Fortinet FortiGate-VM Reviews

Our use case for Fortinet FortiGate is that our organization's environment meets specific criteria, which is why we are using the FortiGate, not the other firewalls.

The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the web filters, as we are using them mostly; our content is condition-based, so we are accessing the websites by using the web filters. Fortinet FortiGate is a stable solution, as we are using it in our organization for proxies.

I believe that Fortinet FortiGate can be improved, especially in support response times. If you have a critical scenario in your organization, when you email them and call, they ask you to log the ticket first, which takes time.

I have approximately six years of experience working with Fortinet FortiGate.

It's a good solution, and we are using it for almost six years without experiencing any bad scenarios. However, there is an issue with Fortinet support, as we are using the premium support but have not received good results, since they take a long time to resolve queries after we submit them.

Fortinet FortiGate is a scalable solution.

My concern is primarily about the support. The product is good, but my overall concern is about the support.

Before Fortinet FortiGate, I haven't used any other solutions; it was the first one, and I am using it until now.

The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate was very easy for me.

We have just deployed Fortinet FortiGate in our organization by ourselves, without help from the support or any other vendors.

I just work on Fortinet FortiGate, but I have heard in the market that Fortinet FortiGate is better than others in terms of cost and overall solution. My total experience is only with Fortinet FortiGate, so I am very comfortable with this product.

In my opinion, the price of Fortinet FortiGate is good, as it is a good solution with a good price.

In comparison to other firewalls, it is a good solution with a good price.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate overall as nine out of ten, as it has made different products for different needs. You cannot get all the solutions in one box, but for dedicated requirements, you need dedicated hardware for other functions. I would rate technical support from Fortinet at a three on a scale of one to ten.

My main use case for Fortinet FortiGate includes deploying all Fortinet solutions, from zero to a complete deployment for infrastructure security. This includes securing the internal network infrastructure, securing the edge network for perimeter protection, and interconnecting sites through site-to-site VPN, multi-site, remote access, and SSL VPN.

Additionally, it includes the protection of DMZ servers through the most advanced UTM security profiles of Fortinet.

The use of Fortinet FortiGate helps me with site-to-site VPN and remote access. The use of Fortinet products occurs in real, professional deployment projects for the clients I work with. The specifications are based on the deployment of SD-WAN, site-to-site VPN, multi-site, hub and spoke, SSL VPN, and many other subjects for securing the infrastructure, whether it involves remote sites with small appliances or a head office site with data center or campus appliances.

For interconnecting remote sites, whether through site-to-site VPN or multi-site, the process is simple. It depends on the context and the client's specifications. For a client who has a site to interconnect, it will be a simple site-to-site deployment with IPsec VPN to allow interconnection of different sites. For a client who has several sites, I propose and deploy a hub and spoke setup with ADVPN for scalable interconnection of multiple sites.

The standout features of Fortinet FortiGate include its ease of use, intuitive interface for implementation, and simplified maintenance, administration, and daily management from deployment to monitoring. The accessible support and documentation that Fortinet makes available to all users is essential.

One of the advantages of using Fortinet is that it uses an identical FortiOS system for all Fortinet products. They all have an intuitive interface that is easy to use and learn, even for novices. They can easily integrate and adapt to use Fortinet in different use cases. In my experience with products from other providers such as Palo Alto, Cisco, and Check Point, Fortinet is the only provider to have successfully set up a unified operating system on all its products in the network security ecosystem.

Through a Fortinet FortiGate, you have the ability to manage the entire ecosystem of your network through a simple management system. The Security Fabric of FortiGate allows you to simplify management and threat response from all security equipment that can collaborate and be used together. Additionally, FortiManager accompanies this solution to unify the centralized management of all Fortinet products, using the same FortiOS system.

The use of Fortinet FortiGate in an infrastructure saves time, reduces costs, improves the security of users and resources, and prevents data leakage. When deployed properly to secure the infrastructure, there is increased productivity, improved user performance, and reduction in bandwidth consumption.

I think Fortinet FortiGate can be improved as Fortinet must address significant points of evolution. When I mention points of evolution at Fortinet, I mean they must implement simplified processes for deployment scenarios and enhance their ability to support customers, despite existing documentation and support access.

I started using Fortinet FortiGate over six years ago. In the last three years, the use of FortiGate and many other Fortinet products has become intense and regular.

In my experience, Fortinet FortiGate is not stable at all.

Fortinet FortiGate's scalability is good.

Most of the clients I support technically with their Fortinet products appreciate the service. They don't have any problems, so there is no significant negative feedback.

Before using Fortinet FortiGate, I used Cisco ASA. We switched to Fortinet because they provided much more concrete solutions, were more up-to-date, and focused on network security as their core business.

On the cloud side, purchasing Fortinet FortiGate through the AWS Marketplace is very simple to deploy and easy to set up. My experience with the configuration process in AWS has been globally simple.

I have not seen a return on investment since using Fortinet FortiGate.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Fortinet FortiGate is that the licensing and hardware pricing is reasonable compared to other security solution providers. However, Fortinet must review the access to these licenses at reduced prices, and the appliance prices must be reviewed to allow access to all organizations, including small, medium, and large-sized businesses.

I would add that all of Fortinet's UTM protection solutions are solutions that respond to the current ecosystem for the protection of critical infrastructures. My advice to others looking into using Fortinet FortiGate would be that while recommendations are great, they should ask more questions. I rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

The protection of assets in the cloud was our customers' main use case for the Fortinet FortiGate-VM firewall. They wanted to have an easy IPsec or secure IPsec VPN.

Since the solution we offered was a complete suite with Fortinet FortiGate-VM, it was easier for them to manage because they have FortiManager as well. The main reason they wanted to position FortiGate in the cloud was so that they could easily deploy through FortiManager. That was the selling point we had for them. Especially for their multiple branches, where they had approximately 60 sites, and some assets were in AWS, it was really a good deployment opportunity. FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer were also part of that solution.

Fortinet Security Fabric and real-time threat response capabilities are the main selling points. If you use their Fabric, it is easier to set up and patch things, especially on solutions, making it brand-centric. It is easier to manage, get the reports needed, and implement.

In the Philippine market, where cybersecurity is still growing but not yet fully mature, we have many clients who have Fortinet FortiGate-VM or hardware. However, we cannot really position the Fabric if the licenses, renewal parts, or other components have monetary requirements that hinder full utilization.

The solution we proposed to our client was implemented a year ago, and they are still using it.

We have not experienced any issues so far because we use stable firmware and updates.

It's scalable enough.

It was easy to contact Fortinet support because we have support in the Philippines. There could be improvement with more Filipino representatives for easier discussion and better language comprehension.

Positive

Fortinet FortiGate-VM firewalls are easy to set up. We have deployed in both AWS and Azure public clouds. For deployment, a day is sufficient, with simple deployments taking two to three hours.

The solution is relatively pricey, but it usually depends on the use case or environment. For large enterprises, price is not a problem because they need that solution. However, in the Philippine market, many of our clients are still small to medium businesses, so the price can be challenging. The license for Fortinet FortiGate-VM costs 100K to 150K Philippine pesos per year for VM1 or VM2.

As integrators, the price has been challenging, especially for renewals.

We also provide FortiGate-VM, FortiAnalyzer, and FortiManager to our clients.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM is one of the easiest and most user-friendly brands we use, with excellent threat intelligence and accessibility. If you have multiple Fortinet FortiGates, you get easy access and better visibility with FortiManager or FortiAnalyzer. They have been improving with each version.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Our main use cases for Fortinet FortiGate include using it as a perimeter firewall. Fortinet FortiGate manages all our policies and other things.

Fortinet FortiGate has impacted our cost savings and security efficiency positively.

Fortinet FortiGate's VPN capabilities are very effective for us. We utilize the VPN facilities of Fortinet FortiGate all the time, so anybody who accesses our SAP systems utilizes the VPN of Fortinet FortiGate.

It has been quite seamless in terms of integration. We find it very useful for us.

The features I find most useful in Fortinet FortiGate are its simplicity of utilization, which is very important, and its provision of interfaces to see the alerts and other things. It is very useful. We use it to understand who our top users of the internet are, what they are using, and when they are using it. It gives us many glimpses into the inner workings of the organization.

At this moment, we believe that Fortinet FortiGate should be improved by injecting more AI because the kind of threats we are seeing are more ransomware threats. Fortinet FortiGate is able to ensure these threats do not enter, but we would prefer to see more proactive alerting mechanisms come out.

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate in this company for about a year or over a year now, and in my previous company, I used it for almost four years, totaling five years of experience.

For stability, I have no complaints; we are satisfied customers.

Fortinet FortiGate is scalable enough for our environment. We are using Fortinet FortiGate in the consumer durables industry for electrical products. We currently have a little over 2,000 users working with Fortinet FortiGate in our environment.

We plan to increase the usage of Fortinet FortiGate in the future, shortly upgrading and increasing the number of users.

For technical support of Fortinet FortiGate, we utilize a channel partner and we are very happy with them. They support us almost instantly. They have backend support from Fortinet FortiGate, which they utilize. I would rate the support an eight out of ten.

Positive

The setup of Fortinet FortiGate is very simple, worthy of a nine out of ten rating.

The deployment part of Fortinet FortiGate takes a couple of hours. We decided to go for Fortinet FortiGate because it was simple to implement, it was simple to get the policies implemented, and the interfaces were quite simple. Simplicity was the main reason. The product is very good.

I find it quite reasonable.

Before working with Fortinet FortiGate, we evaluated Check Point, Palo Alto, and Blue Coat solutions. The reason we chose Fortinet FortiGate was basically because of security and simplicity of use.

I would recommend Fortinet FortiGate to those who are looking into using it because if they look at the manner in which it protects their enterprise, it does a wonderful job of that. 

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

We're working with Fortinet FortiGate firewalls, network devices, and Wi-Fi, specifically for Wi-Fi and networking.

The best features of Fortinet FortiGate include the flexibility of hybrid cloud capabilities and the way they are structuring their multi-tenancy and for managed services, along with manageability. The services have improved data center protection at scale because we have standardized, and it's all more manageable.

Technical support would probably be an area for improvement, particularly around the extensibility of hybrid multi-cloud integration with AI. I have faced some issues with technical support, particularly with the speed of response not being so quick at times. We also want to improve the partnership program, as it is not flexible enough for global companies. The partner program's level of certification and commercial commitment is not really well-suited for global partners.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for many years now.

I would rate their technical support as a six.

The implementation and initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate depends on various factors and is not straightforward. The person who implements it needs to know what they are doing and should be certified on how to implement it. However, if you know what you're doing, it's more straightforward than most other products.

Fortinet provides training as part of our partner program.

I have seen a return on investment, more or less.

My experience with pricing is good; we're sorting out our global partnerships. Before I joined the company, we had a pricing problem because the partnership was not set up correctly, but now I've managed to get that sorted out and hopefully, that will resolve the issue and lead to better pricing globally.

For a firewall perspective, your next option would probably be Palo Alto or Check Point, but Fortinet has made significant improvements to go ahead in that space. I think your closest contender right now is probably Palo Alto.

I would recommend Fortinet FortiGate to most organizations. I would rate Fortinet FortiGate overall as an eight.

I mostly use FortiGate VM for securing cloud databases or internal in-house databases. It serves as the main perimeter firewall in our data centers.

FortiGate VM allows me to avoid the hardware lease recycle every five to eight years. I can purchase the VM, lock the hardware cost, and simply pay for licensing each year. This saves on capital expenditures in the long run. It can be upgraded or downgraded as needed. If the organization grows, a partial license can increase the device's capacity.

The previous version 5.6 had integrated features for logging, monitoring, and management. Now, these features require separate products like FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, and a FortiCloud subscription for reporting. Many users are now turning to Sophos for the integrated features that were once part of Fortinet but are now separate.

I have been working with FortiGate VM for three to four years.

I would rate the stability as eight out of ten. Previously, patches had fewer bugs, however, recently they have had more, requiring internal testing to ensure deployment stability.

Scalability is an excellent selling point for FortiGate VM. It can start with a single core and scale up to a 32-core license for a robust deployment.

The partner support is quite low, and the end-user support is delayed at levels L2 and L3. L1 support is quick.

Neutral

Many users have shifted to Sophos due to changes in Fortinet's logging and monitoring features.

The initial setup depends on the hardware. It should be compatible with supported drivers for optimal performance.

I often customize the hardware and drivers based on client needs to deploy FortiGate VM.

FortiGate VM is considered a premium product, which can be costly, especially in regions with low budgets for IT infrastructure like Pakistan.

I evaluated Sangfor and MikroTik as the main competitors in Pakistan.

The solution rates as an eight out of ten. 

It is essential for the best solution to be properly deployed with appropriate policies, and users must be trained; otherwise, it might fail.

We are a service provider. We have the client project, so we are recommending Fortinet FortiGate for this solution. We are not just recommending; we are billing also. It's basically SD-WAN, a software-defined WAN network. On our client side, we are setting up a mini data center, and in that, we are using Fortinet FortiGate.

The best features in Fortinet FortiGate are the VPNs for the outside network and IPsec tunnels between the point-to-point links between their head office and branch offices. Software VPNs provide remote access features and remote access services. Fortinet Unified settings are good for our cloud-based management and centralized management. I think it is a better option for that.

We have not yet tried the Unified Agent. We would need more details to explore how it can be used for our business use cases.

We have been using Fortinet FortiGate for two years.

It is stable. As of now, there are no performance issues.

We have many scalable customers that have scaled in different areas. If we can get proactive support before the issues are identified by the customer itself, we can resolve it easily. We can do some proactive maintenance for that purpose.

We are using AI and ML-enhanced FortiGuard services within Fortinet FortiGate. We do use Fortinet FortiGate's data center solution.

We have Firewalls in our internal network. We have software Firewalls and Fortinet FortiGate Firewalls, which are hardware. We use Sophos and Fortinet FortiGate. We have two Firewalls mainly, for internal and outside networks. The Sophos Firewall is for external networks and Fortinet FortiGate Firewall is for internal networks.

We haven't done the full SD-WAN integration as of now. We have our own software-defined network that is cloud-based. Our customer is preferring the hardware-based solution, so Fortinet FortiGate is under consideration. Currently, we are not using Fortinet FortiGate SD-WAN, but we have a plan for that.

The Fortinet FortiGate solution is affordable and not complex. It can be manageable on private cloud. Most of our customers are government companies, so we are preferring the private cloud. Scalability is very important for us, though it's only scalable on our server.

I have been using Sophos myself from the management side, and our team has hands-on experience with multiple vendors. The only concern is support-related. We have not tried AI and ML integration with Fortinet FortiGate, but we can consider it and will refer it to our clients.

On a scale of 1-10, I rate Fortinet FortiGate a 10.

Our use cases include link aggregation with core switches and WAN switches solutions when having multiple ISPs to reduce the number of utilization ports in the Fortinet FortiGate firewall. We can provide link aggregation bandwidth and throughput of 1GB and create LACP for their traffic. The solution includes LACP link aggregation solutions, LDAP integrations, and read-write profiles for L1 and L2 access integrations. It also includes dial-up VPN, hub-and-spoke setup, IPsec tunnels setups, and automation features where administrators receive notifications for any changes in the firewall. Currently, in India, approximately 30 to 40% of organizations utilize these devices.

The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate include web filtering and application category functionality. The application category allows web filtering based on categories, which is one of the strengths of the Fortinet FortiGate firewall. The traffic is stable and seamless. We have found minimal bugs in the firmware, and when issues are discovered, they are immediately rectified with TAC engineers.

Fortinet FortiGate can be deployed in both large and small organizations. The solution can be implemented in organizations with 150, 60, or 100 users. We can provide solutions based on their throughput requirements, which is a significant advantage of the firewall.

I require many more features as of now.

I've been working with Fortinet FortiGate for four years.

The traffic is stable and seamless. We have found minimal bugs in the firmware, and when issues are discovered, they are immediately rectified with TAC engineers.

I have not gone in-depth regarding scalability, but from economic, financial, and security level perspectives, everything is manageable and better understood. We also receive support from the TAC team.

Support services are excellent, deserving a rating of 8.5 to 9. Technical support provides better clarity about issues. Only two or three cases rarely remained unresolved by TAC engineers.

When comparing with other OEM levels, we can provide better solutions.

The complexity level is not significant.

When using another OEM firewall, we can provide alternative solutions.

The solution is very easy to understand and handy. We have customers deployed both on-premises and in the cloud. Our main focus is on monitoring bandwidth utilization and identifying which applications are used most frequently and which IPs are affected. We have separate monitoring tools to identify malware or malicious content downloads, providing additional benefits. 

For data center solutions, we provide solutions based on throughput, number of users, and traffic routing from hubs to DC. The application utilization tracking allows us to see bandwidth usage per IP and MAC address, helping allocate traffic shaping for particular departments.

I would rate it a nine out of 10

The main use is for clients who are migrating to the cloud. We started this journey during the pandemic, and the main case is with clients who are moving to either a private or a public cloud.

The solution allows us to organize our networks and access within one vendor, using an integrated platform. The more integrated we become, the less we spend on solving bugs and issues, allowing us to reduce time focusing on understanding and improving our network. We value the reliability and versatility.

I have used the solution for two years.

Fortinet offers stability with fewer fixes and adjustments needed compared to other solutions like SonicWall.

Customer service and support are very good. I would rate them a nine on a scale of one to ten.

Positive

I had a small experience with SonicWall. The main difference is Fortinet's stability, requiring fewer adjustments.

The initial setup is easy.

We have three people specialized in Fortinet. One person can handle a normal project with one or two VMs. They are SOC engineers providing support.

Clients receive operational impacts through improved reliability. They have a platform that organizes their networks and access effectively.

Pricing is complex. They could be slightly cheaper, however, Fortinet offers a good cost-benefit ratio. They are above average.

I evaluated SonicWall.

I would recommend Fortinet FortiGate-VM as a very good solution.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

We utilize Fortinet FortiGate appliances at six branch offices, one data center, and one DLP site. Our network is driven by SD-WAN, and we employ FortiGate as our firewall, FortiEDR for endpoint protection, and FortiSwitch for alerting on all layers of the network.

For me, the best practice is to deploy on-premises for data centers. However, for small branch offices with over ten to twenty staff members, I can deploy the devices remotely. We can provision our cloud and push the configuration to those devices from the cloud.

The visibility that FortiGate provides into our devices is crucial for network segmentation. I want to see the output in a specific way. The traditional approach has shifted slightly, as I'm accustomed to Cisco networking equipment. Typically, we have a call feature, but I'm currently using all the call features for internal routing. However, with FortiGate, most security subnets are segmented and protected behind the firewall. This allows me to lock down or secure sensitive subnets, such as HR or departmental information. I can log in from there, and all other subnets for client users require centralized access. This means that all traffic must go through the firewall, enhancing security.

FortiGate enabled us to achieve compliance with governance requirements. The FortiGate, along with fabric security and checkpoints, essentially act as regulatory checkers, reviewing our security practices against industry best practices and guidelines. If they identify any discrepancies, they alert us, allowing us to develop and implement mitigation plans to address the issues. For instance, if our SSH configurations don't meet security standards, such as algorithm or cipher requirements, FortiGate will notify us, enabling us to take corrective action and regain compliance.

We utilize API calls for FortiGate, including those related to our PRTG monitoring system. Additionally, we employ HVAC calls and leverage another MDR solution from Arctic Wolf to trigger specific events on the FortGate. This API functionality enables us to generate API keys and seamlessly integrate with API features across various platforms.

Integrating FortiGate into our environment is straightforward. Our transition from Palo Alto to FortiGate was seamless, utilizing our existing policies and migration tools. FortiGate also provides provisioning capabilities for defining branch office configurations. As long as branch office devices can access the internet to communicate with Fortinet Cloud, we can remotely implement provisioning for these devices, offering greater convenience for small branch offices.

The built-in APIs streamline integrations with other vendors, reducing deployment time. They effortlessly generate API keys upon logging into the Fortinet network, facilitating the deployment of our PRTT monitor tools. These tools seamlessly integrate with each other, fostering rapid deployment. Most platforms, including Cisco Meraki, Palo Alto, and Check Point, now adhere to industry standards and support API calls.

FortiGate has been instrumental in mitigating the risk of cyberattacks that could potentially disrupt our production operations. I am particularly impressed with Fortinet's cloud-based FortiGuard service, which continuously updates our systems with the latest zero-day attack protection, significantly reducing the threat landscape within our industry. Given the energy industry's heightened vulnerability to cyberattacks, we have implemented measures to restrict access to our network based on geolocation IP addresses. This includes restricting access from countries such as Russia and China, further safeguarding our environment from potential threats. Additionally, FortiGuard's regularly updated list of malicious websites provides an invaluable layer of protection for our industry.

In the event of a production-disrupting attack, we can utilize FortiManager to remotely isolate and mitigate the threat by shutting down specific subnets or networks. We can easily navigate through the unpacked data, and upon detecting a suspicious event, we can initiate automation or SOAR processes to notify the Cloud Service Provider team with whom we have been collaborating. Additionally, we can establish traffic alerts. For instance, since not all users access the AD server simultaneously each month, if we observe such suspicious behavior, we can remotely shut down that network, thereby minimizing our risk exposure.

FortiGate provides us with actionable insights to guide our decision-making regarding the appropriate actions to take. We generate 20 gigabytes of log data daily, which we utilize to establish a baseline for network traffic on our servers and compare it to our generated report. This approach allows us to set a threshold for the read volume of 20 gigabytes of FortiGate data attempting to reach a server from an external source. If this threshold is exceeded, an alert is triggered, prompting us to take corrective action. The centralized monitoring of our environment provides significant value.

Security is not a single, isolated element. It encompasses the entire network infrastructure, including firewalls, routers, switches, endpoints, and even mobile devices. The Fortinet Security Fabric seamlessly integrates these components to provide comprehensive protection. It generates detailed logs, including those from access points linked to FortiSwitch. The FortiSwitch, fully integrated with the FortiGate Fabric, relays security alerts to the FortiViewer in the SOC. This centralized view provides complete visibility into the network, including SSIDs, wireless networks, subnets, and devices protected by FortiClient. The Fortinet Security Fabric tracks individual devices connected to the network, including compromised laptops. FortiClient triggers alerts and sends them to FortiCloud, which also receives logs from the EMS server and the firewall. These logs are consolidated in the FortiAnalyzer and forwarded to the cloud-based log server for analysis. This comprehensive approach to security ensures that all potential threats are identified and addressed promptly.

FortiGate has contributed to a reduction in our operational expenses. Prior to adopting Fortinet, we utilized Palo Alto for firewalls and Cisco for call switches. However, as we began using Fortinet, we gradually transitioned to their products. Currently, we employ FortiGate for our firewall, FortiSuite, and FortiAP Access Points, phasing them in one at a time. This approach has effectively minimized downtime and lightened our workload by enabling centralized management through a single pane of glass.

FortiGate has significantly reduced our time to remediation. We can now check logs from servers, firewalls, switches, access points, clouds, and even devices from different brands, all from a single centralized location. This has greatly reduced the time required for threat hunting and security event investigation.

Fortinet has been instrumental in enhancing our cybersecurity approach to safeguard our industrial machinery. We rely on some heavy equipment that is critical to our industry's operations. To protect this equipment, we have isolated it on a single subnet and implemented strict access controls, allowing only authorized users and MAC addresses to access the network. This ensures that only internal staff can operate the equipment unless authorized maintenance personnel are present. The high level of security we have implemented is essential because our industry's operations are closely tied to the core applications of our industry. We are committed to safeguarding our equipment and preventing any potential risks.

I appreciate FortiGate's flexibility, which allows for centralized management through FortiManager. Additionally, its integration with FortiAnalyzer, which can be deployed in the cloud, enables centralized monitoring of all firewall logs.

Fortinet needs to overhaul its documentation. Our current reliance on outdated documentation has resulted in significant time wastage. While we can locate the necessary documentation, the constant daily revisions necessitate meticulous identification of the relevant documents to prevent the use of outdated information that could jeopardize our environment. At the very least, Fortinet should classify its documentation to clearly indicate the applicable version, as our attempts to do so manually are becoming increasingly tedious.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for over three years.

Fortinet FortiGate is stable. I have not encountered any performance issues.

Fortinet FortiGate is scalable. 

The speed of Fortinet's technical support is significantly faster compared to Palo Alto. I recall an instance where I experienced an issue with Palo Alto, and it took an hour to connect with a real technician from Palo Alto. However, when I call Fortinet, it takes a maximum of two minutes to get a knowledgeable individual to address my concerns. Considering the stark contrast in service levels, imagine having a network issue with Palo Alto and having to wait an hour for support. Conversely, with Fortinet, we can receive proper assistance within two minutes. The difference is immense. This is the one aspect I find lacking in Palo Alto.

The reason I don't give Fortinet's support a perfect score is that I've worked in this field for many years and have come to expect a certain level of expertise. Even when we call Palo Alto, Cisco, Check Point, or any other support service, our experience can vary depending on who we get on the phone. If we're lucky, we'll get a highly experienced expert who can quickly resolve our issue. However, we may also get someone who is new to the team or to their role, and they may take a long time to understand our problem. While Fortinet's support is generally excellent, I have had a couple of experiences where I felt like the person on the other end was inexperienced and asked me irrelevant questions. Despite these occasional issues, I am still very satisfied with Fortinet's support overall, but I wouldn't give it a perfect score.

Positive

We previously used Palo Alto for five years and switched to Fortinet FortiGate. Palo Alto is expensive.

The initial deployment is simple. We need to determine which interface is the WAN interface and which is the internal interface.

With Fortinet, we should prioritize a centralized approach to ensure synchronization and consistency across the network. This centralized management strategy will streamline the implementation of SD-WAN, as it allows for the deployment of standardized templates and traffic configurations. Centralized management also simplifies future modifications, as minor changes can be pushed down without requiring complete redesigns. Conversely, deploying SD-WAN without prior centralized management can lead to complexities and potential disruptions. For instance, if WAN interfaces are configured independently of SD-WAN, integrating SD-WAN later will necessitate removing and reconfiguring existing data, policies, firewall policies, and rules. This process can be time-consuming and error-prone.

For medium and enterprise organizations, FortiGate is more affordable. We can choose from a variety of bundles to find the right license for our needs. The software is reliable and easy to install, and it will run smoothly on our systems. FortiGate is priced lower than Palo Alto.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate nine out of ten.

I compared SD-WAN solutions offered by companies like Cisco Meraki, and Palo Alto. I'm impressed with SD-WAN solutions in general, but I recommend considering purchasing Fortinet's SD-WAN solution, as it could lead to significant cost savings. However, proper planning and design are crucial before deployment to avoid incurring additional expenses due to rework. That's my suggestion.