Fortinet FortiGate SWG Reviews

I’m using Fortinet FortiGate SWG to study it as a proposal for our clients in Brazil.

The solution reduced a few tickets from our operations center, and we're able to work better with flash incidents.

The solution is easy to implement and easy to configure. The most valuable feature is FortiGate’s content filtering.

The price could be improved.

I’ve used the solution for four years and I’m currently using the latest version.

I rate FortiGate SWG’s stability a ten out of ten.

I rate FortiGate SWG’s scalability an eight out of ten.

The solution is easy to use, and it’s a great solution. I rate Fortinet FortiGate SWG a ten out of ten.

The initial setup was straightforward.

I have seen an ROI using FortiGate SWG.

Our clients use it to protect their network. They're into public safety. They're police, fire, and EMS, and they're very concerned about security and what gets in and what doesn't get into their networks. We have got another client for whom we're deploying 30 firewalls in HA pairs over a huge network. That, of course, is a Cisco setup, not FortiGate.

Everybody is cranking up on security to find new ways to block and protect not just the inbound but also the outbound traffic. They want to protect what goes out. They also want to protect DMZs and all that kind of stuff.

It is simpler to configure. It is not like Cisco Firepower, where you go crazy trying to follow the Cisco documentation to figure out how to configure one little thing. Unlike Cisco Firepower, where you can't do everything through the web interface and you have got to do some command line stuff, Fortinet FortiGate SWG is simpler. There are four different things in Cisco to get in, which is not the case with Fortinet FortiGate SWG.

It is one of my favorite solutions to work with. I would much rather work with it than Cisco Firepower, for example. Even though I've got 20 years of Cisco experience with different firewalls, I would much prefer this solution.

Their technical support could be improved a little bit in terms of responsiveness.

I have been using this solution for almost three years.

For me, so far, it is fire and forget. You just set it up, and you really don't have to mess with it. It has been really reliable. It hasn't gone down, and I haven't had any outages.

It is scalable.

Technical support is okay. It, of course, depends on the kind of contract that you have. I've had better support from Cisco than from Fortinet when I'm having a problem that I can't figure out. Fortinet support is not bad, and they do get to the solution. However, they can be a little bit more responsive. That's the nice thing with Cisco. When you've got a network down issue, and they can get people on the phone immediately, and they stay with you until it is done. I find Fortinet's documentation better than Cisco's documentation.

We didn't have anything before, so this was brand new.

It is fairly straightforward. The only complexity to it is that it has a little bit longer setup than the old generation firewall thing, where you slap an IP address on the outside and the inside interface and turn it on, and you're going to have a basic firewall. You have got to go through several configuration steps to get it to a good base setup.

It is less expensive than a Cisco solution.

If you are brand new to this solution, you're going to want to read the documentation and follow it while setting it up because otherwise, you will miss something. To use this solution, you've got to know what you're doing. You can't just take someone who is a decent network guy and expect him to figure out what he has to do. It isn't that simple.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate SWG an eight out of ten.

We use Fortinet FortiGate SWG for firewall, antivirus, scanning, and web filtering.

The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate SWG are IPS and scanning. Fortinet FortiGate SWG is also easy to use.

The solution’s stability could be improved.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate SWG for six years.

I rate Fortinet FortiGate SWG an eight out of ten for stability.

Around 60 users use Fortinet FortiGate SWG in our organization.

The solution’s initial setup is straightforward.

We implemented the solution through an in-house team.

Fortinet FortiGate SWG is an affordable solution.

I would recommend Fortinet FortiGate SWG to other users.

Overall, I rate Fortinet FortiGate SWG a nine out of ten.

FortiGate is a great solution, although initially, it faced challenges in the Brazilian market due to lower brand recognition than Cisco. However, explaining and demonstrating its product format and offerings has proven easy. The cost-effectiveness and better features of FortiGate have made some clients skeptical. We set up a trial period, and they eventually opted for it. Many clients were convinced it was great after experiencing the solution's capabilities firsthand.

I believe the package offered by FortiGate provides great value for the solution. It integrates well, allowing us to use Wi-Fi solutions, switches, and firewalls with a centralized management portal. The security it provides is great and one of the best in the market.

One area of improvement I've noticed is the lack of built-in monitoring capabilities in the firewall. Currently, we rely on third-party solutions for monitoring purposes. However, I believe the firewall itself has the potential to do a better job in this aspect.

Another aspect of Fortinet that concerns me is related to redundancy. We have a setup with two firewalls working in parallel, which requires a highly adaptable configuration. However, it feels unfair that clients need to purchase two licenses, especially when one of the firewalls serves as a backup. We have noticed that other manufacturers have different policies on this matter.

We have been using the solution for the past 20 years.

I rate the stability of the solution as a nine out of ten.

I rate the scalability of the solution as a seven out of ten.

We have encountered some issues with the support. Although it is included in the solution, the support could be faster.

Neutral

The initial setup was straightforward.

There has been a return on investment.

When comparing this solution to others, I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of pricing. However, the issue of requiring a separate license for redundancy is a drawback, and I would rate it a nine out of ten.

The advice I can offer is to compare the entire solution with its competitors. While certain narrow aspects might show some glitches and areas for improvement, when viewed completely, it becomes evident that Fortinet is a great solution. Overall, I would rate the solution as a nine out of ten.

Web filtering is the most useful feature.

We can't identify which users are causing challenges when we have issues. For example, we may know we have a challenge with our network, but many want to know where it is and the particular user. That would help us to blacklist the user if needed and manage the user data.

We have been using this solution for about six years.

I rate the stability an eight out of ten.

It is very scalable, and I rate the scalability an eight out of ten. We have about a hundred users.

I rate the technical support a seven out of ten because I don't use them often.

Neutral

The initial setup was straightforward and not difficult. I rate the setup an eight out of ten, and it did not take long to deploy.

Pricing is an issue and is a bit high. I rate the pricing a six out of ten because it is expensive.

We evaluated other options like Zoho and Cisco. We chose Fortinet FortiGate SWG because the network we were using was poor.

I rate the solution a nine out of ten. It is good, and I would recommend it to others.

The product has the most valuable configuration, offloading, and security features.

Fortinet FortiGate SWG's SSL offloading features need improvement.

We have been using Fortinet FortiGate SWG for five years.

I recommend Fortinet FortiGate SWG to larger companies as the lease line is expensive. It is suitable for companies who are running web applications. It is not a necessity for small businesses.

The product's tier-one support process is time-consuming. It takes time to reach the right person to sort out the issues.

Neutral

I have previously worked with a product related to SSL offloading and caching through a reverse proxy. Currently, we are serving the small and medium-sized business (SMB) segment, where the requirements and infrastructure may not necessitate SSL offloading and related features due to the absence of web servers within their networks. Simpler and more streamlined solutions suffice for their requirements in such cases.

The initial setup process is easy. It takes two or three hours for basic implementation. At the same time, it takes around two days to perform a clone test. It includes fine-tuning, optimizing, and transforming it to the environment once stabilized.

The product is expensive.

I rate Fortinet FortiGate SWG an eight out of ten. It has a lower failure rate in terms of configuration. Once it is configured, it keeps running for years. However, they have increased the process by almost 60% to 70%.

It provides features such as web filtering, antivirus, data loss prevention, and application control.

It offers web filtering capabilities at a more affordable price compared to other solutions like PSMs or NETGEAR.

Integrating OpenVPN with FortiGate would provide a powerful combination of secure remote access and comprehensive network security.

I have been testing it for few weeks now. 

After using it for several weeks, I found it to be operating smoothly and stable.

When comparing Fortinet FortiGate with DSOS and NETGEAR, it is important to note that FortiGate does not have native support for OpenVPN, whereas other options offer those features. However, FortiGate excels in terms of comprehensive network security, with a wide array of antivirus and security solutions available.

It is easy to set up and configure, instilling confidence in its reliability.

It is a cost-effective solution that meets the user's needs.

I would rate it ten out of ten.

We use the firewall to protect our internal network and endpoints or servers and to establish the VPN with our other locations. We also use this solution to aggregate multiple WAN links using SD-WAN.

The user interface is intuitive. Anyone can configure the firewall with little knowledge of the product. The back-end is robust with good security.

All entries in the firewall are linked to all relevant items. For example, if I create one IP address for a LAN segment and I use that IP address in a particular group or if I create a policy or rule inside the firewall, it will be tagged and linked. This makes it easy to identify where and how a particular object is being used.

By clicking on a single point, we can view to all other relevant records. I found this very useful for our tech team and IT admins. 

We have experienced a number of failures when trying to upgrade firmware and the process takes a long time. We only experienced this when doing major upgrades between versions. We have not experienced this challenge with other solutions. 

Fortinet has a policy of pushing all logs into the cloud but the log management is sluggish and slow. The problem is on the site or application where the cloud is hosted.

We have used this solution for more than five years. 

This is a stable solution. I have many customers whose firewalls have been running for a couple of years without any periods of downtime.

The Fortinet back-end team are quite experienced and very helpful. In some cases they take more time than expected. The ETA for resolution could be better.

We are a partner of Fortinet and have a dedicated support team for our Fortinet customers. When they need assistance, we encourage them to contact us instead of Fortinet so that we can resolve their queries faster.

Neutral

The pricing for this solution is reasonable. 

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.