You bought a FortiGate firewall. Maybe your IT person recommended it. Maybe a reseller put it in during a network refresh a couple of years ago. Either way, it’s running. The lights are on. Traffic is flowing.

So you check the “firewall” box in your head and move on to the next thing demanding your attention.

Here’s the problem with that. The gap between having a Fortinet firewall and actually operating one properly is significant. And most businesses don’t discover that gap until something breaks, an auditor asks a question they can’t answer, or an incident reveals that their “enterprise-grade” security was running on default configurations the entire time.

This isn’t about the hardware. Fortinet makes excellent products. This is about what happens after the hardware gets racked and plugged in.

The Gap Between Owning Fortinet and Operating Fortinet

A FortiGate firewall out of the box is a powerful piece of equipment. But out of the box is also its least effective state.

Getting real protection from a Fortinet deployment requires ongoing, specialized work. We’re talking about custom rule sets built around your actual network traffic. Firmware updates tested and applied on a schedule that balances security with stability. Threat intelligence feeds tuned to your industry and risk profile. Logging and alerting configured so the right people see the right signals.

Most of that never happens when a generalist IT provider handles the deployment.

Not because they don’t care, but because Fortinet’s platform is deep. It takes dedicated training and hands-on experience to know what you’re looking at, let alone optimize it. A generalist provider will get the firewall online and traffic flowing. But the difference between “functional” and “properly secured” is where most SMBs are exposed without realizing it.

Your firewall might be running firmware that’s two major versions behind. Your rules might allow traffic patterns that should have been locked down months ago. Your VPN configuration might work fine for remote access but leave gaps in your security posture that nobody’s reviewed.

The firewall you bought and the firewall you’re actually running are often two very different things.

What “Authorized” Actually Means (And Why It’s Not Just a Badge)

Fortinet doesn’t hand out partner authorizations casually. The program requires real investment from the partner organization.

To earn and maintain authorized status, a provider must have:

  • Engineers who have completed Fortinet’s NSE (Network Security Expert) certification program, not just entry-level courses but advanced, product-specific training
  • Demonstrated deployment experience across Fortinet’s product ecosystem
  • Direct access to Fortinet’s technical support escalation paths, including Fortinet TAC (Technical Assistance Center)
  • Ongoing recertification and training requirements to keep pace with new firmware, features, and threat intelligence capabilities
  • Access to pre-release firmware, early vulnerability advisories, and partner-exclusive technical resources

This matters because it’s verifiable. You can confirm a provider’s Fortinet partner status. You can ask about their certification levels. It’s not a subjective claim about expertise. It’s a documented, vendor-validated standard.

When a provider tells you they “know Fortinet,” that could mean anything. When a provider holds authorized partner status, it means Fortinet has confirmed they meet a specific threshold of training, experience, and capability.

For a business owner who isn’t going to evaluate firewall configurations personally, that distinction is one of the few reliable signals available.

The Risks You Can’t See From the Outside

The hardest part about firewall management gaps is that everything looks fine until it doesn’t.

Your network is running. Users aren’t complaining. Nobody’s reporting issues. So you reasonably assume everything is working as intended.

But behind that calm surface, non-authorized providers commonly leave risks that don’t announce themselves:

  • Firmware gaps. Known vulnerabilities that Fortinet has already patched remain open because your provider doesn’t have access to early advisories or doesn’t prioritize firmware lifecycle management. Attackers actively scan for these.
  • Default or generic configurations. Factory settings and template rule sets that were “good enough” during setup but were never customized to match your actual network, your actual traffic, or your actual risk profile.
  • Logging and alerting blind spots. The firewall is generating data, but nobody’s configured it to surface the signals that matter. Suspicious traffic patterns, failed authentication attempts, or policy violations go unnoticed.
  • Support dead ends. When something goes wrong, your provider submits a support request through the same general channels available to anyone. No priority escalation. No direct TAC access. No established relationship with Fortinet’s engineering teams.
  • Licensing and warranty exposure. Incorrect licensing, lapsed support contracts, or misconfigured subscription services that only surface when you need them most, during a security event or an audit.

None of these show up in your day-to-day experience. Your network works. Your email flows. Your firewall has green lights. The risks accumulate silently until an event forces them into the open.

When a Crisis Hits, the Partner Matters More Than the Product

Every firewall vendor builds good hardware. What separates outcomes during a real security event is the quality of the response behind that hardware.

When an authorized Fortinet partner identifies an issue, they can escalate directly to Fortinet’s TAC with priority access. They speak the same technical language. They have established relationships. They can get advanced diagnostic support and engineering resources engaged quickly.

A non-authorized provider is working the same general support queue as everyone else. They may not know the right questions to ask. They may not have the diagnostic tools or the access level to get answers quickly. And during an active incident, every hour of delay increases the blast radius.

Think about what that means practically. A ransomware attempt hits your perimeter at 11 PM on a Friday. Your provider needs to analyze the traffic, adjust firewall rules in real-time, determine whether anything got through, and coordinate with your broader security stack.

The difference between a provider who can escalate directly to Fortinet engineering in the first 30 minutes and one who’s submitting a ticket and waiting for a callback is not a minor operational detail. It’s the difference between containment and catastrophe.

And consider the downstream implications. Your cyber insurance provider is going to ask how the incident was handled. Your customers may ask what security infrastructure you have in place. If you’re pursuing SOC 2 or ISO 27001, auditors will want to see evidence of competent, vendor-supported security management.

The answers to those questions look very different depending on who’s behind your firewall.

The Questions You Should Be Asking Right Now

You don’t need to become a Fortinet expert to evaluate whether your current setup is where it should be. But you do need to ask the right questions.

Start here:

  • What is your provider’s current Fortinet partner authorization level? Can they verify it?
  • When was your FortiGate firmware last updated, and what version are you running?
  • Does your provider have direct escalation access to Fortinet TAC, or are they using general support channels?
  • Has anyone reviewed and optimized your firewall rule sets in the last 12 months?
  • Are your Fortinet subscription services (threat intelligence, intrusion prevention, web filtering) active and properly configured?
  • If a critical security event happened at 2 AM on a Saturday, what does your provider’s response process actually look like?

If you don’t know the answers, or if your provider can’t give you clear ones, that’s a signal worth paying attention to.

This isn’t about blame. Many businesses end up in this position because the firewall was set up years ago and nobody had a reason to revisit it. But “it’s been working fine” and “it’s been protecting us effectively” are not the same statement.

The businesses that get this right aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets. They’re the ones who recognized that the expertise behind their security infrastructure matters as much as the infrastructure itself, and they made sure the people managing their firewall could actually back up that responsibility.

Your FortiGate firewall is only as strong as the team behind it. The question is whether you’ve confirmed that strength, or just assumed it.

Want to learn more about what proper Fortinet management looks like? Explore our resources on firewall management and managed cybersecurity services to understand what a fully supported Fortinet deployment involves.