FortiManager vs. PacketTrap (Discontinued)

FortiManager is well suited for any environment with multiple and dispersed FortiGate firewalls. It will not manage other firewall platforms. Therefore, you either have to use multiple centralized management software, one for each firewall vendor, or invest in alternative tools such as Tufin, AlgoSec, FireMon, SolarWinds, etc. However, you will not get a more inclusive tool for your FortiGate firewalls other than FortiManager.

I would have said 10 if they didn't kill the product. I know Blue Folder took a piece of this, but we never got into it and just changed to Auvik and PRTG.

• Centralized FortiGate FW Management in a single console
• Available physical, virtual, or cloud deployment
• Single console for next-generation FW features
• Multiple Administrative Domains

• Network monitoring was pretty on point. Not a lot of false positives.
• Easy to deploy.
• Easy to use.

• Support contracts are difficult to manage or make changes to
• Next Generation subscriptions are managed individually, i.e. pegged to specific firewalls
• Cumbersome to bring existing firewalls to be covered under a single contract

• Come back! After Dell purchased this, they ended support for it. In my experience, it was one of the better tools.
• Integration with other systems, but again, it is EOL, so doesn't matter.
• MiB library needs a refresh, but again, EOL.

FortiManager is the best choice for managing numerous FortiGate firewalls. It allows for easy integration into ServiceNow and automates simple repetitive tasks that are very straightforward. Role-based access control is easy to enable and you can get quite granular with user permissions. Administrative Domains help segregate firewall management and compliance within the FortiManager console, by almost any classification method that makes sense to your organization.

Again, the main piece was config backups. That is a real big deal, when you are dealing with a lot of customers that don't have a change management process. So changes can be done to a networking device and we need to be able to review what it was one day and what it changed to the next. This happens a lot with internal IT departments, that break something and you support them as an MSP.

• Allowed for quick migration from legacy firewall platforms
• NOC and SOC visibility of entire threat surface
• Intuitive user interface
• Extremely quick learning curve