I should mention what FortiOS does. FortiOS is the operating system for FortiGate appliances, which are firewalls. So this image is the virtual appliance version for KVM. The user might be deploying a FortiGate virtual firewall in a cloud environment or on-prem.
Comparison with standard FortiGate KVM images: the standard image from Fortinet would be tested and certified, whereas the patched version is a modified build. The patched version might have experimental features or backported fixes not available in the official release, but at the cost of support and reliability.
Compatibility with other Fortinet products like FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, or FortiCloud. The patched image should integrate the same as the official build if FortiOS compatibility is maintained.
Performance-wise, maybe the image is optimized for KVM, leading to better throughput or lower latency compared to other virtualization methods. Features like acceleration for hardware offloading (like Intel VT-d, SR-IOV) might be enabled in the patched version to improve performance.
Licensing is another aspect. Fortinet's licensing model for their VMs—does the patched image require a license? Probably yes, but since it's modified, there might be issues with activating the license through usual channels.
