The main use cases for Fortinet FortiGate are for small, medium to large enterprises, and they also have products for SOHO (small office/home office). That is where they stand out.
Principal Consultant at Epitome Infotech Solutions (P) Ltd
Ease of configuration and strong performance have improved efficiency
Pros and Cons
- "On a scale of one to ten, I rate this solution 10 out of 10."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
The main benefits that Fortinet FortiGate brings to the table include the ease of configuration, stability of the product, and excellent support. When a customer is using Fortinet FortiGate, they will not look at any other products for expansion or upgrades. In terms of price and performance, it gives a very good, balanced product.
What is most valuable?
One of Fortinet FortiGate's best features is in terms of the configuration; it is one of the easiest to configure. It is very easy and based on ASICs. In terms of performance under scalability and stability, I would rate it amongst the best. I have not come across a product that I have had to replace or generate an R&D for to date.
There has not been any impact in terms of performance for customers because Fortinet FortiGate is dependent on the architecture, which is totally different. They have security processors, network processors, and they work on a different architecture compared to other products. To be very frank, we have not had any performance issues when deploying SD-WAN and a next-generation firewall together.
What needs improvement?
Regarding improvements for Fortinet FortiGate, there is always room for improvement in any product. In information technology, things fade away quickly, and new technologies come in. It is how quickly each of these companies adapts to that and brings in more value to the customer.
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For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for over fifteen years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
For scaling Fortinet FortiGate, I am not sure about scaling down as we have not had any instances, but scaling up has presented no challenges.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate the Fortinet FortiGate technical support as extremely good so far. I have not had any issues, and I would rate it the same as Cisco.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
One pro for the Fortinet FortiGate compared to Palo Alto, Cisco products, and WatchGuard is that the architecture is different because they use specific processors to handle different types of traffic, both security traffic and routing traffic. They keep enhancing the processors as they improve the capabilities of the product. As for cons, I do not see anything at this point in time.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup for Fortinet FortiGate is extremely simple. It takes about five minutes to get it up and running. It is that easy. Nothing beyond that.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment process for Fortinet FortiGate is generally very simple. We give the prerequisites to the customer in terms of a number of man links they want to connect and what the LAN subnet and number of subnets are. These initial details are gathered from the customer. Once the appliances are in place, we begin with the contribution to the content management interface. Most of the time, we start with the LAN configuration and the LAN network configuration. Then we move to firewall policies based on the organization's requirements, licensing the product on the cloud, and subscription licenses. In some cases, we configure VPNs and site-to-site VPNs. That is about it, and there are certain features that need to be enabled, which we will enable.
What was our ROI?
One thing I would definitely state about Fortinet FortiGate is that, in terms of performance, if compared with a product of the same price point, Fortinet FortiGate will outperform it. This way, the customer has a better ROI because they do not have to look at changing it or looking at an upgrade frequently.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I find the pricing setup cost and licensing for Fortinet FortiGate reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
I work with Fortinet FortiGate SD-WAN extensively. My experience in integrating SD-WAN capabilities with Fortinet FortiGate in the network is that it is very easy.
I would rate Fortinet FortiGate as a highly mature product. I have been working with them for quite a long time and have multiple implementations across India. I have not come across any instance where I had to replace the product.
My advice for others looking into implementing Fortinet FortiGate is to plan the capacity properly and right-size the product for the specific customer, which is most important. When choosing the wrong model, some run into issues where it is not supporting that procedure, the system going under load, and similar issues. It is primarily important to spend more time on the design and finalize what is required in terms of the appliances.
On a scale of one to ten, I rate this solution 10 out of 10.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Last updated: Apr 19, 2025
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Updated: April 2025
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