Fortinet Extends Cloud Security With Four New Virtual Appliances

PRESS RELEASE

SUNNYVALE, Calif., October 11, 2010 - Fortinet' (NASDAQ: FTNT) - a leading network security provider and the worldwide leader of unified threat management (UTM) solutions – today announced four new virtual appliances that extend the company’s ability to deliver security across virtualized and cloud environments. Fortinet has been securing virtual architectures since the introduction of Virtual Domain (VDOM) technology in 2004. Fortinet strengthened its virtualization capabilities in 2006 after it acquired the intellectual property and technology of CoSine Communications, one of the early leaders in the virtual appliance industry. The technology enables service providers to differentiate their on-demand platforms with a full range of value-add virtualized network security services. Large enterprises rely as well on Fortinet technology to protect the data within their private and hybrid clouds.

The FortiGate', FortiManager™, FortiAnalyzer™ and FortiMail™ virtual appliances combine with physical appliances to provide customers with a choice of physical and virtual form factors, working together to mitigate security blind spots and increase security controls within virtualized infrastructure environments. The combined solution provides a deeper integration into the virtual environments many customers have adopted, enabling the company to expand the reach of its consolidated security further within the virtual movement.

The risks associated with blind spots in the virtual environment, along with the lack of security controls, become increasingly problematic as the size of virtual environments grow. By giving customers a choice of physical and virtual appliances, Fortinet is providing a 'single pane of glass' management platform that allows them the flexibility to use a combination of physical and virtual appliances together in order to achieve the right mix of performance, visibility, and control.

Fortinet Virtual Appliances

Fortinet’s virtual security appliances were built to run on top of VMware hypervisors. The new FortiGate virtual appliances help secure network infrastructures with integrated, multi-threat security. Like a traditional FortiGate appliance, a FortiGate virtual appliance protects infrastructure from a broad array of threats by enabling customers to consolidate their stand-alone security technologies, reducing the cost and complexity of their security infrastructure. Customers can combine firewall, VPN, intrusion prevention, malware prevention, application security and complete content protection, data loss prevention, Web filtering, antispam, and have the added advantage of being able to inspect inter-zone traffic. In addition, FortiGate virtual appliances can be used in conjunction with traditional FortiGate appliances to help ensure both the perimeter and the virtual layers within a virtual environment are protected, visible and easy to manage.

FortiManager virtual appliances supply the tools needed to effectively manage any size Fortinet security infrastructure, from a few devices to thousands of appliances and endpoint security agents. The appliances provide centralized policy-based provisioning, configuration and update management for FortiGate, FortiWiFi and FortiMail appliances, as well as FortiClient endpoint agents.

FortiAnalyzer virtual appliances securely aggregate log data from Fortinet devices and other syslog-compatible devices. Using a comprehensive suite of easily-customized reports, users can filter and review records, including traffic, event, virus, attack, Web content and email data, mining the data to determine security stance and help assure regulatory compliance. FortiAnalyzer also provides advanced security management functions such as quarantined file archiving, event correlation, vulnerability assessments, traffic analysis and archiving of email, Web access, instant messaging and file transfer content.

FortiMail virtual messaging security appliances were designed to block inbound spam and malware before it can clog a network and affect users. They also help prevent outbound spam or malware (including 3G mobile traffic) from causing other antispam gateways to blacklist users.

The virtual appliances work similarly to their hardware counterparts, in that Fortinet continues to provide virtual Domain (VDOM) and Administrative Domain (ADOM) technologies for securing and managing virtual and multi-tenant environments. The virtualization technologies work in conjunction with industry-standard Virtual LANs (VLANs) to enable a single virtual or physical Fortinet device to support hundreds of domains within the environment, providing essential visibility and security controls between zones while maintaining the benefits of virtualization.

“While there are a few security companies dabbling with products that protect the network perimeter and the virtual layer, Fortinet is the only company to offer the full breadth of content and network security in an integrated appliance designed to protect both the network perimeter and virtual layers,” said Michael Xie, founder, CTO and vice president of engineering with Fortinet. “By providing deeper integration into the virtual environment, we are now positioned to expand our security market leadership and facilitate security within the ‘as-a-service’ movement.”

Availability

The FortiGate and FortiManager virtual appliances are available now. FortiAnalyzer and FortiMail virtual appliances will be available in Q4 2010.

Rick Popko

PR Manager, Corporate Communications

Fortinet - Real Time Network Protection