Re: Opinon of Fortinet Products

[Steve Hillier <securityfocus () mastermindtoys com>]

We're an SMB and have been using a Fortigate-60 for over a year now. In 
terms of "bang for your buck" you definitely get everything you want 
with this type of all-in-one appliance.

We only use the firewall and IDS services. I haven't yet implemented the 
VPN and have no plans to introduce the web filter and spam filter 
services. Their filters are subscription-based services that you renew 
annually.

We haven't had any major problems with this product, however one thing 
it lacks is DNS name resolution for setting up firewall policy rules -- 
you still need to set your firewall policies using IP addresses. This is 
supposed to be fixed in the new release of their products and will be 
available as a firmware upgrade for other products, or so they say.

I would strongly suggest checking out the forums on Fortinet's website 
(http://support.fortinet.com/forum/) -- there seems to be a number of 
posts here that suggest that although the product is reasonably good, 
the support from Fortinet isn't, and I've read about numerous problems 
with feature upgrades that don't work as expected.

I haven't had any problems with Fortinet support simply because I 
haven't needed to use it -- our needs are pretty simplistic and as such 
our Fortinet-60 works like a charm.

sph


On 06/01/2006 4:23 p, KImberly F. Adams wrote:
> My organization is in the midst of a Network Security Solution RFP. One of the vendors that we are considering is 
> proposing the use of Fortinet products (Fortigate 5050).
>
> I understand that Fortinet is taking the Swiss Army knife-like security appliances approach to network security, however, one of the biggest drawbacks to these types of products is that they are a single point of failure in the network architecture. Has anyone had experience with this line of products? What are the benefits and disadvantages to using a Swiss Army knife-like security appliance? 
>
> Using Fortinet as a UTP (unified threat management device) makes you beholden to a single vendor; however, one particular vendor that excels in a single service may not provide the best features in an overarching solution. Have any of you found this to be an issue? 
>
> Is anyone familiar with JDL Technologies? Positive or negative experiences? Feel free to elaborate. 
>
> If you are currently using a UTP, in retrospect, would you have gone with a multi-device/application network security solution or would you go with the UTP solution if you had to do it all over again? 
>
> If you would prefer to answer me off the board, feel free to do so.
>
> Thank you for any feedback you can provide to me.
>
> Kimberly F. Adams
>
>