Fortinet FortiGate Review
I'm a senior network engineer with over 25 years of experience and an MSc in network security and in the last 8 years or so I've worked on …
Overview
What is FortiGate?
FortiNet FortiGate is a firewall option with high integrability. It offers a variety of deployment options and next-gen firewall capabilities, including integration with IaaS cloud platforms and public cloud environments.
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- VPN (38)9.898%
- Firewall Management Console (38)9.696%
- Policy-based Controls (38)9.696%
- Reporting and Logging (38)8.282%
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What is FortiGate?
FortiNet FortiGate is a firewall option with high integrability. It offers a variety of deployment options and next-gen firewall capabilities, including integration with IaaS cloud platforms and public cloud environments.
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- No setup fee
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What is FortiGate?
Fortinet’s FortiGate is a firewall product with high integrability. It can be deployed on-premises or as a Virtual Machine in a variety of modules. The granularity of the product enables buyers to tailor their purchase to their business needs. FortiGate integrates into multivendor environments, including IaaS cloud platforms and public cloud environments.
FortiGate’s functionality includes the core firewall features, such as intrusion prevention, anti-malware, and web filtering. It also includes SSL inspection, threat protection, and scalable segmentation, all within low-latency standards.
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| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
FortiNet FortiGate is a firewall option with high integrability. It offers a variety of deployment options and next-gen firewall capabilities, including integration with IaaS cloud platforms and public cloud environments.
Reviewers rate VPN highest, with a score of 9.8.
The most common users of FortiGate are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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- Business Problems Solved
FortiGate is a versatile product that has been widely used by various organizations to address their network security needs. Users have reported that FortiGate serves as a reliable firewall solution, providing advanced security features and protecting the infrastructure from known and unknown attack types. It is not just a firewall but a full Unified Threat Management solution, offering security checks for risks like SPAM, infected attachments, and spyware.
FortiGate has proven to be suitable for different use cases, such as small office connections, enterprise proxy, threats management solution, and routing and layer 3 management. It offers excellent routing and VPN performance, making it an ideal choice as the core of a company network's layer 3 and routing infrastructure. Additionally, FortiGate is highly regarded for its ease of setup and management, delivering intuitive visibility into multiple network activities that aid in troubleshooting network and security issues.
Virtualized FortiGates are also available, making it a suitable option for companies with strong virtualization infrastructures. The product line includes devices that can withstand environmental extremes, making it viable for industrial environments. Organizations have utilized FortiGate for securing external services, inter VLAN routing, protecting users' internet access, segmenting internal networks, and creating a security fabric using Fortinet switches and APs.
FortiGate provides robust VPN capabilities for remote workers, including site-to-site VPNs for larger sites. Users have praised its user-friendly interface for policy creation and selection of security profiles. The solution is also utilized as the primary internet-facing firewall, protecting networks from outside threats while allowing secure remote access through SSL VPN.
Customers have recommended FortiGate as an alternative to more expensive solutions due to its cost-efficiency without compromising on performance or functionality. With its powerful technologies and extensive support ecosystem provided by Fortinet, FortiGate has enhanced security and resolved issues across organizations of all sizes.
In summary, FortiGate has proven to be a reliable and versatile network security solution, addressing a wide range of use cases such as firewall protection, VPN establishment, threat management, routing infrastructure, and secure remote access. It provides advanced security features, intuitive management interfaces, and cost-efficient solutions for organizations of all sizes.
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September 22, 2022
Give your Network a Security Boost with FortiGate and enjoy the benefits of Peace of Mind
Fortinet FortiGate is a Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) that provides state-of-the-art security for your Network. Fortinet FortiGate provides the full Unified Threat Protection (UTP)Suite for our Company and includes powerful network protection services such as IPS, Anti-Malware, Antivirus, Flood Detection, BotNet Detection, Web Filters, and other security services. Fortigate provides a powerful first line of defense for our network, with proactive alerting and intrusion prevention. Fortigate and the FortiClient combine to provide versatile and secure VPN services for our Remote workers. the Site to Site VPN is also a powerful full-time VPN for larger sites that need WAN Connectivity. Fortigate provides a very intuitive interface which allows our Team to configure and utilize the most powerful features of this Firewall with ease.
- Powerful and reliable SDWAN Services
- Unified Threat Protection with powerful features such as IPS, Anti-Virus, Anti-Malware, Anti-Spam
- Powerful IPS Services backed by industry validation
- Provides Reliable Publishing Services for providing secure remote access to internal services
- Provides excellent Remote Access Services via IPSEC and SSL VPN Tunnel technologies.
- Features a simple and intuitive user interface which is well designed and easy to follow.
- There could be some improvement to the Logging Services to include more details
- 10 Gigabit Interfaces should be available for the lower models as well.
- Simpler installation of the FortiAP services when being used.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Being an IT consultant and Software Development Centre (Lab) for our Parent Company, we are very specific and skeptical when we choose a product that will be implemented across many other daughter companies. 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 [Fortinet] Fortigate as our main Firewall. Fortigate has a very well refined and functional SD-WAN solution when it comes to load balancing for normal Internet Traffic, be it web browsing, Application traffic, IPSec or SSL VPN traffic. Some of the top NGFW still lacks the basic load balancing feature (to be practical) in small and mid scale organizations where budget is a constraint in selecting the technologies. Another feature is to have the traffic shaping (QoS) or bandwidth allocation to users, Application, subnets with all possible variables in configuration. Explicit Proxy is also a great feature, to be configured on the Firewall itself. SSL VPN configuration on firewall is also very easy with the help of Wizard.
- 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.
- Though, I think Fortigate is one of the best options for small and mid-sized organisations, 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.
- Scalability - this is something that I personally have faced twice in the same organization. Fortigate is not easy on scalability part, you have to change the hardware box in order to scale the firewall as organization grows.
- Fortigate sometimes stucks on GUI, which is basically happens due to Disk error. And the only way to mitigate the issue is to reboot the firewall. Which is very hard if you have a 24x7 production running behind the firewall.
- HA switch over in certain conditions is also have some room to improvement. Basic internet link flapping can cause HA switchover, if not configured wisely and with custom settings. HA switch over also takes more than normal time, approx 4 minutes sometimes.
June 09, 2021
MY Review for Fortinet FortiGate devices
[Fortinet FortiGate] is [a] loaded and ready platform for any sized organization. Highly efficient security processors optimize network performance help you to secure you organization from any cyber attacks. This is also a top selling product because of advanced security features, fast processing and low cost. I am working on [FortiGate] 1800F series and I deployed this on my two other sites. I [am] happy with their features.
- Fortinet Advanced Threat Protection and Intelligence
- Fortinet FortiSwitch
- SD-WAN security
- Fortinet Advanced Sanboxing
- Logging and report
- Management console
- FortiAnalyze
- Most secure for new zero-day and advanced threats
- CLI commads are very complicated
- SLA issue with Technical support
This device is being used across the entire organization. We are using it as our primary internet-facing firewall. It is protecting our network from outside threats and ensuring that the users inside the organization are protected as well. Some sister company authorized users have access to the FortiClient VPN software so they can access resources from remote locations.
- SN-Wan is so powerful.
- Application control is so powerful also and updated everyday.
- Web control
- IPS
- VPN remote control is so easy.
- SLA should have more HTTPS on target.
- The traffic logs should be faster on the box. I read it's better on Forti Analyzer.
September 26, 2020
If You Are Considering Fortinet, Now Is The Time.
Coming from a Cisco background, I first brushed this off as some knockoff. But in all honesty, it is far superior to the products I have used in the past.
My department (Enterprise Managed Services) currently uses Fortinet FortiGate in tens of thousands of locations. We use the whole suite with FortiAP and FortiSwitches. The whole family intertwines fluidly with great features and support. Even better is its policy and configuration management with FortiManager or logging and reporting with FortiAnalyzer. The web interface is so intuitive and the CLI is a breeze to use. The current offerings of FortiGates range from small branch office sized firewalls to large multirack datacenter beasts. The VPN capacity, SSL inspection, and other traffic metrics are insane for the purposes we use them for. The high availability and SD Wan features that customers want are so easy to use and configure. I highly recommend FortiGate as an alternative to more expensive solutions that are still 5 years behind.
Another side note, the support and training portals are very very informative. Even the certification exam materials are now free. FortiGate is definitely pushing boundaries with its UTM devices. Many job listings in Denver are now asking for FortiGate experience! Highly recommended.
My department (Enterprise Managed Services) currently uses Fortinet FortiGate in tens of thousands of locations. We use the whole suite with FortiAP and FortiSwitches. The whole family intertwines fluidly with great features and support. Even better is its policy and configuration management with FortiManager or logging and reporting with FortiAnalyzer. The web interface is so intuitive and the CLI is a breeze to use. The current offerings of FortiGates range from small branch office sized firewalls to large multirack datacenter beasts. The VPN capacity, SSL inspection, and other traffic metrics are insane for the purposes we use them for. The high availability and SD Wan features that customers want are so easy to use and configure. I highly recommend FortiGate as an alternative to more expensive solutions that are still 5 years behind.
Another side note, the support and training portals are very very informative. Even the certification exam materials are now free. FortiGate is definitely pushing boundaries with its UTM devices. Many job listings in Denver are now asking for FortiGate experience! Highly recommended.
- VPN
- IPS/IDS
- UTM
- SD-WAN
- IPv4 Policies
- Web content filtering
- Firmware stability
- Traffic Shaping policies
- Better wizards as it can be cumbersome to some new engineers.
March 03, 2020
Enterprise Level Protection for your business
Fortinet Fortigate currently sits on the edge of our network, and it is used to monitor all incoming and outgoing traffic on the network. It allows us to shut down access to the network and restrict access only to applications and protocols that should be allowed based on the services we currently use. It is a core component of our IT security strategy for the organization.
- Allow secure access to the network for external vendors.
- Protects the network from nefarious online activities
- It gives us granular control over what we allow in and out of the network and the flow of traffic between network points (LANS & WANS).
- It allows us to connect multiple offices over WAN connections.
- Training - The software and device is complex I believe free training should be offered for administrators to become experts on how the device function as opposed to learning by a bit of trial and error or discovering useful features only when the necessity arises. Companies usually like to avoid the added costs of training. Therefore, free training courses to certification would benefit all shareholders and lead to even further widespread adoption over the competition.
- Any simplification of the user interface to implement essential security features would be welcomed. It can be relatively daunting for a new administrator, especially if having to use the command prompt.
- More screenshots in the online documentation or more videos to guide admins on how to implement useful security features I find the documentation online sometimes a bit hard to follow. Still, if screenshots were added, it would simplify the process.
February 18, 2020
Excellent solution, easy to configure and manage with a low cost
We have been working with this solution over 5 years and we are very satisfied. We use it for one of our offices and the configuration is very easy and intuitive. You can apply policies by address or by user, the integration with Active Directory is not complicated, the cost of the solution is cheaper in comparison with other vendors and including the same solutions.
- Ease to configure policies
- VPN performance
- Active directory integration.
- Not so scalable, if you need more performance you need to buy another device
- The traffic shaper could be better
- The Wan load balance could be better
January 15, 2020
Easy-to-use firewall
FortiGate devices are used in our organization as firewalls and VPN servers. Main internet connections used Palo Alo firewalls, FortiGates are used on the secondary ones, as the cost of the FortiGates is significantly lower. SSL client-server VPN is used with Fortinet's Forticlient software as a client piece on PC and Mac computers. Fortinet subscription services are used for web filtering.
- Compared to Palo Alto, FortiGates are significantly less expensive. I would advise organizations to use them in cases where funds are limited.
- FortiGates are easy to configure via GUI - it is very simple and logical. Compared to Palo Alto or Cisco ASAs, Fortinet products are easier to work with for less experienced admins.
- Web filtering subscription services are not as good as Palo Alto's. Palos had a smaller number of false negatives in my experience.
- Log filtering is better on Palo Altos. It is easier to find log entries for particular events on the Palo Altos.
December 04, 2019
A firewall that works and doesn't eat your budget
We use Fortinet Fortigates as perimeter and WAN firewalls nationally and use them for intrusion prevention, web filtering, application filtering, VPN, and proxy.
- Ease to deploy and manage.
- Very cost effective when compared to competitors.
- Good, local, reactive support.
- Upgrades are always "risky" (usually wait for 2 upgrades before upgrading).
- Some of the settings don't make sense at first look.
March 11, 2019
Fortinet FIrewalls
Fortinet's version of throughput is good and It has a strong active cluster, as you can have between three and 32 units to a cluster. The most important factor is that you choose a firewall or UTM solution that fits your organization's security requirements. Begin by determining what business problem you are trying to solve, what technical controls you need to implement (Firewall, IPS, NAC, VPN, endpoint, mobility, web filtering, malware detection, etc.). Then, determine what hardware features you need such as (HA clustering, link aggregation or 10Gb, port density), and what kind of throughput, and how many concurrent connections.
- Easy to set up
- 9/10 Customer Service
- 9/10 Technical Supports
- Multiple layers of security
- Security
- LAN
- WAN
March 06, 2019
Probably the best Firewall wall.
Our Fortigate is used as the primary network router and IPSec VPN access point. We have a hub [and] spoke setup between the main office and other remote offices. Users also connect to our fortigate to access the network remotely using SSL VPN with the FortiClient software installed on their PCs or using the SSL web portal.
- SSL VPN works well and is very configurable for controlling access to internal network resources based on user groups.
- Fortigate also manages our wireless AP and many SSIDs can be created with either WPA or Enterprise WPA with radius for greater security
- IPSec VPNs easy to configure between fortigate devices but also not that difficult for other IPSec compatible devices
- Initial learning curve was difficult coming from a Symantec/Raptor background but not a huge deal
February 15, 2019
Fortinet and Fortigate: A force to be reckoned with!
Our company decided to switch from Checkpoint to Fortinet as a corporate standard. I've used Fortinet products for the last 10 years, and have been incredibly happy with the ease of use, and support resources are not as hard to find as they are for Checkpoint. Additionally, the integrated SD-WAN in more recent versions made us start running out of reasons why we SHOULDN'T use Fortinet FortiGate firewalls.
- Integrated SD-WAN functionality
- Best in class threat protection
- Single pane of glass (Instead of three in checkpoint)
- Breakout switch still required to share ethernet connectivity with redundant pair.
- CLI could use some improvement but is overall good.
August 27, 2018
High quality experience of network security and traffic control in a single appliance
We use it as our internal and external firewall. It is also used with all security options, including DDOS protection, in our branches.
- Web filtering, which protects the users browsing to non-secure websites
- Network security between different networks
- Traffic shaping control for users and applications
- Traffic shaping options based more on layer 7, so you could have a more detailed control over the exact sites users are browsing
- The transition between different major updates
- More option in fast reports and dashboards
- A more exact measure of bandwidth to show in dashboard and FortiView
April 24, 2018
Fortinet Fortigate 110C General Review
We're currently working with amaze with a FortiGate 110C, that is our front end Firewall for ISP routing and as a first layer to declare web access policies, anti-spam filtering, IPS, application inventory and to implement fail over policies to warranty the Internet connection to all departments. The UTM Solution from Fortinet brings a bundle package of features that is allowing the company to establish a MAN and an extreme secure VPN layer to deliver to our branch offices the WAN access with incredible ease. I do strongly recommend this quite remarkable Security Solution.
- An accurate Web Filtering module that will allow to your IT Staff, leverage the administration of the web access from the end point users. Also will allow to customize the policies through a broad presentation of options, where you can customize or schedule the access to specific web sites.
- AD & LDAP integration will allow you to sync your DC with the Firewall and set the traffic rules and packages with ease.
- VPN through SSL Web Portals will simplify the scale of adaptation for final user, allowing a customization of the front end portal, with corporate image.
- Improve time for releasing bug fixing.
- Integrate graphical troubleshoot tools for policies based on devices or user identities, will help IT Sec Admins to answer faster to security breaches.
- Using CLI reference guides and a better sort options.