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# VM-Series Virtual Firewalls Beat Fortinet Fortigate in Miercom Testing

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By [Samaresh Nair](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/author/samaresh-nair/?ts=markdown "Posts by Samaresh Nair")  
Mar 14, 2023  
3 minutes  
[Announcement](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/announcement/?ts=markdown)  
[Company \& Culture](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/company-culture/?ts=markdown)  
[Next-Generation Firewalls](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/network-security/category/next-generation-firewalls/?ts=markdown)  
[Products and Services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/products-and-services/?ts=markdown)  
[Miercom](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/tag/miercom/?ts=markdown)  
[NGFW](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/tag/ngfw/?ts=markdown)  
[VM-Series](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/tag/vm-series/?ts=markdown)

The lift-and-shift of applications to the cloud has accelerated the adoption of virtual firewalls over the past few years. Virtual firewalls have evolved with higher performance and flexibility for private, public and multi-cloud tenants. High compute performances of the underlying servers and ease of management of virtual resources with hypervisors further help with private cloud deployments. With all of these expectations in mind, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series Virtual Firewalls still beat Fortinet Fortigate in a new performance validation [test report](https://start.paloaltonetworks.com/miercom-vmseries.html) by Miercom.

Along with superior scale and performance, Palo Alto Networks provides the Zero Trust baseline capabilities to fully identify applications' traffic by App-ID, User-ID, Device-ID and Content-ID. Zero Trust enforcement can be delivered for inbound, outbound, lateral (east-west) and segmented/micro-segmented traffic. It is important to appreciate that a firewall's performance needs to be evaluated with real-world deployments that do not degrade security services or application traffic.

So, how does our virtual firewall performance stack up against the competition? In this new head-to-head test, Miercom found that the [VM-Series Virtual Next-Generation Firewalls](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/vm-series-virtual-next-generation-firewall) (NGFWs) performs up to six times better and delivers up to 58% lower TCO/Mbps compared to FortiGate VM firewalls. This results in a better cost and better performance with VM-Series.

This in-depth, independent report showed that when critical security services are enabled, the VM-Series came out on top with superior throughput in all virtual core configurations, superior real-world application traffic performance and a high-value, low cost of ownership. In combination with a recent [Forrester Consulting study](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/2021/10/vm-series-virtual-firewalls/), Miercom's testing shows that not only do you receive better performance, but our virtual ML-Powered NGFWs can provide savings measured in millions of dollars over a short time.

### Key Findings from the Miercom Report

##### Superior Throughput in All Virtual Core Configurations

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series virtual firewall delivered up to 2.3 x higher throughput across all configurations tested, including real-world application traffic.

* VM-Series protects six times more applications and delivers up to six times throughput versus FortiGate VM Firewall.

##### Superior Real-World Application Traffic Performance

On single application tests (MySQL, SIP, SMBv2, RDP and FIX), the Palo Alto Networks VM-Series performance showed twice or more application traffic performance compared to FortiGate-VM.

* VM-Series reveals deeper encrypted traffic visibility and security with 256% better performance for 70/30 mixed encryption/non-encryption traffic versus Fortinet FortiGate-VM.

##### High Value, Low Cost of Ownership

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series virtual firewall showed higher performance overall at a competitive price point, affording up to a 57% lower cost of ownership per protected Mbps throughput. The Palo Alto Networks flexible consumption model features credit-based licensing that lets users consume firewall-as-a-platform components, such as the VM-Series virtual firewalls, CN-Series container firewalls, security services and virtual Panorama for firewall management and log collection. This enables customers to deploy network security in minutes and maximize ROI in private/public clouds, hybrid clouds, multi-clouds or on-premises deployments.

* Drives a 57% lower TCO/Mbps versus FortiGate VM Firewall.
* A 10% increase in cost for VM-Series results in 2X throughput. Performance increase compared to FortiGate VM Firewall (8 or 16 vCPU).
* VM-Series proves 37% to 57% cost savings compared to FortiGate-VM (total cost per Mbps throughput).

The Palo Alto Networks VM-Series virtual firewalls are what you need to secure your private/public clouds, hybrid clouds, multi-clouds or on-premises deployments. With VM-Series virtual firewalls, best-in-class performance has now become extremely affordable. VM-Series virtual firewalls deliver security without compromise to clouds and virtual environments, consistently protecting critical business applications and data, and providing full visibility across the infrastructure.

Read the [Miercom report](https://start.paloaltonetworks.com/miercom-vmseries.html) and discover key findings, test summaries, products tested, along with how Miercom assessed product performance, comparative performance results and total cost of ownership.

*** ** * ** ***

## Related Blogs

### [Announcement](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/announcement/?ts=markdown), [Next-Generation Firewalls](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/network-security/category/next-generation-firewalls/?ts=markdown), [Points of View](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/points-of-view/?ts=markdown), [Products and Services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/products-and-services/?ts=markdown)

[#### Revolutionize Firewall Operations with Industry First AIOps for NGFW](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com.au/blog/2022/03/industry-first-aiops-for-ngfw/)

### [Announcement](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/announcement/?ts=markdown), [Cloud Posture Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/cloud-security-posture-management/?ts=markdown), [Cloud Workload Protection Platform](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/cloud-workload-protection-platform/?ts=markdown), [Partners](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/cloud-security/category/partners/?ts=markdown), [Products and Services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/products-and-services/?ts=markdown)

[#### Prisma Cloud and VM-Series Help Protect Oracle Cloud Infrastructure](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com.au/blog/2021/02/cloud-protect-oracle-cloud/)

### [Announcement](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/announcement/?ts=markdown), [Products and Services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/products-and-services/?ts=markdown), [Secure the Enterprise](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/secure-the-enterprise/?ts=markdown)

[#### Introducing PAN-OS 9.0: Stop Threats Hiding in DNS, Close Security Gaps](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com.au/blog/2019/02/introducing-pan-os-9-0-stop-threats-hiding-dns-close-security-gaps/)

### [Announcement](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/announcement/?ts=markdown), [Next-Generation Firewalls](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/network-security/category/next-generation-firewalls/?ts=markdown), [Products and Services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/products-and-services/?ts=markdown)

[#### Enterprise \& Branch Security with Palo Alto Networks New NGFWs](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com.au/blog/network-security/enterprise-branch-security-with-palo-alto-networks-new-ngfws/)

### [Announcement](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/announcement/?ts=markdown), [Company \& Culture](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/company-culture/?ts=markdown), [Points of View](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/points-of-view/?ts=markdown), [Products and Services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/products-and-services/?ts=markdown)

[#### More on the PAN-OS CVE-2024-3400](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com.au/blog/2024/04/more-on-the-pan-os-cve/)

### [Announcement](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/announcement/?ts=markdown), [Company \& Culture](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/company-culture/?ts=markdown), [Products and Services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/products-and-services/?ts=markdown)

[#### Accelerate Your Cybersecurity Transformation at Ignite On Tour](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com.au/blog/2024/03/cybersecurity-transformation-at-ignite-on-tour/)

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