Fortinet Cloud-Native NGFW Firewall

Name: Fortinet Cloud-Native NGFW Firewall
Brand: Fortinet
Rating: 4.2 (14 reviews)

Fortinet FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (CNF) is a SaaS-delivered next-generation firewall that provides Layer 7 inspection and threat prevention for cloud network trust zones while handling availability, scaling, and software updates as a managed service.

Est 2000|Valuation $133.5B|Raised $1.2B

LinkedIn 1.3M|Website|Web traffic 673K|FTEs 15,472|HQ Sunnyvale, California, US

MarketsCloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP)Web Application & API Protection (WAAP)Firewalls Security Service Edge (SSE)

Platform CoversNetwork Detection & Response (NDR)

Fortinet Cloud-Native NGFW Firewall screenshot

01Competitive Landscape

Narrative analysis

#### Fortinet CNF vs Palo Alto Cloud NGFW for AWS Both are offered as managed or cloud-focused NGFW services in AWS. Palo Alto provides explicit pricing references and an estimator, which can assist financial planning. Fortinet emphasizes AWS integrations (GWLB, Firewall Manager) and policy consistency with FortiGate deployments; pricing information is primarily Marketplace-driven and may require detailed review. #### Fortinet CNF vs FortiGate-VM (self-managed) CNF aims to reduce customer responsibilities related to HA, scaling, and updates. FortiGate-VM provides greater control and broader cloud footprint options historically, while placing operational responsibilities with the customer. #### Fortinet CNF vs cloud-provider-native firewalls (AWS/Azure) Practitioner feedback often characterizes cloud-native firewalls as simpler operationally. Fortinet may be chosen when organizations require Fortinet’s feature set or wish to maintain consistent policy approaches across on-prem and cloud environments. #### Ecosystem competitor angle (Aviatrix) Aviatrix commonly publishes solution patterns that integrate NGFW insertion, including Fortinet FortiGate. Aviatrix is primarily an architecture and operations layer and can be complementary to NGFW deployments rather than a direct replacement.

	Fortinet FortiGate CNF (AWS-focused CNF service)	Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW for AWS	AWS Network Firewall
Recommended use case	Organizations using Fortinet policy models seeking a managed NGFW in AWS, with GWLB/Firewall Manager integration	Organizations prioritizing Palo Alto threat prevention and clearer cost modeling with available estimators	AWS-native organizations prioritizing an AWS-managed firewall with native integration
Starting price model	Marketplace-based; multi-dimensional pricing; often requires reviewing the AWS Marketplace listing and contract details	Published pricing reference tables and a credits model; pricing documentation and an estimator are available	AWS pricing model with usage-based components (compute and data processing); validate current AWS pricing
Key strengths	Alignment with Fortinet ecosystem and policy models; SaaS delivery model; integration with AWS Firewall Manager and GWLB	Explicit pricing documentation and cost modeling tools; Palo Alto threat prevention ecosystem	Native management model with fewer external vendor layers; common choice for AWS-centric teams
Key weaknesses	Limited CNF-specific independent reviews in public sources; regional availability constraints (e.g., GovCloud/China); pricing forecasting complexity	Potentially higher cost; operational dependency on another vendor tenant and ecosystem	May provide less depth in some L7/advanced NGFW features compared with third-party NGFW vendors

01Competitive Landscape

Narrative analysis

Fortinet CNF vs Palo Alto Cloud NGFW for AWS

Both are offered as managed or cloud-focused NGFW services in AWS. Palo Alto provides explicit pricing references and an estimator, which can assist financial planning. Fortinet emphasizes AWS integrations (GWLB, Firewall Manager) and policy consistency with FortiGate deployments; pricing information is primarily Marketplace-driven and may require detailed review.

Fortinet CNF vs FortiGate-VM (self-managed)

CNF aims to reduce customer responsibilities related to HA, scaling, and updates. FortiGate-VM provides greater control and broader cloud footprint options historically, while placing operational responsibilities with the customer.

Fortinet CNF vs cloud-provider-native firewalls (AWS/Azure)

Practitioner feedback often characterizes cloud-native firewalls as simpler operationally. Fortinet may be chosen when organizations require Fortinet’s feature set or wish to maintain consistent policy approaches across on-prem and cloud environments.

Ecosystem competitor angle (Aviatrix)

Aviatrix commonly publishes solution patterns that integrate NGFW insertion, including Fortinet FortiGate. Aviatrix is primarily an architecture and operations layer and can be complementary to NGFW deployments rather than a direct replacement.

	Fortinet FortiGate CNF (AWS-focused CNF service)	Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW for AWS	AWS Network Firewall
Recommended use case	Organizations using Fortinet policy models seeking a managed NGFW in AWS, with GWLB/Firewall Manager integration	Organizations prioritizing Palo Alto threat prevention and clearer cost modeling with available estimators	AWS-native organizations prioritizing an AWS-managed firewall with native integration
Starting price model	Marketplace-based; multi-dimensional pricing; often requires reviewing the AWS Marketplace listing and contract details	Published pricing reference tables and a credits model; pricing documentation and an estimator are available	AWS pricing model with usage-based components (compute and data processing); validate current AWS pricing
Key strengths	Alignment with Fortinet ecosystem and policy models; SaaS delivery model; integration with AWS Firewall Manager and GWLB	Explicit pricing documentation and cost modeling tools; Palo Alto threat prevention ecosystem	Native management model with fewer external vendor layers; common choice for AWS-centric teams
Key weaknesses	Limited CNF-specific independent reviews in public sources; regional availability constraints (e.g., GovCloud/China); pricing forecasting complexity	Potentially higher cost; operational dependency on another vendor tenant and ecosystem	May provide less depth in some L7/advanced NGFW features compared with third-party NGFW vendors