We performed a comparison between Cisco Secure Firewall and Fortinet FortiOS based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The scalability is good in Fortinet FortiGate."
"The SD-WAN function is very developed. It has SD-WAN functionality with security features in one device. We can manage from one single console SD-WAN and the security policy."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"Initial setup is straightforward. There weren't too many issues with setting it up. It takes one hour or so."
"I'm pretty happy with its reliability. It is also very scalable."
"The most valuable feature is the SSL VPN, as it allows us to connect and it separates this product from other firewalls."
"There is an easy process for configuring it, and it is straightforward to implement the device from scratch."
"FortiGate firewalls are user-friendly, and I like the security profiling features."
"Cisco Secure Firewall is a good solution. In some ways, it is a reactive solution and we have it sitting in a whitelist mode rather than a blacklist mode. It seems to work fairly well for us."
"Its ability to discover attacks is a valuable feature. All of the other features that have to do with security are good."
"The most valuable feature that Cisco Firepower NGFW provides for us is the Intrusion policy."
"The features I have found most valuable are the ASA firewalls. I like to have features like most integrated systems in ACI."
"The stability of the solution is very good. We can see that it gets even better with every release."
"It's pretty reliable and allows for isolation capabilities within the network."
"It is scalable and stable."
"There are some hiccups here and there, but compared to the technical support from other vendors, I have had the best experience with Cisco's technical support. I would rate them at nine out of ten."
"I have found the most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiOS is the low maintenance."
"We found the initial setup to be straightforward."
"I like its configuration and the various functions it offers."
"It's easy to use."
"The interface is easy to understand, so when there are threats you get alerts. It's quite intuitive, but if you are ever confused they have instructional videos. For example, if you don't understand a graph there's a link to a video that explains what the graph means. It makes it very user-friendly."
"For ten to 12 years it has been quite secure."
"The classification of the websites is helpful."
"Compared to other firewalls, the segmentation is much easier in FortiGate."
"It should be more stable. There should be full integration within Fortinet products themselves as well as with other third-party products. Especially when you're not dealing with SIEM and the correlation of the security box, we want Fortinet to be able to share that information with as many other products as it can."
"NGN, reporting and controls."
"I would like to see improvements in the product's application rules."
"Some of the filtering is not robust, you can escape it with a VPN. Some of the users bypass some of the filters. It catches some but it also misses some, that area could be improved. It's functioning reasonably but there's room for improvement in that area."
"Some of the features in the graphical user interface do not work, which requires that we used the command-line-interface."
"FortiOS is not simple."
"Bandwidth usage in reporting could be improved for Fortinet FortiGate."
"Compared to some other products, the DLP is not at par for the moment."
"It should have an additional “operating mode”, like a “candidate configuration mode”, where you would have the possibility to test the changes you are going to implement and also the possibility to validate these changes."
"Cisco ASDM is a problem because it is old."
"Other products are becoming easier to access and configure. They are providing UI interfaces to configure, take backup, synchronize redundant machines, and so on. It is very easy to take backup and upgrade the images in those products. Cisco ASA should have such features. If one redundant machine is getting upgraded, the technology and support should be there to upgrade other redundant machines. In a single window, we should be able to do more in terms of backups, restores, and upgrades."
"A feature that would allow me to load balance among multiple ISPs, especially since we have deployed it as a perimeter firewall, would be a great addition."
"I would like to see the inclusion of a protocol that can be used to protect databases."
"I wouldn't give them a ten. Nobody is perfect. I'll give them a nine because they help me with any issues I've had."
"The only con that I have really seen with it is the reporting structure. FirePOWER is good. It has been a great help because, before that, it was not good at all."
"With the new FTD, there is a little bit of a learning curve."
"You can enable and disable certain modules in it. However, with disabling, nobody can really tell us if that module is disabled."
"A switch should be introduced."
"Fortinet's central management needs to be improved. FortiManager's technical tool provider ability should manage all Fortinet security products. Right now, FortiManager only manages the configuration of FortiGate."
"I can only compare it with SonicWall, and it is missing many advanced features that SonicWall has."
"Fortinet FortiOS's integration could be improved."
"There is some room for improvement in the support."
"While it is a solid solution, there are some product limitations which exclude it from deployment in some situations."
"Fortinet FortiOS can improve by limiting the need for the CLI and GUI combination. The more functions they can have on the GUI and less on CLI would be helpful."
Cisco Secure Firewall is ranked 4th in Firewalls with 404 reviews while Fortinet FortiOS is ranked 15th in Firewalls with 73 reviews. Cisco Secure Firewall is rated 8.2, while Fortinet FortiOS is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Cisco Secure Firewall writes "Highlights and helps us catch Zero-day vulnerabilities traveling across our network". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Fortinet FortiOS writes "Provides effective filtering features, good stability but initial setup is moderately challenging". Cisco Secure Firewall is most compared with Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, whereas Fortinet FortiOS is most compared with Fortinet FortiManager, Fortinet FortiWeb, Fortinet FortiGate-VM, Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection and Sangfor NGAF. See our Cisco Secure Firewall vs. Fortinet FortiOS report.
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