We performed a comparison between Cisco IOS Security and Fortinet FortiGate-VM 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 virtual firewall feature is the most valuable. We have around 1,500 firewalls. We did not buy individual hardware, and the virtual firewalls made sense because we don't have to keep on buying the hardware. FortiGate is easier to use as compared to Checkpoint devices. It is user friendly and has a good UI. You don't need much expertise to work on this firewall. You don't need to worry much about DCLA, commands, and things like that."
"The solution is stable."
"The most valuable feature is the web filter."
"It is easy to use and performs very well."
"Overall security features and performance routing is good."
"Fortinet FortiGate is easy to use."
"Fortinet FortiGate protects against internet-based threats, both internal and external. It is scalable, stable, easy to use, and easy to install."
"The web filtering feature and the intrusion protection system are the most valuable. It is a resilient appliance. I never had an issue with it in terms of any security breaches."
"One of the main features is that the hardware is extremely reliable."
"Cisco products are very secure and integrate easily with other devices."
"The technical is excellent."
"You can scale it when you need to."
"The stability of this solution is excellent."
"The solution is very user-friendly and easy to deal with."
"Cisco IOS Security increases the overall security of our network, performs authentication, and provides level 15 access and privileges."
"I've found their network routing to be very good."
"I find the simplicity to be most valuable."
"It offers the same robust features and functionality in virtual, on-premise, and traditional data center environments."
"The user interface, stability, and scalability are the most valuable features."
"Initial setup is very straightforward with a wizard, if needed."
"The solution is very easy to set up. It doesn't take a lot of time and offers a quick deployment, so you can start using it almost right away."
"The most valuable features are network security, VLAN, network protection, and encryption are very valuable to us."
"The web GUI is easy to use."
"It's a very simple solution to manage."
"I think the only issue that needs improvement is the interface."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having a frequent ask questions(FAQ) area for people to receive quick answers to popular questions. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have an SMS notification feature. For example, if you cannot access your email you could receive an SMS message."
"The search tool needs improvement. It's very difficult to search for policies right now."
"It would be nice if FortiGate incorporated some built-in endpoint protection features. I would also like a built-in SOC dashboard for managing multiple Fortinet firewalls."
"There is room for improvement related to the logging and reporting aspect."
"The reports are very basic."
"Its customer service could be better."
"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."
"Cisco is an expensive firewall, so the pricing can be improved."
"I would love it if it has a link-by-link feature, integration with Unified Threat Management (UTM), and load balancers. They haven't got any link-by-link feature right now, which can be a very attractive option. This link-by-link feature can also be made available for Cisco's UTM firewalls. The link-by-link feature is available in some of the other firewalls. Currently, integration with UTM is missing. Cisco IOS Security also doesn't have the load balancers and a few things that need to be done to get a good UTM firewall. Normally, other firewalls have UTM. As a next-generation firewall, it's good, but as a UTM, it has to do some work."
"In the next release of this solution, we would like to see support for the 100BT and 7000 models."
"The graphical user interface or the GUI could be better. Beginners can use some devices with the GUI, but some security devices are configured using CLI. It would also be better if it had its own Intrusion Protection Service and Intrusion Detection Service on the server."
"We faced significant challenges related to licensing issues, particularly when licenses expire."
"There could be a bit more functions on offer that could make it easier to use."
"There's a technology called SD-WAN that we would like to see. We are unable to handle multiple connections or to automatically load balance. I would like to have a feature that enables us to automatically prepare for load balancing."
"While Cisco IOS Security is stable and scalable, I would like to see it improved to be even better."
"Fortinet could improve the availability and delivery of its products. It takes four to six weeks for every purchase to arrive."
"The product's initial setup phase is a bit complex."
"The price and licensing of the solution can be better."
"There were challenges during setup, and many of them were self-inflicted."
"Price-wise, it could be slightly better, however, if you compared it to other makes and models of equal category, it is generally cheaper."
"The licensing needs to be improved. We need longer licensing periods, especially for POCs and trials. It should be for six months. Right now, it's too short of a timeframe."
"The solution should provide more useful GUI features."
"Technical support could be improved."
Cisco IOS Security is ranked 22nd in Firewalls with 47 reviews while Fortinet FortiGate-VM is ranked 9th in Firewalls with 113 reviews. Cisco IOS Security is rated 8.0, while Fortinet FortiGate-VM 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 FortiGate-VM writes "An easy-to-manage and configure tool that provides ample documentation to help with the setup phase". Cisco IOS Security is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Meraki MX, Fortinet FortiOS, Netgate pfSense and OPNsense, whereas Fortinet FortiGate-VM is most compared with Azure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, Fortinet FortiOS, OPNsense and Netgate pfSense. See our Cisco IOS Security vs. Fortinet FortiGate-VM report.
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