Palo Alto Networks is a cybersecurity company with a strong focus on security. Their single-pass parallel processing engine allows them to perform advanced features without sacrificing performance.
They have excellent security ratings in independent tests. Their management tools are also well-regarded by users. However, they don’t offer general network hardware equipment such as routers and switches.
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Cost
Fortinet offers a variety of firewalls for different purposes. They include NGFWs for branch offices, enterprise networks, and cloud use cases. The company also provides a complete security fabric that protects networked devices, applications, and users. Their products are known for their high performance, unified management, and cloud-delivered services. The company uses its ASIC chips, customized for the FortiOS operating system. They claim that these custom chips provide superior performance and lower power consumption.
Regarding the differences between Fortinet vs. Palo Alto Networks NGFW, both companies offer a range of firewalls to suit different needs and budgets. Both have impressive security capabilities, but Fortinet has a better performance record in independent testing and an edge in cloud, container, and FWaaS use cases. The company’s unified platform and centralized security administration help customers follow best practices and decrease human error. Fortinet NGFWs can be purchased as hardware devices (PA series) or virtual cloud appliances. The hardware devices are built on the Fortinet Security Fabric, a next-generation platform that provides end-to-end protection. They use a unique architecture optimized for security, delivering superior performance and scalability. In addition, Fortinet’s ML-powered protection has the industry’s lowest latency of less than 10 microseconds. This is an important factor for businesses that rely on cloud applications and SaaS solutions. The NGFWs also include SSL decryption and granular application control to prevent data leakage.
Security
Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks provide robust security features to protect networks from advanced threats. Their NGFWs are a true multi-tool for IT that can be deployed and augmented with a range of capabilities, including stateful firewalls, intrusion prevention, antivirus and more. Each of these functions can be used on a purely ad-hoc basis or as part of a comprehensive threat detection and response platform.
Both companies have expanded their ecosystems beyond their NGFW appliances, with Palo Alto focused on Prisma and Cortex, its AI-powered security platforms. These have enabled the company to compete with its rivals on a wider range of criteria, including total cost of ownership ($2 per protected Mbps in NSS lab tests) and cloud-delivered security services. Unlike traditional firewalls, Palo Alto and Fortinet NGFWs use a centralized management system that can be accessed from any device in the network. This provides businesses the flexibility and agility to adapt as their infrastructure changes. The unified dashboard makes it easy for security teams to manage all aspects of their security systems, from policies to logs.
Moreover, the unified dashboard allows security teams to view their firewalls’ status anytime. This helps them quickly identify problems and resolve them. In addition, the dashboard can help companies better understand how their network is being utilized and which resources are being over-used or overloaded.
Performance
Fortinet NGFWs deliver superior performance to detect threats and prevent breaches at scale. This is made possible by combining security features, custom ASICs, and patented technology. They perform unparalleled speed, scale, and power savings inspections to secure your data.
They also support your network needs, such as SD-WAN, wireless, and 5G. Unlike traditional firewalls, Fortinet NGFWs are part of the Security Fabric, which allows them to share threat intelligence with other security and networking point solutions. This enables a coordinated response to detected threats in real-time. This is essential for networks with complex distributed infrastructure, IoT devices and multi-cloud environments. To ensure the integrity of your data, Fortinet NGFWs feature a powerful encryption engine that protects your sensitive information from being intercepted by attackers. This is critical for protecting your organization from costly ransomware attacks and malware-based threats. The Fortinet NGFW’s advanced threat protection capabilities include IPS and anti-malware and the ability to detect new threats by integrating with sandboxing technologies. This enables the firewall to respond quickly and accurately to known and unknown attacks. To ensure the integrity of your data, Fortinet’s NGFWs feature a powerful encryption algorithm that protects sensitive information from being intercepted and compromised by attackers. This is critical for preventing ransomware attacks and other malware-based attacks. The Fortinet NGFW’s anti-malware technology can automatically detect and disarm malicious code before it can execute on your network devices, reducing the likelihood of infection.
Management
With malware and threats continuing to evolve, NGFWs must offer advanced capabilities to prevent them. This includes advanced decryption at a high-performance level, deep packet inspection post-decryption, threat correlation, detection of malicious URLs and identification of command and control activities. However, these features are CPU-intensive and can bring even the highest-end commercial NGFWs to their knees.
As a result, many organizations are turning to managed services providers (MSSPs) to reduce risk and maximize security. MSSPs can provide a wide range of services, including
cloud-delivered updates, security policy management and centralized network security administration. This allows them to help their clients avoid the hassle of implementing and upgrading firewall software and hardware. Fortinet focuses on offering advanced security and automation. Their NGFWs are deployed at the network’s edge, in the core or the segment, providing full visibility and enhanced protection. They use patented security processors and highly optimized security software to ensure the best possible threat protection. They also offer AI/ML-powered FortiGuard services, natively integrated proxy, hyper-scale security and automation-driven network management. Macroeconomic conditions impact both companies, but Palo Alto is experiencing a milder slowdown than Fortinet. Both companies are addressing these challenges by increasing sales of their higher-margin software offerings and reducing costs. They also focus on expanding their presence in emerging markets and supporting their customers.