Fortinet FortiGate Reviews

We use Fortinet FortiGate for SD-WAN as well as the switches for renewable plants and energy sector power plants.

All the features needed to protect the digital landscape are available. The enterprise-level support is excellent, and we receive quick assistance from Fortinet FortiGate.

With the SD-WAN network, the connectivity is seamless. The dependency on bandwidth and MPLS connectivity is expensive compared to SD-WAN. Currently, there is seamless connectivity between all plants and corporate offices. The implementation is straightforward and not complex to execute.

The SD-WAN connects all sites, as we have many regional offices in different locations. The Fortinet FortiGate devices are very useful and easy to configure, and we are benefiting from their features.

In the utilities and electrical generation sector, we use various models. In IT security, we have different models, and for sites, we use 40F, 460F, and various others. While my part is limited to India, Fortinet FortiGate is used worldwide across our group.

There should be some open-source training or free training for decision makers, or some webinars should be available. These would help understand the new product line and the existing product line features. 

Additionally, it would be helpful to have comparisons between competitors such as Cisco, Juniper, and others with Fortinet FortiGate.

I have been using the solution for three years.

The system is very stable.

The system is very easy to scale.

We receive quick support from Fortinet FortiGate. When we raise a ticket, we get support via email reply promptly. The experience has been perfect, and we are satisfied with it.

The initial setup is easy. I'd rate it nine out of ten.

This is handled by my team. I am in leadership and do not handle the technical aspects directly.

While we haven't calculated specific ROI numbers, most devices are very stable and seamless. We don't typically consider money since this is an infrastructure requirement. Fortinet FortiGate support is available, annual maintenance contracts are in place, and the devices haven't failed in three years. The product quality is good, eliminating the need to reinvest in the same devices or setup.

Fortinet FortiGate has an excellent portfolio including firewalls, switches, and access points. I would recommend it to anyone. We are using FortiSwitches as part of our implementation.

I rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten.

It is our security gateway that performs website checks and related security functions.

Fortinet FortiGate is stable. I am told that Fortinet FortiGate is one of the best solutions available, and I believe it. We rarely have any issues with it. My only concern is that they charge separately for every option that is available. It has not improved anything; it simply maintains and keeps operations going.

We are not utilizing Fortinet FortiGate to its full capacity because we have to pay for every small feature. It is also something I would replace once it starts to fail. Fortinet FortiGate appears very old, and everything we use requires additional payment.

Fortinet FortiGate has been with us as long as the switches we've had. It was already here when I came on board, and it was implemented when we started up the school facilities about 10 years ago.

I would rate it low because we rarely ever have to call support. When I call in, I do not have any issues to report.

Positive

We used to have a router, but we have since replaced them all.

It has not improved anything; it simply maintains and keeps operations going. Every year we pay close to $2,000 for this security, and we only use it for web filtering.

The unified security gateway would be my first option. I think it does not charge separately for every product we need to use.

We have Cisco products at our site, including Cisco switches deployed among our campus. We have Cisco WSC-3850 24-port switches, SG 300 28-port switches, and some old WSC-2960 48-port switches.

We use a Fortinet FortiGate 300e for our medium-sized organization. We have approximately 600 students, 200 staff, faculty, and office workers, totaling about 1,000 users going through it. It serves one location with three buildings.

We are planning to move away from Cisco switches as they have become quite expensive. Our strategy is to transition to Ubiquiti enterprise solutions.

This review has a rating of 5 out of 10.

The primary use case for Fortinet FortiGate is to secure the organization and network perimeters. I use it to control the inbound and outbound traffic and implement firewall policies, providing secure VPN access to remote users and protecting the network from cyber threats using features such as IPS and antivirus, web filtering, and application controls. It also helps me with segmenting the network and centrally managing the security policies, making day-to-day administration more efficient.

Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted my organization by improving the overall security posture while simplifying network management. It has helped us reduce security incidents by blocking malicious traffic and enforcing security policies. It has also improved operational effectiveness because the IT team can manage firewall rules, VPN access, and security monitoring from a single platform. This has reduced manual effort, improved visibility into the network, and enabled us to respond to security events much more easily.

The best features of Fortinet FortiGate are its security fabric integration. It brings multiple security functions together, including firewall, IPS, antivirus, web filtering, VPN, and application controls, into a single platform, making security management much simpler. I also appreciate the centralized dashboard because it provides excellent visibility into the network traffic, security events, and user activity in real-time. It helps me identify and respond to potential threats quickly without switching between multiple tools.

The feature I rely on most is the real-time monitoring dashboard. It gives me a clear view of network traffic, active users, security events, VPN status, and blocked threats all in one place. I also frequently use the log and traffic analysis sections for troubleshooting and investigating security incidents. It makes it easier to identify unusual activity, check which firewall policy was triggered, and quickly determine the root cause of connectivity and security issues. This saves considerable time during day-to-day operations.

For user management, Fortinet FortiGate has also made things much easier. I integrated it with my Active Directory, so access policies are applied based on user groups instead of configuring each user individually. Whenever a new employee joins or changes departments, I simply update the AD group members and the correct network access is applied automatically. This has reduced my manual effort and minimized configuration errors.

Overall, Fortinet FortiGate is a strong secure solution, but there are a few areas that could be improved. The user interface can be overwhelming for new administrators because of the large number of configuration options. A more organized layout and simplified navigation would improve the overall experience. Another area is reporting and logging analysis. While the built-in reports are used, more customizable reports and dashboards would make it easier to generate management and compliance reports without relying on additional tools. Firmware upgrades could also be made smoother with fewer compatibility concerns across different versions. Additionally, the analyzer could be much better so that I can stop using third-party tools for analyzing logs for unused rules specifically.

If Fortinet FortiGate can offer such improvements in the dashboard and if I can get the unused rules that I submit to compliance and regulatory requirements from the Fortinet FortiGate dashboard itself, I would not need to rely on third-party tools. This could be improved.

If I had to add one more point, it would be better AI-driven reports and automations. More intelligent recommendations for policies, optimization, and automatic response to common security events would make day-to-day administration even more effective.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for more than three to four years.

From my experience, Fortinet FortiGate's AI capability has good governance and security. The AI-driven threats, detections, and analysis help in identifying suspicious activity faster and reduce the manual effort required by my security team. I also appreciate that the AI features are integrated into the existing security framework rather than operating as a separate tool. This allows me to maintain consistent security policies and gives me better visibility into potential threats, while keeping administrator controls in the hands of security teams. Overall, I find the AI capability useful, but there is still room for improvement.

My advice is to spend time planning the deployment and firewall policies before implementing. A well-designed network architecture and proper configuration of security policies make a significant difference in getting the best performance and protection from Fortinet FortiGate. I would also recommend enabling features such as IPS, web filtering, application control, and VPN, and keeping the firmware up-to-date. Additionally, make sure that administrators are properly trained, as Fortinet FortiGate offers many advanced features that can provide significant value when configured correctly. Overall, it is a solid choice for an organization looking for a competitive network security solution. I rate this product a 9 out of 10.

My main use case for Fortinet FortiGate is as a UTM to distribute our IP DHCP, to segment our VLAN, and to manage our network infrastructure.

I also use Fortinet FortiGate as a VPN and for site-to-site connection between our multiple sites, such as my head office, our developer office, and data center. It acts as a network security tool where we use an IPS to filter attacks from the outside public to our server.

Regarding my main use cases, I would like to add that it has quite a good GUI and dashboard, making it easy to use. Additionally, we use DNS filtering and application filtering to filter the applications that users can access to the internet.

The best features Fortinet FortiGate offers include reliability and a good user interface and user experience.

The user interface is the most valuable to me because it is easy to use, easy to manage, and quite easy for a newcomer to operate. The features are quite good for filtering applications and for addressing our needs, such as blocking social media or other unwanted content.

Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted our organization by improving our security workflow and network security, as it is quite reliable compared to traditional routers or traditional switch cores from MikroTik or Cisco.

A specific example of how my workflow and network security has improved is that because we have multiple sites, Fortinet FortiGate has a multitude of signature-based features and multiple default policies, so we only have to add that to the profile. It is quite simple and easy to manage.

I think Fortinet FortiGate is quite good for now, though it could improve with the virtual IP, as it occasionally has a bug. They have a lot of CVE and updates to their system, and they need to be more concerned about their security.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for about one year.

In my experience, Fortinet FortiGate is quite stable.

When the RAM or memory reaches 70% or 80%, the firewall is more likely unstable and may struggle to forward traffic. I think that is one of the areas where Fortinet FortiGate has room for improvement.

Fortinet FortiGate's scalability is limited because it is on-premises, so we would have to change the type of Fortinet FortiGate as we grow.

The customer support is really helpful for their principle, but they lack technical competency at layer one, as they tend to only look for logs before promoting issues to layer two for resolution.

Previously, we used Aruba as a firewall and switch core, but it lacked security features, so we had to move to the next-generation firewall.

I am afraid I cannot say that I have seen a return on investment.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that I think the price is quite good besides the leader in Gartner's next-generation firewall.

Before choosing Fortinet FortiGate, we evaluated a lot of competitors at that moment, and we chose Fortinet FortiGate.

My advice to others looking into using Fortinet FortiGate is that you need to think carefully about your usage and calculate your business needs. If you miscalculate, you might end up buying a Fortinet FortiGate that cannot meet your needs, leading to potential downtimes or failures.

I have no additional thoughts about Fortinet FortiGate except that I mentioned the easy user interface and experience for beginners. However, I noted that when the memory reaches up to 80%, the firewall does not function as well. I would rate this product a 9 out of 10.

We are IT MSPs, and we provide solutions for clients based on their requirements and expectations. 

We are a Fortinet FortiGate partner, reselling products such as FortiGate 100F, 60F, and 70F. We are currently exploring newer versions including 70G, 90G, and 120G. I have also worked with Fortinet FortiGate F200. The UI is similar across all these firewalls, with differences mainly in capacity limitations.

The best features of Fortinet FortiGate include its easy configuration and user interface. 

Its firmware is very stable, which is a significant advantage. I have experienced many challenges while configuring Sophos during firmware upgradation, where changes occur and certain features stop working, requiring reconfiguration. However, Fortinet FortiGate has a very stable Linux-based operating system that is easy to use.

One drawback of Fortinet FortiGate is that they provide two types of models: one with a hard disk and another without. The model without a hard disk has very low ROM where you can store very few logs, after which you need to upload it to the cloud or purchase a firewall with SSD. That's the only drawback.

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for the last 4 to 5 years.

It is very stable.

Fortinet FortiGate is highly scalable because it is easy to allocate resources. It is very flexible, especially when using a VM base, as you can easily increase any configuration you want to upgrade. Scalability is now a common feature in all firewalls.

I have had positive experiences with both Sophos and Fortinet as service providers. When we face any issues with firmware or other things, we can directly approach them for assistance.

As a solution provider, when I encounter problems, I connect directly with Fortinet support, and they provide solutions within a very short time.

Positive

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations.

I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet.

Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.

The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate is straightforward. It involves step-by-step configuration, setting up rules, configuring network interfaces, WAN, LAN, and creating basic rules.

Most of our clients are using on-premises firewalls. If they have a private cloud, they typically establish a site-to-site tunnel. However, in general, they rely heavily on on-premises firewalls.

Fortinet FortiGate is a premium product. From a cybersecurity perspective, the ROI typically comes within 1.5 to 2 years. When investing in cybersecurity with Fortinet FortiGate 200, which costs more than $10,000, companies that are growing directly can expect ROI within 1.5 to 3 years. This calculation considers future planning and monthly security spending, including license upgrades every 3 years. This refers to new procurement only, as license upgradation is a separate consideration.

If you are looking for a quality product, it will come at a higher price. Expecting them to be significantly cheaper is unrealistic. In terms of pricing, it is a bit costly. However, the functionality and support offered are worth it. 

Regarding SD-WAN capabilities with Fortinet FortiGate, I have configured and merged WAN lines. There are two options: round-robin and session-based, and I typically prefer the session-based connection. With Fortinet Unified SASE, for multiple locations, we configure site-to-site tunnels where all data transmits directly to the Central Office.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten because AI is still in development and constantly evolving. Nothing is perfect, which is why I chose that rating. There is definitely room for improvement.

I have worked on multiple products including Fortinet FortiGate VM, Fortinet FortiGate firewalls of different models, FortiSwitch, FortiAP, FortiADC, FortiWeb, FortiAuthenticator, and some other products as well.

I have been working on Fortinet FortiGate and Fortinet FortiGate VM for around five or six years. I have deployed it as a perimeter firewall, as a data center firewall, and as a campus firewall in many banking sectors, commercial sectors, and oil and gas sectors. Most of my clients have deployed Fortinet FortiGate firewall on-premises to protect their services.

The ease of use and the user-friendly interface are the beauty of this firewall. The UI itself and the documentation are completely available on the internet. The UI is very easy, and you can easily understand the implementation. The product itself has very strong deep features and security features including IPS and malware protection to prevent and save against cyber attacks.

I have very good hands-on experience and very good deployment experience with Fortinet FortiGate SD-WAN. Fortinet FortiGate SD-WAN allows you to use multiple internets and multiple interfaces separately to load balance your internet and to load balance your services between multiple service providers. This is a very good feature in this firewall that you cannot get as a free default feature in other brands.

The network performance after enabling SD-WAN is very smooth and very efficient. I recently deployed this in forty commercial sector sites with stores that previously had MPLS circuits. With the MPLS circuit, they had a very high cost for private connectivity between sites and branches. After deploying SD-WAN, the operational cost was cut down around fifty to sixty percent because of this implementation. All MPLS costing was wiped out from their IT budget and is now dependent on internet circuits, which are normally standard internet connections.

SASE is a very good feature. For example, I recently deployed this for a customer with users in remote locations. The issue was that they wanted users to remain connected and keep monitoring systems after office hours with no malware installed on the laptop while staying protected. The use case of SASE involved implementing the POP itself on the cloud. The users, whether remotely at home or anywhere in the world, are connected to and keep connected with POP. They access the internet securely with secure company policies as defined by IT. They are not allowed to go directly to the internet without IT policies as defined on SASE POP. There is very good integration from SASE to Fortinet FortiGate firewall to access private access.

For improving sectors, they need to focus on technical support and work on the technical part. Although it is good, they need to onboard these things and improve the technical part of the support factor. Although it is good, it needs much more improvement to get more business and a bigger footprint in the market. Second, AI in the market and malware detection exist. Fortinet FortiGate already has these features in the Fortinet FortiGate sandbox features with built-in AI features. I prefer that they work on more features that they can provide in Fortinet FortiGate firewall.

I would rate this product ten out of ten. For example, when comparing it with Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate, I can provide a very good point. In Palo Alto, some features must be purchased separately. In Fortinet FortiGate, it comes with the Wi-Fi controller built-in. Features that you need to buy a separate license for in Palo Alto do not require additional licenses in Fortinet FortiGate as they are built as complimentary features in this firewall.

The network performance after enabling SD-WAN is very smooth and very efficient.

Scalability is the same, and I would rate it ten out of ten.

Technical support can be marked as ten out of eight. There is some lag, but you can find documentation and all things over the internet. They can provide support, and I would rate it eight point five to nine.

Positive

My technical team are all technically expert in deployment of Fortinet FortiGate firewall.

My team has around five or six people who are all technically sound in Fortinet FortiGate firewalls.

If we are talking about Check Point, Cisco, and Palo Alto, these are the top-tier firewalls and top-tier vendors for providing firewalls. Following the Gartner report, Palo Alto and Fortinet are at the top in the Gartner report. Because of that, Fortinet FortiGate firewall itself does not require management centers as required in Cisco and Check Point. Fortinet FortiGate firewall cannot be managed by a management center. In Fortinet FortiGate case, there is no requirement for these prerequisites to configure or implement Fortinet FortiGate firewall without a management center. We can deploy Fortinet FortiGate firewall without any management center. It is a very web-based firewall and you can access the firewall GUI from the website, and we can easily deploy it without any management center. In Check Point or Cisco cases, a management center is required. In Cisco case, the Firepower Management Center is required to get the advanced features. But in Fortinet case, it does not require these things. This is a very beauty of this firewall.

I suggest buying Fortinet instead of buying Palo Alto, Cisco, or Check Point. I will definitely recommend Fortinet.

Fortinet FortiGate has different models of firewalls which are high capacity and high variant firewalls that you can deploy as data center firewalls to protect your data centers, your server farms, and your services which are hosted inside a data center.

Fortinet FortiGate has embedded services, these FortiGuard services which have machine learning-based and artificial intelligence-based malware analysis. These services analyze malwares and next-generation malwares that are not easily identified by signature-based detection. They have the capability to analyze malware by AI-based methods and can identify zero-day attacks. Before they exploit as a zero-day, they prevent this signature and stop this attack to prevent that this is an attack. Those services are hosted in my data centers, web applications, storage, and SaaS. All are protected by those cyber attacks.

Regarding pricing, we cannot compare it right now because pricing matters based on business size and the business deal. We cannot say whether it is high or low. Sometimes we can easily compete with any brand, and in some cases we cannot compete. For example, if we have a big deal, we can get good discounts from Fortinet team. In some cases, the deal is not big, so we cannot get enough good discount. Deployment from FortiSASE to your Fortinet FortiGate firewall over SD-WAN is very easy. Fortinet gives you multiple connections from SASE POP to your Fortinet FortiGate firewall. They have fully redundant connections on SASE POP if you have the same redundant connections with ISP connection on your Fortinet FortiGate firewalls. They have the secure SPX tunnel from FortiSASE to Fortinet FortiGate firewall. You can easily access from Fortinet FortiGate firewall to SASE applications and SASE users who are connected on SASE POP can access local services from SASE POP to Fortinet FortiGate and access the local services.

My overall rating for this product is nine out of ten.

My customers use Fortinet FortiGate for their branches and campuses; we have provided it for small retail and industrial networks. 

Chennai is totally based on MND and BFSI for the factories, and since Fortinet FortiGate provides OT Security, they have numerous features. In the same single firewall, they can use SD-WAN as well as OT signatures to have visibility for partners.

The best features of Fortinet FortiGate include selling a perpetual license as a primary benefit, and the license cost is not much compared to Cisco, Meraki, or HP. 

Feature-wise, I can rate Meraki over Fortinet FortiGate a seven or eight since they have micro-segmentation and application routing. They can detect real-time threats with FortiGuard, which is similar to Palo Alto. Now they are implementing AI features, and I recently went through the demo, which is amazing.

The main benefits that Fortinet FortiGate brings to customers include that if you're going for a single fabric with core switches, access switches, and APs, compared to legacy Cisco or Aruba, te Fortinet FortiGate does not require a controller for the access points. Fortinet FortiGate itself acts as a controller.

Similarly, they have FortiLink, which connects all appliances in a single stack, allowing maintenance with FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer. In comparison, Cisco requires a separate controller for SD-WAN and Nexus ACI controller, and other things require a Cisco DNA controller. However, with Fortinet FortiGate, it's simple to maintain using FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer, thus being very much easier and cost-efficient.

In terms of improvements for Fortinet FortiGate, they could offer evaluation licenses, as compared to Meraki, which provides a 90-day evaluation. In Fortinet FortiGate, they do not provide standard evaluation licenses; instead, we need to request them from the OEM through the account manager for POCs. If we want to conduct a demo, we need to work with real hardware. 

In comparison to Cisco, we have DCloud, which helps with providing demos to customers, but in Meraki, I need to reach out to them, book a lab, and they need to provide all the hardware. I need remote access and L3 engineers to program it; only then can I offer a real-time demo to the customer.

I have been working with the Fortinet FortiGate for three years.

My impression of FortiGate's performance is that it performs quite well; when performance issues arise, it's not the box, it's the users, traffic, and bandwidth overloading. Apart from that, whatever the capacity of the hardware is, it is performing quite well.

Regarding the scalability of the Fortinet FortiGate, if it is a VM, it is easy. However, if we're talking about hardware, in the designing phase, we need to consider being about 30% or 20% higher to make scaling easy. Otherwise, they need to change the entire hardware. That's why we are pushing managed services, so the ISP and MSSP partner will take care of scalability. Still, in terms of scalability, it is quite difficult; if they are expanding, they need to change the hardware for the new hardware.

I would rate the technical support of Fortinet FortiGate as a five because it is not as strong as Cisco. Additionally, the turnaround time is very high compared to Cisco.

Positive

My impressions of the setup costs are that they are reasonable; definitely, they are reasonable.

The change in return on investment after implementing Fortinet FortiGate solutions for the SD-WAN for hybrid workforces is evident; we did it five years ago for one customer, and now the end of support and end of sale life has come. I can see a 10% to 20% infrastructure change. We received 2% to 3% higher than the original sales, and we have also done the renewals. They are also increasing branches, and overall, the RMS has increased by 50% to 60%.

My impressions of the setup costs are that they are reasonable.

For users who would like to start working with Fortinet FortiGate, my recommendation is that it will not create a problem, but once it has been programmed correctly, and all the use cases are rightly fitted, you can forget the issues. The only thing that needs updating is the threat intelligence and network configurations. Apart from that, maintaining FortiGate is easy.

I work with the dynamic segmentation feature in the Fortinet FortiGate. The dynamic segmentation feature plays a significant role in preventing the lateral spread of different threats within the data center environments; for example, for web hosting, there are multiple OEMs who have different warehousing solutions, and they don't want to mix the data between their OEMs. In this case, dynamic segmentation comes into the picture, allowing me to create multiple VRs for the data center within a single tunnel for data segregation.

I work with some customers who are going to integrate the unified SASE capabilities in Fortinet FortiGate, and we are working actively on that, but up until now, I've not taken any deployment on the SASE part. We are working with multiple customers, but they are not suggesting it yet. As of now, I just went through the demo for the AI regarding the SD-WAN part, and I didn't go for the data center things. If you ask me about the SD-WAN front for deployment or integrating the SASE along with that, it is comparatively easy. Within minutes, I can see it in real-time; they can deploy five branches or 10 branches within 10 minutes or 20 minutes. I haven't worked with the hardware-assisted DDoS protection in the Fortinet FortiGate; instead, I have worked with Radware or Arbor for DDoS solutions.

On a scale of one to ten, I rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine.

My main use case for Fortinet FortiGate is for VPN and its appliances and for securing all of our remote locations.

A specific example of how I use Fortinet FortiGate to secure my remote locations is that we set rules on each of our locations about what traffic can and cannot go in, so we can allow certain connections for our partners such as Frontiers.

The best features Fortinet FortiGate offers are the built-in security functions, which I think are very nice.

We find the built-in security functions most valuable in Fortinet FortiGate, particularly web filtering, as it is all hands-on. Web filtering is our standout feature, and I don't want to add anything else about the features.

Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted my organization by centralizing the way to access all of our network firewalls.

I wish Fortinet FortiGate's UI updates would be done in a more simplified way to improve it.

I choose nine for my rating because I think there's always room for improvement, and I think some of the things in the UI need to be adjusted so they're a little bit more simplified and not overcomplicated.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for at least three and a half, maybe four years now.

In my experience, Fortinet FortiGate is very stable, and it has been quite consistent during times of downtime.

Fortinet FortiGate's scalability has been keeping up well with my organization's growth or changes, as each location gets larger and we feel the need to put a Fortinet FortiGate in each one.

We have had to reach out multiple times to Fortinet engineers for customer support, and it has been great every time; they always seem to get to the bottom of it within one to two calls.

We did use a different solution before Fortinet FortiGate, but it has been so long that I cannot remember who it was; it may have been Palo Alto.

I believe we have seen a return on investment in terms of fewer employees needed, but otherwise, it is outside of my scope.

I was not directly involved in the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Fortinet FortiGate.

We did consider other options before choosing Fortinet FortiGate, but it was a straightforward decision, and I am not quite sure what the other options were.

I do not have anything that is unique to us about how we use Fortinet FortiGate in our setup.

We do not utilize Fortinet FortiGate's data center solution, and we do not feel the need to consider AI and ML enhanced FortiGuard services within Fortinet FortiGate.

I would advise others looking into using Fortinet FortiGate to make sure that they get their configurations right from the start, as that means they have less of a need to get support involved. I would rate this product a nine out of ten.

I'm using it for web filter and then using it for VPN connection user to site, and I'm using it to make a virtual ID to link a real ID from the server to provider to my servers to publish servers.

I work with Fortinet FortiGate SD WAN. I configure the SD WAN to use two Internet service providers from two different service provider links. When one of them is down, the SD WAN goes down. I have to go to the SD WAN and remove this link from the SD WAN member. I confirmed that with the local provider and it's working. Sometimes, when a member of the SD WAN link is down, the SD WAN is down, and this is not the solution. I made the SD WAN for redundancy, however, when a member of the SD WAN link is down or I finish the quote of the Internet, all the SD WAN stops working and users experience problems.

With the web filter, when I go to post some websites under certain categories and open these categories, I experience some problems. 

Additionally, I face difficulties integrating Fortinet FortiGate with Active Directory. When I set preferences to use Active Directory users, it sometimes works and sometimes does not work. When I integrate Fortinet FortiGate with Active Directory and use this integration to make a web filter policy, the functionality is inconsistent. I have tried restarting the Active Directory domain controller and the firewall, but the problem persists. As a workaround, I use the MAC address of the user to define the settings.

I have been using the solution for about five years.

I haven't configured or experienced any stability issues.

It's safe and secures my network and applications in some sites. However, I have significant problems when implementing web filters, which is a very problematic issue for me.

I often ask for help from the local provider. I haven't found the required efficient help. Currently, I have problems connecting to some banking systems and departmental Texas portals. I have asked for help but haven't found assistance through the site or through the local provider. When trying to open a ticket, they reply with solutions that are not applicable to my situation.

Positive

I didn't have a firewall previously. That said, I did have a VPN gateway.

I haven't configured or used the initial setup.

I didn't choose or have knowledge about the implementation team.

The return on investment was good.

The setup cost was good. The Egyptian pound is declining, and upgrading Fortinet FortiGate yearly costs about $2000 USD, which equals one hundred Egyptian pounds. I maintain a business relationship with the vendor and receive support from them.

I considered switching to Sophos. Due to my previous experience with Fortinet FortiGate, I preferred to stay with Fortinet FortiGate.

The solution requires careful attention, and when problems occur, they typically don't repeat once resolved. 

I miss having local provider support here in Egypt. International support is difficult to obtain. Local support is preferable yet has become very expensive due to currency devaluation in Egypt. 

We use Fortinet FortiGate for gateway security, specifically for VPN access, security control, and filtering of traffic. For net monitoring, it has the capability to put the network traffic over to the analyzer. We use FortiAnalyzer to look at the traffic and to see what's happening, what's hitting our gateway, and what our users are doing. We use filtering rules on top of that.

Fortinet FortiGate is pretty robust. The updates and firmware releases are pretty timely. They have a good product revision and review system, so they are constantly reviewing their configuration and the different mechanisms that are used on Fortinet FortiGate. They review that periodically and provide new definitions and updates. We have quarterly fixes, updates, and releases, and there are constant new CVEs coming out. They are always keeping ahead of the threat monitoring system that notifies us of the latest landscape, what's new in the phishing landscape, botnets, rootkits, and all of those different malicious tools that are out there. We appreciate the filtering capabilities as well.

It integrates well with the SD-WAN capabilities. It works easily, and the transition was quite simple with literally no downtime.

It is very customizable. We have multiple different subnets going into that FortiGate controller. We have used various models and various designs. We can diversify the number of links coming in either the WAN gateways or the local LANs. We can separate various subnets across the LAN segment. It's quite diverse.

We haven't tapped into most of the functionalities that Fortinet FortiGate offers because we're using it just for gateway security. One of the things that I would prefer is a more expansive use of their analyzer. They could do more work on FortiAnalyzer in terms of the data and the information coming from it. I'm not sure if it is because the team managing our analyzer isn't giving us all the information that's required. It could be something based on our own usage of the platform. As we continue to use the appliance, we may learn more about the utility and functionalities that are offered.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for about seven years.

Fortinet FortiGate is pretty stable, especially the enterprise version. 

The reliability of Fortinet FortiGate is through the roof. We're experiencing 99.999% availability consistently. Fortinet FortiGate only goes offline for maintenance. I have seen it running for two years nonstop without doing a reboot. They're pretty stable and energy-efficient, and I make a lot of headroom for growth, specifying my units at least 40% greater than what I need. They are working within the requirements of their provision, and usually, the published specifications for the units are within the range of their operational usage.

Scalability is all based on our design. Based on our network design, we can select or pick a product from the product listing that can scale with the growth potential of the organization within a specific time period. We tend to do our planning within time spans, such as the next 10 years, 5 years, or whatever the growth prospect is for that period. We put the units in place that can grow along with that growth development timeline.

I would rate Fortinet's support a solid eight because I'm hard on my support. They're responsive to a greater extent. There are lots of things that I want to get done that aren't done on time. However, the local support that we use for Fortinet FortiGate is pretty technically competent and capable of managing the unit and delivering the functionality we need from the device.

Positive

We outsource the management and configuration of Fortinet FortiGate to a third-party SOC center in Ireland. We don't do that ourselves, but we do manage it and go out to the third party to tell them what we want. They will recommend different methodologies, capabilities, or new features that we can implement, such as SD-WAN, and go ahead with it. We don't manage and do the configuration ourselves. My team's role is pretty much just to operate and utilize the service.

They handle the initial setup in the background. I just give them the requirements, and the engineers respond.

We interacted with two engineers, but I'm not sure what the backend team is like.

It's very hard to measure return on investment with security because security is so dynamic. Based on our plan, the ROI has been pretty good. Whatever we expected and planned for, as far as usage goes, I can extend and push my Fortinet FortiGate up to maybe three or four quarters past its end of life. It has performed as expected in that concern, giving us good ROI for what we planned.

It was pretty affordable. We did go a little bit above MSRP, but the service pack that was included was quite worth the additional costs.

It is competitively priced compared to other major players in the market. It is significantly cheaper than Check Point, which is a primary competitor. Additionally, its pricing is comparable to that of Cisco's ASA and a few other vendors.

Besides the pricing, we chose Fortinet FortiGate because of the service providers that are here locally and the support for the unit and the product.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten.