Fortinet Targets Midmarket With UTM Appliance
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company’s latest release, the FortiGate-300C, specifically targets the midmarket and large enterprise branch offices, which are smaller in size but still require robust security protection, executives said. The appliance will be available later this quarter.
Kevin Flynn, Fortinet senior manager of product marketing, said that the unified threat management (UTM) product fits the bill for larger branch offices looking for “a good box with lots of port density.”
“There’s a lot of flexibility in architecture. I find that channel partner and customers like that a lot,” he said. “They don’t have to run the risk of overkill or underkill.”
The new appliance features high port density and houses advanced firewall, VPN, application control and intrusion prevention technologies as well as local logging and reporting capabilities. Equipped with eight FortiASIC-accelerated ports, the appliance can also deliver wire-speed firewall and IPSec VPN performance as well as application control acceleration without latency in a high-speed network environment.
The appliance also easily enables segmentation for "users in a branch office that have different zones for different kinds of users, such as contract workers versus full time employees,” Flynn said.
The FortiGate-300C can also be deployed as a main security gateway for VPN termination and application control in midsized enterprises in combination with Fortinet’s FortiClient software, or another Fortinet multithreat security appliance in large branch offices and remote locations requiring high-speed network connections.
Meanwhile, Fortinet’s flagship product line is being extended to MSSP partners with a recent deployment through Terenine Technology Solutions’ cloud-based managed security services network.
The managed and professional services provider Terenine, based in Chatanooga, Tenn., incorporates a wide array of managed offerings including virtualization and cloud-based services, collocation, disaster recovery, backup and tiered storage, applications development and professional services.
Drew Savage, Fortinet director of MSS strategy and business development, said in a statement that Fortinet was a good fit for cloud deployments because it enabled customers to add functionality as needed and the ability to segment customer networks without deploying multiple appliances.
“MSSPs are constantly struggling with offering a secure, network security solution that enables their customers the flexibility that they need when it comes to security functionality,” he said.
Terenine has deployed four FortiGate-5001A appliances in high availability mode, two at its Data Center 1 and two more at the Terevault location, all four of which provide network security functions such as firewall, antivirus and intrusion prevention for internal and external customers.
David Glenn, Terenine CTO and vice president of enterprise operations, echoed in a statement that Fortinet was an attractive choice as it offered a product that created separate firewall and monitoring rules for clients as well as flexibility to add security functionalities as needed for customers.
“An added benefit is that the FortiGate product line allows us to deploy the appliances in high availability mode to help ensure uptime,” he added.
Previously, Terenine has also deployed FortiGate 200B appliances in high availability at the TereCluster portable data center, used to help provide a VPN tunnel between customer sites and Terenine facilities, as well as offer antivirus and IPS protection.
In addition, Terrenine has also deployed a FortiAnalyzer threat analysis appliance, enabling the managed and cloud service provider to create on-demand networking reports for customers.