Fortinet FortiGate drives network protection, consolidates industry-leading security capabilities, and offers visibility into applications, users, and networks to meet the performance and security needs of highly scalable, hybrid IT architectures. As a company, Fortinet believes that firewalls should never turn into choke points that disrupt business flows and waste valuable time and money. This line of thinking laid the foundation for this security-driven networking product that balances security with performance.
Because of the number of IoT and BYODs traveling in and out of environments, the typical business attack surface has continuously expanded in recent years. This volatility and limited visibility make threat detection and isolation a challenge. Attacks have become more targeted and sophisticated, leveraging multiple vulnerabilities at once. Organizations then find themselves investing in more and more security tools to combat the hostile cyberspace, further complicating security management and straining the industrywide skill shortage. FortiGate is a uniquely-designed product built around a custom processor that delivers accelerated performance and advanced functionality while addressing these use cases.
The Intrusion Prevention System manages application risk and protects against advanced threats so administrators and analysts may respond to threats as quickly as possible. Integrating this IPS capability within the firewall solution creates the flexibility necessary to minimize operational friction and uses automated remediation to give customers the assurance of continuous protection.
Fortinet makes integration possible with Fortinet Security Fabric, a collection of connectors that enable integrations with other Fortinet solutions and out-of-the-box support for many third-party products. FortiManager, a component of the Fabric Management Center, displays aggregated threat intelligence and analytics from all integrated devices and infrastructure pieces in a single pane of glass. This simplified display drives the easy, centralized, and holistic management of enterprise environments, a hallmark of the Fortinet brand and a stark contrast to the disparate systems of many other endpoint products.
The product has also has well-designed and uncluttered interface. The intuitive menu makes navigating the interface an easy, seamless experience. The widget-based main dashboard displays an array of important information, including a system overview, the Security Fabric, and the Topology View. The Topology View highlights and prioritizes potential threats, which leads to rapid detection and response and increased efficiency.
Overall, Fortinet FortiGate operates as an elite and comprehensive next-generation firewall product that meets the performance and security needs of hybrid IT architectures. FortiGate even includes simplified, easy-to-setup SSL VPNs for easy remote access. FortiLabs uncovers critical threat intelligence on active attacks and tactics in the wild and then feeds it directly into FortiGate, creating the unparalleled security effectiveness of this platform. The system even differentiates policies between IPv4 and IPv6 traffic. The flexibility of this platform offers seamless scalability and lets customers respond to threats based on their specific needs and environments.
The product costs $25,000. There are wizards built into the platform, including an especially useful VPN wizard that quickly creates tunnels between sites. Customers also have access to a knowledgebase with ample supplemental documentation and FAQ list. However, all other support services require an additional fee, including 24/7 FortiCare and FortiCare ASE as well as phone, email, and website support.
Written by Katelyn Dunn
Tested by Tom Weil
