Fortinet Accelerate 2024

The general session on Tuesday, April 2, topics included the move to the Platform Era, FortiOS 7.6 release, moving toward the Secure Network versus just Network solutions, Fortify Your Network, and Fortinet's AI product enhancements and solutions. Fortinet has a fantastic go-forward plan for its products and vision that is lining up well with where the market seems to be going. 

The Platform Era

Fortinet has been driving the need to move to a platform versus multiple solutions for network security. Advances in the FortiOS have moved Fortinet closer to achieving the Platform Era. No other security vendor can support 14 applications using one specific ASIC. This is accomplished with Fortinet SP5. 

SP5 is the security processing unit currently available for Fortinet hardware products. SP5 processes information for the following products:

• SD-Branch
• Zero Trust
• OT
• 5G
• Edge Computing
• VXLAN
• Secure Boot
• SD-WAN
• SSL
• NGFW
• IPS
• IPSEC
• Anti-Malware
• Firewall

With each release of the FortiOS, new applications are being added. This allows Fortinet to continue to enhance its platform. 

A platform may not be the solution for every customer and there are several models that are in play. 

Platform debate

Discussions around multiple-point products versus a single vendor platform or vendor consolidation are still raging. The ever-changing threat landscape has led to the need for dynamic operations like hybrid employees, remote connectivity and cloud. 

Functional Platforms are starting to become the go-forward plan for a lot of companies. Certain point products are becoming stable or commoditized and can become part of a platform. However, to truly utilize the potential of becoming one product for many functions, you need a common operating system. A growing trend is for vendors to purchase different functionality or products and slap a platform sticker on them. The underlying applications and systems that make that "platform" do not have a unified OS require more complexity to leverage, deploy and support. 

Examples of a functional platform:

• Integrating firewall, sandboxing and IPS into a next-generation firewall (NGFW)
• Integrating antivirus, detection and response into an endpoint protection platform (EPP)
• Integrating proxy, antivirus, cloud access security broker (CASB), and data loss prevention (DLP) into security service edge (SSE)
• Integrating Wi-Fi, switching, firewall and network access control (NAC) into secure connectivity
• Integrating antispam, antivirus and anti-phishing into a secure email gateway (SEG)

The potential for a platform to become more sophisticated is also becoming more of a concern. As the platform grows and contains more functions and solutions, more computing power is required. 

Moving from the network to the secure network

The industry is moving from a separation between networks and security, where the security of the network was not the focus of the CTO a few years ago. It is now starting to swing to the security side of the fence. Securing the network has become a driving force when it comes to budgeting and looking at the future state of the IT infrastructure. Fortinet's Platform can help accomplish this need and help lower the budget for companies. By moving to a platform that can run multiple products that accomplish multiple security needs, you can begin to decommission several of the products that Fortinet has replaced. You can also see the value of a platform in the support and maintenance portion of the budget. FortiOS can limit the need for multiple vendor support and allow for easier upgrade and troubleshooting needs under one platform.

Fortify your network

Convergence from a just network to a secure network was another topic at Fortinet Accelerate. Secure networking to manage content, application, user, device, data and location is the strategy of Fortify Your Network. 

FortiOS and FortiASIC can help accomplish the needs using specific applications supported by SP5 ASIC. Firewall, OT / IT, Edge Security, Segmentation / ZTNA, Unified SASE and AI-driven SecOPs can be utilized to improve performance and lower costs.

FortiOS 7.6

FOS 7.6 was referred to as the "world's most powerful, real-time, network security operating system capable of simplifying management across content, applications, users, devices, data and locations" by Kevin Xie during the keynote address. 

Fortinet's approach to how the design of the OS has not changed dramatically in 7.6. The core areas are the foundation of the Security Fabric and continue in this version. 

• One Operating System (FortiOS)
• One Unified Agent (FortiClient)
• One Management Tool (FortiManager)
• One Data Lake (FortiAnaylzer)

Key enhancements in the Secure Networking space include:

• Data Loss Prevention (DLP) for improved detection within a hybrid network
• Support for WI-FI 7
• Increased FortiGate inline protection

Key enhancements in the Unified SASE space include:

• FortiClient convergence of multiple security capabilities
• SD-WAN updates include 20 new SD-WAN capabilities.

Throughout the 7.6 updates, AI is promoted in many cases. 

Fortinet AI investments

Fortinet is investing a lot of capital into growing its AI presence in multiple product offerings. These investments are starting to show benefits in the number of products utilizing Fortinet AI as well as Fortinet's FortiGuard continued improvement of learning and being able to catch zero-day attacks. 

FortiGuard is using Big Data AI to analyze trillions of events across the globe to update your Fortinet products with the latest threats and the ability to discover zero-day attacks.

Contextual Generative AI is being utilized to improve product optimization. FortiAnalyzer is showing the benefits of using your specific traffic habits and applications to improve your ability to recognize and react to threats in your environment.

FortiAIOps is improving your SD-Branch environments to be ready for internal threats as well as external. 

FortiCASB is protecting your network from data leakage into LLM and other threats. 

AI at Fortinet is the driving force behind many of their products which will just continue to improve your overall secure network. 

A demo of the Fortinet Advisor was conducted to some favorable reviews and comments from the audience. FortiAI was on display for FortiSOAR and FortiSIEM integration utilizing Advisor. The ability to be able to recognize an oddity in the network and then interact with AI to be able to get more details and be given suggestions on the next steps was shown. Also, the integration with FortiAnalyzer and the deep reporting capabilities was also on display. We will be seeing more details about Advisor and its integration with more Fortinet products soon.

WWT and Fortinet

WWT was honored to accept the 2023 Growing Partner award which recognized WWT's stance as the largest US partner for Fortinet. Our partnership with Fortinet continues to grow.