The two models share identical throughput ratings, port counts, and feature sets. The 51G adds 64 GB of onboard SSD storage, which lets the appliance retain logs locally without requiring an external log server. If your deployment sends logs to FortiAnalyzer, FortiCloud, or another centralized platform, the base 50G covers everything at a lower cost.

Yes. SD-WAN is built into FortiOS and accelerated by the FortiASIC SP5 processor. No additional license is required to activate SD-WAN routing, application steering, or WAN health monitoring. You manage SD-WAN policy alongside your firewall and IPS rules in a single console, whether you use on-prem FortiManager or FortiCloud.

The SFP model connects to fiber or SFP-capable WAN media and suits most standard deployments. The PoE variant adds four PoE+ ports so you can power IP phones and wireless access points directly from the firewall, removing the need for a separate PoE switch in small branch installs. The DSL model includes a built-in DSL modem for sites where DSL is the primary or failover WAN connection.

Fortinet offers tiered bundles. Advanced Threat Protection covers IPS, anti-malware, and URL and DNS filtering. Unified Threat Protection adds anti-spam and data loss prevention on top of that. Enterprise Protection extends coverage further to OT security, inline CASB, and FortiGuard SOCaaS for 24/7 managed log monitoring and incident triage. All bundles pair with FortiCare Premium hardware and software support.

Yes. Both models support active-active and active-passive HA, plus clustering configurations. You need two identical units and a dedicated HA heartbeat connection between them. HA pairs are the right call for branches where network downtime is not acceptable and a manual failover response would take too long.