Fortinet's Opaq Acquisition to Provide 'Partner Friendly' SASE

Fortinet says its acquisition of Opaq Networks, unveiled Monday, gives its partners a beefed-up secure access service edge (SASE) offering.

Opaq’s zero trust network access (ZTNA) cloud service protects businesses’ distributed networks. The protection spans data centers, branch offices, remote users and IoT devices.

The companies didn’t reveal the financial terms of the deal.

John Maddison is Fortinet‘s executive vice president of products and CMO.

Fortinet’s John Maddison

“Today’s acquisition will enable Fortinet to offer the most partner-friendly SASE offering in the market that builds on Fortinet’s ongoing commitment to create opportunities for partners to deliver value-added services,” he said.

Enhanced SASE Offering

The acquisition of Opaq enhances Fortinet’s own SASE offer. And Fortinet will now offer the most complete SASE platform on the market for its customers and partners, Maddison said.

This will help partners offer customers the ability to more rapidly and securely embrace digital innovation, he said.

Opaq’s platform aims to be partner-friendly, Fortinet said. It will allow MSSPs, carriers and high value-add partners to integrate the SASE multitenant platform into their own offering. They’ll also add value to business and government organization customers with Opaq’s expertise and professional services.

Fortinet is high on its cloud security products. It cites true zero-trust security, “unlike other ZTNA providers who leave many unprotected gaps in the attack surface.”

“The recent SASE market momentum further validates our security-driven networking approach and underscores what we’ve been saying for years,” said Ken Xie, Fortinet‘s founder, chairman and CEO. “In the era of hyperconnectivity and expanding networks, with the network edge stretching across the entire digital infrastructure, networking and security must converge.”

Last week, Fortinet launched Fortinet Secure SD-WAN for Multi-Cloud, which helps businesses maintain a secure and “seamless” network infrastructure across multiple private and public clouds. Fortinet frames the offer as a cost-effective and high-performance alternative for businesses that traditionally back-haul traffic through their data center to connect their clouds.

Now, a Fortinet-Opaq tie-up is another big step forward for the company.