FortiGate
With its underlying FortiOS firmware, FortiGate is the product at the foundation of Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN solution. A key differentiation from other SD-WAN vendors is that the FortiGate Secure SD-WAN platform provides the following key capabilities:
- Built-in intelligence to decide the best path for a specific application
- Integrated and native Next-Generation Firewall security inspection
- Overlay network connectivity in the SD-WAN architecture
The above capabilities don’t require a centralized controller as do most of the traditional SD-WAN vendors.
FortiGate is multitenant at its very core. Virtual domain (VDOM) technology is a testament to this statement, enabling a single, secure gateway instance to be sliced into potentially hundreds of individual gateways.
For more details on the FortiGate SD-WAN capabilities, see Technical background.
FortiGate also:
- Delivers advanced routing support (RIP, BGP, OSPF, and more)
- Participates in virtual private network (VPN) pairing as a spoke or hub (concentrator)
- Brings WAN optimization by means of protocol optimization and byte and object caching
- Supports traffic shaping and packet priority to ensure that business-critical applications take precedence
The following sections describe some of the key functionality: