Fortinet Tackles Multi-Cloud Security, SD-WAN Challenges

Fortinet Tackles SD-WAN, Security in a Multicloud Environment

Written by James Anderson
July 14, 2020

Customers are immersed in multi-cloud, and Fortinet wants to help.

Fortinet is targeting multicloud customers with its new secure SD-WAN solution.

The vendor on Tuesday 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 is framing 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.

The vendor in 2018 began integrating its SD-WAN solution into its FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall. Now Fortinet will deploy Secure SD-WAN for Multi-Cloud through the FortiGate-VM virtual appliance. The virtual appliance can operate on all major cloud platforms, according to Fortinet. It also works with on-premises FortiGate appliances.

Fortinet SD-WAN for Cloud Use Cases Diagram

The company cited a recent Flexera report that found that 93% of enterprises run a multicloud strategy. The 750 respondents most commonly picked cost savings optimization as their top cloud initiative for 2020.

John Maddison, Fortinet’s executive vice president of products and chief marketing officer, said the new product helps deliver “the industry’s most scalable, cost-effective and secure SD-WAN solution.” And in a location-neutral fashion.

We recently compiled a list of 20 top SD-WAN providers offering products and services via channel partners.

Fortinet’s John Maddison

“For enterprises deploying applications and workloads across multiple clouds, the need to seamlessly manage connectivity and maintain security across the diverse infrastructure is higher than ever,” Maddison said. “Fortinet Secure SD-WAN solutions provide connectivity and security across diverse cloud infrastructures while optimizing application user experience.”

Fortinet Secure SD-WAN for Multi-Cloud Benefits

The benefits include:

Using automation to deploy an overlay network across multiple clouds.
Secure traffic transportation in to and from different clouds.
Cloud-native integrations that support centralized management.

Fortinet also said its SD-WAN solution can perform at 20Gbps of IPsec throughput.

This isn’t the first time, however, that Fortinet has addressed multicloud. The company in February placed its SD-WAN on the Equinix virtual network services marketplace.

Paul Bryce, chief commercial officer for U.K.-based MSP Node4, said the new solution will help maximize his company’s multicloud strategy.

“Node4 uses Fortinet technology to solve our customers’ biggest challenges and requirements, and also in our own network to improve performance for our cloud and SaaS services,” Bryce said. “Fortinet’s dynamic approach to cloud security and connectivity ensures our data is protected no matter where it goes.

North Atlantic Networks CEO E. Burke Anderson said his company leads customer conversations with Fortinet’s SD-WAN products and services.

“Our customers are rapidly embracing multicloud and need solutions that can secure and connect their complex ecosystems,” Anderson said.

Fortinet in a recent livestream laid out recent trends and opportunities it has observed in the last few months.