Fortinet FortiOS Reviews

Our company is a partner with Fortinet and uses the VDOM to deploy and service virtual firewalls for our customers. 

The solution provides good firewall and antivirus protection via IPX and its security profile.

The solution needs improvement with DDoS protection. 

I have been using the solution for nine years. 

The solution is stable and I rate it an eight out of ten. 

The solution is scalable and I rate it an eight out of ten.

The technical support is excellent. 

Positive

The initial setup was not very easy but the solution does integrate without much complexity. 

Our internal team of two engineers deploys the solution in about three days. 

The licensing costs are paid by our customers on a monthly basis and include maintenance and technical support provided by three of our engineers. 

The solution is quite affordable and I rate the cost a four out of ten. 

The solution is a leader in security according to the Gartner Report and I recommend its use. 

I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

FortiGate as a product is very easy to configure. There is a lot of data now with switching IDS and IPS. It's a truly complete solution for our customers.

It's a good idea to have the firewall connected to the switches. That way, the firewall is the controller of the switches. We like how the solution is designed with that in mind.

The solution's switches are lacking. They need more features added to them to build them out a bit. The switches are very simple if you compare them with other companies like Cisco or Aruba. Those organizations offer their clients much more.

Technical support could be better. Some competitors have much more responsive support teams.

I know the last version had NAC, network access control, added inside the firewall. It's a process, however. There's still work to do. The next version will be better. Right now, you can't authenticate other devices. You only can authenticate Forti devices and not devices from other companies. This could be the next addition to the solution that will make its performance even better. 

I've been dealing with the solution for ten years now. It's been a decade.

The solution is stable. We have no issues in that regard. There aren't bugs and glitches. It doesn't crash. It's reliable.

The solution is very scalable. We have a solution from the most basic office setup to a very complex data center. It works well in either scenario. If a company requires scale, this solution can provide it.

I have used technical support in the past. It's good for the most part. However, other companies, from my experience, have better technical support. They might be able to improve this aspect of the solution a little bit.

While it's easy to access them, finding a solution to whatever problems you are dealing with takes a long time. They need to get better at turning around queries faster so clients aren't kept waiting for so long.

The initial setup is very straightforward. I wouldn't describe the process as complex.

Deployment takes one to two hours. Everything happens pretty fast.

The pricing is good. They are especially fair when compared with other companies, like Palo Alto, for example, which can get quite expensive.

We work with a lot of manufacturers of firewalls. It's normally Fortinet, however, we also work with Cisco, Palo Alto, and Sophos. My company works with Barracuda as well. To be honest, I am not a specialist with Barracuda. I normally don't work with that.

That said, typically, when we work with clients, one of the first solutions we will suggest will be Fortinet. We do normally also recommend Cisco first, as well, due to the fact we are Cisco partners. We're also partners with Fortinet.

We have a deal with Palo Alto and our security center recommends Barracuda because of their other security solutions like WAF or solutions in the cloud (not their firewall). 

Normally, we use the on-premise deployment model. At this moment, we are working with a public cloud deployment model as well.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten overall.

We use the solution for automated solutions.

Fortinet FortiOS's valuable features include intuitive policy creation and deployment, precise parameter settings to determine thresholds, and security profiles such as web filtering and remote application filtering, among others. These features greatly enhance the platform. It includes every available application in terms of features. For example, in RDP, we must control the application. It’s already there whenever we want to apply their role or policy to that application.

Fortinet FortiOS's integration could be improved. It has extensive integration features, such as collectors for other services and third-party intelligence feeds.

I have been using Fortinet FortiOS for six months. We are using the latest version of the solution.

The product is stable.

The solution is scalable. We have around 300 users using this solution.

We initiated support from our servers because the other part of the company was not working. They helped us adjust the tuning, and it is working now.

The initial setup is not complex. It will take around two or three days to deploy. Product cleaning, readjustment, and screening are continuous tasks, as the nature of the work requires tuning and adjustments. To connect the PC to the console, we assign the networking settings, including data capabilities, and then reconfigure them on the web interface (UI). Some settings are also presented in a web-based format in the CLI because they are easier to navigate.

The reserve utilization is very low. Based on my learning, my expectation is for every product to have a good intelligence system and frequently updated threat intelligence. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

We are using it for security purposes. 

The security on offer is good.

It's quite stable.

The scalability has been great.

We found the initial setup to be straightforward. 

Technical support has been good overall. 

The UI could be a bit better. The coming generation will not be from the Sierra, and therefore they have a chance to make it much better and more user-friendly. Right now, we have to contend with CLI. We'd like it to be easier. We need the features to be in a UI.

I've been using the solution for more than five years. 

The solution has proven to be stable and reliable. The performance is good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

We find the solution to be quite scalable. If you need to expand it, you can do so.

We have more than 5,000 people on the solution right now. 

Technical support has been good in general. They are helpful and responsive. I have no complaints in regard to their level of service. 

Positive

It offers a pretty simple and straightforward setup. I'd rate it four out of five in terms of ease of implementation. It's not something that's too complex or difficult. 

I don't have many details surrounding the licensing. It's not an aspect I directly deal with. My understanding is the solution is moderately priced.

We are Fortinet partners. 

If a company is looking for a local security enhancement, we tend to recommend or select this kind of solution.

I'd rate the product nine out of ten overall. 

We use it for end-point gateway protection and also use the FortiOS for external user connection and server VPN. We love that clear synchronization as it's almost invisible with the fabric for the guests, externally to connect. The zero-choice engine that they use is pretty good. It is perfect for setting up one-to-one channels for different services that have to pass through the firewall. So it does that seamlessly.

The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiOS are its constant updates and definitions. The new definitions and the content information coming out to the threat labs keeps you updated on your signatures so that you know what's happening out there. And also doing well, for my system, we have, like, what is called, active scans.

It's constantly accessing Sophos into your gateway, even Sophos that you authorized.

I want to see a better integration or a better integration with the endpoint protection or with EDR with the security life cycle. I want to see if that enhances a bit more so I have granular datasets and the user level through to the gateway because that's where most of our threats come from. It's from user activities on the Internet and passes into your files over that gateway. That's where most of our threats would appear and where our exposure to vulnerabilities lies.

So if we can tighten that up, we can harden our infrastructure much better.

I have been using the solution for quite some time.

The customer support team is good and responsive.

We did the initial setup ourselves, so it was easy. The learning curve was that great once you have any experience with any firewall or any experience with any security appliance, you can pull around it. We did get some help from our providers. But that was basic.

The EMS setup was all in-house. Our service provider assisted with the firewall setup. The implementations were very smooth. And the transition of our current from our current security device to that when we did it a couple of years ago, it's seamless.

The pricing is competitive for the medium and high markets but for the small markets it can be expensive.

You have to see what works best for your environment. Each environment is different depending on the applications and different services you are running in that environment. Suppose it's a full Windows environment versus a mixture if you have a hybrid environment. It all depends on the type of environment you're running and finding the right tools that meet your domain.

But for the regular Windows environment, it's perfect.

I rate it eight out of ten.

The solution is great for data protection in our company, including site too site and SSH.

The stability of Fortinet FortiOS is great.

The product needs a feature that allows users to create another site on a VPN.

We have used this solution with our clients for two years and are currently using version 11. Additionally, we deploy this solution on-premises.

The solution is stable.

The solution is scalable. We have a large number of clients using this solution with their users.

We have had a good experience with customer service and support. They are very fast.

The initial setup was very easy to configure.

We implemented it through our in-house technical team.

I rate this solution a nine out of ten. The solution is very good but needs a feature that allows users to create another site on a VPN.

The fact that is it has a UTM, a Unified Threat Management feature is the most valuable aspect for us. It's an all in one product. It's like our one-stop-shop to the internet.

The complexity of the VPNs should be improved. Certain versions of the operating system don't function with our current Fortinet unit. For instance, we've got a 60D FortiGate at our branch offices and the 60D FortiGate doesn't support the latest version of the 40 OS. Because of this, certain Wi-Fi access points that depend on those operating systems don't function so well. So that has room for improvement. I'd like to see that happen.

My impression is the solution is very stable.

I find the solution scalable. With my current employer, we have a high available cluster. You can extend it and also extend it with Wi-fi access points because the controller of the Wi-Fi access points is also in the 40GB range. We've got about 300 personnel in the offices and we've got about 1,000 or more employees in the trucks and they all use it, at different times.

Technical support has been pretty good. At one point, because we've got a lot of drivers - we're a transportation organization - those drivers have mobile phones and at one point we implemented a new mobile phone which uses the Wi-Fi network. The new phones couldn't connect with the Wi-Fi access point and Fortinet pretty much came in quickly with a patch for the Wi-Fi access points.

The initial setup was straightforward. It comes with a quick book, a manual, and without any experience from day one, I implemented successfully without any help. It was pretty straightforward.

I implemented the solution myself.

Seven years ago I was looking into Palo Alto Firewalls.

It's a good reliable product. I'd rate it as a solid eight out of 10. It has room left for improvement.

We'd chosen the solution because of the price and the support contract, but just a few years later the support contact pricing was all of a sudden pretty steep. They increased it by 20% to 30% from one year to another year, and it's hard to explain why.

The best aspects of the solution are the wire signature and VPN, secure VPN encryption, and bulk packet monitoring.

It is a stable product. 

The product is scalable and easily expands. 

Setting up the solution is easy.

We like the technical support on offer. 

It should be controlled in the local environment as well. Its gateway security is more powerful. However, it should also manage the local DSCP network, so the policies, local LAN policies, and other stuff should be there.

I've been using the solution for the last two years.

The stability is good. 

It's running in many places and in different organizations. There's a huge market.

 I found the solution to be scalable. 

We use it in more than one location. We have more than four or five people using it at each location. 

Technical support's good. When we register a ticket, they are always prompt in their response. There are two types of support. It's paid or unpaid support, depending on the service we are using.

Positive

We've also used SonicWall. 

The initial setup is straightforward. It's not complex, You should know where it exists in the OS. Then you can work with it easily. Otherwise, the complexity is something you have to contend with for a new user.

We have witnessed an ROI. 

You need to repurchase a license every year or two. Costs are negotiable and sometimes they offer promotional prices. A yearly subscription might be around $20,000 to $30,000.

We're a customer and end-user.

We would recommend the solution.

Fortinet is a good product. However, other products are good as well. It really depends on the customer experience.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten due to the cost of quality of services, and due to the fact that we know other firewalls are more powerful than Fortinet. That said, Fortinet is very economical and gives us an appropriate solution based on what we require.