Fortinet FortiADC-VM-UL
Advanced Application Delivery Controller

Overview:

Application Delivery with Security and Optimization

In recent years, the landscape of application delivery has undergone significant transformations influenced by evolving technology trends and the increasing adoption of cloud computing. Many organizations are integrating on-premises data centers with public cloud environments to optimize application performance, enhance scalability, and improve overall business agility.

Introduction

FortiADC, the advanced Application Delivery Controller (ADC), optimizes application delivery, enhances performance, and ensures application security whether hosted on-premises or in the cloud.

The FortiADC VM-UL is a software virtual appliance that supports unlimited vCPU cores and memory (based on the underlying hardware), delivering the same robust L4-L7 load-balancing capabilities with Scripting support for content manipulation, and Advanced SSL Services (Offloading and mirroring) as the FortiADC hardware appliances.

FortiADC also offers application acceleration, an Application Access Gateway (App Portal), and built-in security features like Web Application Firewall protection for any application threats with AL (Adaptive Learning), OWASP Top10 Compliance Policy, DDoS Protection, ZTNA, and more.

With flexible deployment options (HW, VM, FortiFlex, and Cloud Providers) and integration into the Fortinet Security Fabric, FortiADC empowers businesses to deliver exceptional application experiences and security.

Product Highlights

• Advanced L4‑7 Application LB
• FortiGSLB cloud integration maximizes service availability
• AL (Adaptive Learning), and OWASP Top‑10 protection and compliance with web application firewall
• An Application Access Gateway (AAG) securely provides agentless access to internal applications via a centralized portal with granular access policies
• Multi-deployment mode with hardware, VM, FortiFlex or Cloud providers (PAYG/BYOL)
• SSL security and visibility with hardware-based solution
• Automation and Fabric Connector to third party solutions such as K8s and OCP Ingress Controller, SAP, AWA and OCI

Highlights:

Application Availability

Applications are the lifeblood of a company’s online presence. Unresponsive applications can result in lost revenue and customers taking their future business elsewhere. Application performance, scalability, and resilience are key but none of this matters unless the end-user has a good experience and completes their transaction.

FortiADC is a dedicated Application Delivery Control solution that provides a multi-tenancy solution (VDOM and ADOM), high availability, and scalability with hybrid solution deployment (on-premises and cloud offering) to your applications.

Web Application Protection

FortiADC Web Application Firewall (WAF) provides a comprehensive security solution designed to protect web applications from a wide range of threats. Our WAF includes robust features such as AL (Adaptive Learning), which dynamically analyzes client and server traffic to build policies in real-time for blocking web attacks. In addition to adaptive learning, FortiADC WAF offers extensive WAF signatures, ensuring protection against the OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities. It also includes advanced API security and safeguards against credential stuffing attacks, delivering a holistic and intelligent approach to application security.

Application Anywhere (GSLB)

The FortiADC included Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) module on-prem or in the cloud (FortiGSLB Cloud) makes your network reliable and available by scaling applications across multiple data centers for disaster recovery or to improve application response times. Customers can set up rules based on site availability, data center performance, and network latency.

Data Optimization

FortiADC provides multiple services that speed the delivery of applications to users. The PageSpeed suite of website performance enhancement tools can automatically optimize HTTP, CSS, Javascript, and image delivery to application users. FortiADC also provides Dynamic Caching and HTTP Compression and Decompression to improve end-user experience and server productivity.

Agentless Application Gateway

The FortiADC Agentless Application Gateway provides secure, clientless access to internal applications via a web browser, eliminating the need for client-side agents. It supports multi-factor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO) for enhanced security. Administrators can create customized web portals, controlling access to applications based on user groups. With real-time session visibility, it ensures secure, efficient access for remote users without compromising performance.

AI Security

FortiADC now supports AI security with Threat Analytics and FortiGuard Advanced Bot Protection.

• Threat Analytics continuously assesses your security posture by monitoring attacks on your web assets and evaluating your WAF and Security configuration and, based on the Insights, provides recommended actions that can enhance your WAF and Security configuration settings, block future attacks, and reduce false positives.
• FortiGuard Advanced Bot Protection is a comprehensive defense against the ever-present threat of bots. It provides a cutting-edge SaaS solution to safeguard your web applications and digital assets from the everevolving threat of bots using client and server telemetry and deep learning.

Key Features:

Advanced Security Services

As the threat landscape evolves, many new risks require a multi-pronged approach for protecting applications. FortiADC provides multi-vector protections starting from the network— IPS, Antivirus, IP Reputation, and to the Applications—DLP, Sandbox, Credential Stuffing, and WAF Signatures, and up to AI Security with Threat Analytics and Advanced Bot Protection.

SSL Offloading and Visibility

FortiADC delivers high capacity decryption and encryption with the latest cryptography standard using hardwarebased SSL ASIC. FortiADC provides SSL offloading, SSL inspection and visibility to inspect traffic for threats, speeds up server response, and reduces the load on the backend server. FortiADC also integrates with Gemalto’s SafeNet Enterprise Hardware Security Module (HSM).

Scripts and DevOps Tools

FortiADC Scripts provides the flexibility to create custom event-driven rules using predefined commands, variables, and operators. Using easy-to-create scripts, you get the flexibility you need to extend your FortiADC with an advanced content rewrite and application decisions. FortiADC also offers a range of DevOps tools, such as RestfulAPI, Declarative API, Terraform, cloud-init, and Ansible, enhancing the efficiency of application deployment, management, and automation.

Automation and Connectors

FortiADC Fabric Connectors provide open API-based integration and orchestration with multiple software-defined networks (SDN), cloud, management, and partner technology platforms. Fortinet Fabric Connectors deliver turnkey, open, and deep integration into third party services such as K8s, AWS, OCI, and SAP, in multi-vendor ecosystems, enabling scalability, security automation, and simplified management.

Analytics and Visibility

FortiADC offers a comprehensive monitoring system for your network and application. With FortiView, customers can get real-time and historical data into a single view on your FortiADC. We also provide a network logical topology of real-servers, user/application data-analytics, security threats, attack maps, and some other system events and alerts.

FortiADC supports ADC Manager to manage multiple FortiADC devices remotely, and integrates with third party solutions such as Splunk, FortiAnalyzer, and FortiSIEM for more visibility, correlation, automated response, and remediation.

Security Fabric Connectors

FortiADC fabric connectors seamlessly integrate FortiADC with various Fortinet Security Fabric solutions, enabling automated processes for managing dynamic security updates without manual intervention. These connectors define the type of integration and facilitate a cohesive ecosystem for Fortinet products to work together harmoniously.

FortiADC supports a range of Security Fabric Integration with: FortiGate, FortiSIEM, FortiAnalyzer, FortiGSLB, Threat Analytics, and FortiGuard Advanced Bot Protection. The overarching goal is to enhance collaboration and automation across the Fortinet product suite through Fabric Connectors.

FortiAI-Assist

FortiAI-Assist embeds GenAI capabilities directly into FortiADC, enabling administrators to configure, troubleshoot, and optimize the system using natural language.

It provides real-time insights into traffic, logs, and system behavior, helping reduce operational complexity and accelerate issue resolution. In addition, the built-in Text2Script capability allows users to automatically generate FortiADC Lua scripts from simple prompts, enabling rapid creation of advanced traffic logic and automation without requiring deep scripting expertise.

FortiADC Features

USE CASES	SUPPORTED FEATURES
Application Availability	Advanced L4-L7 Load-balancing (Application and protocols) Presistency, Advanced Health-check, Content Routing, and Rewrite Scripting Support and L7 Content Routing and Manipulation SSL Advanced Services TLS1.3 (Offloading/Mirroring) and SSL Forward Proxy SSL Management (client/server side) + Let’s Encrypt support
Application Anywhere	Global Server Load Balancing (Geo-location, RR, Weight, and more) Geo-IP Protection and IP Reputation DNS Security and DNSSEC
Application Optimization	Dynamic Caching and Compression HTTP Page Speed (Optimization and Multiplexing)
Application Protection	Web Application Firewall and Web Vulnerability Scanner API Security (OpenAPI, API-GW, API Discovery) WAF (AL) Adaptive Learning Support FortiGuard Web Application Security Signature Credential Stuffing Defense OWASP top-10 Compliance Advanced Bot Protection
Application Access Gateway	Application Authentication — Form, Basic, and SSO Agentless Application Gateway (WebTop) SAML, Kerberos, OAuth2.0, LDAP, RADIUS, FortiToken, Google Auth, FortiAuthenticator, Azure EntraID FortiGuard Cloud Sandbox FortiGuard Data Loss Prevention
System and Networking	VDOM/ADOM Support Full NAT (1:1, Dynamic, Static, and Hide-NAT) High Availability (VRRP A/A, A/P Failover) IPv4 and IPv6 Support Dynamic Routing (BGP, OSPF) and NVGRE and VXLAN Support
Networking Security	DDoS Protection (Network and Application) Stateful Firewall Zero Trust Application Gateway FortiGuard Intrusion Prevention FortiGuard Malware (AV) Protection ICAP Support
Data Analytics and SecOps	FortiView — Data Analytics OWASP top-10 Real Time Monitoring Real Time Reporting, Monitoring, Logging, and SNMP Threat Analytics AI FortiAI-Assist
Fabric Integration and DevOps Tools	Integration — SAP, K8s, OCP, AWS, MS (SharePoint, RDP, Exchange), Splunk, Cisco-ACI, and more Security Fabric — FortiGate, FortiSIEM, FortiAnalyzer, FortiClient, FortiAuthenticator, FortiGSLB Restful, and Declerative API, Ansible, Terraform, and Cloud-init
24x7 Premium Support	FortiCare Premium Support

* Feature availability is dependent on the subscription to specific license bundles.

Specifications:

	FortiADC VM-UL
Hardware Specifications
Hypervisor Support	VMware ESX/ESXi, Citrix XenServer, Open Source Xen, Microsoft Hyper-V, KVM, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, IBM Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, Nutanix, and Proxmox
L4 Throughput	Unlimited (based on Hardware)
Virtual Domains	90
vCPU Support (Maximum)	Unlimited
Memory Support (Maximum)	Unlimited
Network Interface Support (Maximum)	10
Storage Support (Minimum / Maximum)	Unlimited
Throughput	Hardware Dependent
Management	HTTPS, SSH CLI, Direct Console CLI, SNMP

Actual performance values may vary depending on the network traffic and system configuration. Performance results were observed using an appliance with an Intel CPU E5-1650 v2 @ 3.50 GHz running VMware ESXi 8.0.

Documentation:

Download the FortiADC Series Datasheet (.PDF)