Fortinet delivers industry’s first secure SD-Branch solution

Fortinet delivers industry’s first secure SD-Branch solution to extend security to the WAN and Access Edge (Illustration image)

Fortinet’s secure SD-Branch solution extends the Fortinet Security Fabric and the benefits of SD-WAN to network access, converging WAN and security into an integrated platform. This convergence increases security and visibility while reducing complexity, improving performance and agility, and lowering overall IT costs at the edges of the network.

“To compete in today’s digital economy, businesses need to provide high-quality cloud connectivity and secure device and user access. Usually, companies stitch together network and security solutions, which results in an architecture that is very slow to change and creates operational holes. Fortinet’s Secure SD-Branch is the only unified WAN edge, secure WiFi, and switching and network access control solution available today, securing the WAN and access edge in an integrated and automated fashion from a single console,” said Nguyen Gia Duc, country manager at Fortinet Vietnam.

New WAN and Access Edge Paradigm Challenges

Customers are in the midst of a digital transformation, operating hybrid cloud architectures with both remote and local computer, as well as SaaS applications, creating multiple network edges beyond the WAN and access edge. This explosion of edges, which all must be secured, is causing many organisations to struggle to implement adequate security throughout their distributed enterprises. The complexity of managing these edges – including often complicated and overlapping point products and appliances – adds an additional challenge.

The increased number and variety of IoT devices connected to the branch network also introduces opportunities for hackers to target and access sensitive data. Additionally, customers who are adopting SD-WAN are finding that they need tighter integration of their LAN platforms to extend Secure SD-WAN features into the network for improved security and manageability.

As digital transformation continues to radically change how organisations do business, it is essential that all parts of the network are secured and aligned to not jeopardise new digital business opportunities. For the branch to realise its full potential, it needs secure, real-time access to data and resources – wherever they are located.

Securing the WAN and Access Edge with Fortinet’s secure SD-Branch solution

To combat the challenges of today’s distributed enterprise, Fortinet is delivering the industry’s first complete Secure SD-Branch solution, enabling customers to converge security and network access and extend the Fortinet Security Fabric to the branch level. Fortinet’s Secure SD-Branch solution is comprised of the FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall, FortiNAC Network Access Control, FortiSwitch, and FortiAP Access Points. The solution secures two key areas:

The first one is network edge protection. FortiGate’s next-generation firewall security is extended through the access layer with FortiSwitch and FortiAP. This offers consolidation through the convergence of security and network access and is a unique architecture ideal for Secure SD-Branch deployments. New WiFi 6 FortiAP Access Points offer greater capacity and throughput to keep up with expanding bandwidth needs and new multi-gigabit FortiSwitch switches offer higher power (PoE) to run even the most power hungry IoT devices.

The second one is device edge protection. FortiNAC network access controller provides automatic discovery, classification and security of IoT devices as they enter the network. The new FortiNAC release 8.6 increases anomaly detection via traffic scanning by leveraging FortiGate as a sensor, with no additional hardware required at the branch.

This unique technology combination results in the industry’s first Secure SD-Branch solution, providing better integration of LAN and WAN platforms and delivering the following customer benefits:

Integrated Security: FortiGate extends next-generation firewall services to the network access layer through the integration of wireless and switch management. Enabling network access control (NAC) with FortiGate as a sensor enhances discovery and visibility, and provides security anomaly detection for devices in the enterprise branch.

Simplified management: Zero-touch deployment and integrated management via a single-pane-of-glass simplifies enterprise branch deployments. The flexible architecture scales to support a variety of branch sizes and growth.

Lower total cost of ownership: No licensing fees and no network traffic sensors to purchase, as well as simplified management operations that require fewer interfaces to learn and manage daily and less time to deploy, saves organisations time and money.

Fortinet views the network through a security lens, providing customers with security-driven networking via the Fortinet Security Fabric. With today’s announcement, Fortinet empowers customers to easily manage their distributed branches while keeping consistent security, helping to expand their reach beyond SD-WAN to the access layer.