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Fortinet unveils industry’s first SD-WAN ASIC to accelerate and secure WAN edge


Johannesburg, 10 Jun 2019

Fortinet, a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cyber security solutions, has released new secure SD-WAN offerings, including the industry’s first SD-WAN ASIC (1), to further enable organisations to implement security-driven networking. Fortinet is distributed throughout Africa by value-added distributor, Networks Unlimited Africa.

Stefan van de Giessen, General Manager: Network Security at value-added distributor Networks Unlimited Africa, clarifies: “The software-defined wide-area network, SD-WAN, is a new approach to network connectivity that is designed to lower operational costs and improve resource usage. It is a specific application of software-defined networking technology applied to WAN connections such as broadband Internet, 4G, LTE, or MPLS, connecting enterprise networks, including branch offices and data centres, over large geographic distances.

“SD-WAN allows network administrators to use bandwidth more efficiently and improves application performance without undermining security or data privacy. However, as organisations adopt SD-WAN for faster and more cost-effective connectivity, security remains their top challenge.”

The new innovations from Fortinet continue to empower customers to deploy security-driven networking with the following offerings:

  • The industry’s first SoC4 SD-WAN ASIC;
  • FortiGate 100F Appliance, delivering 10 times faster performance;
  • New SD-WAN features with FortiOS 6.2; and
  • Fortinet 360 Protection Services.

John Maddison, Executive Vice-President of Product and Solutions, Fortinet, notes: “The WAN edge is now a part of digital attack surfaces, but the edge of your network must never be a bottleneck. For branch offices, the ability to provide best-of-breed WAN Edge, including SD-WAN, WAN optimisation, security and orchestration, with optimal performance and security is critical to enable the digital experience. Fortinet’s SoC4 SD-WAN ASIC allows organisations to realise security-driven networking whether they have 100 or 10 000 branch offices.”

Van de Giessen adds: “These new innovations from Fortinet support customer challenges by addressing the following scenarios: digital transformation at the enterprise WAN edge; the reduction of WAN opex without compromising on application performance; and simplifying WAN edge operations and consolidating with SD-Branch.”

He clarifies the above points further, as follows:

  • Digital transformation at the enterprise WAN edge allows users to avoid delays in accessing their applications, accelerating overlay performance, and providing low-latency and the best possible user experience for business-critical applications.
  • Reduction of WAN opex without compromising on application performance: Fortinet’s new SD-WAN features allow customers to receive the best possible user experience and application performance at all times.
  • Simplifying WAN edge operations and consolidating with SD-Branch: The Fortinet 360 Protection Services include overlay controller orchestration to simplify VPN deployment at-scale through a single-pane-of-glass for improved management. Additionally, Fortinet’s FortiManager is now available in all environments, including on-premises and multi-cloud, to provide centralised management for the WAN Edge.

“Fortinet offers network security products that deliver outstanding functionality, ease of implementation and excellent cost-benefits, and these new offerings continue to meet  Fortinet’s continued commitment to security-driven networking innovation,” concludes Van de Giessen.

(1) ASIC: application-specific integrated circuit, a microchip designed for a special application

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Networks Unlimited Africa

Networks Unlimited Africa is a value-added distributor, offering the best and latest solutions within the converged technology, data centre, networking, and security landscapes. The company distributes best-of-breed products, including Attivo Networks, Cofense, Carbon Black, Fortinet, F5, Hypergrid, Mellanox Technologies, NETSCOUT, NETSCOUT ARBOR, ProLabs, RSA, Rubrik, SevOne, Silver Peak, Thales and Uplogix. The product portfolio provides solutions from the edge to the data centre, and addresses key areas such as cloud networking and integration, WAN optimisation, application performance management, application delivery networking, Wi-Fi-, mobile- and networking security, load balancing, data centre in-a-box, and storage for virtual machines.

Since its formation in 1994, Networks Unlimited Africa has continually adapted to today's progressively competitive and evolving marketplace, and has reaped the benefits by being a leading value-added distributor (VAD) within the Sub-Saharan Africa market.