Fortinet’s Converged Networking, Security OS Now Infused With GenAI, Data Protection

“You have networking vendors who try to bolt security on. You have security vendors who say, ‘I have no clue what Wi-Fi and switching is.’ We kind of sit in the middle of both of those worlds. We’re really in a unique spot,” Fortinet CMO John Maddison tells CRN ahead of the company’s latest FortiOS drop.

Fortinet’s latest version of its flagship FortiOS platform that already combines networking and security operations is being infused with “hundreds” of new features, including generative AI and data protection, the company unveiled at Fortinet Accelerate 2024 Tuesday.

Security market heavyweight Fortinet has become increasingly recognized for its networking expertise, as evidenced by its inclusion in the Leader quadrant in the latest Wired and Wireless LAN Gartner Magic Quadrant report. The company’s FortiOS 7.6 release includes SD-WAN, secure access service edge (SASE), wireless LAN and AI features, among many others, John Maddison, Fortinet’s chief marketing officer, told CRN ahead of the announcement.

“When we do a release of FortiOS, we’re kind of releasing it for many different markets. FortiOS is in five different Gartner Magic Quadrants, [which is] pretty stunning,” Maddison said.

FortiOS 7.6 Updates

The latest operating system includes a variety of new features, beginning with the integration of GenAI. The OS now includes FortiAI, formerly known as Fortinet Advisor, natively within Fortinet’s central data lake, FortiAnalyzer, and its unified management console, FortiManager. The integrations will improve threat analysis and response. Expanding FortiAI across the portfolio helps IT teams make decisions faster while detecting and remediating incidents quickly, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company said.

“We’ll be able to talk to the engine and ask it to see if it has threats or if there is a playbook we can use for [those threats],” Maddison said. “I definitely see [AI] getting a foothold now and then going fast. … We’re investing heavily in it.”

Centralized data protection is also a big part of the new OS release, Maddison said. Data protection combined with enforcement points across the Fortinet Security Fabric will give enterprises a more complete data loss prevention strategy while keeping sensitive information secure, regardless of its location within a hybrid network, the company said.

FortiOS 7.6, an operating system that has taken on a life of its own, also needed a new kind of processing power to support the many applications that were being added. That led to FortiASIC, the company’s specialized compute that helps to accelerate network security. The OS today now includes SD-WAN, SASE, zero-trust network access (ZTNA), automation, provisioning, IoT and application performance features and digital experience monitoring, to name a handful of the new features, Maddison said.

All of FortiOS’ offerings can be served up in flexible consumption options for end customers, the company said.

A Combined Networking and Security Strategy

Fortinet’s approach from the beginning has always been to converge the worlds of networking and security. It remains one of the company’s biggest differentiators at a time when many rivals in both the networking and security spaces are evolving their offerings to take more of a platform approach to secure networking, Maddison said.

“You have networking vendors who try to bolt security on. You have security vendors who say, ‘I have no clue what Wi-Fi and switching is,’” he said. “We kind of sit in the middle of both of those worlds. We’re really in a unique spot.”

Many partners and end customers would rather work with one operating system for networking and security that requires one training and one set of APIs, Maddison said. It’s why the latest FortiOS release is so significant for Fortinet, he added.

“The operating system is really big for us because it brings all of those key features that we can go to market with,” Maddison said. “If you have things bolted together, it’s not really a platform. It’s just a bunch of stuff bolted together with the same name on it. And I think customers can see through that.”