Fortinet FortiGate vs. Sophos Intercept X for Server

For FortiGate Firewall, the basic functionality and requirement is met easily as Fortigate is among market leaders in NGFW. There are some extra points that inclined us to use Fortigate as our main Firewall. [Fortinet]Fortigate has a very well refined and functional SD-WAN solution when it comes to load balancing for normal Internet Traffic. 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 - 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. Though, I think Fortigate is one of the best options for small and mid-sized organizations, there are some areas for improvement. First, the CLI interface is very hard to adapt as the commands and directory hierarchy is very different for common syntax and standards.

Licensing is incredibly easy to renew - and to adjust based on usage. The interface of cloud-based management is fantastic and easy to navigate as well. Syncs up with Active Directory to get users/security groups and such for easily differentiating policies to various users. Being able to pinpoint exactly where a threat infiltrated a system (what it talked to once it did so) is a massive feature in responding to online threats. Depending on deployment size - the cost could be an issue for some smaller organizations.

• It is the most reliable NGFW that we have ever been touch with it.
• You can easily upgrade the firewall cluster firmware without user attention!!!
• User IDentity based feature is fantastic and intrusion prevention just works with least false-positive possible.
• Very reachfull and intuitive GUI, just love it

• File protection and Recovery
• Blocks exploits to deny attackers
• Malware Detection

• When we switched to Fortinet Fortigate, it took some time getting used to and become familiar with the new interface. Being used to strictly command-line interfaces, a full GUI-based firewall was something brand new. Careful planning had to be done when creating rules to ensure we didn't miss anything. However, once we got used to the new GUI interface, going from one Fortinet product to another was simple, as Fortinet used the same interface for all of its devices.

• Takes time to deploy and keep updated
• Resource heavy application when running

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.

The user interface shared among many simultaneous users is very easy to get around. With shared favorites among users, most tasks are easily bookmarked and can quickly be found and edited. Their strategy for web filter integration is easy to understand and manage as well. With some general direction, setup and maintenance were easy to do and easy to teach others in the organization to do as well.

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

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

We live in Turkey. Fortinet's Turkey office [dealt] constantly with us in our every problem or our experience. In addition, global support teams also supported every ticket we opened in every problem we encountered. They support innovative approaches and evaluate and offer solutions. In this context, they were very supportive of the problems we encountered in previous versions.

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

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

[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.

Sophos Intercept X for Server's centralized management is installed in the cloud vs ESET which is installed locally. Having the system in the cloud allows admins the ability to troubleshoot and work with the system from anywhere without having to connect in. Sophos uses artificial intelligence to detect 0 Day Ransomware. ESET does not do this. The one advantage that I found ESET had over Sophos was that you had the ability to push our the installer to the servers.

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

• Fortigates have an interesting bundle model for support and subscription services that make it an attractive option to deploy Firewall, IDS, Ant-virus, anti-SPAM in a single device. The cost of the bundle is pretty much what you pay for the device, not requiring huge expenditures on it's time to renew the hardware.

• More confidence in most end-users/other techs not compromising internal systems with Sophos' proactive response to downloaded threats.
• Cost is a bit higher than other options - but with E-Rate, we can afford it for our smaller district.
• Customer support is top-notch, and responds to email inquiries incredibly quickly.