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We're discussing a family of UTM (Unified
Threat Management) appliances. FortiGate is a term which includes a wide range of products,
starting with small ones dedicated to small offices, and developing into devices which are able to grant security and networking for large companies. The
family includes physical devices and
virtual machines, which grant network security on different layers using a
single point of control. FortiGate is optimized
to avoid bottlenecks or delays while the various controls are performed. High availability is also part of the available
features with various solutions to avoid single points of failure.
In the following short list, I will list some interesting points about the FortiGate solution.
1. Administrative Interface
If you are experienced with network security management, you are aware this activity requires interaction with many different software and hardware solutions from disparate vendors. In the aforementioned scenario, it is normal to have frequent updates to apply on the various products and to watch more than one monitoring tool to keep track of security events. The FortiGate solution includes all the controls you could expect using a patchwork of security products in a single device with a single administrative interface. It is your switch, router, firewall, VPN hub, antivirus, anti-spam, proxy, and endpoint security solution all-in-one.
If you define a network object or group for firewalling purposes, it will be available to define antivirus rules or internet browsing policies. There are two administrative interfaces:
A strong point of FortiGate is that the graphical interface is complete and easy to use, especially if we think there is a list of operations that we are able to perform inside.
If you have used appliances or firewalls from other vendors, often you have to use not-so-friendly command lines to obtain the exact result you need. With FortiGate, you will use the CLI seldomly and only for the most “exotic” features.
2. UTM, the Fortinet way
Unified Threat Management may be complex to manage, because you work on different protocols, at different layers and with disparate threats to consider. In FortiGate, you can have three great layers:
As long as you pay (and renew as it expires) the “bundle” license, you have all the aforementioned features available, including the updates for signatures and definitions coming to your appliance directly from Fortinet. You do not have to use all the available controls, but you are able to turn them on and off “On Demand”, so you could start with a simple configuration and add control layers when you feel more comfortable.
3. Virtual Domains
One of the available features include the capability of a FortiGate to support many Virtual Domains (VDOMs). VDOMs enable you to grant access to different companies with different administrators on the same physical unit. Each one will be able to keep their specific configuration with no impact on the others. What you are doing is creating “virtual units”, and keeping on a “root domain” which is used to manage the virtual domains. VDOMs add a lot of flexibility to the solutions that you are able to plan using FortiGate.
4. High Availability and Resiliency
There are four different ways to make a FortiGate unit have high availability. You could use a traditional “cluster” design with two or more units: FortiGate Cluster Protocol (FGCP), a solution with an external load balancer: FortiGate Session Life Support Protocol (FGSP), a Layer 3 resiliency solution like Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP), or a Layer 2 solution like Fortinet Redundant UTM Protocol (FRUP). Again, we have a great deal of flexibility to design the best solution for our company’s needs.
5. The Dark Side of the Moon
It would not be fair to review a product omitting the negative points. With FortiGate, the main complaint that I have heard is about the technical support. My personal experience is the same as many people who are not happy with this aspect of the service offered by Fortinet. Often, your problem is diverted to local partners. I have to say that I have had mixed results with them. While some partners are professional, many are not skilled enough and I have had costs that are not equivalent to their quality. This is the same issue with other vendors, but that is not an excuse. As long as Fortinet support sends me to a local reseller or partner, from my point of view, they are taking responsibility for their capabilities.
Any company (be it technology, manfucaturing, human resource, ecommerce, SME etc) always has the need for Business Intelligence to some or the other extent. If cost is one of the consideration factor, then the 2 BI tools which are at the forefront are Pentaho and Jaspersoft. But, often the same companies are caught up in an imbrogilo as to which tool to use, what are the technology/and end business user wise differences/ do i actually need to purchase commercial edition, is there any work around etc.
Differences :- In the below mentioned points, I have tried to cover functionality wise the differences
a. Reports :- Jaspersoft is known for its picture pixel perfect reporting. Jasper uses ireport for designing the reports. Hence, for having reports, Jaspersoft is the most ideal candidate. Pentaho uses Pentaho Report Designer.
b. Dashboards :- Pentaho provides much more capabililties, interactivity in terms of dashboards. Dashboards designed in Pentaho are far more superior in functionality, aesthetically as compared to Jaspersoft. Pentaho CE uses CDE/CDF, Pentaho EE uses PDD . Dashboard functionality is present only in the Enterprise edition of Jaspersoft.
c. Pentaho is having an intermediate layer known as Xactions & hence providing much more flexibility in terms of plugin designing, integration with applications, having out of box experience etc. Xactions supports scripting and scheduling of scripts execution. Jaspersoft dosent provide that much of flexibility in terms of intermediate layer, but never-the-less, Jasper server by default comes with some functionalities like scheduling, for plugin desiging they rely on ireport plugins and Jasper server plugins,
e. Mobile BI compatibility :- Jaspersoft scores higher than Pentaho here. They have BI for iOS, Android platforms. Functionality wise and user interface wise Jaspersoft mobile BI is better. They even have an opensouce Apple iphone application. Pentaho users have to often rely on third party tools to enhance mobile BI experience. But, Jasper provides native mobile API hence helping developers to create mobile applications. Pentaho mobile BI is only present in the enterprise edition.
f. Documentation : Jaspersoft invests a lot of time in documentation. Its pretty evident from that fact that they are having different case studies of the different clients on their website, explaining how Jaspersoft has helped them.
g. ETL : Jaspersoft uses Talend and Pentaho uses Pentaho Data Integrator (Kettle) as their default ETL tools. Kettle is developed by Pentaho organization itself unlike the case of Jaspersoft which uses Talend Open Studio version with some functionalities missing.
h. OLAP Analysis : Both Jaspersoft and Pentaho uses Pentaho Mondrian engine in their BI suite, and it goes unsaid which one will be stronger in this case.
i. Community support : Community support is more in Jaspersoft as compared to Pentaho. Also, the community members are more active of Jaspersoft community, hence if you are using CE, the chances of problem resolution is much more.
j. Plugin : Pentaho is having many plugin which are ready to use like CDE, CDF, Saiku etc. Pentaho is having a highly active community for plugin designing. Pentaho server by default comes with marketplace (just like appstore). Jaspersoft is a late entrant in this field and is currently having very limited plugins till now. They have also started Jasperexchange for their plugins.
k. Data Mining : Pentaho is having data mining module named Weka and Jaspesoft uses R. Again Weka is developed by Pentaho itself unlike the case with R. But toolwise, R is more advanced and more capable as compared to Weka
l. Big Data : Both Jaspersoft and Pentaho provides big data integration services.
m. Unlike Jaspesoft, Pentaho provides a much more tightly integrated BI suite since it has itself developed most of the components.
n. Jaspersoft EE has fusionchart integration. The latest version of Jaspesoft 5.0 EE is having Highcharts integration with it. Pentaho has open flashcharts integration. For geographical charting, Jaspersoft is having mapbox pro whereas Pentaho is having google maps.
o. Summarizing Jasper has a heavy focus on reporting and analysis. It has a better web 2.0 user interface than Pentaho and is generally easier to use. It benefits from better marketing, informational web sites, and documentation. Overall, it makes researching and finding what users need easier than Pentaho. Whereas Pentaho focuses on data integration, ETL, and workflow automation. It has a user interface that is more difficult for business users than is Jasper’s. The documentation is also less robust than its competition. On the other hand, it has strong data mining tools, ETL, flexibility via Xactions.
Which BI tools is to be used, whether enterprise edition has to be purchased or is there any other way out (like best of breed solution of different BI suites, plugin development, data visulization charting engines integration etc) – all these things can only be ascertained by a thorough discussion between the company and the solution provider. Its generally ideal to go and have a consultation with a company having exp in different BI technologies which will be able to give a comprehensive picture and can help the client towards business objective, rather than trying to push their software.
