Increase Performance & Security of Servers with Fortinet Firewalls

I’m now on my third coffee of the morning and something I think about often, and comes up all the time with clients, is security versus performance. It’s one of those things that used to make me lie awake at night back in the early 2000s when the Slammer worm took down networks in literally minutes and security solutions focused more on slowing things down just enough to stop the bad guys.

Today, things have changed. Gone are the days where firewalls (specifically Fortinet) were the bottlenecks: they are now performance enhancers. You have real security without crippling speed. That’s huge. And that’s precisely why I recommend Fortinet firewalls to almost every business with an interest in server security and network performance. Let’s talk about why.

The Tradeoff Between Security and Performance

Here’s the kicker: most businesses (and some IT people as well) assume better security has to mean slower performance. It’s an old way of thinking — back in the days when deep packet inspection meant grinding your network speed to a crawl.

Yet next-gen firewalls like Fortinet do more than safeguard your network; they actually improve it. When configured properly, your firewall should be able to:

• Block threats without sacrificing connection speeds.
• Offload bad traffic (before it hits your infrastructure) and reduce servers’ load.
• Prioritize business-critical applications so that security measures do not impact performance.

And honestly? The only reason for a slow network is that your firewall is messing up. It’s either not tuned properly, or a dinosaur of a system that’s due for an upgrade. (I’ve encountered both, and correcting either has an immediate effect.)

Fortinet’s Performance-Optimized Firewalls

I have worked with many firewalls over the years — from the old Cisco PIX units to modern AI-driven security appliances. Which is one reason I keep using Fortinet, they do a good job balancing speed with security.

Fortinet’s secret sauce? Their hardware is optimized specifically for security-based functions. Some firewalls still use general-purpose CPUs to run security, which is slow and inefficient, but Fortinet designs their own SPUs (Security Processing Units) that perform encryption, inspection, and prevention without affecting network speeds.

With Fortinet, you get:

• Hardware-accelerated inspection — Dedicated ASIC designed for deep packet inspection without speed penalties.
• Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) – Enforces per session policies rather than imposing blanket security. I’ve just helped three banks deploy a rollout like this, and they finally stopped complaining about the slowness from VPNs.
• Unified all-in-one SD-WAN — no performance trade-offs for high-priority apps.

And yes—this matters tremendously for businesses that work with:

• Transaction-heavy industries (such as banks and e-commerce).
• Work-from-home staff requiring frictionless access.
• Cloud or cloud-hosted services and data centers.

Artificial Intelligence–Based Security Features

Okay. Time for a bit of a rant.

Today, I hear the term, “AI-powered cybersecurity” way too often. Often, it’s marketing fluff tacked onto a list of specs that was already under a different name. For what it’s worth — Fortinet natively incorporates a way to continuously update threat detection using machine learning that does actually work, and I’ve seen the difference firsthand.

What Fortinet actually does with AI and does well:

• Behavior-based detection – AI models analyze network behavior (and not just wait for signature updates to happen) to detect zero-day threats.
• Automatic responses – Quarantines malicious activity without requiring human intervention to limit server strain.
• Fortinet tracks with real-world emerging threat data — Because even the best AI can’t operate in a vacuum.

Just to be clear — I still wouldn’t place blind trust in any “AI” to run my security strategy. But as an adjunct to hands-on security know-how? It’s powerful.

Performance Tuning Services of PJ Networks

Here’s where businesses go awry: they purchase high-performance firewalls, plug them in and expect everything to work to peak efficiency magically. Spoiler: it won’t. Tune security appliances to strike the appropriate balance between security and speed.

That’s where we come in.

For years, PJ Networks has been fine-tuning Fortinet firewalls in the world of banks, corporate networks, and cloud infrastructures. These systems are not just set-and-forget them: You have to:

• Tweak your IPS and DPI settings — Too aggressive? You slow things down. Too relaxed? You leave gaps.
• Tune packet inspection policies – Not all applications require the same degree of examination.
• Set up tailored threat intelligence feeds – To be ahead of new threats.
• Prepare for high-load scenarios – Security should not fail only when you need it the most.

I’ve watched businesses bleeding massive deceleration for no reason other than those default configs (or badly considered firewall rules) strangulating performance. We fix that.

Quick Take: Fortinet for Peace of Mind Performance & Security

If you don’t have time, here’s what you need to know:

• Fortinet makes older firewalls that slow down networks – Fortinet’s SPU architecture doesn’t.
• Firewalls are more than just threat blockers; they should be traffic optimizers.
• AI security does work—but don’t instantly trust marketing fluff.
• PJ Networks fine-tunes Fortinet to ensure peak performance (default settings are almost always nowhere near optimal).

If your servers have been slow and your security has felt “off,” it’s time for a firewall checkup.

Conclusion

There used to be an infinite war between cyber security vs performance. This enables you to protect against these threats faster and in a more cost-effective manner, rather than having to choose one over the other if you use these point products. In fact, if properly deployed, they can improve your server security and network speed—if tuned correctly, of course.

Instead, I’ve seen businesses throw down all that well-earned cash on a sexy big security appliance and never get it tuned. Don’t do that.

Put effort into security — and ensure it’s set up to be as fast as your organization’s requirement. (That’s where we come in at PJ Networks.) And now? I need another coffee.