Fortinet FortiManager Reviews

We have 20 Forti Firewalls, including FortiManager. 

We use it for firewall management as we have many objects. In FortiManager, we use one type of object and implementation, the different firewalls.

The most valuable feature is having one object on all networks, which allows for implementation only once. We can have that object on one firewall or many, and we don't have to do everything one by one.

It's easy to set up the solution. 

Stability is good within the product.

It is scalable. 

Technical support is helpful and knowledgeable. 

The central management is great.

It's very transparent. If I  am troubleshooting for people who have a problem connecting to the network, then I can just open FortiManager and see all of the history of the connection. It makes it easy if I have to adjust a configuration.

The rules need to be more flexible. I prefer configuring rules and the VPN on the standalone device, not on the manager.

I've used the solution for three years. 

It's quite stable. It's reliable, and the performance is good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

We have found the product to be scalable. It's not a problem if you want to expand it. 

For example, if you want to add another 10 or 15 firewalls, will it have any problems

We have technical support in my local language. The person who assists us is senior and he's a master of FortiManager. He knows many options for configurations.

Their technical support is very responsive. They are very knowledgeable.

Positive

It's easy to set up the product. It's an easy deployment. If I have a new box, we just have to create a template, and I add a new FortiGate to FortiManager, and implementation becomes only standard configuration via FortiManager. We do any password policy, proxy pack, and other features we implement, we do so through FortiManager. Other updates, for example, a hostname or object, is from FortiManager. However, if I create any specific rule on a specific VPN, we configure that on the device.

I'd rate the solution four out of five in terms of ease of implementation.

We bought FortiManager as an option as we bought maybe five firewalls plus a license to FortiManager. The implementation site gave me only one price, which included both solutions. It was basically a package. It's moderately priced. I'd rate it a three out of five in terms of affordability.

We had average security knowledge about management, and we started with a demo project. It was from Fortigate Support. They gave me two or three months free to try out FortiManager. I'd advise people to take the time to test it and see how it works. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. 

We use the solution for SD-WAN customers, deployment, and interface management.

The SD-WAN deployment environment, and the SD-WAN templates are particularly useful for us. Also, we have found that managing the solution is very intuitive, which is perfect for us.

The interface could be improved. It is split up into different areas, which makes it more difficult to navigate and get the right section of the correct file.

We have been using this solution for over two years.

We have found the solution to be stable during our time using it.

We have found the solution to be easily scalable.

We have direct support, and sometimes issues aren't resolved as quickly as we would like them to be. However, they are always willing to help, and they will escalate issues if they aren't resolved to our liking.

Positive

The initial setup of the solution was very straightforward.

The implementation was carried out in-house.

The solution requires you to have a license for every device, as well as for any advanced features being used, which makes it costly for high-volume users. However, for a large-scale environment with a lot of customers we have found it to be a worthwhile investment.

This product requires knowledge of firewalls in order for the initial setup to be straightforward, and to ensure the product is effective once installed. We also found that deployment is easy through this solution. 

The solution requires updates, during which it needs to communicate with the Fortinet Cloud. However, it can do this automatically, if the firewalls are set up correctly.

The solution is quite expensive, so it would not be suitable for small to medium sized organizations.

I would rate this solution as eight out of ten.

We use FortiManager for centralized management of all Fortinet products. I have done SD-LAN configuration for multiple branches through FortiManager. It was easier for me to do it through this solution and push it to all the the branches.

Centralized configuration is the most helpful feature. I like the ability to create templates and push them to all the devices at the same time. I also like that I can see the the logs with one device to provide zero touch on all other products.

I would like to be able to manage other products such as Endpoint and FortiAnalyzer through FortiManager. That is, the integration with other solutions needs to be improved.

It would be helpful if we can manage all Fortinet products with a simpler GUI. FortiManager's GUI is complicated in comparison to that of FortiGate.

I've been working with Fortinet FortiManager for a year and a half.

I would rate FortiManager's stability at nine out of ten.

On a scale from one to ten with one being the worst and ten being the best, FortiManager's scalability would be eight. It is a good solution for medium and enterprise companies.

FortiManager's technical support is great, and I'd give them a ten out of ten.

Positive

FortiManager's initial setup is a simple process.

On a scale from one to ten with one being the highest price and ten being the lowest price, I would rate FortiManager's price at three.

We compared FortiManager with Palo Alto Panorama. The user interface for Panorama is more user-friendly than that of FortiManager. Using certain commands and troubleshooting are also easier with Panorama.

Overall, I would give FortiManager a rating of seven out of ten.

FortiManager
Automation-Driven Centralized Management
Manage all your Fortinet devices in a singleconsole
central management system.
FortiManager provides full visibility of your
network, offering streamlined provisioning and
innovative automation tools.
Integrated with Fortinet’s Security Fabric, the
security architecture and FortiManager’s
Automation Driven Network Operations
capabilities provide a foundation to secure and
optimize network security, such as
provisioning and monitoring SD-WAN.

FortiManager VM-S
The new FortiManager Subscription license model consolidates the VM product SKU and the FortiCare Support SKU into one single SKU,
to simplify the product purchase, upgrade and renewal.
The FortiManager S-Series SKUs come in stackable subscriptions to manager 10, 100 and 1000 devices/vdoms, so that multiple units of
this SKU can be purchased at a time to increase the number of devices/vdoms as needed. This SKU can also be purchased together with
other FMG VM-S SKUs to expand the total number of devices/vdoms.

FortiManager VM
Fortinet offers the FortiManager VM in a stackable license model. This software-based version of the FortiManager hardware appliance
allows you to expand your virtual solution as your environment expands and is designed to run on many virtualization platforms. The
FortiManager virtual appliance family minimizes the effort required to monitor and maintain your network and offers all the features of the
FortiManager hardware appliance.

Key Features

Single console management

§ Manage all Fortinet products, including firewalls,

FortiAnalyzers, switches, wireless infrastructure and Endpoints

Security automation

§ Reduces complexity and costs by leveraging automated REST

API, scripts, connectors, and automation stitches

Centralized policy and device management

§ Centrally manage up to 100,000+ devices and policies such as

firewalls, switches, and access points

Zero-touch provisioning

§ Automate workflows and configurations for Fortinet firewalls,

switches and wireless infrastructure

Secure SD-WAN provisioning and monitoring

§ Provision and monitor Secure SD-WAN from one console

across your network, branch offices or campuses

Multi-tenancy and administrative domains (ADOMs)

§ Separate customer data and manage domains leveraging

ADOMs to be compliant and operationally effective

Enterprise-grade high availability and integration

§ Automated backups to up to 5 nodes (1 Primary, and 4

secondary) with streamlined software and security updates for

all managed devices

Feature Highlights

Single Pane Automation and Orchestration

FortiManager provides insight into network traffic and threats through a single-pane-of-glass and offers enterprise-class features and

sophisticated security management for unified, end-to-end protection to contain advanced threats. FortiManager also delivers the industry’s

best scalability to manage up to 100,000 Fortinet devices. FortiManager, coupled with the FortiAnalyzer family of centralized logging and

reporting appliances, provides a comprehensive and powerful centralized management solution for your organization.

Central Management of Network Infrastructure
Centrally manage FortiGate, FortiSwitch, FortiExtender & FortiAP.
The VPN manager simplifies the deployment and enables centrallyprovisioned
VPN community and connection monitoring. FortiAP
Manager allows configuring, deploying and monitoring FortiAPs
from a single console.

Configuration and Settings Management
Collectively configure the device settings - using the provisioning
templates and advance CLI templates improves management of a
large number of devices. Automatic device configuration backup
with revision control and change audit make it easier for daily
administrative tasks. Use Management extensions to add SD-WAN
Orchestrator, Wireless Manager and other modules.

API for Automation and Orchestration
RESTful API allows MSSPs/large enterprises to create customized,
branded web portals for policy and object administration. Automate
common tasks such as provisioning FortiGates and configuring
existing devices. Join Fortinet Developer Network (FNDN) to
access exclusive articles, how-to content for automation and
customization, community-built tools, scripts and sample code.

Management Extensions
FortiManager’s management extensions allow rapid expansion of
Single Pane to manage more Security Fabric products. The built-in
engine runs containerized extensions to support trusted containers,
which are pulled from the FortiGuard. FortiManager is notified when
new containers are made available and users can easily choose to
opt in our out of each of the management extensions. It includes
modules like SD-WAN Orchestrator, Wireless Manager and more.

Security Policy Management
Per Policy Lock has been added to 6.4, which allows admins to
control the policy change by implicitly lock a policy rule when he/
she does the change to the policy. Group commonly used security
policies in a policy block and insert as needed in different Policy
Packages. Global policy feature that allows companies such as:
Telecom, MSSP and SAAS providers to apply a header/footer
policy at the ADOM level to all policy packages or select packages.

SD-WAN Orchestration & Analytics
Powerful SD-WAN management capabilities using intuitive
workflow and simplified provisioning at scale. Enhanced SD-WAN
analytics to monitor application performance and bandwidth
utilization per WAN link. Leverage application centric SD-WAN
business policies to fine-tune traffic steering decisions based on
performance SLA targets for each WAN provider. Provide flexible
deployment options for SD-WAN orchestrator, an add-on to

Multi-Tenancy & Role Based Administration
FortiManager equips admins with granular device and role based
administration for deploying zero-trust, multi-tenancy architecture
to large enterprises, with a hierarchical objects database to
facilitate re-use of common configurations and serve multiple
customers. ADOMs are used to manage independent security
environments, each with its own security policies and configuration
database, and the intuitive GUI makes it easy to view, create, clone
and manage ADOMs. The zero-touch deployment uses templates
to provision devices for quick mass deployment, and also supports
firmware version enforcement. Define global objects such as
Firewall Objects, Policies and Security Profiles to share across
multiple ADOMs. Granular permissions allow assigning ADOMs,
devices and policies to users based on role and responsibilities.
FortiManager’s new IPS admin is a restricted user role for
performing only IPS related object configuration and install.

The solution is very good; I'm not sure if I can think of any features that are lacking.

The GUI could be updated. It's not as good as it could be and is something the solution should improve in an upcoming release.

It would be nice if there could be more reporting included in the solution so that we could get more details about an individual user's profile.

I've been working with the solution for about six years now.

In terms of stability, the solution is very good. We haven't faced any bugs or glitches. It's quite reliable.

The licensing is very easy, which makes it quite scalable. A company shouldn't have any trouble expanding the solution. If they have, for example, 50 devices and suddenly need 100, they just need to scale up.

Whether the solution is used regularly depends on the organization. 

We've been in touch with technical support on the past. In India, they're quite good. We've found them to be very helpful and have been satisfied with their level of support.

The solution is easy to set up. Users shouldn't have any problems doing so.

FortiManager is for the syncing of devices. Therefore, when companies are using multiple devices from Fortinet, such as FortiGate, FortiSwitches, FortiAP, etc., then it's required to have FortiManager. That way, companies can manage central lines in all of the devices via a single person. It's a very useful application.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. It's got all of the features we need to manage our FortiGate products and doesn't seem to be lacking anything. It does exactly what we need it to do and we find it quite easy to use.

We're a Fortinet distributor. My clients are the ones that actually use the product. Most of our clients are SMEs or large businesses. This solution, however, is more suited to large and medium-sized businesses.

The user interface is very easy to navigate. It is comfortable to use.

Regional support in African countries needs to be improved.

I have been using FortiManager for less than a year.

So far, FortiManager has been really stable.

We have not pushed our usage to the point where we have had to scale, yet.

The platform does not have proper support for Africans.

The initial setup is straightforward and not as cumbersome as some other products.

Our deployment took a month or two because of the change management. 

My advice to anybody who is researching this product is that it is quite easy to use and the learning curve is not steep.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

I use Fortinet FortiManager for managing my FortiGate devices.

What I like best about Fortinet FortiManager is that you can use it with FortiGate. You can manage FortiGate devices through it. I also like that Fortinet FortiManager allows you to manage multiple FortiGate devices from a single console.

The Fortinet FortiManager dashboard is good, which is another pro of the product.

Areas for improvement in Fortinet FortiManager are scalability and stability.

I've been working with Fortinet FortiManager for three years. I'm still using the product.

Fortinet FortiManager could be more stable, so it's a seven out of ten for me.

I'd give five out of ten for Fortinet FortiManager, scalability-wise. It's in the middle.

I have experience contacting the technical support for Fortinet FortiManager. I'm giving the team an eight out of ten because I found it challenging to get support. Fortinet FortiManager technical support can be difficult to contact.

Positive

Fortinet FortiManager has a simple setup.

We implemented Fortinet FortiManager because it's just a process of downloading the product.

Fortinet FortiManager is a low-priced product.

I evaluated Cisco and Palo Alto Networks, but I found Fortinet FortiManager better and easier to manage.

I'm using Fortinet products, Fortinet FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer.

My company has between three to four Fortinet FortiManager users.

Fortinet FortiManager is a product I recommend to others.

I'm rating the product as nine out of ten because it still has room for improvement stability-wise. Its technical support also needs improvement.

My company is a Fortinet partner.

FortiManager is used just to manage a lot of devices from Fortinet, especially FortiGate. We can push the configuration, we can push the packages, and we can change the configuration from the FortiManager via centralized management.

There are a lot of features that are important to us. For example, we like that we can roll back to the previous configuration, or push configuration on devices remotely. We also have the ability to save the configuration on FortiManager. If there is an issue with the devices, we can report the configuration remotely.

It's a very rich, robust product.

The integration is quite good.

Its pricing is decent. 

This solution is easy to set up.

The solution is able to scale quite well. 

We are not missing any features at this time. I don't have any expectations about additional features.

The storage could be better for logs. There is a degradation of performance if we activate logs on FortiManager.

I've been using the solution for four years. 

The solution is stable. We haven't faced any performance issues. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

It's scalable. It's easy to expand. 

The solution is very straightforward and simple. It's not overly complex to implement. 

The pricing is reasonable. It varies. Sometimes we need to buy many appliances and sometimes just a few. 

There are some additional costs sometimes from our partner. It depends on the size of the environment of our clients. We can negotiate on and maybe lower the price if a lot of devices are needed. 

We are a VMware vendor. We work with a local partner. We are a kind of integrator.

With respect to the requirements, new users should consider performance and be sure to tune the solution correctly during the configuration and integration. It will ensure it works well once it is up and running.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

The primary use case is internal security domain protection in corporate sites.

The most valuable feature is intrusion protection.

Everybody is quite happy with the way that the graphical user interface works.

The redundancy and resiliency are quite good.

We have experienced a series of minor bugs that necessitated contacted technical support on several occasions.

I have been dealing with Fortinet FortiManager for about four years.

This is a resilient product. There are bugs in the system but the vendor has been very responsive in terms of fixing them or looking to them. None of the bugs were major, so we just had to use work-arounds until a new version came out that fixed them.

Scalability with FortiManager is fine.

The ability to upgrade, or downgrade if necessary, is very good.

We have made quite a lot of support calls to deal with bugs and other issues. The technical support is very responsive and there was no problem with it. I would say that they are excellent. My only problem is that we needed them perhaps slightly too often.

The initial setup is very straightforward.

Our deployment took about six months in total, although we were limited in resources and the requirements of operational handover. My engineering group has to stick to documentation and testing and requirements from the operations team. There were no issues with the deployment. Rather, that is how long it generally takes.

Our in-house team is responsible for deployment and maintenance. We have about 10 engineers, although they support all of our networking products.

There are features that come at a cost that is in addition to the standard license.

In general, I have no serious concerns about this product so I have no problems recommending it. It has all of the features that I need, as far as I'm concerned. Certainly, there's nothing that would cause me to suggest that people not use it.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.