Fortinet vs Palo Alto

The third generation of firewall technology is known as a next-generation firewall (NGFW), and it is a crucial part of network security. 

NGFWs offer features above and above those of a conventional, stateful firewall, such as application awareness and control, cloud-delivered threat intelligence, and integrated intrusion prevention.

NGFWs can thwart contemporary, sophisticated threats including application-layer attacks and sophisticated malware in addition to stateful inspection of network traffic and access control. Here are some things to consider while selecting an NGFW:

• Breach prevention and sophisticated security tools, such as an intrusion prevention system (IPS), URL filtering, sandboxing, cutting-edge malware protection, and sophisticated threat intelligence.
• Comprehensive network visibility.
• Options for adaptable management, deployment, and customization.
• The capacity to give prioritised alerts, detect threats in seconds and identify successful breaches in minutes (or hours).
• Integration of products and automation.

An NGFW should provide those features regardless of your organization's size—small, medium, or large. These two NGFWs are frequently compared by cybersecurity buyers in the market for NGFWs, and for good reason—both made our list of the best NGFWs and have robust, independently validated security.

Fortinet vs Palo Alto - Table of Contents

• What is Fortinet?
• Features of Fortinet
• What is Palo Alto?
• Features of Palo Alto
• Pros and Cons
• Comparison
• FAQs

What is Fortinet?

The EDR product from Fortinet, called FortiEDR, provides real-time automatic pre- and post-infection endpoint security. Fortinet shows to be a thorough endpoint security platform with organised incident response across numerous communication devices such servers with legacy and modern operating systems, operational technology, and manufacturing systems. It actively reduces the attack surface, stops malware infestations, and immediately responds to possible threats.

Features of Fortinet FortiGate

Email security, EDR, API protection (WAF/WAAP) and web application firewall/web application, Identity and access management, deception, and Network access control (NAC), are all part of Fortinet's extensive security portfolio, which also includes firewalls (IAM). Among the most recent upgrades include the inclusion of a security operations centre (SOC) as a service, as well as ZTNA and SASE product possibilities. Fortinet has also enhanced its advanced threat detection and URL filtering features. Additionally, the network operations centre (NOC) and security operations centre (SOC) activities of the Fabric Management Center have been merged.

The main features and advantages of Fortinet's Next-Generation Firewalls are as follows:

• SSL protection that includes TLS1.3, Full network visibility, and automatic threat protection are all viable ways to combat ransomware.
• Using services driven by machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), you can control all risks and reduce costs. Among these are an intrusion prevention system (IPS), web and video filtering, and DNS security services.
• You can give your distributed workforce a secure and streamlined user experience using Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA).

[ Learn Complete Fortinet Tutorial ]

What is Palo Alto?

Endpoint protection tool Palo Alto Networks Traps combines endpoint detection and response capabilities with effective endpoint protection technologies as a single agent. It gives security teams the ability to automatically protect against, find, and react to assaults. Palo Alto uses AI and machine learning strategies to counter threats that are undiscovered, well-known, or very sophisticated.

To give enterprises a uniform view of security events across their IT infrastructures, XDR products expand on EDR concepts. It is important to note that Palo Alto Networks no longer offers support for traps as of today because that support was terminated on March 1, 2022. Traps has been merged into Cortex XDR. This document provides instructions for switching from Traps Endpoint Security Manager to Cortex XDR.

Features of Palo Alto Networks Firewalls

In this Magic Quadrant, Palo Alto Networks is in the lead position. They provide various firewalls for various deployment use cases, including virtual firewalls (VM-Series), hardware firewalls (PA-Series), firewalls as a service (FWaaS) (Prisma Access), and firewalls that are containerized (CN-Series). Additionally, they provide identity-based segmentation using Prisma Cloud. Panorama is a physical and virtual appliance that offers centralised management for firewalls. In addition to firewalls, Palo Alto also offers cloud security, endpoint security, and security operations products.

The NGFWs made by Palo Alto Networks mostly include the following features:

• The VM-Series of virtual, simple-to-deploy, automatable, and scalable firewalls isolate and safeguard crucial systems, enhance public cloud security, and safeguard private clouds.
• Without delaying development, containerized NGFWs from the CN-Series protect traffic between container trust zones and other workload types in Kubernetes environments.
• The PA-Series NGFWs' hardware is designed for simplicity of use, integration, and automation. Consider the PA-7000 series, which offers business and service provider deployments adaptability, simplicity, intelligence, and power while enabling you to protect your data centre at top speed.

Pros and Cons of Fortinet and Palo Alto

Pros and Cons of Fortinet

Pros:

• Fortinet is simple to set up and maintain despite its technical competence, whether it be a hardware firewall or a cloud security layer.
• A reputable market leader in the security industry is in charge of the service.
• In addition to firewall protection, the UTM platform offers a lot more features.
• There are Windows, macOS, and Linux clients available.

Cons:

• Can seem expensive to small businesses with tight finances.
• Consider Fortinet seriously if you're a business owner ready to deploy complete protection for your office networks and data centres, especially if you plan to grow. Fortinet solutions are unquestionably the best choice for your company if your data operations are extremely sensitive.

Pros and Cons of Palo Alto

Pros:

• It may find many types of possibly harmful files as well as operating system executable files. One-click is all it takes to integrate AutoFocus with Palo Alto products.
• Ensuring that you are safeguarded against the most recent threats, such as zero-day attacks. We refer to this as zero-day monitoring.
• By enabling on-site sandboxing of files, the product uses Palo Alto's threat prevention capabilities to deal with compliance challenges.
• Its price is comparable to other similar products on the market, and it seamlessly integrated with the existing Palo Alto systems. Scalability and ease of management are further key benefits.

Cons:

• Like other sandboxes, WildFire must keep up with malware sandbox evasion tactics, which calls for higher file size restrictions.
• WildFire needs better initial administration and setup, and more file types should be able to be supplied and scanned.
• There is no performance warning option for the cloud, and it is rather expensive.

[ Also Check out Fortinet vs Cisco ]

Fortinet vs Palo Alto - Comparison

According to Gartner, one of the best firewall providers is Palo Alto's WildFire sandboxing solution. It can immediately comprehend the application's flows and hazards thanks to its Application Command Center. Stable big and infrequent releases, costs, and performance when managing a wide variety of devices are drawbacks. The researchers assert, however, that users typically express high levels of satisfaction and loyalty.

According to Gartner, Fortinet is difficult to beat whether performance or price are highly regarded in the assessment. The business has a strong firewall with top-notch hardware, visibility, reporting, and simple implementation. However, Fortinet frequently comes in second place behind other top competitors in technical evaluations where fundamental features like VPN, intrusion prevention, application control, management, and Sandboxing are heavily weighted, and the lack of direct vendor support is a drawback for big businesses.

 Here are a few of the key distinctions between Fortinet and Palo Alto, according to various criteria:

FAQs Regarding the Difference Between Fortinet and Palo Alto

1. Why is Fortinet better than Palo Alto?

Both companies provide firewalls as physical or virtual devices as well as cloud-based firewall options. While Palo Alto also sells physical appliances, it emphasises its cloud solutions more than Fortinet, which is more proud of its network appliances than any of its other products.

2. What makes Fortinet different?

In networked, application, cloud, or mobile settings, only the Fortinet Security Fabric architecture can provide security without compromise to answer the most pressing security concerns.

3. Why choose Palo Alto Networks?

Customers pick Palo Alto Networks in large part due to its simplicity of use. They desire a unified platform that lessens operational complexity and provides security teams confidence in their ability to follow best practises and decrease human error.

Conclusion

With total network visibility and improved threat protection, Next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) from Fortinet protect any edge at any scale. Some of the key characteristics of Fortinet NGFWs are AI/ML-powered FortiGuard services, full protection and visibility, natively integrated proxy,  automation-driven network administration, hyper-scale security, and security fabric integration.

Palo Alto Networks' physical, virtual, and container NGFWs all leverage machine learning. You can leverage cloud-delivered security services, centralised network security administration, and the most recent PAN-OS technologies to future-proof network security.

Both NGFW service providers are wise investments; compare and evaluate the available options, then pick the one that most closely matches the profile of your firm.

Decide between the two brands based on your individual circumstances. In our investigation and review, Palo Alto was suggested if you needed the greatest level of firewall and security capacity. If you're worried about money and resources, take a closer look at Fortinet.