Fortinet FortiGate (BYOL) Next-Generation Firewall

My main use case for Fortinet FortiGate-VM  is to use it as a firewall for protecting the global gateway, and we also use it as a proxy connection for internet access outside our organizations.

A specific example of how we use Fortinet FortiGate-VM  as a firewall or proxy in my organization is that we have multiple airports across the globe and provide internet access through this firewall. We configure a proxy IP address in Fortinet FortiGate-VM, and that IP is given to the customer. Basically, they configure the proxy IP on all the PAC files of the workstations, which send the traffic to these proxy IPs. Once the traffic reaches Fortinet FortiGate-VM, it verifies the policies, and only the permitted ones will be allowed. We also do complete inspection of the traffic and then permit that to the internet.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM offers a completely useful dashboard where we monitor the complete health checks in one single pane of glass. Fortinet FortiGate-VM's user interface is much friendlier than other firewalls, and the certificates are quite easily configured.

The dashboard of Fortinet FortiGate-VM gives the complete health status of the firewall, measuring CPU utilization, the firewall primary and secondary status, and traffic utilization. Any problematic issues are immediately flagged in the dashboards. Furthermore, certificates are quite automated, as we have all certificates on Fortinet FortiGate-VM which are automated with another Python script, making modifications and updates easier than on other firewalls.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM has positively impacted our organization as it is quite user-friendly to access and easy to deploy. Configurations are pretty straightforward to analyze, study, and configure as well, and the deployment is much easier than with other firewalls.

I would like to see an SD-WAN connection for Fortinet FortiGate-VM, which would provide much more automation.

For improvement in Fortinet FortiGate-VM, I would suggest adding many more features such as SD-WAN. It would also be beneficial if traffic monitoring could be simpler to use, allowing for detailed insights into what is happening within the packets at a packet level.

I would appreciate features such as Python integration inside Fortinet FortiGate-VM so that the APIs are easier to script with external scripting languages.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate-VM for the past three and a half years.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM is quite stable. I have not had any problems, and it is easy to do OS upgrades and other user-friendly upgrade processes.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM's scalability is quite user-friendly, requiring only access.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM's customer support is good. We have raised multiple TAC cases for support with VM issues impacting Fortinet FortiGate-VM performance, and in many instances, they helped us rebuild or understand issues with interfaces not coming up in virtual environments.

We previously used third-party solutions such as Zscaler, but switching to our own product saves money and is easier to manage as well.

I have seen a return on investment with Fortinet FortiGate-VM. It acts as a proxy for many customers, which saves time and resources by facilitating internet access. It is completely user-friendly to manage, and the resource utilization on Fortinet FortiGate-VM is well-suited for all the customers.

I am not involved in the pricing and costs associated with Fortinet FortiGate-VM, as those are handled by the CFO. We are in operations, and we just access the product as it is and take care of the service level agreements.

Before choosing Fortinet FortiGate-VM, we analyzed multiple partners such as Palo Alto and Zscaler to use as proxies and to secure the firewall, but since our requirements do not call for immense utilization, we chose Fortinet FortiGate-VM, which meets our needs effectively.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM is deployed in our organization in a private cloud across the globe, where we have our servers deployed. Our servers are running on ESXi hosts, and Fortinet FortiGate-VM instances are mostly kept on virtual machines on those servers across the globe, acting as gateways across different geographical locations such as continents.

We use Equinix data centers in Germany and the US for our private cloud setup.

Regarding Fortinet FortiGate-VM's AI capabilities, we have not used them so far, but we look forward to having some features shared with us so that we can benefit from them. Concerning the accuracy and reliability of the output from Fortinet FortiGate-VM's AI capabilities, we have not used them yet, but we would appreciate understanding the product more through information or knowledge shared with our company to increase our awareness.

My advice to others looking into using Fortinet FortiGate-VM is that it is much user-friendly to access the UI and offers additional stability. Fortinet FortiGate-VM's policies are quite easy to configure and operate. However, we would benefit from some additional features, such as SD-WAN and APIs, that can help automate processes with scripts externally to manage multiple devices simultaneously.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM still lacks some more features and has room for improvement in user-friendly traffic inspection. Additionally, it would be beneficial to manage multiple instances of Fortinet FortiGate-VM from a single pane of glass. I appreciate the support they offer and look forward to improved features such as single pane of glass management for device access and enhanced scripting capabilities. I give Fortinet FortiGate-VM a rating of seven out of ten.

I use Fortinet FortiGate-VM  for firewall purposes including traffic allow and deny functions, along with all related firewall policies, VPN, IPsec VPN, SSL VPN , and security purposes.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM  firewall is deployed in the environment for security purposes to protect the outside domain from the internet network to the inside network. Additionally, Fortinet FortiGate-VM VPN client is used for VPN purposes including SSL VPN . Connections to branches are established via IPsec.

Use cases include IPsec tunneling and VPN for connecting all users as clients. Fortinet FortiGate-VM is also used to protect the outside network. Multiple firewall policies have been created for blocking outside internet traffic to the inside LAN network.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM offers valuable features including SSL VPN, FortiWAF, and FortiManager.

FortiWAF is most valuable in the environment to protect web-related traffic. VPN and SSL VPN are also valuable because there are over a thousand users connecting remotely to the data center.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM protects the environment from the outside and will protect the data center from external threats. It automatically detects signatures that are malfunctioning. When intrusion protections are used, outside domains from countries such as China and Russia are blocked to protect the inside network.

Regarding Fortinet FortiGate-VM improvements, there is no current specific suggestion. However, there are multiple upgrades available, and recommendations are received every month. This creates a very difficult situation regarding getting downtime for upgrades. The suggestion is to create a more stable software product so that upgrades are not required every month or within months. If a more refined product is created, downtime or continuous upgrades would not be necessary.

Overall experience is very good, but continuous CVEs require upgrading the firewall to overcome vulnerabilities. The suggestion is to work toward overcoming vulnerabilities to reduce the frequency of upgrades. Due to continuous upgrades required for security patches, the rating given is nine instead of a higher number.

I have used Fortinet FortiGate-VM for the last five years.

Different options were available before. Previously, Sophos was used, but Sophos had some limitations, which is why the transition was made to Fortinet FortiGate-VM.

Palo Alto is used in parallel as an alternative solution. However, Fortinet FortiGate-VM is preferred as it is user-friendly.

The interface is excellent and very useful for troubleshooting. Configuration is very user-friendly and is appreciated when compared with other firewalls. The dashboard of Fortinet FortiGate-VM is valuable for troubleshooting, monitoring, and all functions can be performed on the same device.

FortiGate-VM AI is a new feature that has not had time to be fully explored, but there is anticipation that it will be helpful.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM is user-friendly and can be handled by anyone. The user interface and dashboard are valuable for troubleshooting and monitoring. Fortinet FortiGate-VM is recommended for use.

This review has been rated nine out of ten.

My main use case for Fortinet FortiGate-VM  is using them as standard firewalls for our clients or as a virtual firewall. For one of our clients, we have an Azure  environment, and for the firewall, we just have Fortinet FortiGate-VM  installed virtually, and we have a site-to-site tunnel to their main campus. Fortinet FortiGate-VM is deployed in our organization both in the public cloud and on-premises.

The best features Fortinet FortiGate-VM offers are how easily manageable it is and overall, it just provides a better firewall experience than what I have used in the past. It offers threat protection, web filtering, and all the standard security features that you would expect a firewall to have, but it puts them into the web GUI, making it much better than I have seen in other circumstances. Additionally, troubleshooting is much easier than with Cisco Meraki, which I dislike a lot; Fortinet FortiGate-VM just seems to be much easier to troubleshoot complex issues.

Compared to Meraki, Fortinet FortiGate-VM lets me get into logs a bit easier; whereas Meraki does not provide the whole picture, and sometimes I actually have to create a troubleshooting ticket with Meraki for them to be able to see into the back end of my system, whereas Fortinet FortiGate-VM shows me everything, absolutely everything.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM has impacted my organization positively by providing us with the reliability that we need in firewalls. Basically, clients are relying on these firewalls for their internet 24/7, and Fortinet FortiGate-VM has supplied that to us, giving us a sense of relief knowing that Fortinet FortiGate-VM is just going to work.

A specific example where Fortinet FortiGate-VM's reliability made a difference for our team or clients is that we are constantly having power issues at these clients because their infrastructure is not really set up super reliably, but Fortinet FortiGate-VM has failed over quite well. Whether it is high availability or failing over to the secondary WAN, it just works.

I can definitely attest to time saved; engineers have spent significantly less time on setting up and troubleshooting and dealing with issues on Fortinet FortiGate-VM compared to other firewalls.

I think Fortinet FortiGate-VM can be improved. There is not anything about the interface, updates, documentation, or support that I wish was different; support has been good, and documentation has been good. I cannot really think of anything off the top of my head.

One small thing I wish would improve is when I am going through event logs, it defaults to my cloud environment, and I have to switch it over to look at the local disk. That is a small thing, but every time I am looking at event logs, I have to switch it over, so it becomes annoying sometimes.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate-VM for about four years now.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM is indeed stable.

I have tested the scalability of Fortinet FortiGate-VM, and it seems to work fairly well. We have not necessarily used it in practice yet because we do not have to, since a lot of our clients are smaller and only have one office. However, we use the management portal to get a good overview of all the clients, so in that respect, it works fairly well.

The customer support for Fortinet FortiGate-VM is good; it has been pretty standard, and they are fairly quick to address tickets and respond. I have not really had a bad experience yet.

We have switched from Meraki to Fortinet FortiGate-VM just because, as I mentioned earlier, we prefer Fortinet FortiGate-VM much better for troubleshooting logs and setting up firewall policies. It is just a much better experience and provides much more granular detail that is significantly better than Meraki.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is fairly typical. We go through a third-party vendor that gives us a quote and prices it out for us, along with a little bit of a discount, but it seems to be fairly standard.

Before choosing Fortinet FortiGate-VM, we did evaluate other options, including some Palo Altos, but we just did not prefer the GUI layout, and Fortinet FortiGate-VM just looked a lot simpler and easier to manage.

Compared to Meraki, Fortinet FortiGate-VM lets me get into logs a bit easier; whereas Meraki does not provide the whole picture, and sometimes I actually have to create a troubleshooting ticket with Meraki for them to be able to see into the back end of my system, whereas Fortinet FortiGate-VM shows me everything, absolutely everything. I do not have anything else to add about the features; that is about it.

I would rate Fortinet FortiGate-VM a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. I give it a 10 because it is just a perfect combination of web GUI, troubleshooting capabilities, and reliability. It just makes it that perfect 10 compared to other firewalls that I have used.

My advice to others looking into using Fortinet FortiGate-VM is to ensure they understand how to troubleshoot, set up their policies, and configure the firewall correctly. There is a small learning curve on the individual specific details of Fortinet FortiGate-VM, but once you figure that out, it is fairly simple. Fortinet offers extended knowledge training sessions, so people can watch their trainings on Fortinet FortiGate-VM, which are fairly good. My overall rating for this product is 10 out of 10.

My main use case for Fortinet FortiGate-VM  involves several customers in our IBM Cloud, where we have more than 300 premium accounts. They will use it for their infrastructure and enterprise management, placing these FortiGates at their branch locations and a few at the perimeter edge. Essentially, the use case is for connecting one branch to another branch, where they build IPsec tunnels between two Fortinet FortiGate-VM  instances. Security policies and UTM features play a crucial role here, mainly for connectivity between different branches and securing the enterprise environments.

When managing those branch-to-branch connections with Fortinet FortiGate-VM, I find it good and easy to use, similar to Palo Alto. I haven't faced any difficulties because Fortinet FortiGate-VM has a clean UI and CLI. For every firewall, the CLI is good, but if you compare UIs in the market, Fortinet FortiGate-VM and Palo Alto have better UIs compared to Check Point or Juniper. Overall, I find it easy to use.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM offers several standout features, with one being its next-generation firewall capabilities that include UTM features. The security processing unit is good in Fortinet FortiGate-VM, and its IPS and VPN SSL inspection help a lot. When comparing price with performance, it has an edge because other vendors such as Palo Alto charge somewhat higher.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM also has a built-in SD-WAN feature, while other devices often require a separate license for this feature. High availability and threat intelligence are common across firewalls, but I find it convenient that you can open a console session directly from Fortinet FortiGate-VM UI, allowing simultaneous access to the CLI. The console feature saves time because you don't need to log in to PuTTY and create another session; you can access the console directly from the GUI. This is particularly valuable in busy environments.

The SD-WAN feature is also crucial as it automatically selects the best performance link out of multiple ISPs based on latency and packet loss, eliminating the need for manual BGP failover. Many customers, including those at NTT and MicroLand, use Fortinet FortiGate-VM SD-WAN, which I have observed. In terms of features, one great aspect is that in security policies, you can also add NAT.

While many elements are common across firewalls, the ease of use of Fortinet FortiGate-VM is significant. A vendor's ability to create an easy-to-navigate device can set them apart. Among the vendors I've seen, only Fortinet and Palo Alto maintain a clean UI, making navigation and creation straightforward. Fortinet FortiGate-VM has positively impacted my organization because the number of bugs reported is less compared to other vendors. For instance, in other vendors such as Palo Alto or Juniper, numerous bugs require fixing in upcoming releases.

However, Fortinet FortiGate-VM releases are stable, so I don't need to frequently upgrade unless a critical vulnerability is identified. I usually upgrade once or twice a year, and the minimal number of bugs is positive, as this reduces work pressure involving critical integrations with other devices.

The UI of Fortinet FortiGate-VM could improve further. While I find the UI good, it has potential for enhancement. The CLI is very effective, along with VDOM configurations and root access. On the feature front, I don't see a need for new features in the VM because every device has different rules and limitations. However, they can definitely focus on improving the UI.

While none of the customers I've interacted with have provided feedback on the UI, I believe Fortinet should take such feedback directly from their customers. From my perspective, having worked with Palo Alto, Juniper, and Fortinet FortiGate-VM, I find Palo Alto's UI cleaner, thus suggesting Fortinet could benefit from UI improvements.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate-VM for the past two years, starting from June 2024.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM has positively impacted my organization because the number of bugs reported is less compared to other vendors. For instance, in other vendors such as Palo Alto or Juniper, numerous bugs require fixing in upcoming releases. However, Fortinet FortiGate-VM releases are stable, so I don't need to frequently upgrade unless a critical vulnerability is identified. I usually upgrade once or twice a year, and the minimal number of bugs is positive, as this reduces work pressure involving critical integrations with other devices.

With fewer bugs and more stable releases in Fortinet FortiGate-VM, I observe that many people are transitioning from different devices such as Palo Alto and Check Point to Fortinet FortiGate-VM. I've seen many recent migrations among my customers, resulting in a lower number of cases reported. For the Fortinet FortiGate-VM environment specifically, the stability is notable, with few issues unless they involve configuration or external connectivity problems, leading to generally stable usage.

The scalability of Fortinet FortiGate-VM is good; it handles over a hundred policies and can manage a large amount of traffic effectively.

Customer support for Fortinet FortiGate-VM is overall good, but there is room for improvement, particularly since you can't directly raise a Severity 1 ticket. Usually, you must initiate a chat to request raising it to Severity 1, which they could improve, along with prioritization during case handling. Nevertheless, case management is generally effective.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Fortinet FortiGate-VM is good overall.

My advice for others looking to use Fortinet FortiGate-VM is to migrate slowly. They can start with a small branch location that has an existing firewall and test Fortinet FortiGate-VM for a month. Monitoring how the device handles traffic will help them make an informed decision regarding migrating other locations.

I don't have any additional thoughts about Fortinet FortiGate-VM before we wrap up, as it offers a wide range of products and performs well, although competition is high and requires ongoing focus on every aspect to maintain its position as a leader. My overall review rating for Fortinet FortiGate-VM is 8.5 out of 10.

My main use case for Fortinet FortiGate-VM  is allowing particular VMware subnets in our organization and performing IP NAT translation for cloud environments and virtual machines. We also provide VPN access for two clients to access their internal VMs. Additionally, we created a service based on what customers are looking for, including TCP, IP, HTTP, and other protocols. When customers request access to particular social media applications, we accordingly configure the system according to their requirements.

Sometimes we also use Fortinet FortiGate-VM  as an SD-WAN solution to create templates regarding incoming and outgoing traffic for managing our applications for better performance and scalability.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM has positively impacted our organization by maintaining security with multiple policies for both incoming and outgoing traffic, covering both inside LAN and outside WAN environments. We allow particular subnets we are using in our organization to operate exclusively, while we automatically block and deny other subnets, which helps prevent unauthorized access through Fortinet FortiGate-VM firewalls. This approach also enables us to create specific subnet addresses and services defined for users.

The best features Fortinet FortiGate-VM offers are the user interface, which is user-friendly and easy to navigate. The GUI allows us to segregate issues efficiently since all features are consolidated into one tab for network, interface, policy, security, policy object, user authentications, addresses, and services, making it very smooth and easy to understand. Another valuable feature is that when Fortinet features such as IDS and IPS are about to expire, the system continuously gives pop-ups reminding us to renew licenses to access these features. This helps us identify and stop potential outages related to sudden license issues. Troubleshooting with Fortinet FortiGate-VM is much easier than with Palo Alto, where troubleshooting is quite difficult.

For day-to-day logging, the system log feature is where I identify issues regarding particular policies related to the subnet and services. On the dashboard, I can identify problems through system logs. Similarly, we can easily identify CPU graphs showing how much CPU utilization is occurring on our physical or VM firewalls, as well as which processes and users are consuming the most bandwidth, allowing us to manage data transfer effectively.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM makes troubleshooting easy through its user interface. We can check previous policies and monitor hit counts, allowing us to quickly identify root causes, which is unlike Palo Alto where troubleshooting is complicated. Fortinet FortiGate-VM presents everything in a more user-friendly manner. I recommend that Fortinet provide updates and pop-ups for critical licensing matters.

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate-VM for six to seven months, and in the past nine months, I have also used it for more than one and a half years.

Having worked with Fortinet FortiGate-VM for the last three years, I have not encountered any major issues, except for occasional hardware problems such as auto rebooting and CPU utilization spikes that sometimes occur when multiple users log in at the same time, which can create packet latency.

Fortinet FortiGate-VM allows us to provide multiple user access to inside applications, enabling users to access the internal network through VPNs. This feature makes Fortinet FortiGate-VM very effective, as we can create virtual machines to manage all clients and environments through its policies.

The customer support for Fortinet FortiGate-VM is excellent. During incidents, we can create tech calls with their support team, allowing us quick access and assistance. I would rate the customer support a nine out of ten.

I am currently using Fortinet FortiGate-VM, but previously in my organization, we used Palo Alto. Based on user interface access, I find Fortinet FortiGate-VM far better than Palo Alto.

Before choosing Fortinet FortiGate-VM, we did not evaluate other options and simply opted for it. We were satisfied with the decision, as we already had two to three models existing in our data centers.

In terms of return on investment, we save time through troubleshooting since Fortinet FortiGate-VM functions as one device, allowing us to eliminate multiple routers. We can manage all routing, switching, and NAT policies within one firewall, which helps us significantly in managing data center operations with fewer employees.

Regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing, the main client I deal with is a reputed company in the market, making it easy for them to afford Fortinet FortiGate-VM compared to Palo Alto, which is much more costly.

My selection for a rating of nine out of ten is not based on a specific reason, but there are many factors contributing to it. The features of Fortinet FortiGate-VM are easier to navigate and compatible with other firewalls. Additionally, the continuous introduction of new solutions including SASE , SD-WAN, FortiManager, and FortiLog Analyzer makes Fortinet FortiGate-VM stand out among others.

I advise others considering Fortinet FortiGate-VM to choose it if they are currently using Cisco ASA  or Check Point. If they are using Palo Alto, I suggest switching to Fortinet FortiGate-VM, as it includes everything from SD-WAN and SASE  all in one analyzer. With Palo Alto, you need to acquire different products and licenses for comparable features. I would rate Fortinet FortiGate-VM a nine overall.