Depending on the OSI model, firewalls come in different types and can be deployed as hardware, software or cloud-delivered. Each has a unique way of filtering and approving traffic, but all are designed to prevent malware from penetrating your network. Users of Fortigate NGFWs report that the Firewall is reliable and offers many valuable features, including flexible protection for remote working and cloud security. It also provides centralized management, automated risk assessment and a seamless security protocol.

Performance

Companies are vulnerable to advanced cyberattacks, with many business data being exchanged online. One minor data breach can cause major financial troubles and even affect a company’s future survival. With that in mind, the best option for businesses is to install a firewall to protect their networks from attacks. The Fortinet FortiGate is an advanced firewall that offers superior performance and a range of features to ensure the safety of businesses. The FortiGate is a next-generation firewall (NGFW) that combines stateful inspection with application-layer security capabilities to provide a holistic approach to protection. Its NGFW features include malware protection, antivirus, application control and more.

The FortiGate has been ranked the top Firewall in several testing laboratories, including NSS Labs. It is also backed by the Fortinet security intelligence services, which offer a unified platform for network protection.

Ease of use

Both Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls are rated highly by users and experts. They both rock in terms of performance and have excellent security features. However, the difference between Fortigate and PAN is that Palo Alto costs more than Fortinet. Thus, it’s not advisable for businesses looking for an affordable solution. When a user logs in to PAN/Check Point/FortiGate Firewall or PCS device for authentication, the session information is shared with other PAN/Check Point/FortiGate devices via the IF-MAP server. IF-MAP server provisions user identity information to the Firewall based on configured Auth Table Mapping Policies. The Firewall grants access to the resource to the user based on the configured resource access policy. Both Fortinet and Palo Alto have excellent next-generation firewalls that provide advanced threat protection, full visibility, and scalable edge protection for networks of any size. Both have a wide range of additional products to help network administrators secure their businesses from the ground up, including VPNs, SSL certificates, and more. These products can be connected to form a comprehensive security infrastructure. For example, you can combine the Fortinet DDOS firewall with the Fortinet IPS to create a robust network security solution that protects against attacks like SQL injection and cross-site scripting.

Scalability

Fortinet has a great line of firewalls and is well known for their performance & ease of use. Its security operating platform enables advanced threat prevention, centralized network security administration, and cloud-delivered security services.

Fortinet also has many more available hardware models, allowing customers to purchase the model that best meets their needs. It’s more affordable and easier to manage compared to Palo Alto. The scalability of Fortinet is very good; it has a single-pass parallel processing engine, which speeds up firewall performance and allows advanced protection features to be configured without impacting the system’s overall performance. Fortinet’s WildFire sandboxing technology can instantly comprehend an application’s flows and hazards and easily identify threats that other firewalls might miss. Another feature I like is its superior global object find, which speeds up locating the location of an object (name/ip/etc) in the chassis. This is a feature that needs to be added to PAN-OS. It’s also better to identify who and what is on the network. This is a huge selling point and a major reason I prefer Fortinet over Palo Alto.

Reliability

The Fortinet firewall is one of the best next-generation firewalls that protect your organization from external threats, restrict web and application access for users and optimize bandwidth uses. It also helps to manage internal risks by detecting unsanctioned applications, hidden dangers and blocking lateral threat propagation. Moreover, Fortinet NGFW provides advanced Layer 7 protection with signature and behavioral analysis to stop unknown attacks. The solution also offers cloud sandboxing to detect and analyze unknown malicious payload samples. Fortinet’s security platform is based on FortiOS, which provides a strong hardware base and extensive features for network security. The company’s security fabric includes its NGFW, IPS, AV and VPN solutions, threat intelligence and research. In addition, it offers free cybersecurity training and product support to its customers. Both Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks are highly rated by analysts and users, and both vendors rank among the leaders in independent firewall testing. However, Fortinet is better for appliance-based distributed enterprise and branch office needs with its NGFW, Universal ZTNA, inline sandbox and SOC-as-a-Service. At the same time, Palo Alto Networks excels at cloud, container, and FWaaS use cases with unified visibility, security and networking convergence and a wide security product portfolio.

Security

Fortinet is a security company whose next-generation firewalls are designed to prevent threats. They use advanced algorithms to detect and evaluate the encrypted data coming into your network. This helps businesses discover and avoid the danger of malware. The Fortinet firewall has excellent performance and is considered a safe choice for small businesses. It has a high rating from independent testing labs and is cost-effective. However, it may not be as intuitive as some other firewalls. Palo Alto Networks also has a strong security record and is an industry leader in cybersecurity. Their NGFWs are designed to meet the requirements of modern enterprises and can handle the demands of a hyper-scale cloud.

Their PA series of NGFWs is scalable and provides full visibility into your network’s users, applications and devices. They also offer advanced protection against ransomware and other cyber threats. They have various hardware options to suit different budgets, including the PA-220R, PA-800, PA-3200, PA-5200 and PA-7080. They also have a new K2-series firewall with 5G support and IPv6 management.