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 Ken Xie, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer, Fortinet interacts with Network Computing’s Ashwani Mishra to clear the prevailing confusion amongst users to select appropriate Unified Threat Management (UTM) solutions; trends in network security and Fortinet’s new line of products and India strategy.
Today, nearly every firewall vendor claims to deliver Unified Threat Management (UTM). There is no widely accepted industry definition and it’s often challenging for users to make an apples-to-apples comparison when trying to select the right UTM appliance. Your views.
Many vendors have attempted to provide UTM capabilities through various implementations on the theme of UTM. Some vendors have re-packaged existing firewall and VPN offerings with antivirus and intrusion detection and/or prevention technologies from other vendors.
Others have simply relabeled their existing network security products, which offer limited threat management capabilities across all three technology areas. More importantly, the act of simply cobbling together a UTM product that can provide essential security services while maintaining performance ratings that meet the needs of business networks is insufficient and simply does not work.
An effective UTM solution must deliver a network security platform comprised of robust and fully integrated security and networking functions. Protection must be provided against next generation application layer threats and offer centralized management from a single console, all without impairing the performance of the network.
As a pioneer and technology trend setter in this space, Fortinet has in many ways defined what UTM is all about and continues to drive innovations in this space to this day.
Fortinet has also announced its strategy around providing virtualization to the security space after the approval of some approved patents. What kind of benefits can enterprises derive from such offerings? And by when can we expect these patents to be integrated in the FortiGate product line?
United States Patent and Trademark Office recently awarded Fortinet five additional patents for networking inventions, specifically supporting virtualization. These five newly awarded patents strengthen our intellectual property portfolio and provide us with ownership of key innovations that address critical networking, virtualization and routing needs of large enterprises, managed security service providers and carriers.
Our new virtualized network security solution allows large enterprises, managed security service providers (MSSPs) and carriers to segment and manage multiple virtualized networks and integrated security functions from one system and interface, thereby reducing cost and operational efficiencies.
This unique approach to virtualization provides them with a high-performance platform for manageability of multiple domains and networks from a single device with domain-specific administrative profiles; scalability for providing the performance to support thousands of virtual networks without impacting overall network throughput, specific users or applications; and the modularity that can only be achieved with a complete security suite that integrates firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention, VPN (SSL and IPSec), anti-spam, antispyware and traffic shaping.
These patents are already integrated in to FortiGate product line. Fortinet's virtualized network security solution is available within every FortiGate appliance, from smaller appliances designed for distributed and enterprise remote branch office deployments, to high-end and chassis-based systems designed for large enterprises, managed service providers and carriers.
UTM solutions have worked well in the SMB segment as they can plug the appliance straight out of the shelf and use it. However, there is still a massive gap in terms of its adoption in the enterprise space. How does Fortinet plan to address this gap?
Initially UTM growth was primarily driven towards SMBs. However recent IDC studies indicate that from 2006 onwards there is a clear and rising demand from large enterprises and carriers for UTM solutions. The robustness and comprehensive solution architecture offered by our enterprise and carrier class solutions has been a key driver in this development.
Other vendors who claim similar solutions are limited to virtualizing no more than three security functions, while we can virtualize up to eight, plus routing and switching.
What according to you would be the topmost network security trend in the next year and why?
Virtualization of enterprise security framework is one key trend that is likely to dominate CxO mindshare in the next year.
As networks proliferate and large enterprises, carriers and MSSPs build out more and more complicated infrastructures to support business-critical applications, the need for securing and segmenting those networks and applications increases.
Virtualization provides a method for allowing this type of segmentation, while also consolidating multiple networking devices, reducing network hardware and switch ports, and decreasing operational data center costs. Fortinet's new virtualized network security solution allows large enterprises, managed service providers and carriers to segment and manage multiple virtualized networks and integrated security functions from one system and interface, thereby driving cost and operational efficiencies.
In terms of planning and strategy, how do you eye the UTM market space in India in comparison with other global markets?
Fortinet’s India operations represent a significant share of its EMEA operations and continue to gain significant eyeballs and executive attention within the company for its strong and rapidly rising performance quarter on quarter.
Our products are distributed in India by Ingram Micro and we will continue to leverage on the strong association with them to further drive our channel offerings that is built around select, highly quality security solution integrators.
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