Design considerations

FortiAnalyzer and FortiAnalyzer BigData are available in either appliance or virtual machine forms. The table below indicates how key design pillars are represented:

Pillar	Physical Appliance	Virtual Machine
Performance	Proprietary hardware architecture provides the best performance experience.	Dependent on the virtual infrastructure.
Availability	Built-in software and hardware high availability and data resiliency.	Built-in software high availability and data resiliency.
Scalability	Scaling out with the addition of more chassis.	Scaling up and scaling out.
Security	Integrity of all elements is provided by the proprietary hardware architecture.	Dependent on the virtual infrastructure.
Deployment	Physical rack space needed.	Flexible deployment.

The FortiAnalyzer datasheet and FortiAnalyzer BigData datasheet provide key specifications in terms of sustained log rate/ingestion rate for both physical appliances and virtual machines.