FortiConverter vs. Help Desk Migration

Unless you are rebuilding rules from scratch, FortiConverter is a must-have when migrating legacy rulesets from competing platforms such as Cisco ASA, CheckPoint, Juniper, etc. to FortiGate Appliances. Without FortiConverter, guaranteed there will be some flows you missed and you will be troubleshooting them during your cutover maintenance window. Utilizing FortiConverter, you will minimize such issues as cutover time because you have the ability to stage the new ruleset in advance. Complex topologies and multi-platform migrations require highly skilled consultation from experts that [have] done this several times before.

Incentivized

Thanks to the quick response from the support team, I was able to maintain an ongoing dialogue and get questions answered promptly throughout the project. Their responsiveness made it easy to request and implement specific changes, such as disabling comments on all migrated articles, without delaying our migration timeline.

• Audit existing rulesets from CheckPoint, Cisco, Juniper and other platforms
• Build migration rulesets to FortiGate
• Stages migration before actual cutover
• Reduces or eliminates obsolete and shadow rules
• Simple logic

Incentivized

• Listening and gathering information
• Transitioning work among their staff - we talked to 4 different people during the project, and ever single person was up to speed on the work and status
• Reasonably priced

• Programming or scripting skills are not needed but highly recommended
• Requires excellent command of REGEX
• Interface Mapping from complex topologies requires a deep understanding of FortiGate interface capabilities and scripting

Incentivized

• I think the field map could be a little more entuitive with better explanations of what each field is for.

FortiConverter is currently the best option to assist in migrating legacy firewalls to FortiGate firewalls. FortiConverter is flexible enough to be the single tool to use when migrating Check Point, Cisco ASA, Juniper and other platforms to FortiGate Firewalls. FortiConverter is not a multi-user software however it is easy for multiple engineers to work on a single or multiple migration projects.

Incentivized

Both their demo and full migrations are pretty easy to use

FortiConverter is the easiest of the firewall migration tools to use compared to Checkpoint SmartMove, Cisco Firewall Migration Tool, FWMIG, etc. It has a more robust user interface and allows you to customize the rule imports as needed. Rulebase analysis, hit count, NAT, and dynamic routing are presented in an easy to understand format with FortiConverter.

Incentivized

• Streamlined migrations successful on the first try
• Simple and fast cutover maintenance window
• Audit and tune existing rule base
• Quickly identify shadow rules
• Quickly identify rules with elevated access

Incentivized

• In terms of time spent, Help Desk Migration cut our time down to just a fraction of what it would have been had we migrated the articles ourselves. This saved us a tremendous amount of time, manpower, and overtime.