Fortinet FortiGate Reviews

I work with multiple customers. Most are comfortable running IPS within their firewalls rather than deploying it. The standard deployment requires finding a service owner and training them on the platform. However, if I deploy a next-generation firewall with integrated IPS and VPN capabilities, it simplifies things. It's straightforward for someone to manage. Consolidating a VPN server, IPS, and standalone firewall into one appliance can be challenging for many customers. Fortinet's servers are increasingly popular.

Fortinet has serious vulnerabilities. Some of their interfaces are exposed to attacks. Since they are more prevalent, they may attract more attacks and have more vulnerabilities discovered.

If I'm incorporating FortiGate IPS, FortiGate firewall, Forti VPN server, or any other component into an existing Fortinet fabric, I already have a Fortinet analyzer and FortiManager. With this integrated Fortinet ecosystem, stability issues are significantly reduced. Additionally, inserting a standalone Fortinet device is much easier and much more accessible.

Customer support is fine and fairly responsive.

Neutral

We used Cisco products and operated within a Cisco ecosystem. Currently, Cisco is too expensive, but FortiGate IPS does not position itself as premium like Cisco.

The initial setup can be completed within a month with some IT security architecture by replacing IPS.

The product is expensive but comparable to Cisco.

There are limitations to consider, such as the sandbox capacity. Increasing the sandbox limit is essential for better integration with the firewall IPS, facilitating traffic offloading. Since my customers deal with heavy content, we often need to upload content for analysis by the IPS and sandbox. Thus, the system effectively fulfils its intended purpose. However, we do not need to assess features beyond what the customer requires. As long as we meet their specific needs and use case, it's satisfactory.

We're building a network of partners, you know, offering competitive pricing to engage in significant projects. Firewalls are pretty standard. The ecosystem issues may revolve around business support and pricing.

You need more considerable internal resources to manage it. For clients with a robust security solutions team, architects, and skilled developers who handle data and generate similar content, I would recommend Fortinet FortiGate IPS. These individuals should be capable of upgrading their packages and downloading them. If they are comfortable with Docker, they can deploy it as an appliance on a server.

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

Our standard practice involves tailoring deployments to meet specific customer needs. Typically implemented at the network edge, FortiGate SWG addresses diverse security requirements. Use cases include securing online services, protecting internal servers in a DMZ for LAN user access, and employing a segmented approach where different firewalls safeguard distinct zones, collaborating to manage and pass traffic for unique security needs. One of the firewalls also serves as the primary filter for internet traffic.

Web filters, particularly web application controls, grant us the ability to regulate user access effectively. Among the various features, I find web application control and IPS to be the most valuable.

There's room for improvement in the interface, especially following their upgrade to version nineteen. The issue arises from the increased complexity, where tasks like defining the NAS require navigating a separate window, and regular policy configurations are done in a different window.

I have been using it for seven years.

I would rate its stability capabilities nine out of ten.

Regarding scalability, I would rate Fortinet highly, giving them eight out of ten due to the effectiveness of their new hardware, which greatly enhances scalability. We've carried out installations for a variety of setups, spanning from small to medium-sized deployments.

I would rate its technical support services seven out of ten.

Neutral

WatchGuard deserves credit for offering multiple options, including a client base and a comprehensive reporting feature, all within a unified license and toolset.

I would rate the initial setup six out of ten in terms of complexity.

The deployment can take up to a week but typically can be done in a couple of days.

We essentially customize implementations based on the customer's chosen appliance. The cost varies depending on the specific appliance they purchase. We provide coverage for whatever they acquire, and throughout the year, we pay different amounts to various vendors. The cost has increased since the update so I would rate it eight out of ten.

In terms of reliability and security, FortiGate stands out. WatchGuard excels in additional features, offering the best reporting and various configuration options. While Sophos is also strong in security, I would rate it slightly lower than FortiGate. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

We use Fortinet FortiGate SWG to secure both Internet-facing and internal applications.

The web solutions are the most important features.

The solution could add API protection.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate SWG for a year.

The product is stable.

The solution is scalable.

Support is good.

Positive

The deployment depends on the requirements. It takes a minimum of one day to complete.

The initial setup is managed by a partner.

Three to four people are enough for setup, depending on the tools. You need a network engineer, a partner, and a firewall engineer to install.

The product is expensive. It comes with a yearly subscription, which includes support and everything.

Maintenance is easy. One person is enough to do the regular maintenance, but two are suitable for feasibility.

The product is good. It does the job of what is said. It is very stable and reliable. One should consider based on the POC and their requirement, but for our requirement, FortiGate was the one to go for.

We use it for Internet-facing applications and web-based applications. We use it more as a web solution. There might be other use cases or other requirements for other companies.

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

We use the solution at the Internet edge to provide a security boundary between the public network and the private network.

The most useful features are application control, web filtering, and SD-WAN.

Support could be improved like Sophos. Some clients don't have the expertise to manage their environment. If they have a problem with Fortinet, they should have easy access to support. Secondly, the process of evaluation as a partner with Cisco should give you the ability to deploy access as a partner. You can do team labs and a lot of things.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate SWG for five years.

We never had any problem with stability. I rate the solution’s stability a ten out of ten.

The scalability depends on the client's size. We have clients with as few as 500 users, as many as 800 users, and clients with just 100 users. We cater to small and medium businesses. I rate the solution’s scalability a seven out of ten.

The initial setup is straightforward. Deployment time depends on the client's requirements. Some clients may agree to a monthly deployment, while others may require a different team. If you sell a new environment, the deployment time may increase. The basic setup takes one to two hours. Deployment is a continuous process, as you will need to refine the policies and settings to meet the client's specific business needs. I rate the initial setup a nine out of ten.

The solution is cheap. Fortinet FortiGate SWG licenses are based on features, so you can choose the license that best meets your needs. This is especially beneficial for enterprise environments with different use cases. However, it can be costly for other segments, such as small businesses. I rate the solution’s pricing a seven out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive.

Fortinet FortiGate SWG is a good solution that meets your security requirements and is an excellent alternative to more expensive security products like Cisco and Palo Alto. If budget is a concern, Fortinet FortiGate SWG is a good choice for a security product. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We use the product as a network service for our customers.

The product's most valuable features are SD-WAN and the integration of WiFi and switches.

It is complicated to manage different kinds of on-premise boxes.

We have been using Fortinet FortiGate SWG for nine years. At present, we are using the latest version.

I rate Fortinet FortiGate SWG's stability a ten out of ten.

We have around 3000 Fortinet FortiGate SWG end users, including small and medium businesses. I rate its scalability a nine out of ten.

I rate the initial setup process a three out of ten. It takes two hours to complete.

I implemented the product myself.

I rate the product's pricing a seven out of ten. The additional cost depends on the extra feature requirements.

Fortinet FortiGate SWG is easy to set up and combine with switches and WiFi networks of appliances. I rate it a nine out of ten.

FortiGate has a lot of things that you can do. You have VPN, VRRP, and VDOM tools. FortiGate also makes GRE tunneling possible. Those are a few things that I like the most about FortiGate.

We are in an era of cloud-based things, so most need a simpler pay-as-you-go model. That might be effective for SMBs, where small organizations can afford features. FortiGate needs to be elastic to the market's trends. It should be easy for SMBs to get the solution. A cloud or SaaS model would be effective. FortiGate should bring a solution that allows smaller companies to use firewalls. Very small or medium companies do not focus on security, but it is the major concern of every organization. To tap that market, FortiGate must bring an innovative product everyone can adopt.

I've used the solution for six to seven years and currently use the latest version.

I rate the stability an eight out of ten.

Scalability is not an issue, but it's difficult for small organizations. The devices that have FortiGate are the issue. I rate FortiGate a seven out of ten.

FortiGate is deployed in a centralized way. The way it is deployed in our organization, all the employees benefit from the security features.

FortiGate's technical support depends on the region. FortiGate's support in my region is very helpful.

Positive

I rate the initial setup a seven out of ten. Deployment takes a few months, but no more.

I rate FortiGate's pricing a five out of ten.

FortiGate, as per my usage, is good. It's a very nice, sophisticated, and realistic firewall. I don't have any issues with FortiGate. It's a good UTM and has very simple dashboards. I rate FortiGate a seven out of ten.

We use FortiGate on-prem, but now we are trying to adopt it on the cloud. I'm not sure how it is because I have not seen a cloud-based FortiGate.

I work for an integrator in Nigeria, and we implement all these solutions for our clients. I've done a lot of deployments on Fortinet, deploying all from FortiAP to FortiSwitch. I integrated it with FortiGate, FortiManager, SD-WAN, deployment, security, and the like.

I found the upgrades valuable. Normally, when you want to upgrade an enterprise firewall, the customer always requests a box swap, whereby we look at the new firmware and compare it to know if there will be any configuration changes. These are the parts where we have to bring in the OEM to do it. But with the new FortiGate firmware, it helps do that by providing reporting and helps you to give the customer the comfort of saying you can upgrade the firewall and describe what changes and issues you would expect. Basically, out-of-the-box management.

One area for improvement is the IPS engine, which is something that needs to be improved on. I've had so many issues whereby I have high CPU usage, and when I check, I see it's being consumed by the IPS engine. I have to upgrade the IPS engine firmware and all that. That has been the main pain point with FortiGate. Likewise, customer support could improve.

I've been working on FortiGate for about five years now, and I'm working with the latest version.

The solution is stable apart from the IPS engine issue, so I rate stability a seven out of ten. Stability depends on the operational team. If you have a good operational team that knows what you are doing, you always gain stability with most of your solutions. But if you have an operational team that is not so strong, you will always have issues with that solution because they will keep making human errors that will keep disrupting the services you offer. For example, in 2021, I was working as the cyber delivery manager for MTN, and I was managing the FortiGate infrastructure. In that one year, I never had any incident on FortiGate. But after I left, they started having frequent issues because of human errors. From a management perspective, if I were the CTO during that period, I would assume that FortiGate Firewall is not a good firewall. But that is not the case. It is the person who handles it that determines the stability. If you know how to do your health check properly and how to output the firewall properly, I'm sure FortiGate will be stable. I'm rating the stability as seven just to be in the middle. If it's being handled by a less experienced operational team, I'm sure you will have issues because they always perform changes, they don't know when to perform the kind of change they are performing, and that might disrupt the services. But if I rate FortiGate based on myself, I give it a nine out of ten.

I rate FortiGate's scalability a nine out of ten. Out of every ten enterprises in Africa, six currently use FortiGate. MTN is one of our major customers, and we helped them migrate from Cisco and Juniper to FortiGate.

The ease with the initial setup depends on the deployment. I've deployed FortiGate for different use cases. I've deployed it using internal segmentation. I've deployed it using it as a data center firewall, doing east and west. I've deployed FortiGate on the perimeter edge, whereby we have the SSL VPN and site-to-site VPN. But overall, I rate the initial setup an eight out of ten because it's always been very easy.

There are timelines with projects, so the time taken to deploy the solution depends on the scale of the project. If it's just a perimeter firewall where I have to migrate from one firewall, like the Cisco firewall, to the Fortinet firewall, it takes me nothing less than a week. It takes a day using the FortiConverter to convert the configuration from Cisco to Fortinet and maybe another two days to look at the configuration properly on my FortiGate before I'm confident enough to tell the customer to schedule maintenance for us to migrate the services. It depends on the customer, so in a nutshell, from kickoff to the close date is not always an exact amount, but generally no more than a month.

The deployment time taken depends on the customer's availability and their response because it's not totally dependent on me being the technical engineer. It depends on how fast they provide me with all the information I need to complete the deployments and determines how fast I can close the project. If the customer is very responsive, it takes us about three weeks to close the project.

FortiGate is much cheaper than other OEMs such as Cisco, Palo Alto, and Check Point. I'll rate FortiGate's pricing a five out of ten since it is moderately priced.

Currently, we are pushing all our clients to adopt the Fortinet cloud firewall instead of using the native solutions found on the different cloud environments they use, like Azure and Google, because they are not really effective.

FortiGate is a very good firewall that has a lot of features, and it's a firewall that gives the same stability as enterprise ones, and it gives you scalability in terms of deployment and operational management. I rate FortiGate NGFW a nine out of ten.

We used Fortinet FortiGate IPS as a perimeter firewall in our data center and offices. Major offices with more than 50 people were using Fortinet FortiGate IPS.

Fortinet FortiGate IPS has an easy-to-use interface and configuration. The solution supports protocols like OSPF and BGP.

The solution’s stability could be improved because we sometimes face some drops. It was not due to the box, but it was due to some misconfiguration on our end.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate IPS for three years.

I rate Fortinet FortiGate IPS a nine out of ten for stability.

Fortinet FortiGate IPS is a very scalable solution. We had very few users using the solution in our data center. Around 50 users use the solution in our offices.

The solution's technical support is quite good.

The solution's initial setup is quite simple. We could transfer the configuration file from the earlier FortiGate, and we were up and running in a very short time.

Fortinet FortiGate IPS was deployed in our organization through a vendor. Since Fortinet FortiGate IPS is very simple to use and very easy to configure, its deployment time is very less.

You can recover the investment of Fortinet FortiGate IPS in a short time. The solution is not that pricey.

Fortinet FortiGate IPS' licensing is quite simple to understand.

Before choosing Fortinet FortiGate IPS, we evaluated Check Point. We chose Fortinet FortiGate IPS because Check Point was quite pricey.

We used the latest version of Fortinet FortiGate IPS.

We require a basic network engineer for the deployment of Fortinet FortiGate IPS.

Overall, I rate Fortinet FortiGate IPS an eight out of ten.