ExtremeCloud SD-WAN vs. Flexential Interconnection Mesh vs. Fortinet FortiGate

Aerohive was ahead of the industry when it came to Wireless network hardware and software. Initially, they were one of the first to offer a solution for a busy office environment with a complicated layout and multiple rooms, open areas, and offices that were spread out. The mesh design of the APS was also one of the first of its kind and has proven to be a great solution within our environment.

Incentivized

Fortinet FortiGate addressed an immediate security issue we had a few years ago. The device gave us a much clearer picture of the activities on our network and also more importantly, increased our awareness of threats from the internet as a whole. Fortinet FortiGate helps us to mitigate these threats with regular signature updates from Fortiguard labs, identifying certain characteristics which, once recognised by Fortinet FortiGate, can be harnessed to deploy powerful 'playbooks'.

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• Easy to navigate management GUI
• Intuitive design
• Helpful troubleshooting tools and logging

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• SD-WAN - Load balancing of Internet traffic is a USP of Fortigate and makes it stand tall in the competition. Be it 3 or more Internet Links, multiple Subnets/segments of users to distribute and bandwidth load balancing for links and users. SLA based monitoring of Internet Links / MPLS links, makes it even better to choose the links on the basis of performance (Latency, packet loss, Jitter etc).
• SSL VPN configuration - As we all have WFH force (to some extend or all employee) during Covid-19, it is impossible to plan BCP without having a SSL VPN. In Fortigate, the SSL VPN configuration is very easy with the help of wizard. The deep CLI-level debugging is also very helpful in troubleshooting. Type of tunnel can be easily configured - Full Tunnel or Split Tunnel for SSL.
• Explicit Proxy - This is also a great feature to shape and re-route the traffic, configuring the Proxy on the Firewall itself. We are using this feature in Pilot for now, and planned to rollout in few weeks looking at the success rate of the POC.

• The floor plan design aspect of the software has improved recently and can further be enhanced.
• The software update process for the APs has not always been very straightforward.
• The initial setup and differentiating between the multiple types of APs was a bit confusing.

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• Documentation is missing a great deal of detail and assumes the customer and just guess and fill in the blanks themselves
• Fortinet has lots and lots of video guides on topics that only a small percentage of customers would ever need
• The documentation and video guides do not get updated so most is only relevant to older software versions

Incentivized

Fortinet's products have kept improving with new software releases and they continue to deliver great value. Their support is also very good. I believe that as a small enterprise, their products have given us competitive advantage delivering features and functionality that enable us to innovate and do things better. They also continue to be a leader in the markets they serve.

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The firewall runs very well, firmware updates are fairly quick but you must follow the upgrade path. Neglecting this step will cause a lot of pain. If you decide to go with Fortinet FortiGate switches and/or access points, they can be managed within the firewall which is great. We're also using the FortiAnalyzer which easily plugs into the firewall for any reporting you may require.

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We had didn't any hardware failures at our two main office locations and upgraded our units last year after using them for about 5-6 years

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Good performance and really good integration. We have integration with Microsoft AD.

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The Support team at Fortinet is excellent. They can not only help you configure the device for what you are trying to do, they offer suggestions on improving rules, and troubleshooting issues. Their response time is fast, ensuring you are up and running immediately with no questions asked. We had a hard drive failure in one of our Fortinet Fortigate appliances. The tech answered immediately, and started rebuilding the drive after some preliminary investigations. After rebuilding, there were still errors and issues, so they dispatched a brand new Fortinet Fortigate appliance. The tech then backed up the configurations for when the new device came in, which showed up in a few hours. A restore of the configuration took less than a minute, and there were no more errors or issues.

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I received it a couple years afters use it and it was just to confirm my knowledge about the tool.

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Make sure that you have the most current version of FortiOS. Make sure all Fortigates are on the same version

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We also considered both Cisco and Juniper, but Extreme Networks Wireless WAN met our budgetary and technology needs the best.

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[Fortinet] FortiGate is not only cost effective but it gives the comprehensive security against the APT attacks and gives the complete traffic visibility and granular control. You can easily create the VDOMs (Virtual firewall) within a Fortigate firewall and customize the dashboard as per your requirement if you have multiple VDOMs within a single firewall.

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No changes needed to terms and conditions.

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My environments are pretty small (less than 100 users per location) so no issues here.

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• The speed of our Wireless network has significantly improved.
• The range of the network covers our entire user area, simply due to the power and range of the APs as well as the mesh network capabilities.
• The capability of the software to configure, monitor, and alert based on network traffic and user behavior is almost unmatched.

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• The pricing given to us for our firewall was well within what we were already spending for other vendors solutions and had the added value of eliminating a separate expense for a dedicated web filtering appliance.
• We have also adopted Fortinet's security fabric approach and thus changed vendors for our switch and AP devices. These devices have come at reduced prices as compared to another previous vendor we were using, particularly in relation to ongoing annual maintenance costs.

Incentivized