We performed a comparison between Cisco IOS Security 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 UTM feature is quite good. FortiAP is easy to deploy because both Fortigate and FortiAP are under the same brand. Otherwise, you need to do more work on the configuration."
"The inspection and web security features are most valuable."
"I think that the UTM features are the most value, as it truly protects my infrastructure."
"The main reason why I purchased the particular unit was that it had good reviews and what other people were saying as far as its completeness and its leading capabilities in terms of endpoint security was very good."
"The ease of setting the solution up is a valuable aspect for us."
"The pricing is excellent. It's much less expensive than Cisco."
"Allows for firewall rules to be programmed and named in a way that makes it “readable”"
"The web tutor and automatic rules by schedule are good features."
"The technical support is good."
"The solution is very user-friendly and easy to deal with."
"It is less expensive than alternative firewalls."
"I've found their network routing to be very good."
"The most valuable feature is endpoint protection."
"Cisco Technical Assistance Center works on a follow-the-sun concept and gives real 24x7 customer support, which is a great advantage when you have a service contract with them."
"The product is easy to use."
"The VPN connection portal scan works flawlessly, which was a big plus for us."
"The pricing is excellent."
"I like that the firewall gives me a lot of control in terms of outgoing and inbound traffic, and it scores better in deep packet inspections when compared with the Azure Firewall."
"It's very easy to use."
"The technical support is very good and the assistance they gave was very good."
"This is an easy means of setting up high-availabilty firewall protection."
"FortiOS' most valuable features are management, security, and easy updates with no downtime."
"This is a user friendly solution and offers comprehensive integrations."
"Firewall and overall management are valuable features."
"If they could extend their fabric towards other vendor environments for integration, that would be great."
"It is quite new for us, and we need to go more in-depth into the monitoring tools. It provides different features that we need to do what we want. So far, it is okay for us. In terms of improvement, in the future, they can provide a faster implementation of features. Some of the features are first available in other solutions. Fortinet sometimes takes a little bit longer than other solutions, such as Check Point, to implement new features."
"There is room for improvement related to the logging and reporting aspect."
"Application management can be improved."
"This product needs to have an analysis feature, rather than having the analysis done through the integration of a different product."
"Their software support needs improvement. I would prefer to have better support for bug fixes. Sometimes, we open a ticket, and it is very difficult to get a solution. Specifically, we are not at all happy with their support for load balancing."
"The pricing could be a bit better, especially when you consider how they have the most basic offering priced."
"FortiLink is the interface on the firewall that allows you to extend switch management across all of your switches in the network. The problem with it is that you can't use multiple interfaces unless you set them up in a lag. Only then you can run them. So, it forces you to use a core type of switch to propagate that management out to the rest of the switches, and then it is running the case at 200. It leaves you with 18 ports on the firewall because it is also a layer-three router that could also be used as a switch, but as soon as you do that, you can't really use them. They could do a little bit more clean up in the way the stacking interface works. Some use cases and the documentation on the FortiLink checking interface are a little outdated. I can find stuff on version 5 or more, but it is hard to find information on some of the newer firmware. The biggest thing I would like to see is some improvement in the switch management feature. I would like to be able to relegate some of the ports, which are on the firewall itself, to act as a switch to take advantage of those ports. Some of these firewalls have clarity ports on them. If I can use those, it would mean that I need to buy two less switches, which saves time. I get why they don't, but I would still like to see it because it would save a little bit of space in the server rack."
"We need to pay for the license and it is expensive."
"The configuration should be easier in the solution."
"There are the usual bugs that are inherent to some software upgrades. Sometimes this provides some unexpected issues, however, it happens with all brands all the time."
"The solution is complex and can be more user-friendly."
"Cisco IOS Security could improve by having more compatibility with other Cisco solutions."
"We cannot directly upgrade the system. The tool's deployment is also very difficult in legacy environments. The tool needs to have bigger ports as well."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"It takes too much time to deploy a policy to FMC. It takes around eight minutes. You can't afford any downtime when you're changing policies."
"We had assistance from one person from our local vendor for the implementation."
"The solution needs improvement with DDoS protection."
"I want to see a better integration or a better integration with the endpoint protection or with EDR with the security life cycle."
"The reporting for this solution could be improved. It could also be more stable and offer better pricing."
"I would like to see smaller and more frequent updates."
"The solution is good, but they have poor marketing in Nigeria. They need to market their product better."
"Fortinet FortiOS can improve the monitoring function, it could be more accurate, easy to use, and understandable."
"SD-WAN configuration could be easier."
Cisco IOS Security is ranked 22nd in Firewalls with 47 reviews while Fortinet FortiOS is ranked 15th in Firewalls with 73 reviews. Cisco IOS Security is rated 8.0, while Fortinet FortiOS is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Cisco IOS Security writes "User-friendly and excels in documentation, making it easier to resolve issues". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Fortinet FortiOS writes "Provides effective filtering features, good stability but initial setup is moderately challenging". Cisco IOS Security is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Meraki MX, Netgate pfSense, OPNsense and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, whereas Fortinet FortiOS is most compared with Fortinet FortiManager, Fortinet FortiGate-VM, Fortinet FortiWeb, Darktrace and Zyxel Unified Security Gateway. See our Cisco IOS Security vs. Fortinet FortiOS report.
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