The differences between FortiSASE and FortiManager

Hi poemliang,

FortiManager provides a dedicated management plane for centralized provisioning, policy package deployment (ADOM-based), object management, and firmware lifecycle control of managed devices such as FortiGate, FortiSwitch, and FortiAP. In contrast, FortiSASE operates as a cloud-native control plane delivering SSE services (SWG, CASB, ZTNA) with policy enforcement based on user identity, posture, and traffic steering, including SD-WAN integration. FortiSASE does not perform full device-level configuration (e.g., switch management, CLI templating, or firmware orchestration), which remains under FortiManager scope. In production deployments, FortiManager and FortiSASE are typically integrated, where FortiManager handles device configuration/state management, while FortiSASE enforces cloud-delivered security policies and access control.

FortiSASE can be added to FortiManager for central management. Administrators can use the FortiSASE Connector to configure which FortiManager objects are synchronized to the FortiSASE. Currently, central management supports only one-way synchronization of configurations from FortiManager to FortiSASE. Therefore, administrators should avoid deleting objects from FortiManager to prevent any conflicts.

Please refer to the document and video below for more information:

https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortimanager/7.6.6/administration-guide/907875
https://www.fortinet.com/products/sase
https://www.fortinet.com/products/management/fortimanager
https://video.fortinet.com/latest/fortisase-centralized-management-with-fortimanager

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Regards,
Aman