Fortinet FortiOS Reviews

We are using Fortinet FortiOS for our multi-level security. For example, we use the SD-WAN feature to protect our data center infrastructure.

There are many useful features, such as web security and advanced threat detection.

The solution could improve by making the dashboard easier to use.

I have been using Fortinet FortiOS for approximately 10 years.

The solution is reliable and stable.

The solution is scalable.

The technical support has been very helpful and they have local language support for Taiwan.

The installation was straightforward.

There is a license required for the solution and the price is fair.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Fortinet FortiOS an eight out of ten.

We primarily use the solution as a data center.

Fortinet is very easy to use. I like its configuration and the various functions it offers. 

I think the most common use for a firewall system is web filtering and application filtering. The program has other features too, like anti-virus and other security features, but I think that some of the usage is there to control and connect web filtering and application filtering and to control what comes in and what goes out.

For me, it is important to be able to block VPN applications, like Facebook, so I would like to see that included in the next release. With this version, if you want to block or allow a site, you now have to drag all the domains related to this site. 

The program is very stable.

The scalability is very high.

The customer service is very nice because they answered my questions when I asked them about the program before buying it. The technical support is great too, because they called me back with a solution to my question. 

The initial setup was straightforward and I did it myself. I downloaded it, read the instructions and started the deployment, which took only about an hour. 

I rate this solution an eight out of ten and I will definitely recommend it to others because many people are using it around the world now. 

We use this solution as a gateway, a firewall for the office.

More Stability on VPN and SSL Deep Packet Inspection (Compare to Sonicwall)

It is very robust.

Many things are missing from the interface that necessitates using the CLI, so it needs to be improved. When I migrated to FortiGate, there many things that I wanted to do, but couldn't.

With FortiOS, you can use the router in two modes. The first mode is the profile mode, which is the starter mode that most use, but you have another mode that is a policy mode and is required before creating your firewall rule. The problem is that when you switch from one mode to the other, all of your firewall rules will be gone. This means that you have to decide if you want to use the policy mode firewall or a profile mode firewall.

With policy mode, you can have granular control on the application on the firewall rule because the firewall rule works with the source destination protocol. With the application, you have multiple rules, one by one. As an example, you can have one for Skype or one for OneDrive, etc. On the source, you can add a group, and add people to the group, and they can have access to Skype and OneDrive along with others added.

You can granularly control applications on the firewall rule with the policy mode, but you don't have access to the proxy mode rules. There are also issues with the antivirus, IPS, and you are forced to switch back to the profile mode where you have less granular control on the application.

I have problems with the IPS stability and the antivirus in Policy Based Mode. If the file is bigger, then the antivirus doesn't check it.

In policy Based Mode, There are many issues. (Firmware =< 6.4)

I have been using this solution for one year.

We are using the latest version, either 6.4 or 6.5.

This solution is very stable. It is more stable than SonicWall. The biggest difference is the stability on the VPN site to site, and on the DPI SSL for the HTTPS communication.

If you wanted to expand the firewall to another office you would have to use the FortiManager, which I have not used yet.

I have built five routers, one by one.

SonicWall is the same where you have the GMS that can be used to move the rule to the other firewall.

Technical support is not always good.

I can only compare it with SonicWall, and it is missing many advanced features that SonicWall has. SonicWall has multiple advanced features on the DNS, Antivirus, etc...  and a lot of options that don't exist in Fortinet.

With SonicWall, I never had to use the CLI but have had to with Fortinet. They are missing many things on the interface.

FortiGate is like a teenager, where SonicWall is the adult firewall. However, it is more robust than SonicWall, particularly on the VPN site to site and SLL Inspection.

When you build a VPN from site to site, you have to make sure the tunnel you select has the same option on both sides to make it work, but you have to also make sure that the routing exists, the mapping exists, and the firewall role exists. 

If one of them is not there, even if you create a site-to-site VPN with the other side and everything, there is no error, the VPN will not go up. 

On SonicWall, it's different. You build a tunnel, you put the same encryption, the same password on both tunnels, and you click up and it's up. If it's not working, it's because you didn't create yet the firewall rule, you work on the VPN, you click, then connect, and it's up.

Then if it's still not working, you create a firewall rule and it's up, or if you forgot the net rule, etc. You do that step-by-step, and it's working, but unfortunately if one of them has a mistake, even if you have no error on the site-to-site VPN setup, it's not going up.

With SonicWall, you can do it step by step and have it working, but with Fortinet, you have to do it all at the same time with no errors.

I work on the configuration and not really involved in the pricing. It was already in place when the company decided to switch back to Fortinet. 

I concentrate more on security.

I know Fortinet and SonicWall, and If I had to consider other solutions or if I have to redo it again, I would take a closer look with Palo Alto first.

With Palo Alto, the cost is more, but when I switch from SonicWall to Fortinet FortiOS, I lost a lot in the features. I would check to see if Palo Alto has what was lost in terms of features.

The stability is good. I would rate Fortinet FortOS an eight out of ten.

We are a reseller, and I deployed the public cloud version of this solution for a client on Microsoft Azure.

Due to instability of internet here in East Africa ,it will be great if the updates for FortOS could be small and so much size that could utilise more bandwidth.

The most valuable features are the intrusion prevention system and the anti-virus.

The interface is more user-friendly than other products, but moving between the VPN and anti-virus features is not as easy for people who are inexperienced with the solution.

The internet service is not as reliable in East Africa as in other parts of the world, and as such, the bandwidth that is required for updating the Fortinet OS should be reduced. I would like to see smaller and more frequent updates.

So far, the solution has been stable. I have not had any complaints from the customer.

The scalability is one of the great features of this solution.

We did not have to contact technical support.

I have had experience working with Check Point UTM. These products have the same features. However, the user interface and support for Fortinet are superior to Check Point.

The initial setup of this solution was straightforward. The deployment took at most three hours. When the deployment was complete, the only job that was left was for the system administrator on the client's side.

According to our customer, they have not experienced any difficulties.

We handled the deployment of this solution for our customer.

Three people are enough for deployment, with one configuring the network and two working on the systems. 

It is easy to show a return on investment with this solution because it is easy to scale.

The only advice I have for anybody who is implementing this solution to make sure that they have a proper internet connection with good bandwidth.

Overall, the Fortinet OS is great.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

This is a user friendly solution and offers comprehensive integrations. 

The reporting for this solution could be improved. It could also be more stable and offer better pricing. 

I have been using this solution for five years. 

The customer support for this solution is good and user-friendly.

Positive

Installation takes two minutes.

If you are able to afford it, I would recommend Fortinet. 

We primarily use the solution as a firewall. It's protecting customers from the internet to have access to servers behind the firewall.

We co-locate customers' servers at our company, and we also give them firewall protection. Mostly, people that co-locate a server don't have any firewall so they ask for the service through us.

The solution is very user friendly. 

The product is very easy to configure, compared to other firewalls that I've worked with.

Fortinet needs to make this solution even more robust. Sometimes when we get a DDoS attack, the cannot withstand it. We can run out of sessions very easily. That said, I suppose if you want more a robust system, then you could purchase higher-end solutions, which are more expensive. Still, I would like to see more protection from even in the low-end version.

The pricing needs to be improved. It's quite pricey.

In terms of the CLI, if they could make it more intuitive, and more user friendly, it would make the solution better. I like to work on CLI instead of through the GUI. If you are used to it then you wouldn't mind the way it works right now. However, for those that don't, there's just a sizeable learning curve.

I have been dealing with the solution for three and a half or four years.

The solution doesn't really scale. If you want a bigger box, you need to scrap the box you have and trade up to get the larger capacity. You can't just "add" to it per se on existing solutions you've bought. It's hardware, so it doesn't scale well.

We're not looking to increase our usage right now. COVID-19 really slowed us down in a lot of ways.

We have a local supplier that helps us a lot every time we need to open a ticket. So far we haven't had that many issues. The few ones that we have had, we didn't have any problems with opening up tickets and getting support.

The solution is not complex at all. I'd say it's very easy. There's a learning curve, however, once you're used to the device, it's very easy to set up a firewall. It's fairly straightforward.

The solution is too expensive. If they could push down their prices, that would be great. However, I'm not in charge of purchasing. I wouldn't know about the exact costs.

We're just customers. We don't have a business relationship with Fortigate.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

We use different types of deployment models of this solution besides for the public cloud. Our primary use case is to install it for many clients on their on-prem site. Our job is client-based. We are resellers of this solution. 

The most valuable feature of this solution would be the caching feature. 

Their technical support needs improvement. 

All products have pluses and minuses. It will depend on a client's use case.

The stability is good. 

Scalability is good. 

Sometimes it is difficult to get support. It can take time to get an answer to our problems. They don't always know what the solution is. 

They also offer online support. 

The initial setup is complex. The deployment takes eight to nine months. 

The pricing will depend. It can depend on your partner. Sometimes your partner can get you a better price. 

I wouldn't specifically recommend one product of this type over another. We provide a plethora of products and it depends on the client's needs. 

I would rate this solution a six or seven out of ten. We deal with a lot of products, this one is okay. It really depends on the client. 

Our primary use case for this solution is for firewalls and the efficient fulfillment of orders. Additionally, with Fortinet FortiOS, you get other features like inbuilt SD-WAN, where the customers are ready to deploy once they move into the SD-WAN features. So there are several additional features within the OS and integration with third-party software, other vendors and third-party solutions. So the integrability, adaptability, and value addition of the OS play a significant role.

We have found the inbuilt SD-WAN most valuable. For example, with FortiGates, we refer to it as being SD-WAN-ready because the customer has to buy it in the box, and the OS supports it by building a connection between two units. Also, regarding the OS integrability with other third parties, for example, with Ciga Group, you can deploy a unit in Sri Lanka, and the customer may have another unit in a different geography. Within Fortinet FortiOS and other competitive products, it's integrative, so it's used for data flexibility.

The solution is good but could be improved by supporting an allocation of quota base management regarding user data.

We have been using this solution for three years.

I rate customer service and support a ten out of ten.

The initial setup is straightforward, and it is very customer friendly. Fortinet FortiOS quickly provides many complex solutions when we deploy a simple firewall. So it's named one of the most customer-friendly OSs in the industry in Sri Lanka and globally. Therefore, customizability allows you to deploy the boxes and register a serial number. Eight people on our technical team are involved in deployment. I rate the initial setup process as nine out of ten.

I cannot comment on licensing costs as a different department handles that.

I rate this solution a nine out of ten.