What is Zone

In Fortigate firewalls, a zone is a logical grouping of one or more interfaces that share similar security requirements. Zones are used to simplify the creation of security policies by allowing administrators to define policies based on the logical grouping of interfaces, rather than individual interfaces.

By default, Fortigate firewalls have three pre-defined zones:

Internal - this zone includes all interfaces that are considered part of the internal network. This may include LAN, WAN, or other internal network segments.

DMZ - this zone includes all interfaces that are connected to servers or systems that require public access, such as web servers or email servers.

External - this zone includes all interfaces that are connected to the Internet or to other external networks.

In addition to these pre-defined zones, administrators can create custom zones to group interfaces based on specific security requirements. For example, an organization may create a zone for guest wireless access that is isolated from the internal network and has limited access to the Internet.

Zones are important in Fortigate firewalls because they simplify the creation of security policies by allowing administrators to define policies based on the logical grouping of interfaces. This can help to improve the security posture of an organization by ensuring that security policies are consistent across interfaces that share similar security requirements.