Cyber Security
Continuous improvement Network security, optimised networking and business continuity: Fortinet’s continuous improvement
N By Gary Gardiner Director of Technical Support, APAC at Fortinet
etwork security is moving beyond firewalls, advanced threat protection and data leak prevention into network optimisation and business continuity. Security is increasingly being seen as a business process enabler as opposed to simply an adjunct to your company’s IT infrastructure. And as more and more enterprises migrate mission critical applications into the cloud, business continuity and return on investment are becoming key considerations for executives as they evolve their infrastructure from cost centres into agile and elastic organisational assets. One company driving this transformation is Fortinet. Since establishment in 2000, Fortinet has been at the forefront of security innovation and delivery. It’s FortiGate firewalls have set the benchmark for comprehensive protection and speed since their introduction as UTM (Unified Threat Management) appliances in 2004; it’s FortiGuard Labs employ more than 250 expert researchers and analysts around the world and collects data from more than two million sensors to protect more than 270,000 customers every day. And its acquisition of security information and event management (SIEM) solution provider AccelOps earlier this year has expanded Fortinet’s functionality well beyond traditional security. Three key innovations Three innovations in particular set Fortinet apart: The FortiOS operating system, the FortiASIC architecture ‘system on a chip’ and internal segmentation. FortiOS operates in concert with your entire network environment to protect every component from the server to the client and into the cloud. The FortiASIC chip ensures low-latency operations up to five times faster than comparable solutions. Internal segmentation compartmentalises data and applications, either on-site or in the cloud, so that you can insulate individual groups of users, set multiple policies and contain and minimise the ramifications of any security breach. When combined with the operational and analysis capabilities provided by SIEM, enterprises now have unprecedented visibility into network traffic patterns and, by extension, all business processes. This granular level transparency enables organisations to optimise network operations, gain maximum value (indeed, it allows them to quantify IT spend versus performance, the ultimate benchmark for measuring ROI) and ensure that mission critical application services maintain maximum uptime for business continuity.
8 | Chief IT Magazine
Internal segmentation: Protection into the cloud Ensuring business continuity as enterprises move mission critical application services into the cloud can be problematic for risk management. Fortinet’s unique segmentation architecture isolates applications and data regardless of where (in-house or in the cloud) or how (physical, virtual or software-defined) they are stored and accessed. Indeed, Fortinet has been increasing its marketshare in the MSSP (managed security services provision) arena because internal segmentation is ideally suited for multi-tenant deployments. In addition, Fortinet’s granular-level visibility ensures that MSSPs can provide comprehensive traffic and activity reports for individual customers and groups of users. Continuous improvement Fortinet has evolved into a network optimisation and business continuity solution provider based on market-leading security technology, granular visibility and upstream and downstream SIEM analysis. Any security events can be immediately identified, contained (via segmentation) and mitigated resulting in minimal downtime, regardless of where on the network or in the datacentre or in the cloud they might occur. With real time traffic monitoring, including internal ‘east-west’ traffic inside the datacentre, you can see exactly which application resources use which data sets. And from there you can quantify how much resource each application service requires and correlate the costs to the benefits received. Cost accounting, risk reduction and maximising uptime are now functions of your network security infrastructure and no longer separate disciplines. This merging of governance imperatives is changing the way Boards look at their security profile. This transformation is being driven by a parallel convergence in network operations. And Fortinet is out in front on both counts. About the author Gary Gardiner, Fortinet’s senior security executive in APAC, is a seasoned network security professional with hands-on and management experience in every aspect of security across many different vendors, solutions and verticals. As a technologist, he understands the challenges and solutions. As a ‘C-level’ executive, he also is acutely aware of the drivers and challenges facing Australian organisations.