Fortinet FortiGate Reviews

In a scenario where FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) notably enhanced my customer's network performance, we discussed many points. The graphical user interface is very good, both feature-wise and technology-wise.

The effective feature in FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is DLP.The FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) has the feature image of 7100 D.

In FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), my concern regarding improvements is the licensing model. In the latest versions, everything moves to licensing only, and to work from SSL VPNs and integrate those features, it is similar across all vendors, but my main concern is the DLP part, which has not advanced significantly.Regarding the AI capabilities of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), these AI features are not present in the latest versions, which is why we are working on those versions. They aren't suitable in a live environment, and while AI features exist, I don't have details about their availability in versions after 7.0, as I believe only versions 6.0 and below have those features.For future improvements in FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), features-wise, SD-WAN enhancements are expected, especially in configuration or viewing SD-WAN monitoring, as some minor enhancements would be beneficial.The complexity in configuring the policies needs improvement, and the SD-WAN template should be available in the tunnel. When we create the tunnel, we need to add in SD-WAN, allowing the creation of VPN tunnels from SD-WAN, which requires technical expertise to configure. Automating that would strongly enhance it, as SD-WAN is number one now with FortiGate, and going forward, more customers will move to FortiGate.

FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is recommended for various industries, and its GUI has many enhancements in the latest version, making everything good.In FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), we are expecting the effective DLP feature with threat detection capabilities, which works with deep inspection. Some customers are not accepting to install the applications, and sometimes in the guest tunnel, content filtering should be blocked, such as domain blocking for Gmail, as users access only their particular consumer account. If they try to access personal accounts, it should be blocked, requiring configuration settings with deep inspection that needs certificates installed in all systems, which is a time-consuming process that some customers do not accept, questioning the need for installing certificates without deep inspection.The licensing model for FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) depends on various types such as the earlier UTM license, FortiCare, and Enterprise license. The Enterprise license includes all features such as FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, and converter. The UTM licenses include only UTM features such as AV, web filtering, application control, and IPS, while FortiCare is only for hardware.

I use the FortiGate firewall for ordinary firewall functions, including SSL inspection, VPN, and site-to-site VPN.

The most valuable features of the FortiGate firewall include SSL inspection, VPN functionality, and threat intelligence features for preventing threats. These features are essential and provide significant functionality for our organization.

There should be more testing before releasing software since it can be a little buggy sometimes when new features come out after updates.

I have been working with the FortiGate firewall for many years.

I am satisfied with Fortinet support. Usually, it is fast and provides advice effectively.

The initial setup of FortiGate was an easy process. It took about three months for a full deployment across the entire organization.

The FortiGate firewall provides good value for the money. It usually is cheaper than the competition, contributing to cost savings.

The pricing of the FortiGate firewall is good. It offers cost savings as it is generally cheaper than the competition.

Palo Alto is an alternative solution. While it may be better for filtering and category white-listing, especially in areas like banking, it is more expensive than FortiGate.

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

For some use cases like banking, Palo Alto may perform better due to its filtering capabilities.

We are using FortiGate IPS as a firewall, as an intrusion prevention system (IPS), and as a content filter. Additionally, we use it for SD-WAN, which is very important for us.

FortiGate IPS has made managing our cybersecurity framework easier. It is user-friendly, easy to implement, and helps in threat detection and prevention. Also, SD-WAN management by FortiGate has ensured seamless internet connectivity by automatically switching between lines during provider interruptions.

The most effective features for threat prevention are the IPS, content filter, and SD-WAN capabilities. The user-friendly nature of FortiGate IPS compared to our previous products, like Cisco and SonicWall, is also valuable.

I would like to see more AI features included in future updates, as that would add significant value. Additionally, the pricing of FortiGate is relatively high compared to other products like Cisco and SonicWall. An area for improvement is in their support services, which could be more responsive and quicker to resolve issues.

We have been using FortiGate IPS for more than nine or ten years.

FortiGate IPS is very stable.

I think it is very scalable. I would rate its scalability as nine out of ten.

In the past, direct support from Fortinet was not very satisfactory, as it took a lot of time to resolve issues. However, we now receive excellent support from our partner. They are amazing and provide very good support.

Neutral

We previously used SonicWall and Cisco. Compared to those products, FortiGate IPS is easier to use and more user-friendly.

The initial setup was straightforward and easy to implement. It took only a few hours to deploy.

The implementation was done by a different team, but we supervised the process. We used third-party services for the implementation.

The pricing is relatively high compared to other products like Cisco and SonicWall. This is a point that could be improved, as FortiGate is expensive.

We evaluated SonicWall and Cisco before choosing FortiGate IPS.

I recommend FortiGate IPS because it is very user-friendly, easy to install, and effective in threat prevention. More AI features in future updates would add more value.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

Hybrid Cloud

It is just for firewalls and network security.

It's mostly compliance, like just meeting our security requirements to keep our data secure. We don't make money out of it. It just keeps our data safe.

I have FortiGate for SD-WAN and all access points here, which has helped with traffic shaping capabilities.

I also use AI (Rapid7) to improve my cybersecurity. 

It's easy to use and provides good visibility of network traffic.

The SD-WAN functionality is a bit overly complicated and not fully documented.

I have been using it for six years. 

The customer service and support are good. I can contact them online or over the phone.

Neutral

I have used Sophos XTM and Palo Alto.

FortiGate is more feature-rich and has a broader range of hardware. They offer switches, access points, firewalls, and the whole network stack, whereas a lot of others only do firewalls.

It's just a good value and the possibility of using those features. We haven't used FortiSwitches yet; we're investigating them at the moment, but we haven't ordered any yet.

The SD-WAN was certainly tricky and took a while to figure out, but the rest of the security features were straightforward.

The deployment took us six months. 

It's hard to measure the return on investment, but it certainly helps us manage our security requirements easier than other solutions that I've used.

It's good value for the money.

It was worth the money overall. It's good value.

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

On-premises

Our company uses this solution for endpoint network security. 

The ECC management and the GUI that offers single interface management are the most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate. 

The documentation available for Fortinet FortiGate should be improved. Often, I find documentation of older models and not the latest version of Fortinet FortiGate. I have to often utilize the older documentation and reengineer the information for the latest model of Fortinet FortiGate. 

There are competitor products in the market that can monitor all logs, which are referred to as SOC; Fortinet FortiGate should have such in-built features. The solution should be able to implement machine learning and analytics of all the logs for threat detection and protection. 

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for more than a year.

I would rate the stability an eight out of ten. 

The solution is used daily in our organization. I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten. 

I would rate the tech support an eight out of ten. Our company needs to contact customer support on certain issues. The support team is usually able to resolve the issues by communication over call a few times. Sometimes, there was quite some back-and-forth through support tickets with the vendor team before the issues got resolved. 

Positive

Our company previously worked with Juniper, NETGEAR, and Cisco. The devices from the aforementioned vendors reached the End of Life, and their support was expiring in our company, so we switched to Fortinet FortiGate to have visibility and manage all devices through a single vendor. 

I would rate the initial setup a nine out of ten. Due to some network complexities, we had to schedule the downtime of our organization's business, so the initial deployment of Fortinet FortiGate took more time than anticipated. But the setup process was seamless and our company didn't face any abrupt down time. 

At our company, first, we prepared a deployment plan and then divided the services into varying areas based on which the deployment was performed in phases. Only two professionals, a system engineer, and an infrastructure manager, are required to deploy Fortinet FortiGate.

Another two individuals are needed to maintain the solution with the same aforementioned professional job designations. In our company, we didn't face any issues while integrating Fortinet FortiGate with our existing infrastructure and even with other tools.

A third-party team deployed the solution for our organization. 

In our company, we haven't realized an ROI yet, as the solution was implemented just a year ago. There are some devices that I need in addition to other area devices of my company, we are in process of renewing all old devices with newer versions.

In the next few months, our company will be able to obtain the actual capex purchase with at least ten switches. Fortinet FortiGate is worth the money, offers multiple solutions under one roof. 

I would rate the pricing a five out of ten. Our company onboarded the solution through a traditional capex purchase of the standard license with three years of customer support. 

Our company has been using Fortinet FortiGate since 2009 at the firewall level, due to familiarity with the RTO and FortiGate environment, complete adoption of Fortinet FortiGate was an easier choice than other solutions for a single clear management. 

Fortinet FortiGate also had all the features that our company was expecting, and in terms of ease of management, opting for the same vendor from firewall to edge device was a comfortable option. 

Previously, in our organization, we didn't have a network monitoring tool. With the adoption of Fortinet FortiGate, we can now check the port level of the switches that can be witnessed at the EP end, where all devices remain connected to the network. The management and monitoring are the major benefits of Fortinet FortiGate. 

I would advise others to consider adopting the solution without hesitation. I read the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant report, and it mentioned that, based on its track record, Fortinet can compete with the best in terms of network and security solutions.

For the last five years I believe Fortinet has dominated the market. I recently attended a Fortinet event where I met all the local and regional support team; I learned that the vendor is continually expanding, and in our region, we can easily avail support and guidance regarding Fortinet solutions whenever required. 

The monitoring subscription that is provided with the Fortinet FortiGate has built-in AI features for the past three years. I believe Fortinet is in the sixth generation of their AI and ML utilizing the native infrastructure. Thus, the AI features have been available for a long time in Fortinet FortiGate, but they are promoting it now due to the market trends. I would overall rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

On-premises

We've deployed FortiGate on some customer premises. We've also deployed other Fortinet products, such as FortiMail and FortiManager. We often bundle Fortinet devices. We use FortiGate as a firewall. It is for security and protection. 

The solution has helped our clients secure their network efficiently. It offers security across multiple sites and helps monitor traffic effectively.

It's very good and very stable for businesses. It works very well. 

The UI is better than the alternatives. 

We like using Fortinet devices. They integrate well with one another.

Fortinet provides good visibility and segmentation.

Fortinet's devices are purpose-built to operate in various environments. It operates well across clouds. We can run Fortigate as an MSP.

It helps with intrusion prevention specific to various environments. It provides us with details about the traffic for better monitoring. 

FortiGate has helped reduce the risk of cyberattacks that might disrupt our client's production. 

The product provides policies for strict monitoring to make the network secure. If something hits against a policy, it will be blocked.

We'd like to see the product offer higher discounts to users. They should offer special pricing to premium partners and customers. 

The company has been using the solution for the last five or so years. I've maybe used it for three years.

The stability depends on the FortiGate model. You need the right model for the amount of GB traffic. If a customer deploys a smaller model on more traffic, there may be issues. Otherwise, it handles traffic well. Overall, it's a stable solution. I'd rate stability nine out of ten. 

Our clients are quite sizable. One of them is one of the biggest telecoms in our country. We also have smaller customers that deal with smaller FortiGate models. We have a variety of customers of different sizes from around the country.

It's a scalable solution. I'd rate it nine out of ten. 

Technical support is good. They offer very accurate solutions. We learn a lot from them. We're happy with their level of service. 

Positive

We typically deploy the solution to our client's VMs. The deployment sometimes takes about a month. We have a team of 12 people who work on the FortiGate side. 

Their services are good, and we are happy to work with them, however, the pricing could be cheaper. 

We're a Fortinet partner. 

If we have the option of which firewall to choose, whether Fortinet, Cisco, Juniper, et cetera, we will choose Fortinet. We're very comfortable with their devices. We have a very skillful team, and we've become very comfortable with Fortinet. They have good support as well.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. 

On-premises

We use the solution to secure our entire data, limiting user traffic from within the system, which needs to be assessed to be secure. That is the main motive behind choosing the solution.

Suppose I don't want to pay for the users. We would have done some whitelisting and content filtering on the FortiGate web gate. Based on the policies, any user traffic is filtered through the secure gateway.

It's a flexible solution.

What happens in FortiGate is that a lot of bugs come on a system-by-system basis, like when Fortinet launches new firmware in FortiGate. Most software launches with known or unknown bugs. When we go for upgradation, even after running a bug scoping exam, we don't know whether the BIOS for which we are upgrading would affect the end user. We don't know how the FortiGate firmware will behave in your environment. Whatever the known bug, FortiGate lists it in their documents, but you never know how the problem will impact your environment. That's a major disadvantage of FortiGate because, somewhere, it's very unstable.

Another issue is how deduplication services don't work reliably after enabling deduplication on Fortinet. When they launch any new firmware in the future, they have to ensure firmware functions.

I've worked with Fortinet FortiGate SWG for more than ten years now.

I rate the solution's stability a seven out of ten.

I rate the solution's scalability a seven out of ten. We have around 700 users on the platform.

If any issues arise, we have to log a ticket with Fortinet. By default, they log all the tickets in P3 or P4 priorities. For P1 or P2, they ask to call us on their phone numbers and lines. Whenever we try to call on the phone for any P1 or P2 issues, the next time, the number gets busy, or the email is unavailable. That's why

I feel the support is not up to the mark, and they must work on it.

Neutral

I rate the solution's initial setup a seven out of ten. The deployment time depends on the scenario, such as your infrastructure size. To deploy the solution on a cloud, you have to buy it from the marketplace and deploy it on the cloud. But after that, you have to do a lot of configurations. That depends on the size of the operation.

One person is more than enough to implement the smaller version of the solution. But if the organization is bigger, with more than 500 or 600 users, we would need three to four people.

Fortinet is priced low.

We are exploring Netskope and evaluating it for the future.

I recommend Fortinet FortiGate SWG because it is flexible and cost-effective. I rate it an eight out of ten.

Public Cloud

Our customers use these devices as security devices, and we sell these devices to our customers. We also use it ourselves. We have the entire lab, and we use some of the functions in our local network.

It protects our customers' networks from viruses and threats.

The firewall, IPS, and VPN functions are the most valuable features. The antivirus functions are also good.

It works very well. It has a lot of different functionalities. Its cost is also fine for our customers.

In some cases, its initial setup could be hard for customers.

I have 10 to 12 years of experience with these devices.

Their devices are quite stable. We have not had any problems with the operating systems or maintenance of subscriptions. It is a robust device.

In most cases, they work very fast. It also depends on the device they are supporting. In the case of FortiGate, we do not have any complaints, but when we had to buy the FortiADC solution for one of our customers, we faced quite a few difficulties with technical support. I do not know why, but it could be that some devices are supported by different teams in Fortinet. We had difficulties with FortiADC, but we have not had any problems with FortiGate. I would rate their support for FortiGate a nine out of ten.

Positive

We worked with Cisco and Check Point firewalls. We worked with Cisco ASA for a long time. We worked with it for about five years, and we were happy with it, but it was old-fashioned. We went to Fortinet and started working with this company. 

FortiGate has good security functions and high-level technical documentation. Their documentation is very easy to understand. 

FortiGate's performance is also better than Cisco ASA. It has 10 VDOMs. It is a great function because you can add virtual functions for different groups in your network. It is quite useful.

It is deployed on-premises. Our customers prefer to deploy not only Fortinet devices but all security devices on-premises. They rarely use cloud licenses. Some customers only buy it from us, and for some customers, we also set it up.

Its setup is easy for us, but not every company wants to use our service for setting it up because of the cost. They prefer to install it themselves. In some cases, it could be hard for them.

In terms of the implementation strategy, we first try to understand what problem a customer wants to solve by using FortiGate. We collect a lot of information about a customer's network, such as protocols and devices being used. We try to prepare this device in our local lab. We preload the device and send it to the customer, and then we finalize the installation in the customer's building.

We have very technical staff, and we do not have difficulties with installations. We have had situations where customers do not have much experience with it, and then we recommend them to go for certain features such as IPS, antivirus, etc. 

The deployment duration depends on the size of the environment, but generally, it does not take more than one or two months. 

Generally, two to three people are required for the deployment.

For maintenance, our customers have technical staff. They regularly check and ensure that all the functions are working. We are glad to help them if they need any help.

We have seen an ROI. We have bought a lot of these devices, and we have had a good experience with them. It has saved us a lot of money.

It is quite affordable for our customers. There is a separate cost for IPS, antivirus, web filtering, and other features. They have a great choice of licenses. You can go for the license that you want, which is quite useful.

You have to buy a support license for FortiCare. In most cases, people buy the UTM bundle that comes with IPS, web filtering, and FortiCare. 

They are on the right path. They have improved a lot over the past 10 years. Fortinet is one of the leaders in security devices along with Cisco, Palo Alto, and Check Point.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten. It is stable. It has quite a lot of features, such as IPS, VPN, etc. It is affordable for our customers. It is a good choice.

On-premises

Overall, we use Fortinet FortiGate IPS for group security, managing several companies across the region via a central location in Trinidad.

It ensures that we safeguard our environment effectively.

The ease of use, concise reports, and threat identification are very user-friendly and valuable.

There are no areas that need improvement at this point in time.

I have used FortiGate IPS for about two years.

So far, we have had no issues with stability. 

FortiGate IPS seems to grow with us as we grow. We are on the latest edition, and it is fairly easy to maintain going forward.

I do not normally interact with customer service, yet I had a very good conversation with them the other day. I would rate the experience a ten out of ten.

Positive

The setup was done by the infrastructure team, including four network admins and one infrastructure security person. The initial setup appears to have been straightforward based on indications.

We haven't implemented it for ROI benefits but rather for intrusion detection. It's just to make sure that we safeguard our environment.

FortiGate is slightly more expensive. CrowdStrike is offering better rates, which is something you need to look at.

CrowdStrike and other vendors have more competitive pricing, and CrowdStrike is currently number one in the quadrant while FortiGate is ranked lower.

I would recommend this solution to others because it is a good product. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten. It ensures security and is easy to use.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

Since we are going to implement a payment gateway, digitalizing our payment to the vendors, where they can upload their invoice, we think it is really necessary to upgrade our network from the potential threat. So, we use Fortinet FortiGate IPS to address this.

Having IPS helps in ensuring that our network is protected from potential threats, which is crucial as we implement our payment gateway.

My IT team has not had any complaints and finds Fortinet FortiGate IPS quite smooth. We also get yearly updates and training from the vendors.

Pricing is one of the factors that need improvement. Maybe they can offer a smaller scope for a cheaper price for smaller organizations.

We have been using Fortinet FortiGate IPS for about three to four years.

I rate the stability of the solution as nine out of ten. We have not experienced any bugs, glitches, or downtime. It is stable.

I rate the scalability of the solution as nine out of ten.

I rate the customer service and support as nine out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup took about two to three weeks, with everything completed within one and a half to two months, considering we have multiple locations.

My IT team, which is small (about three to five people), handled this.

Pricing is expensive compared to other solutions. I would rate it as nine out of ten in terms of expense.

I recommend Fortinet FortiGate IPS to others due to its stability and effectiveness.

On-premises