A Practical Guide To Selecting Cloud And Virtual Firewalls
Fortinet, Thursday, June 19th, 2025
Cloud firewalls and virtual firewalls are essential components of modern hybrid and multi-cloud security architectures. A virtual firewall offers software-based control consistent with traditional next-generation firewalls (NGFWs), while a cloud firewall is built natively for elastic, API-driven cloud environments.
This guide explains when to use each, how they compare, and what to prioritize in your evaluation.
It also outlines Fortinet's differentiated approach-offering both FortiGate VM (virtual firewall) and FortiGate CNF (cloud-native firewall) solutions, backed by FortiFlex licensing and integrated into the Fortinet Security Fabric. Whether you're securing east-west traffic, enabling DevOps, or scaling across clouds, Fortinet delivers cloud-first protection with unified visibility, threat intelligence, and automation.