Fortinet FortiManager Reviews

I primarily use FortiManager to manage FortiGate firewalls. I started working with Fortinet in 2016, managing configurations to be pushed from FortiManager to firewalls and centralizing configurations to minimize errors.

It has simplified our work by allowing centralized configurations and minimizing errors, providing visibility into configurations, and scheduling configuration deployments.

FortiManager helps automate configuration deployment, allowing us to plan and schedule configurations. It works with proper encrypted protocols, ensuring security. FortiManager's documentation and diagrams are user-friendly, making it easy to understand the configuration process.

FortiManager needs to handle different firewall versions more efficiently. If FortiGate devices have different versions, managing them is challenging. There's also a need to upgrade firewalls or change chassis to adapt to FortiManager's version requirements.

I have used the solution since 2016, which totals approximately nine years of experience.

FortiGate is very stable. Currently, Fortinet's configuration and operation are stable, and I rarely experience problems.

FortiManager is scalable, but after several years, it may become limited due to versioning issues. This requires chassis updates to support newer versions.

In the past, I worked with Alcatel Lucent and had partnerships involving FortiGate.

It is easy to set up on-premises or on a virtual machine. Be cautious about versions to avoid compatibility problems.

The return on investment is high. It saves time, money, and resources, providing visibility into configurations.

FortiGate offers the same features as Palo Alto yet at a more reasonable price. The ROI justifies the investment.

I have experience with FortiAnalyzer and other components but have not explored other firewall solutions like Palo Alto.

I rate the overall solution eight out of ten. 

One should be cautious about hardware and version compatibility. FortiManager is an efficient and cost-effective firewall management solution.

We use Fortinet FortiManager to monitor our customer's firewalls.

FortiManager simplifies security policy management for our clients, even though their configurations differ. This is because it allows us to easily copy and administer base policies across all deployments.

The firmware version upgrades are the most valuable feature.

The price always has room for improvement.

I have been using Fortinet FortiManager for a year.

I used the technical support one time and it was a good experience.

Positive

The initial setup is straightforward. 

Compared to Check Point or Cisco, Fortinet FortiManager is more affordable but it is still on the higher end. I would rate the price 8 out of 10 with 10 being the most expensive.

I would rate Fortinet FortiManager 8 out of 10.

I've been working with Fortinet firewalls for over ten years now. Everything works consistently well, including the hardware, software, operating system, and all the features. They're easy to configure, and using firewalls together with FortiManager for central administration and monitoring of all our devices makes everything much simpler.

I recommend Fortinet FortiManager because you can administer the firewalls from one tool.

I am a systems integrator and work with customers to integrate the solution. 

The solution has the best stability for application control and inspections. 

The fabric for integrations or connections could be improved. This would make a big difference for some customers. 

I have been using the solution for more than five years. 

The solution is very scalable so I rate scalability a ten out of ten. 

Support has an overall lack of knowledge. We have opened many tickets for support but they don't even answer them. 

Pricing could improve a little bit so I rate it a seven out of ten. 

It is important to select the features you need at the outset. Some customers don't do this correctly so their hardware doesn't perform as well. Take into account the applications you want to run on the solution when selecting features. 

I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

Our company recommends the solution to customers as a single management platform for multiple Fortinet devices such as FortiAP, FortiSwitch, and FortiGate. 

The solution brings device management into one single pane of glass and is a pretty good product. 

The solution has some bugs that we have to fix for customers. We provide feedback about these issues to Fortinet for future development or updates. 

More software stability is needed to prevent breakdowns. 

I have been using the solution for one month. 

The solution is pretty stable and integrates well with cloud tools. 

More stability and bug fixes are needed to prevent breakdowns. 

The solution is pretty scalable and can support 4,000 devices on a single pane. 

Technical support could be better because it takes them awhile to handle items. More technical resources and knowledge are needed within the technical support department. 

The setup is straightforward. 

It is important to design and test systems to ensure they align with best practices in the security domain. 

We implement the solution for customers. Deployments are quick and take a couple of minutes to a couple of hours depending on use cases. 

The pricing is based on a licensing model by feature. 

The solution is used widely and is good for small or medium-sized enterprises. It can be scaled further for larger enterprises. 

I recommend the solution and rate it a seven out of ten. 

We use Fortinet FortiManager for centralized management of our Fortinet devices, including switches and firewalls. This single console allows us to manage multiple devices efficiently.

We can push device configurations and policy management through FortiManager.

It has improved our security operations.

FortiManager has automation capabilities that positively impact our operational efficiency.

The most valuable feature is the centralized management console.

Configuring Fortinet without internet access is challenging.

I am currently in the process of integrating Fortinet FortiManager.

Fortinet FortiManager is scalable but scaling is costly.

I am satisfied with the technical support.

Positive

I can complete the deployment myself.

It can be expensive. Some competing solutions in the market, like Sophos and SonicWALL, offer lower costs of up to 40 percent.

I would rate Fortinet FortiManager 8 out of 10.

I recommend it but be aware that Fortinet firewalls managed by FortiManager may require weekly updates due to known bugs on the Fortinet servers.

We use FortiManager for centralized management of all Fortinet products. I have done SD-LAN configuration for multiple branches through FortiManager. It was easier for me to do it through this solution and push it to all the the branches.

Centralized configuration is the most helpful feature. I like the ability to create templates and push them to all the devices at the same time. I also like that I can see the the logs with one device to provide zero touch on all other products.

I would like to be able to manage other products such as Endpoint and FortiAnalyzer through FortiManager. That is, the integration with other solutions needs to be improved.

It would be helpful if we can manage all Fortinet products with a simpler GUI. FortiManager's GUI is complicated in comparison to that of FortiGate.

I've been working with Fortinet FortiManager for a year and a half.

I would rate FortiManager's stability at nine out of ten.

On a scale from one to ten with one being the worst and ten being the best, FortiManager's scalability would be eight. It is a good solution for medium and enterprise companies.

FortiManager's technical support is great, and I'd give them a ten out of ten.

Positive

FortiManager's initial setup is a simple process.

On a scale from one to ten with one being the highest price and ten being the lowest price, I would rate FortiManager's price at three.

We compared FortiManager with Palo Alto Panorama. The user interface for Panorama is more user-friendly than that of FortiManager. Using certain commands and troubleshooting are also easier with Panorama.

Overall, I would give FortiManager a rating of seven out of ten.

We used Fortinet FortiManager for managing multiple firewalls, because they had six or seven branches, so they need a single point of management. The Fortinet FortiAnalyzer was used for getting the logs out of all of these books, to store them in one place.

What I found most valuable about Fortinet FortiManager is its simplicity. I didn't see anything special about it compared to other vendors, and I'm working with multiple vendors, but when talking about this solution, it's always the simplicity that's valuable.

There's nothing special about it compared to other vendors, except for its simplicity.

This solution needs more experienced technical support staff.

I've worked with Fortinet FortiManager for three years.

Stability for this solution is good. I didn't see any issues with our customer.

I wasn't able to try Fortinet FortiManager on enterprise customers, or large-scale customers, but for small and medium-sized businesses, it was more than okay. It's scalable.

How good the technical support will be depends on the product where we need them. For the firewalls, all of them are good. For Fortinet FortiManager, I didn't see a lot of experienced people in there, but I didn't need them for complicated issues. It's the technical support team for firewalls who was very good.

The initial setup for this solution was straightforward. As for its deployment, the design and planning took around three months, e.g. we talked about the design, project plan, scope of work, etc. Implementation just took one week.

For the ROI, for a five-year project, Fortinet FortiManager would be the best option to use.

This is an affordable solution, and it's based on the number of devices. I did read that the licensing model has changed recently, but I'm not using the new licensing model.

There was a solution we used last 2021. We implemented Fortinet, and it was the major project we were dealing with at the time. We used everything from Fortinet, e.g. analytics management, logs, etc. It was only Fortinet we implemented, and not any other solution.

We implemented Fortinet FortiManager for orchestration and management, then for the loads, we implemented Fortinet FortiAnalyzer. For firewalls, we have 4800F and 60F. We've implemented them in multiple sites, so those were the main components.

During the implementation, I jumped between versions and did some upgrades, because with Fortinet, there are new versions that only work for short periods, so I had to upgrade the version multiple times during the implementation.

The deployment for Fortinet FortiManager was via a virtual machine, and it was on private cloud. We used the customer infrastructure to implement and install Fortinet FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer, so that particular cloud was owned by the customer, so there's no cloud provider for that.

We have 500 users of this solution. It was a medium-sized project.

I didn't see anything missing on Fortinet FortiManager. I like it the way it is. I'm happy with it, so I can't think of anything they should add in terms of features.

I would give Fortinet FortiManager the highest score because even a junior can implement it. It does not require too much knowledge or scale to implement a project, so I'm rating it a ten out of ten.

The user interface is very easy to navigate. It is comfortable to use.

Regional support in African countries needs to be improved.

I have been using FortiManager for less than a year.

So far, FortiManager has been really stable.

We have not pushed our usage to the point where we have had to scale, yet.

The platform does not have proper support for Africans.

The initial setup is straightforward and not as cumbersome as some other products.

Our deployment took a month or two because of the change management. 

My advice to anybody who is researching this product is that it is quite easy to use and the learning curve is not steep.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.