NEC XON named Fortinet’s Most Certified Partner of the Year

From left: Ian Kruger, Presales and Engineering Manager at NEC XON, Julie Noizeux Inder, Channel Manager at Fortinet, and André Barnard, Strategic Business Development Manager at NEC XON.

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NEC XON has been named Fortinet’s Most Certified Partner of the Year, recognising one of the most highly skilled Fortinet practices in the market. The accolade is based on 83 Fortinet certifications held by 24 engineers, spanning the full Fortinet Security Fabric portfolio. That includes skills from foundational accreditation through to expert, architect-level qualifications in enterprise firewall, SD-WAN, public cloud security, OT security and zero trust access.

The more revealing part of the story is when that capability was built. NEC XON didn’t assemble its Fortinet bench to service a contract already won – it invested first: in certifications, in lab infrastructure where engineers prove solutions before they reach a live network. The company has built an engineering bench deep enough to be ready before customers need to call on it.

“We’re genuinely proud of this one,” says Ian Kruger, Presales and Engineering Manager at NEC XON. “An award like this isn’t a marketing badge – it’s independent proof from Fortinet that our engineers, our methodologies and our delivery meet global best practice. For a customer deciding who to trust with their security, that’s the difference between a promise and a proven track record.”

That discipline of investing ahead of demand is neither new nor confined to a single technology. The same approach has earned NEC recognition as a global networking technology vendor’s Worldwide Partner of the Year for six consecutive years – the product of a partnership built up over nearly two decades – and has made NEC XON one of the most decorated technology partners across Africa.

Underpinning that record is sustained investment in people and infrastructure. NEC XON runs a dedicated engineering lab where its teams architect and stress-test designs, rehearse complex migrations and validate solutions against real-world conditions before a single change reaches a customer’s production environment. It’ s also where engineers build and renew the certifications that sit behind recognitions like this one. The result is capability that is proven in advance – not improvised once a project is already under way.

That long-term mindset extends to the customers NEC XON serves. Across telecommunications operators, service providers and enterprises, many of its relationships span more than a decade – retained not through lock-in, but by consistently delivering and by investing in the skills each customer’s environment will need next.

“We don’t wait to win the business and then build the capability – we build it first, and we prove it over years, not quarters,” says Anthony Laing, General Manager of Networking at NEC XON. “That shows up in customer relationships that, in many cases, run beyond 10 years – organisations don’t stay with you that long unless you keep earning it. When customers choose NEC XON, they get a genuine track record. That record includes a lab and an engineering bench that span design, architecture, implementation, migration, support and managed services, and people on the ground right across the continent. That combination is what gives them peace of mind.”

The Fortinet recognition reinforces NEC XON’s standing as one of Fortinet’s most highly accredited partners in Africa. It follows the company’s 2025 Fortinet Global System Integrator (GSI) Partner of the Year – EMEA award, which recognised its success in integrating Fortinet’s Security Fabric into large-scale enterprise transformation programmes across the continent. NEC XON also holds the highest-tier Fortinet Engage Preferred Services Partner (EPSP) and Engage Technical Support Partner (ETSP) accreditations in Africa:

• EPSP (Engage Preferred Services Partner): Recognises NEC XON’s ability to independently design, deploy and maintain complex, end-to-end Fortinet Security Fabric solutions, with privileged access to Fortinet’s professional services experts.
• ETSP (Engage Technical Support Partner): Awarded to expert-level partners with highly skilled support engineers, giving NEC XON direct, prioritised escalation pathways to Fortinet’s advanced support teams for rapid troubleshooting and custom configurations.
• Full specialisation coverage: In addition to EPSP and ETSP, NEC XON holds all available Fortinet partner specialisations – spanning cloud security, SASE, SD-WAN and OT security – across its operations in markets including South Africa, Kenya, Namibia and Nigeria.

“As cyber threats grow more sophisticated, organisations need partners with deep technical capability and proven experience – not just product to sell,” Kruger adds. “This award reinforces our position as a trusted Fortinet partner, and our long-term commitment to helping customers across Africa build secure, resilient digital environments.”