Which FortiGate feature helps reduce bandwidth consumption from unwanted applications?

Application control is the feature that significantly aids in reducing bandwidth consumption from unwanted applications. This functionality allows organizations to identify, monitor, and manage applications traversing their network. By specifying which applications to allow or block, application control ensures that only the necessary and legitimate traffic is prioritized, while unwanted applications consuming excessive bandwidth are restricted.

This feature operates at a deep-packet inspection level, providing detailed visibility into the actual applications being used, as opposed to just the ports or protocols in use. By doing so, it can enforce policies that limit or entirely block traffic from bandwidth-hungry applications, thereby improving the overall network performance and ensuring that available bandwidth is utilized more effectively.

Other choices, though useful, do not specifically address the reduction of bandwidth waste caused by unwanted applications. Web filtering, for instance, focuses more on blocking harmful or inappropriate web content rather than managing application-specific traffic. IPsec VPN is primarily concerned with securing data transmission over networks, while traffic shaping regulates bandwidth allocation but does not distinguish between applications or enforce policies based on them.