Name: What is FortiManager and Use Cases for it
Uploaded: 2019-09-03T16:29:39.000Z
Duration: 5 min 6 s
Description: Introduction of FortiManager and it's uses

Communications Outsourcing

Help Desk

Web and Video Conferencing

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Batch Management Software

Mind Mapping

Development

Online Learning

Education

Business Intelligence (BI)

Collaboration

Desktop Publishing

Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

Manufacturing Execution

Payment Facilitation

Project Portfolio Management

Enterprise

Accounting

Corporate Performance Management (CPM)

Online Trading

Payment Gateway

Finance and Accounting

Applicant Tracking

Corporate Learning Management

Credentialing

HR Management

Payroll

Talent Intelligence

Talent Management

Workforce Analytics

Workforce Management

Human Resources

AI Governance

Cloud Storage

Enterprise Flash Array Storage

Fraud Detection

HTML Editors

In-Memory Databases

Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)

Internet Security

M2M Application Development

Network Performance Monitoring

NoSQL Databases

Remote Monitoring and Management

Routers

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

Threat Hunting

Traffic Switching

Wireless LAN

Information Technology

A/B Testing

Ad Serving & Retargeting

All-in-One Marketing

Content Management

Customer Reference Management

Digital Signage

Email Deliverability

Email Management

Email Marketing

Headless CMS

Marketing Automation

Social Media Management

Survey & Forms Building

Swag Management

Web Analytics

Marketing

Project Management

Professional Services

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Point of Sale

Sales

Intrusion Detection

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)

Security

Auto Repair

Aviation

Building Information Modeling (BIM)

Construction Management

Emergency Notification

Home Health Care

Homeowner's Association (HOA) Management

Intelligent Document Processing

Legal Billing

OSS/BSS (Operations Support/Business Support)

Smart Cities

Vertical-Specific

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### Centralized Management
Users appreciate FortiManager's centralized management feature for its ability to streamline policy management and enhance network security. The centralized platform offers a user-friendly interface, making it easy to manage multiple FortiGate devices efficiently. Additionally, the centralized location for managing security policies ensures consistency and simplifies network administration, reducing the risk of configuration errors. The detailed reports and analytics provided by FortiManager enable organizations to monitor network activity effectively and identify potential security threats. This centralized approach to management is widely regarded as a key strength of FortiManager by users, highlighting its effectiveness in ensuring a secure and well-managed network environment.

### Policy Management
Users appreciate FortiManager's centralized policy management for its ability to streamline policy creation, enhance connectivity, and improve time efficiency. While some users find it user-friendly and efficient for managing IPS and IDS, others encounter challenges when adding new devices. Despite mixed opinions, FortiManager's policy management functionality is generally regarded as a valuable asset for organizations seeking to maintain consistent security policies across their network infrastructure.

### Device Configuration
Users generally agree that FortiManager's centralized management and configuration capabilities are key strengths. However, there are concerns about the potential for configuration errors when devices are managed via FortiManager. Some users have reported instances where local configurations on FortiGate devices have overridden settings managed centrally, leading to inconsistencies and potential security risks. Despite the benefits of centralized configuration monitoring and quick deployment with FortiManager, users emphasize the importance of ensuring proper coordination between local and centralized configurations to avoid conflicts and maintain network security integrity.

### Remote Management
Users widely praise FortiManager's remote management capabilities for streamlining configuration processes and enabling efficient deployment across multiple devices. The ability to remotely configure FortiGate devices in bulk and perform upgrades without the need for direct device connections has been a standout feature for many users. This remote management functionality has significantly reduced the time required for configuration tasks and has been particularly beneficial for large-scale deployments across remote sites. Users appreciate the ease of installation as a virtual machine and the time-saving benefits of managing multiple FortiGate devices with consistent configurations.

### Multi-Device Management
Users generally praise FortiManager for its efficient management of multiple devices. The ability to centrally manage various Fortinet security devices from a single platform is highlighted as a significant advantage. Users appreciate the streamlined process of applying policies across all devices with a single push from FortiManager. Additionally, the ease of updating firmware across multiple FortiGate devices is seen as a valuable feature by users. The grouping of devices and agents into administrative domains for better organization and management is also well-received. Furthermore, the capability to manage the same object group in multiple device policy sets and push configurations to all managed devices simultaneously is commended for enhancing operational efficiency.

FortiManager is a comprehensive solution designed for multi-cloud management, providing users with efficient control over policies, rules, and VPN tunnels across multiple Fortinet security devices. The centralized management system of FortiManager has been highly praised by users for streamlining workflows and eliminating the need to log in to individual firewalls. It is considered a key component for enhancing security, allowing users to group devices and agents into administrative domains and effectively address threats in real time. With its centralized approach to network management, FortiManager reduces the risk of configuration errors and simplifies complex tasks associated with managing multiple Fortinet security devices. Additionally, the software offers detailed reports and analytics on network activity, empowering organizations to identify security threats and evaluate the effectiveness of their security measures. By enforcing consistent security policies across all Fortinet devices, FortiManager significantly enhances the overall security of a network. This software is particularly valuable for large-scale deployments on remote firewalls, enabling easy identification and troubleshooting of issues. Furthermore, the ability to manage the same object group in multiple device policy sets and push changes to all managed devices simultaneously provides added convenience for users. While some users have reported occasional delays with the SSO functions, FortiManager generally offers a user-friendly and time-efficient experience. It serves as a central console for various teams - such as security engineering, security operations, network engineering, and network operations - to manage FortiGate firewalls across different environments. With its deep visibility and centralized control over firewalls deployed in a global enterprise security fabric, FortiManager seamlessly integrates with backend authentication, authorization, and accounting platforms for enhanced functionalities.

Complexity: Many users have found FortiManager to be complex and have expressed that it requires specialized knowledge and training to use effectively, particularly for large and intricate networks. They feel that the complexity can be a barrier to efficient management.

Limited flexibility: A common concern raised by users is that FortiManager is specifically designed for managing Fortinet security devices, which limits its flexibility compared to other network management tools that support a wider range of devices. This restriction may not meet the diverse needs of some users.

Configuration: Users have mentioned that configuring FortiManager can be a cumbersome process as it requires detailed configurations on the device itself. This additional level of configuration adds complexity and may slow down the management process.

Efficient Multicloud Management: Several users have found FortiManager to be most helpful in managing Multicloud, considering it a critical feature in today's environment. They appreciate the ability of FortiManager to effectively handle multiple cloud environments, simplifying the management process and ensuring consistent security across different platforms.

Automated Network Security Policies: Many reviewers appreciate the automation of network security policies provided by FortiManager. This feature allows them to streamline their security operations and reduce manual effort in configuring and enforcing policies. The automated nature of these policies ensures that they are consistently applied throughout the network, enhancing overall security posture.

Centralized Policy Management: The centralized policy management feature of FortiManager is highly praised by users. It enables them to manage all their network security policies from a single interface, reducing complexity and improving efficiency. With this centralized approach, users can easily view, modify, and enforce policies across their entire network infrastructure, resulting in better control and visibility over their security measures.

FortiManager delivers unified management for consistent security across complex hybrid environments, providing protection against security threats. Key benefits include accelerated zero-touch provisioning with best-practice templates for deployment at scale of SD-WAN and streamlined workflows between the Fortinet Security Fabric and integrations with 500+ ecosystem partners.

25 Devices

100 Devices

1000 Devices

FortiManager

Firewall security management software model and analyze network infrastructure and orchestrate security device policies.

Firewall Security Management

10. Tracking and Reverting Changes to the FortiGate using FortiManager Backup ADOMs

Fortinet | FortiManager Demo | Exclusive Networks

Likelihood to Recommend

Policy planning and rule management

Automated Policy Orchestration

Device Discovery

Policy Compliance Auditing

Firewall Rule Cleanup

Introduction of FortiManager and it's uses

What is FortiManager and Use Cases for it

Explore FortiManager capabilities: https://www.fortinet.com/products/management/fortimanager.html

Read the FortiManager data sheet: https://www.fortinet.com/content/dam/fortinet/assets/data-sheets/fortimanager.pdf

Watch our FortiManager Lightboard video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aeUmcTvTA4

More Fortinet demo videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLbbcH8MnXJ4jBj02ofBr8e8mgNU3-Gt

The purpose of this video is to give a brief description for FortiManager and the use cases for FortiManager. FortiManager is Fortinet's Next Generation Automation driven management solution. Using FortiManager, organizations can achieve scalability, central manager, lower TCO, and provide organizations with automation driven management security. The FortiManager management solution provides automation-ready single pane of glass management and visibility, advanced compliance reporting, and can provide automation and orchestration to enterprises to increase operational efficiency across a multi-environment platform.

Firewall Security Management Software supports monitoring and configuration of firewalls from a central dashboard

Monitor the effectiveness of network security infrastructure

Automatically brings together all security controls in one place, automates changes and collapses risks

Ability to automatically find all devices connected to the network

Automatic identification of gaps in compliance, remediation, and generation of  compliance reports for auditors

Attack Path Simulation Testing

Simulation of potential attack paths to expose network exposure

Anomalous Event or Behavior Deviation

Ability to pinpoint unusual events or trends

Vulnerability Scans

Network scans to pinpoint vulnerable locations for remediation

Ability to detect and cleanup rules that are either partially or completely unused, expired or shadowed

FortiClient

FortiToken

FortiManager 2024-05-06 08:38:59

Senior Network Architect

FortiManager 2021-09-01 16:09:51

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TrustRadius

Difficult to manage

Single console

Cloud deployment

Home

Firewall Security Management Software

We use FortiManager to quickly manage 10 fortigates at our company. Previously we were manually managing fortigates by directly logging into them. FortiManager has helped us save time in upgrading firmware, and pushing new configs to our firewalls. We also wanted centralized log collection and parsing, which the inbuilt version of FortiAnalyzer provides.

Centralized management of fortigates
Dynamic objects and per device mapping of objects
Scheduled and centralized firmware updating system for Fortigates
Simple log collection and browsing

Various bugs: The software is buggy, and if you don't have a good understanding of it's underlaying operation, you can get confused or stuck when pushing a configuration. There are lots of little quirks you will have to learn, which are not described in any documentation.
Conflict resolution: Occasionally, during larger changes, bringing new devices in, pushing a config will fail due to dependencies, conflicts, or other software bugs. This is somewhat time consuming because the error messages provided aren't descriptive
CLI Options: Some configuration changes require creating scripts that execute on each device, and can't be done via the GUI

Significant reduction in new firewall deployment turn around time, 50% reduction
Reduction in time spent on website access related IT support tickets. Avg 5 minutes from response to close
Reduction in time spent by IT team for setting up WFH employees to allow working over SSL VPN.

FortiManager is utilized by Security Engineering, Security Operations, Network Engineering and Network Operations as a single console to manage FortiGate firewalls in the Corporate, Datacenter, and Cloud grouped into several Administration Domains. FortiManager controls role-based access and user capabilities integrated with our backend Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) platform. FortiManager provides deep visibility and centralized control to firewalls deployed in our defense-in-depth global enterprise security fabric.

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

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

Next Generation support features (e.g. AV, AS, WAF, etc.)
Multi-tenancy
Role-Based Access Control
Central Console for Firewall, VPN, FortiSwitch, FortiExtender, and FortiAP
SDWAN Management

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

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FortiManager

Overview

What is FortiManager?