solution is cloud-based. Trend Micro Incorporated is the service provider.

If you are looking for a low-cost security appliance with web filtering, application filtering, and SD-WAN tunneling, I would recommend Fortinet FortiGate Cloud. It's not expensive, and it meets the most basic requirements.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate Cloud a nine out of ten.

Most of the use cases for the solution are as point products for remote sites coming back to a central hub where the gateways control the flow back into the outward sites, kind of a spoke and hub thing. There are multiple sites that are large enough to support small offshoots, and then it comes back. So you might think of it as four or five small data centers coming into two or three big data centers.

An example of how the solution has improved the organization for my client was when they had a mixed environment previously where they had Cisco and COBOL; it was ancient. What they were able to do is standardize for our product, which made their teams more efficient. When you're leveraging a fairly small backend support system, having the ability to have a robust, remote management capability and update capability, and the ability to spare and put another one in pretty quickly, those things are really important and to standardize on it. So that's what they've done. They use the old Meru wireless access points, which plug into Fortinet up until just recently.

It's a pretty robust product. Features we've found most valuable are that it's easy to manage with the management interface, it's really simple and quick. When you've got a lot of them deployed, it's a big deal. The user experience is pretty good. The efficiency and the workflow type of arrangements you can set up where you can monitor and manage remotely, and then push out updates and that kind of thing, is a big deal to my clients. Most of them are self-managed, meaning that we don't manage the solution for them. They've got their own reasons for liking it, but when I talk to them, those are the two big ones. They're easy to manage, they're easy to deploy, they rarely break.

The area of the solution that needs the most improvement, the biggest problem, is they're still trying to digest that Meru acquisition. They're starting to sundown products that have been, at least in my clients, have been pretty established. It's causing some disconnect between where their business is going, and how that vision is being imparted to the people. And there's really no plan for replacement other than rip and replace. They could improve by going to either the resellers or the client, and say, "Hey, these things have to go away because they're not going to be part of our future plans. This is how we're going to help you do it." Then show them how to do it.

I've been working with the solution for fifteen years.

The solution is very stable. Other than changes being driven by the acquisition, very stable.

The solution is scalable because they have models that they do to allow it to be right-sized. They've got plenty of models, and the really, really big arm has capabilities up to 400GB, I think. It certainly could handle any client that you see, from small to enterprise.

I have clients that range from 50 users up to 16,000 on this product.

The technical support has been pretty good. Considering COVID and all the dispersal of support resources; I deal with that with all of my partners. They're probably in the top 10%. They've kept it pretty consistent.

The initial setup is largely simple. The time it takes depends on the size of the site. The way we standardized the process for ordering is that we order the same things for every site. Same thing for every size site, and I think we have four that we typically use plus the big hospitals. Basically, there are five levels, and we order the level that's appropriate. We order any wireless that's appropriate, and then we have a standardized set up for that, for the three wireless types of service that serve our clients. Then, because they have one that's dedicated, one that's dedicated but not managed, and then one that's dirty and everybody can get onto it, because they're a hospital, and they need access. The management for the actual individual firewalls is set, and we basically copy that into each one, as we take it out. So it has a consistent setup at every single site.

For the deployment to our large clients, there are usually at least a half dozen people that do this. When you've got 16,000, you've got probably a hundred, I think there are 167 sites. So you've got to have a team of a half dozen and up. And then, in the smaller and medium clients, one person can manage this.

With regards to return on investment, the qualitative assessment goes back to all of them have noticed that they're more efficient, and they are able to maintain their network security posture more easily and at a lower cost. Now, internally, those are sunk costs when you've got a team of five or six people that are doing everything across a network, or a staff of a hundred, whatever it is. What it does is it frees them up to do something else. So there may not be an ROI that they specifically calculated for Fortinet, but what they do is they sit down and go, "Hey, since we've deployed these because they're so easy to manage, I have time to do something else."

When it comes to licensing, everybody's trying to drive that recurring monthly revenue number, and we're seeing it. The costs are reasonable, and that's the real thing that most customers are looking at. Am I getting value for that dollar; not what the dollar is, but am I getting good value for it?

When considering a solution, clients look at the usual suspects. Cisco is probably the number one, although WatchGuard in this space is very, very popular. And so is Sophos in the small to medium, because they also have gone to an integrated approach for endpoint and firewall management. So there are some similarities there, but clients have chosen FortiGate Fortinet for the reason that they're comfortable mainly with the interface. It's easier than the other ones.

The solution has started to move into things like security cameras, having an all-in-one point of security contact; they've got cameras and SD-WAN and next-generation firewalls. And they've got a large portfolio now, so we're seeing more people, especially in the small and medium-size move to something like this. In the bigger clients, what we see them doing is looking at mainly having the add-on of being able to manage the wireless through the same point of management.

My advice to customers considering FortiGate is to look at the breadth of the offering rather than a specific product. The breadth of the offering, meaning that you can do switching, you can do wireless, you can do the security cameras, you can do SD-WAN, you can do 5G. You can do it on-prem, you can do it in the cloud. There are lots of different options here that give you the flexibility to deliver a security posture you feel comfortable with across on-prem and cloud-based management. There's some AI in it now that's starting to give you some real meaningful data points on security, which are nice to have.

I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

It’s used for security purposes.

It has very good AI intelligence for cybersecurity. Fortinet FortiGate have created a very friendly environment. 

And Fortinet FortiGate effectively starts alerts and detects intruders or viruses. Fortinet FortiGate takes immediate action on viruses like malware or suspicious activities.

The real-time threat intelligence in FortiGate Cloud improves security. The product immediately takes action for the alert in the dashboard. It may alert from the dashboard. We have to take limited action. Many times, the product automatically reduces this, allowing and alerting some intruders’ attacks.

The automated compliance reporting feature is very effective for us and for our clients. 

If I see a ransomware attack, FortiGate immediately takes action and alerts me that it’s a ransomware file or activities.

There is room for improvement in the VPN connection. Compared to other solution, it is harder to connect to the VPN connection in this product. 

It has not been a long time since I started using it. It’s about two or three months. I also worked with tech for FortiGate clients.

I would rate the stability a nine out of ten, with one being low stability and ten being very stable. 

I would rate the scalability a six out of ten, with ten being highly scalable. So, scalability-wise, it could be improved.

I would rate it six out of ten because I don’t have a very good understanding with the software team.

They are not very helpful because of the lack of understanding.

Neutral

I work with Sophos Central, Winforce Security, Sophos Firewall, and FortiGate.

I preferred always FortiGate because many features, the missing in other products.

It’s quite easy for me because, many times, it’s just active. That’s why it’s easy for me.

It takes just a few minutes to deploy it. Five to fifteen minutes. 

I would rate my experience with the initial setup an eight out of ten, with one being difficult installation and ten being easy. It can be difficult for a client to install. 

I’ve had several clients, and I handled the deployment. So, I deploy solutions for other clients.

We are a company, and FortiGate has tried to help us, as well as help the clients and benefited vendors. But it’s different for the clients and the vendors’ selling capability.

The overall ROI varies from client to client, depending on their security needs and budget. Generally, it’s around 5% to 10% savings.

I would rate the price eight out of ten because some clients are very happy with the pricing.

It’s expensive for several clients, but it’s not expensive for others because their main concern is security. When security is a concern, they don’t think about the price because security is very good. There are many features for which we need to pay more.

So, the security features are actually worth the price. That’s why many clients are not worried about a high price.

I want to recommend this because FortiGate Cloud is a secure product.

Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten. 

We primarily use it for management purposes, especially for overseeing over fifty off-site locations. Its main function involves managing analyzers and other aspects of our network infrastructure.

Using the cloud interface for management is much simpler for us compared to individually connecting to each device using a GUI interface. With the cloud, managing servers is significantly more efficient.

Implementing FortiGate Cloud has simplified and enhanced specific scenarios within our organization. For instance, since many of our remote sites share similar configurations, we group them. This allows us to make changes on a single platform and distribute them uniformly across all devices, rather than applying individual policies to each device separately.

The centralized management and porting capabilities of FortiGate Cloud have significantly impacted our workflow by simplifying tasks. With FortiGate Cloud, there's no need to memorize the IP addresses of each firewall device. Instead, you can manage every firewall efficiently through the platform. It has proven to be highly effective for us. We now invest fewer man-hours in device management, enabling us to enhance productivity and efficiency in our work.

FortiGate Cloud has notably enhanced our ability to respond to security threats. For instance, when one device experienced connectivity issues to the Internet, we swiftly resolved the issue thanks to it. It allows us to monitor the addresses and all of the connected users effectively.

The VPN features are the most valuable. It offers enhanced security compared to our previous setup.

Some of the features offered by Fortinet, such as the FortiAnalyzer, are considered more intuitive. However, these additional features often come at an extra cost for companies to utilize. It would be advantageous if it were more cost-effective.

I have been working with it for approximately six months.

I am satisfied with the stability provided, I would rate it nine out of ten.

I would rate its scalability capabilities seven out of ten. We have around a hundred remote workers spread across various cities, with approximately sixty-eight remote firewalls in use. We plan to deploy VoIP in the future and aim to leverage more VoIP capabilities for our remote operations.

So far, I've had no issues with the tech support team I've worked with previously, so I would rate them a nine out of ten.

Positive

We transitioned from using WatchGuard to Fortinet because we required the advanced capabilities of the NexGen firewalls. When comparing the two, I find WatchGuard to be more straightforward due to its traditional approach, while FortiGate offers advanced security features with its NexGen firewall. In terms of scalability, I would rate FortiGate a six compared to WatchGuard's four.

Initially, I would rate the initial setup around a four out of ten. However, as we've become more familiar with the platform, I would now rate it closer to an eight out of ten. There was just a slight learning curve at the beginning.

The deployment took a couple of months, and the entire process was handled in-house. We managed it independently with a team of about five staff members, handling tasks like imaging, installation, and applying new devices to the firewall software. Maintenance duties are now carried out by two network engineers.

The price was more affordable compared to other models and brands we considered. I would rate it seven out of ten.

We also considered other firewall options, such as Palo Alto and Sophos.

Scalability, ease of use, and management simplicity are the most advantageous aspects compared to other solutions we have. However, the absence of certain features like CLI is a drawback. Overall, I would rate it a six out of ten.

We use FortiGate Cloud to protect from ransomware, malware, and viruses. We also use it for identity management and controlling bandwidth allocation to solutions. 

FortiGate Cloud boosts productivity and security because one solution covers all the requirements, features, and management functions. Staff can operate it with less security knowledge, so it decreases the workload of security specialists. Anyone with training on the console can manage access to users and devices based on standardized structural services. 

FortiGate can efficiently manage firewall functionality because it is flexible enough to use with customers who have different types of IT infrastructure and businesses. For example, we have purely production-oriented companies, but some mix production, management, logistics, etc.

It reduces complexity and gives valuable control over any communication paths.

FortiGate helps us reduce operational workloads and standardize security management processes. It streamlines everything, which is helpful for management. 

It provides you visibility into distributed sites. For example, some massive customers have multiple businesses with different requirements. The Fortinet infrastructure is also excellent for integrating on-premise and cloud environments. 

It works for any type of customer. 

Fortinet should simplify the licensing model. It's too complex for decision-makers to choose from the range of options. Handling the pricing models is a nightmare, so it's difficult to sell the solution. 

I have used FortiGate Cloud for eighteen months.

I rate FortiGate Cloud 10 out of 10 for stability. 

I rate FortiGate Cloud 10 out of 10 for scalability. 

Setting up FortiGate Cloud is straightforward and simple if you have experience withcloud environments. The time needed to deploy varies depending on the size of the customer or project, and it takes some preparation. 

FortiGate Cloud is affordable for large enterprises, and smaller companies to e.g. in fields like health care and education. The pricing is transparent once you select the licensing model you want to use, but picking a plan is the issue. 

If your organization is dynamic, you need scalable licensing based on your needs, where you can pay based on usage. Many of the smaller customers require more flexibility. Fortinet could have a more significant market share if its licensing were more flexible. 

I rate Fortinet FortiGate Cloud a nine out of ten. 

I recommend using a trusted infrastructure provider. We recommend United Internet/IONOS in Germany, but other major operators, such as AWS, Azure, etc. It's a cloud security product, so you need a good available infrastructure. Other implementation options are available.

I am the only person in my company who manages all the platforms as a platform engineer.

I use the solution in my company for VPN-related purposes. From the client side, the tool is used as a firewall.

The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a very reliable and stable product in comparison to other solutions in the market. Cisco is also a very stable tool, but one needs some good knowledge to manage the products.

My favorite feature associated with the tool revolves around the area of VPNs. I think because we are using the VPN, it is our favorite feature. The VPN part is very stable. We have not seen any errors in the past six months. Six months ago, we saw one error in the tool, but it was not from our end and was from Fortinet's end, but it was cleared out later.

There is no need for improvements since we have not seen any misconfigurations or any errors from the past six months in the tool.

I think the tool has some limitations when one tries to scale up, making it an area where improvements are required. Someone on our team is managing the scalability of the tool.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate Cloud for a year and a half. I use the tool for a client, and my company acts as an MSP of the product.

The solution's technical support is the best. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.

Positive

Compared to Cisco, Fortinet is a little bit easier to maintain. In Cisco, we know how to use a console, but Fortinet and Cisco both have different commands to manage over a console. Cisco is also providing a GUI, and Fortinet also has a GUI. With a GUI in place, it is very simple to manage the firewall.

In comparison, Fortinet is a little bit cheaper than Cisco, but it is much more expensive than Sophos or a SonicWall firewall.

The product's initial setup phase is a bit complex. If we are installing the tool on an on-premises or any cloud model, we need good information to install and manage the product. Actually, we have not faced any problems with the installation part in our company, but if someone is installing the tool on the cloud or on an on-premises mode, they need to have a good amount of knowledge to handle it because Fortinet has some good features that a user should know how to install.

The product's installation phase can be handled by one person who handles the firewall functionality. I am only handling the platform, and the one person handling the tool is a firewall expert.

One person is enough to deploy and maintain the tool.

The solution is deployed using Azure's cloud services.

Installing everything and making rules takes around two days.

I think it helps in terms of time-saving because we have not received any misconfiguration or faced any challenges with the tool in the last six months. The tool saves around 10 to 15 percent of the time.

The tool offers good analytics compatibility because we use everything in the product, and we also fix everything with the help of consoles.

It is easy to integrate the tool. If we are facing some issues with the tool's integration features with one solution, then we integrate it with another product. If we have a Fortinet's VPN and firewall or a Sophos firewall, we end up facing some glitches. If we integrate products within Fortinet's umbrella, the integration part is good.

I don't think there is a need for any AI features in the tool.

I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

The tool works well for my company's network security operations and integrates well with Azure's cloud services, specifically in terms of routing and security protocols, since everything in such areas is well-defined and the compatibility is perfect. The tool's operational ability is also good.

The most valuable features of the solution are the sandboxing part, filters, and SD-WAN.

In Fortinet FortiGate Cloud, I am yet to see interoperability with other cloud options like OCI. I have no experience with Google Cloud, but I think Fortinet can look into other cloud providers.

Fortinet's technical team is not very friendly, making it an area where improvements are required.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate Cloud for two years.

On the spin, when you need to scale it up, you can just put in a request with the provider regarding the kind of resources you want to expand. You can also shrink it downwards, which will also save on costs. If there are some interfaces you don't need, you can just shut them off. If there are some parts you don't need, you can just remove them from the tool.

I would say we enjoy some local support around where I am currently. I wouldn't speak for everybody, but currently, where I am located, we enjoy some local support. I only have some concerns about expanding to a bigger Fortinet team in our home country, the United States. Some of the responses from the tool's team are that when it gets to a certain level of escalation, the solution requires that you have everything set in place. Cisco's technical team is very friendly, but I think there's a gap in that area with Fortinet.

It is not much of my concern when it comes to the tool's local support, but I know there are those customers who may not have direct customer support. Fortinet can mimic what Cisco does, and I think that would be a good gesture. The local support that I deal with can be described as a licensed partner of Fortinet. Technically, the support team is good, and they have very good relations with users and even partners. I rate the support a nine out of ten.

Positive

I have experience with the cloud services offered by Microsoft Azure.

The solution can be deployed in less than two minutes. The time needed to configure it depends on the size of your environment, but I would say that the whole process is very fast and easy.

It is possible to save around 40 percent money by using the product in our company.

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 value of the product can be derived if we compare the cost and the utility value since they are both the aspects in line with what you expect in terms of delivery and performance. In general, the costs should be justifiable enough.

I have yet to utilize one new tool, so I won't be able to speak. I haven't explored any other tools, so I can't do comparisons.

I decided to work with Fortinet FortiGate Cloud and not something else since it had some good ratings on Gartner and PeerSpot, along with some good recommendations from the other users.

The integration of the product with Azure's cloud services is helpful since it facilitates quick deployment. The integration makes the tool very easy and fast to deploy the product on the cloud, unlike the on-premises version, where you need to do all those cabling, powering, and take care of some updates on the different FortiGate elements.

I have worked with the AI features in the product.

Considering my use cases of the product, I have seen benefits in areas like threat analysis and traffic analysis, identification of malware, and getting critical statistics about your network and how people access different sites or resources. The tool works in cooperation with machine learning, and it gives very good feedback in terms of the improvement of the network and what areas need to be brought down or scaled down. It gives you some good feedback that you can act on for the betterment of your network.

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

I use it as a partner, not as an end user. We sell all the elements for Fortinet. We sell FortiGate and FortiGate Cloud.

Sometimes, we need to support our customers with FortiGate Cloud. I know the technology well, but I don't use it daily.

The centralized management for organizations with three or more FortiGates makes a lot of sense.

It's easy to integrate with other products and with segmentation. There are no problems with integrating with any other vendors.

The main feature of FortiGate Cloud is that you don't need open ports for remote administration or management of FortiGate. 

FortiGate has been the target of many vulnerabilities in the past few years, and to have an open port for management is a door for hackers.

So remote management access is the biggest advantage of FortiGate Cloud.

The performance can be a little slow sometimes. When you make changes to the configuration, the browser isn't refreshed for two or three minutes.

I have been working with this product for three to four years now. 

In the three or four years that I've been using the platform, I've had three issues accessing the platform. I wasn't able to log in, but the platform was up again after a few minutes.

I'm not sure if it was the login page for FortiGate Cloud, or something else. I don't know what was happening at that moment. But in three or four years, I only had problems logging in three times.

The scalability of this solution is pretty good.

Sometimes you have to escalate the priority of the ticket by making a phone call, and sometimes you have to wait a long time. But once they answer, it's easy,

Positive

The initial setup is easy. It does not take more than five minutes. 

There's nothing we can do from the outside for maintenance. So it's done by Fortinet.

The return on investment is fast because you don't need more than one or two people to manage the system.

It's not cheap, but security has a cost. You shouldn't prioritize cheapness over security or other poor technology. The cost doesn't matter as much as the security.

I always recommend FortiGate Cloud to my customers because it's the easier way to manage the systems. The general simplicity is the key.

Overall, I would rate it a nine out of ten. Because of some problems with the performance that I've observed and the three times I had trouble logging in. But in general, nine is a good rating.