Item: Fortinet FortiGate
Rating: 8
Author: Saqib Zaheer Ahmed

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have deployed the FortiGate firewall in all our 5 branches. There is site-to-site connectivity between all the branches over IPSEC and MPLS. We have enabled the IPS, web filter, application filter and have written the policies based on the IP and user group. A self-signed SSL certificate has also been pushed through AD to decrypt the HTTPS traffic. We are able to monitor and block the malicious URL. We have done both source NAT and destination NAT successfully.

Pros and Cons

The GUI is very simple and understandable.
It is a very cost effective firewall with all the enterprise grade features.

There are some bugs in the newer versions and patches.
Sometimes the firewall gets stuck we need to do a hard reboot which impacts the production.

Return on Investment

The productivity for the users has increased as we were able to block nonproductive sites.
We have gotten branch visibility.

Alternatives Considered

SonicWall NSA Series and Sophos XG Firewall

Support Rating

There were scenarios where we were unable to resolve the issues and it was impacting our business. We had raised the ticket with the Fortinet team to high priority, then they asked us to send a few logged posts so that they could support us remotely and resolved the issue in no time. This has happened multiple times. There support is very prompt.

Key Insights

Do you think Fortinet FortiGate delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Fortinet FortiGate's feature set?

Yes

Did Fortinet FortiGate live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Fortinet FortiGate go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Fortinet FortiGate again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Fortinet is best suited to SMB customers if the customer has 20 to 500 employees with multiple branches. This is the best cost-effective firewall with a great level of security. But if you are looking for an application-based firewall where you need to define the policy based on the applications, opt for another firewall.

One of the Best and Cost Effective Firewalls

Overall Satisfaction with Fortinet FortiGate