We are using the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall, and we are also providing this solution to our customers.
Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
Fortinet Inc. | 7.6.3Linux/Unix, Other 7.6.3 - 64-bit Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
External reviews
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Reliable with enhanced threat detection with effective content filtering
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Customer is investing in this solution. We have observed a reduction in order value costs, approximately one lakh rupees per order, which contributes to reducing overall security costs.
What is most valuable?
In our territory, the most usable features include WAP content filtering, which is more utilized than IDS, sandbox license, and multiple internet connectivity. These are the primary features we are offering as a solution.
FortiGate's threat detection capability is excellent. Compared to other solutions, FortiGuard Lab has a very high capacity to detect malware and malicious content.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see improvements in some of the hard drive features on FortiGate so that we can generate reporting within a single box.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been working with FortiGate Next Generation Firewall for the last ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's reliable and works well within our needs.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
FortiGate is scalable. That said, you must change the hardware to scale in capacity.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support has improved over the last two or three years, as Fortinet now operates 24/7 support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have also worked with SonicWall. Compared to SonicWall, FortiGate allows us to make a DNS server, which SonicWall cannot do. SonicWall offers the advantage of providing a free reporting solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is very aggressive in India as India is a rapidly growing market, the original equipment manufacturer offers competitive pricing.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We have evaluated other solutions like SonicWall and Sophos.
What other advice do I have?
For very small companies, with five to ten users and where cost is a concern, I would not recommend going with FortiGate.
If only cost is a concern, then it would not be recommended. It is a little bit expensive - the entry-level model is the FZ FortiGate. At the same time, Sophos XZ 86 is an entry-level model, which is more suitable for very small networks.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
Procures intelligence about the threats and incorporate the mitigation and protection against those threats
What is our primary use case?
Conventionally, the solution is used for perimeter security. Whenever we find our organization's customer without an existing firewall, we use FortiGate Next Generation Firewall both for perimeter security as a firewall and as a VPN appliance to allow work-from-home employees at the VPN end. In the aforementioned instance, our company also uses the solution to connect different branches.
If our organization is establishing the network for a company with different branches spread geographically, we will use the VPN in IP set and FortiGate. The solution is highly flexible and is available at a cost-effective price.
How has it helped my organization?
When using FortiGate Next Generation Firewall, availing the FortiGuard subscription is very important due to the vast threat intelligence with an international network.
Using the aforementioned network, FortiGate has been able to procure intelligence about the threats and incorporate the mitigation and protection against those threats in FortiGuard. So when you have FortiGuard integrated with the firewall, you have a robust perimeter solution to protect against malware.
What needs improvement?
The pricing of the solution should be more affordable.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with FortiGate Next Generation Firewall for seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
FortiGate Next Generation Firewall has excellent stability. Fortinet is a top-tier IT security infrastructure company.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. The solution exhibits impressive stability. Once the solution is installed, it's used 24/7.
How are customer service and support?
We never had to rely on or communicate much with the tech support. The free resources, documentation, training, and community feedback have been enough to resolve 99% of our company's issues with the product. In our organization, we directly interacted with the support team once or twice and had a positive experience. I would rate the tech support eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used Cisco previously, but it was too expensive for our company. FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall was available at a better price and performance; it was a better fit for our company as a networking vendor.
How was the initial setup?
I would rate the initial setup an eight out of ten. Our company deals with only the on-premise version of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall. It took about half a day in our organization to deploy the solution.
Our company has several firewall projects. When our organization identifies a company that needs a firewall but doesn't have one, we contact them. Our company strongly advises potential customers to adopt a firewall, and we provide reasons why the company shouldn't operate without a firewall today, we try to sell them the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall and FortiGuard solutions.
If the potential customer doesn't have access points or the latest switches, our company tries to sell that as well in the form of an integrated solution.
What about the implementation team?
Our company prefers to program solutions as much as possible in-house before approaching the customers.
What was our ROI?
FortiGate Next Generation Firewall has a very high ROI. A customer can realize nearly 100% ROI when it is used along with FortiGuard to establish a robust perimeter firewall based on an international vendor with a global-level threat intelligence network.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten. There are penalties if you don't renew the FortiGuard subscription, and I think the vendor should've refrained from imposing such penalties. If a customer fails to renew for a year, there shouldn't be any penalties on Fortinet solutions, the vendor should eradicate such policies.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Palo Alto, but we still chose Fortinet because, as per our company's evaluation, Palo Alto doesn't offer switches or access points. Before adopting FortiGate Next Generation Firewall, we also concluded that Fortinet offered everything for networking infrastructure, including switches, access points, antivirus, and firewalls.
What other advice do I have?
FortiGate has end-to-end solutions, they have switches, access points, and a native antivirus and threat management solution. When you onboard FortiGate Next Generation Firewall, you choose a vendor that covers every aspect of the IT infrastructure.
So, if you avail yourself of other products from the same vendor later on, it makes the management processes easier, as the command interface is similar across all the products from Fortinet, including switches, access points, and firewalls. The aforementioned benefit removes the need for training your team when a new solution is onboarded in the organization.
I would advise others to do a proper assessment in terms of the sizing before onboarding FortiGate Next Generation Firewall. Before adopting the solution, one should know how many users need access to the Internet so that the firewall can be sized or scaled ideally.
A sizing chart is available online to assist users in procuring the correct firewall size. FortiGate Next Generation Firewall offers comprehensive reports on user activity; potential customers should also analyze the reporting aspect before choosing the solution.
FortiGate Next Generation Firewall handles new and latest security threats satisfyingly. FortiGuard has some AI influence in its threat intelligence features in its international network. I would overall rate FortiGate Next Generation Firewall an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Reliable and has a user-friendly interface
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution as a firewall device.
What is most valuable?
The solution is very stable and reliable in terms of security management. The solution has a user-friendly interface.
What needs improvement?
The solution’s pricing is high.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using FortiGate Next Generation Firewall for four to five years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is used in an enterprise company.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's deployment was very simple and took less than one day.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Although the solution's pricing is high, compared with other products, it may be cheap. We pay around 1,000 for the solution per year.
What other advice do I have?
The solution is worth the price we paid for it. It was pretty easy to integrate the solution with other tools for security. I would recommend the solution to other users.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Secure, stable, and provides excellent filtering features
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution in our network.
What is most valuable?
IPsec is valuable. Internet filters are valuable features. The solution is secure. The VPN is good.
What needs improvement?
The performance can be improved.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The tool is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have around 90 users.
How are customer service and support?
We contacted support while we worked with IPsec. The support team helped us.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The deployment of IPsec took around 5 hours for 90 users.
What was our ROI?
The security provided by the product is our return on investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The tool is moderately priced. We pay $500 per year for the license.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I rate the product a ten out of ten.
Offers WAF and DDoS attack prevention systems and is outstandingly stable
What is our primary use case?
The solution is used to monitor daily network activities. FortiGate Next Generation Firewall acts as a security layer between public and private networks in our organization.
The solution successfully mitigates all types of advanced attacks by putting our company's production servers behind the firewall using a DDoS attack prevention system and WAF. FortiGate Next Generation Firewall handles our organization's internal network security. The solution is used mainly in IT companies, just like our organization.
What is most valuable?
The WAF and DDoS attack prevention system are the solution's most valuable features. FortiGate Next Generation Firewall has IBS/IPS systems, which are vital for handling cyberattacks.
What needs improvement?
More SD-WAN features can be integrated into the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall. The vendor can make efforts to make the solution more budget-friendly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using FortiGate Next Generation Firewall for seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten. For each purpose, there are different products used in our company from the same vendor. For instance, our company has a dedicated subscription plan for log analytics. Fortinet should host bundle pack subscriptions for its products and add-ons.
There are more than 150 users of the product in our company. Our company is functional on a hybrid model for employees, and thus, there are not more than a hundred users of the solution in the office at any given time.
Due to the aforementioned work setup, our company is exploring more scalable solutions with end-to-end security features, as many employees are working from remote locations. At our company, for end point protection we use Microsoft Defender.
How are customer service and support?
At our company, we have Fortinet certified experts in-house, so most of the issues are solved without tech support from vendor. But whenever, an issue was escalated to the support team of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall, our company has received a response on time.
How was the initial setup?
FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall integrates perfectly with our organization's infrastructure. Our organization is using the solution for more than six years without any integration obstacles, even while integrating to Fortinet Access Points.
The initial setup process is easy for the solution. There are some configurations and policies that will facilitate routing among the varying traffic, dictating what to allow or block. I would rate the initial setup a nine out of ten. The setup duration depends upon the expertise of the deployment engineer, but on average it can be finished within a day.
What was our ROI?
Our investment in security through FortiGate Next Generation Firewall is worth it as there are zero complains regarding the effectiveness of it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's an expensive solution. At our company, we updated the license every three years. I would rate the pricing a nine out of ten. Presently we are upgrading the hardware in our organization before the next license renewal date.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
In our company, we have used Sophos about six years ago. Compared to other solutions like Sophos, we found FortiGate Next Generation Firewall to be much more expensive for our organization.
But FortiGate Next Generation Firewall has a more robust hardware and stable configuration, so our company prefers the solution over others. But as the license of the the solution is expiring soon in our company, we might explore some other firewall products from Fortinet as well.
What other advice do I have?
Our company found that in comparison to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, FortiGate Next Generation Firewall has a limited number of features and requires an ideal Fortinet environment or infrastructure to function. FortiGate Next Generation Firewall should enhance its endpoint capabilities and be less dependent on Fortinet infrastructure. The product should have cloud solution integration capabilities.
Since implementing FortiGate Next Generation Firewall, we have not experienced any attack or cyber threat on our company's network. With the solution, we have been able to proactively monitor the network and take preventive measures on time. Our company finds the product reliable in mitigating all kinds of threats.
Our company expects some AI capabilities from Fortinet solutions. I would advise FortiGate Next Generation Firewall to others as a reliable solution. I would also advise other professionals to run tests with the product as per their requirements before adopting it. The solution has excellent security policies. I would overall rate the product a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
A user-friendly and reliable solution offering good performance at a reasonable cost
What is our primary use case?
FortiGate is a popular firewall in Turkey due to its widespread use and strong performance. Technical experts can easily be found for FortiGate, which is very important. Almost every company uses FortiGate internally. FortiGate is user-friendly and reliable, offering good performance at a reasonable cost.
What is most valuable?
You can integrate certain other services with FortiGate and use additional threat intelligence services because they allow you to combine various solutions, enhancing your overall security.
What needs improvement?
FortiGate may include AI capabilities and integrate external threat intelligence. However, version management and backup/restore operations could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall as a reseller for 15 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
With high availability, this FortiGate allows one device to take over for another seamlessly in case of failure.
I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
FortiGate is scalable because it supports various models that can accommodate different dimensions. It is suitable for all types of businesses.
I rate the solution’s scalability a nine out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. The firewall setup involves more than just physical installation and basic configurations. It includes customizing specific policies and configurations tailored to the customer's needs, which can take up to two or three days for a single firewall. This process is resource-intensive both in terms of cost and time.
I rate the initial setup a nine out of ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product is cheap.
What other advice do I have?
FortiGate Firewall offers advanced threat intelligence capabilities. It allows integration with various threat services, such as Cisco Talos. If you are a customer of both FortiGate and Cisco for threat intelligence, you can integrate Cisco Talos with FortiGate, which enhances security effectiveness through Intelligence.
I recommend FortiGate for every company. It's a highly effective solution that can significantly enhance firewall security. You can easily find technical guides to help you understand its capabilities. FortiGate is known for its reliability and robust features.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Offers stateless balance featuresand provides excellent reports and API integration
What is our primary use case?
The solution is used as a perimeter firewall, and all traffic is routed through the appliances before accessing the Internet. FortiGate Next Generation Firewall is also used in policy-based routing. The solution has features such as IPS and web filtering.
Presently I am carrying out a POC to evaluate where the SD-WAN functionality of the solution can be utilized by our company.
What is most valuable?
It's an out-of-the-box solution with impressive ratings. FortiGate Next Generation Firewall has a stateless balance proposition. The updates from the vendor ensure that the product remains up to date in terms of threat intelligence capabilities.
I personally go through reports on utilizing FortiGate Next Generation Firewall resources, bandwidth and applications that are present in the company's environment. The product has been capable of providing the aforementioned reports for the last 280 days, and such features are highly valuable for reporting purposes. The reports provided by FortiGate Next Generation Firewall also help in analyzing the traffic condition in a network.
What needs improvement?
When the SD-WAN is integrated with solutions like Citrix, it can appear complicated, which only tech professionals can implement. The solution should allow more user-friendly integrations or deployment.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with FortiGate Next Generation Firewall for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability an eight out of ten. But recently, we needed to undergo regular patching of the network in our company, but that's probably due to increased hacking activities or attacks. At our company, we are still confident with the solution in spite of the recent breaches.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is highly scalable. I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. At our company, we can scale the solution effortlessly for enterprise networks. There are two professional users of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall in our company. The other solutions which are being evaluated in our company are FortiNAC and Fortinet SD-WAN.
How are customer service and support?
I have received satisfying support for every issue I raised with the team. The support team is responsive and helpful in resolving issues. I would rate the customer support an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, Cyberoam was used in our organization. Our company has also used Check Point to deploy a multi-layered firewall solution. Check Point has numerous partners and offers satisfying support, which makes it a formidable competitor of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall.
There are various local partners of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall who offer effective support for the solution.
How was the initial setup?
While integrating FortiGate Next Generation Firewall in our company's infrastructure I faced an error while implementing a secure LDAP server. I had to roll back for the aforementioned issue and review the authentication certificates.
The learning curve of the solution varies depending on the use cases and the different features the user starts interacting with within a specific environment. The initial setup of the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall can be claimed to be straightforward. I would rate the setup a six out of ten. The deployer's CLI understanding will also be a major factor in the deployment process of the solution.
The solution's initial setup can be completed in a few days, but much more time is required to learn about the environment, evaluate the policies' interference with the services, and implement optimizations based on the insights. In total, the complete deployment takes a few weeks.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's an expensive solution. FortiGate Next Generation Firewall costs our company around $12000 per year. There are no additional costs involved with the product.
What other advice do I have?
I have confidence in the threat detection capabilities of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall. I haven't witnessed any downtime in the solution, even after using it for multiple years.
An automation API integration is available with FortiGate Next Generation Firewall. For instance, the solution allows integration with CrowdStrike and Darktrace to enhance the threat intelligence capabilities. I would recommend others to use FortiGate Next Generation Firewall.
It's a reliable solution for real-time threat intelligence. In the security industry, FortiGate Next Generation Firewall is a highly praised product and I am able to embed policies for effective operation. I would rate FortiGate Next Generation Firewall an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Comes with good interface that is easily undestandable by customers
What is most valuable?
The tool's most valuable feature is IPS. In my experience, I haven't encountered any issues with integration. It easily integrates with the FortiGate solution. However, verifying through documentation and assessing their support is necessary.
Its interface user-friendliness is good. When we present this interface to customers, they find it easy to understand and manage.
What needs improvement?
Support for courses available on the platform
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate FortiGate's NGFW's stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The tool's scalability is good and it has helped our company. I rate it a ten out of ten. We have around 3 customers and 500~800 users.
How are customer service and support?
There has been a delay in support where I had to wait for a day to receive a response. I believe I might not have used the correct procedure, leading to inaccurate information. Consequently, I did not receive the prompt answer that I was expecting.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
The Cisco Firepower is less stable compared to FortiGate NGFW. Cisco Firepower has a complex interface.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's deployment is easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The tool's pricing is neither cheap nor expensive. Overall, I find it to be competitive in the market.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend FortiGate NGFW because its interface is easy to understand, making firewall deployment and management straightforward. It has a good market reputation and offers information on cybersecurity, including news, threats, etc. I rate it a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Extremely flexible & scalable.
I can automate every aspect of deployment. Central management through FortiManager is perfect for my needs as I can manage all my firewalls across my hybrid deployment from a single console.