This month we had the pleasure of interviewing one of our partners Fortinet, to gain insight into their latest cloud and firewall solutions.
How would you best describe Fortinet in a few sentences?
For over 20 years, Fortinet has been a driving force in the evolution of cybersecurity and the convergence of networking and security. Our network security solutions are the most deployed, most patented, and among the most validated in the industry. Our broad, complementary portfolio of cybersecurity solutions are built from the ground up with integration and automation in mind, enabling more efficient, self-healing operations and a rapid response to known and unknown threats. Fortinet provide industry-leading security and performance across all networks, endpoints and clouds.
You are one of the leading Firewall providers, what sets you apart from your competitors and how do you maintain your position in the market?
FortiGate NGFWs are network firewalls powered by purpose-built security processing units (SPUs) including the latest NP7 (Network Processor 7). They enable security-driven networking, and are ideal network firewalls for hybrid and hyperscale data centers. Fortinet is a 4-Times Leader in Gartner’s 2020 Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls. The Industry’s Highest Security Compute Rating Through the Power of Purpose-Build SPUs. Security-driven Network. High Threat Protection. Access the report here: https://go.fortinet.com/emea-lp/gartner-network-firewalls
Can you tell us more about your Fortinet Security Fabric platform?
The Fortinet Security Fabric is at the heart of the Fortinet security strategy. The platform is organically built around a common operating system and management framework to enable:
- Broad visibility and protection of the entire digital attack surface to better manage risk
- Seamless integration and interoperability between critical security elements reducing management complexity and sharing threat intelligent
- Granular control and automation resulting in self-healing networks with AI-driven security for fast and efficient operations
What do you see the latest advancements in Firewall management being?
As more and more businesses move to cloud and hybrid environments, these require a New Generation of Firewall. FortiGates uniquely meet the performance needs of hyperscale and hybrid IT architectures, enabling organizations to deliver optimal user experience, and manage security risks for better business continuity. But also, as the threat landscape rapidly expands due to co-location and multi-cloud adoption, and businesses grow to satisfy escalating customer needs, traditional firewalls fall further behind, unable to offer protection at scale, and leading to poor user experience and weak security posture. NGFWs not only block malware, but also include paths for future updates, giving them the flexibility to evolve with the threat landscape and keep the network secure as new threats arise.
Can you tell us more about your advancement into 5G protection, with regards to SASE and Zero Trust access?
Major updates (over 300 new features) in FortiOS 7.0 tackle some of today’s biggest security challenges related to work from home, securing the SASE edge, and more, and expand across the following key areas:
- Zero Trust Network Access for Remote Access and Application Control: FortiOS 7.0 enables every FortiGate customer to employ Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) capabilities out of the box, making Fortinet the only vendor to enable firewall-based ZTNA. ZTNA enabled by FortiOS 7.0 improves user experience by supporting the evolution of better remote access to replace traditional VPN. It also reduces the attack surface by verifying the user and device for every application session, while hiding business-critical applications from the internet. ZTNA from Fortinet further simplifies management by using the same access policy no matter where users are, whether on- or off-network.
- Consistent Security Everywhere with SASE: Fortinet gives enterprises the flexibility needed to enable their workforce to work from anywhere with consistent, enterprise-grade security delivered on-premises – and now, via cloud-based SASE consumption (Security-as-a-Service). Off-network remote users benefit from the same level of security no matter where they are located. Customers that prefer a light-weight simplified branch (Thin Edge) are also supported via SASE.
- New Self-Healing SD-WAN Capabilities: Fortinet’s leading Secure SD-WAN solution now includes self-healing capabilities through adaptive WAN remediations to make the application experience more resilient. Fortinet has also expanded its passive application monitoring for SaaS and multi-cloud applications for better user-experience to support users working from anywhere.
- Expanding the LTE Edge with 5G: Fortinet is extending network connectivity and security beyond the WAN Edge with innovations in 5G and LTE that improve wireless network performance and increase resiliency. With a diverse Wireless WAN and LTE offering, organizations can achieve secure, scalable, and highly available network connectivity anywhere.
Can you provide any insight into new advancements or features within your FortiCloud offering?
Fortinet have continued to grow the arrange of solutions that are available through their FortiCloud portal. Cloud Management is available for FortiGate, FortiAP, fortiCLient, FortiExtender, FortiSwitch and FortiSOAR. In addition there are a number of cloud services including FortiToken, FortiCASB, FortiPenTest, FOrtiMail, FortiSandbox, FortiPhish, FortiWeb, FortiInsight, FortiGSLB, FortiCWP, and FortiConverter. Access to FortiCloud is available via 2FA and single sign-on is available for all associated services.
What are the key advantages of working with managed services providers such as Zuri Technologies?
Now more than ever, companies small and large are turning to managed security service providers (MSSPs) to help protect their infrastructure from edge to datacentre to cloud. MSSPs who work with Fortinet benefit from specialist support and the ability to provide a broad range of managed services utilising Fortinet technology. In turn Fortinet recognises that it is critically important to work with a broad range of service providers across the telecoms, hosting and infrastructure services segments. Managed Service Providers such as Zuri Technologies are a key enabler to Fortinet’s growth through their decision to standardise their managed security services on Fortinet’s market leading portfolio and provide their customers with the services they require to stay cyber secure.
