Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access Reviews

My son owns three healthcare facilities, and two of them are in the same building. That's why I went to VLANs to separate the data to satisfy HIPAA requirements. The other facility is in another town. I'm using them to manage the data and communication through VoIP phones in both locations.

They have a server for the whole practice, and so everybody in the building is operating off that server. When they go to the other facility, they use a VPN and connect to the same server.

It works really well, I think the equipment is solid, and the help is great. When I buy equipment, even though I'm buying a service in addition to the equipment to have them help me, it's worth paying for that. The service is amazing, and their marketing department should promote it.

I can tell you from personal experience, while the interface is clear for somebody in the IT business, it really isn't clear for a novice. It would also help if they lowered the cost of their service.

Their terminology could be better. The terminology is all IT. It's an IT dictionary, and I believe that there has to be a way to state things in clear, plain old English, and I would like to see more of that.

I have been using Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access for about five months.

I would say that it's fantastic. Once you get the handle of how FortiGate is designed, their interface, how they think, that's the part that's scalable. When I shift from the 60 up to something far more sophisticated and faster, I don't have to go through a horrific learning experience. In other words, it's an easy shift, and I think that's the part that's useful. I'm counting on that as this business grows.

I would say I get extraordinary service from FortiGate. If I call them up and say, "help," they not only make it happen, but they educate me to the best of their ability and the best of my ability to absorb.

It isn't so much the hardware that I appreciate at this point. It's the service. Amazing service. You have to understand that you're going to get people from Bangladesh, India, and around Asia. You're going to get people helping you on the phone that are from far away, but they really know their stuff, and it's worth the struggle to work through the language barrier. 

Because I'm sure some people will complain about that, but first of all you have to realize you're there to solve a technical problem, so forget all the other stuff. If you can't understand them, you got to stop them and say, "go slowly, speak more clearly." If you can find different words, you have to work the language gap. If you're willing to do that, the payoff is immense. I found that these people who are serving me from these faraway places really know their stuff. I'm willing to pay whatever price for their service. 

The initial setup is very straight forward. I didn't really know anything, I just set it up, and it ran. It didn't run as a firewall, and it didn't run as an L3 mode, but it ran.

The implementation and deployment were phased. The first phase was a few minutes. But the reality was that it took about two months, not because of the hardware, but because of issues like my ISP, which is Comcast.

You can't get a static IP from them without using their cable modem. But I learned that you have to put it in pass-through mode and stick your firewall router right behind it, and you're all set. But all that for a novice like myself takes time to understand. 

I implemented Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access by myself. 

Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access isn't cheap. They're about $1000 each or something like that. I had to pay for all these licenses. I paid for them, having no idea what they were going to do, but I got enough of a sense that they were important. 

I have to pay for it annually or yearly. You can buy this equipment in a multitude of ways. You can buy just the hardware, or you can buy the hardware and the licenses. That's how I bought it, but you don't get a discount for that. 

I think the license costs me anywhere between $100 and $300. I can't really remember, but it wasn't so much money that it made me stop and think twice. 

I researched brands from Cisco all the way down, and there were some cheaper options than FortiGate. I think I kept on reading reviews that mentioned something about the interface being easy to use. That eventually sold me on FortiGate. 

I really hated how Cisco wasn't clear what their costs were. I'm sure they're technically very competent because the technical papers that come out of Cisco are really great, but in terms of selling, it's almost deceptive, but not FortiGate.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access a nine.

They don't get a 10 because I think there's a way to work around terminology.

I like the VLAN setup of Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access.

It would be easier if Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access could be managed via cloud, and this is something that could be improved in this product.

In the next release of this product, it would be great if they could display or show the bandwidth in a better way.

I've been using Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access for eight years, and I've used it in the past 12 months.

The stability of Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access is very good.

Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access has very good scalability.

I have experience contacting the technical support team of Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access, and if I were to rate them with five being the highest, I'm rating them four out of five.

Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access is easy to set up. It only takes minutes to deploy this product, because it is mostly boxes.

I'm using Fortinet, and I'm working mostly with FortiGate. They have a lot of programs. I also have experience with Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access.

I have experience with versions 6.4 and 7.0 of Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access.

The number of users we have for this product, including the users of our customers, total to 3,000.

We're not using a licensed version of Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access. You can buy it, but that's mostly for maintenance.

I'm giving Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access a score of eight out of ten.

We use the solution for internal networking in an office environment.

FortiSwitch scans for viruses on the network easily. I was using another firewall, but after Fortinet, I don't use any other.

Fortinet infuses the updates regularly. If you get updated, then you are secured. The updates did not cover all the threats. I use the solution in both the field and the main office. It centralizes everything. We had to dig deeper than the graphs or manually check if that device performed well. You can check the server so that you can access it easily. It provides us with the protection that we need.

Fortinet FortiSwitch is easy to configure and simple to use with support.

The product could have better prices, analytics, and better graphs.

I have been using Fortinet FortiSwitch for two years.

I rate the solution’s stability a nine out of ten.

We have 250 users using this solution.

I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.

We have used Cisco and Ubiquiti switches. FortiSwitch frees you every time you set the switches or configure them over and over again. It is much better than other solutions.

The initial setup is simple and takes a few hours to complete.

We have achieved 10% ROI.

The solution is reliable and is working well. It has been a generation of investment. It is not very expensive, not much cheaper.

I recommend the solution.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

The tool provides a firewall and good performance.

The solution could provide an active VPN.

I have been using Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access for around two months.

Fortinet provides high quality at a reasonable price whereas Cisco is expensive.

The initial setup takes two years of support.

We have support from a local company.

The solution has reasonable pricing. The firewall costs around 500$ annually.

I recommend the solution.

Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Our primary use cases are SD-WAN, web security, and web application filtering.

The most valuable feature is the SD-WAN support.

This device is easy to use.

The reporting capabilities should be included. As it is now, this can be purchased separately but competing solutions include it free of charge with the hardware.

In the future, we would like to be able to connect a SIM card and have 3G or 4G connectively directly on the device. This would work as a backup if our primary internet goes down.

We have been using Fortinet FortiSwitch for more than ten years.

Stability-wise, this product is better than others that are on the market.

The technical support is very good. However, we do not use them often because we have our own technical team that is certified by Fortinet.

The initial setup is straightforward.

We have an in-house team that was responsible for deployment.

There are two people on the team that handle maintenance.

Licensing is billed annually and contracts are either one or three years in length.

There are additional features available that can increase the price of the license.

My advice for anybody who is considering this product is that it's a secure and stable device. After configuration, there is no cost for maintenance. It's very stable and easy to use.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We use Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access to test and give access. 

The tool's VLAN feature is easy to understand. It was very good. 

We had experienced downtime. I would like to see it to be improved. 

I have been working with the product for two to three years. 

Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access is scalable. 

We chose the product because we worked with Fortinet's firewalls and switches and wanted to explore it hands-on. 

Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access' deployment is neither easy nor difficult. It is a normal process and can be completed in two to three hours. 

The product's pricing is good. 

I rate the solution a ten out of ten. 

The solution helps provide a seamless internet connection.

I can't comment much on the valuable features of the solution since I work in a cargo company that has outsourced its IT operations to another company. I can say that the product is easy to use.

I feel that the product's stability is an area where improvements are required.

I have experience with Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access. I use an older version of the solution.

It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I don't know about the solution's technical support since Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access is a product that is outsourced to others by our company. The product's technical support is good.

The initial setup of the product was easy.

The solution can be deployed in an hour.

There is another external IT team to take care of the deployment process of the tool since my company is only involved in the action of outsourcing the product to other companies.

The initial setup of the product was managed by one of the in-house teams in the company.

Price-wise, I find Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access to be an okay product. It is not an expensive product.

We are an integration company and help clients with the integration of Fortinet FortiSwitch.

It is a cheap and secure solution. The job switching and security features are better than other solutions.

The scalability and technical support can be improved.

I have been using the solution for two years.

The solution is highly stable. I rate the stability a ten out of ten.

It is a scalable solution. The scalability of the solution depends on the hardware. We like stacking the number of switches but the solution is not owing any number, it is fixed. All our clients are enterprises. I rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

The technical support team is good but since it is not very big it does not provide immediate response on errors or technical issues. I rate the support an eight out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup is easy. The time taken for deployment depends on the number of devices, number of files, and number of switches. If they have FortiAnalyzer and the vendors are on the full solution then it can take a day, two days, or even weeks. It depends on the number of end users. Two engineers are enough for the deployment of the full solution. One person is required for maintenance like updates, troubleshooting, and problem fixing.

The pricing is cheap and only a yearly licensing cost needs to be paid.

Users can use FortiSwitch as it is a cheap, stable, scalable, and secure solution. I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten.