Fortinet
| File:Fortinet logo.gif | |
| Company type | Privately held company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Network security & Computer security |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Headquarters | Sunnyvale, California + over 25 Fortinet offices worldwide |
Key people | Founder and CEO: Ken Xie, Founder and CTO: Michael Xie, CFO: Brett White, CMO: Richard Stiennon, Vice President of Americas Sales & Global Alliances: Karl Soderlund, Vice President of EMEA: Andre Stewart, Vice President of APAC: Jens Andreassen, Vice President of Americas Channel Sales: Michael Valentine |
| Products | Unified threat management (UTM), Firewalls, Antivirus, Intrusion-prevention system, Antivirus, Antispam, VPN, Web filtering, Censorware -- all with Common Criteria EAL4+ certification, 8 ICSA security certifications, NSS certified (IPS, UTM) |
| Revenue | 100M+ & cash flow positive (2005) |
Number of employees | 800+ (Q1 2007) |
| Website | www.fortinet.com |
Fortinet is a private company that is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, that specializes in network security appliances. Fortinet’s primary product line is a range of enterprise security appliances sold under the brand name of FortiGate.
Corporate Overview
Fortinet was founded in 2000 by Ken Xie, the founder and former president and CEO of NetScreen (later sold to Juniper for more than $3.5 billion) and is led by a seasoned management team with deep experience in the networking and security arenas. Fortinet's position as the leading privately-held network security company and the revenue leader in Unified Threat Management (UTM) has been validated by IDC several times over.
The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with customer support, development and sales facilities throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Fortinet sells its systems and subscription service products through a network of channel partners worldwide.
Fortinet in the Channel
Fortinet, which sells via a 100-percent indirect model, has more than 1,600 partners worldwide. The company has expanded its channel team by 100 percent over the past year, and now has over 800 channel partners in North America. Fortinet was recognized two years in a row by CMP Media's VARBusiness magazine as one of North America's top information technology vendors in terms of the partnership programs it offers to solution providers that sell its products and services to end users. Fortinet's certification as a Five-Star Partner is an acknowledgement of the company's commitment to and strength of its FortiPartner Program for IT integrators, solution providers, resellers and consultants.
Fortinet was specifically recognized for its success in the Americas, and Karl Soderlund, vice president of sales, Americas, was also ranked No. 6 on the magazine's list of "25 Channel Executives You Need to Know."
Of the 250+ vendor-program entries reviewed for the past year, only 60 companies received the Five-Star rating in the magazine's 13th annual Partner Programs Guide survey.
Global Alliances
Fortinet has unveiled a partnership with Hewlett-Packard's ProCurve Networking division that highlights the growing integration of networking and security technologies. Fortinet is the first vendor to join the ProCurve Alliance, HP's effort to push open-architecture solutions from other vendors that have been tested and certified for interoperability. Fortinet will weave its FortiGate unified threat management product into ProCurve's line of layer 3 switching products.
Funding
Fortinet has raised $100 million in five rounds of venture capital investment from Acorn Campus, DEFTA Partners, DCM-Doll Capital Management, Fortunetech Partners, LLC., Forval Creative Inc., Meritech Capital Partners and Redpoint Ventures.
Product Overview
The FortiGate family of multi-threat security appliances are ASIC-accelerated, security hardened and has integrated network-based Firewalls, Antivirus, Intrusion-prevention system, [[VPN (IPSec and SSL), Web filtering, Antispam and other security features. The FortiGate series of ASIC-accelerated multi-threat security appliances won the SC Magazine 2007 award (see external links) for reader’s trust in the Integrated Security and Intrusion Prevention categories. Fortinet’s antivirus technology has been awarded the Virus Bulletin VB100 award, for three years running (2005 – 20070. In 2004 the FortiGate product won the Security Product of the Year Award from Network Computing magazine and the 2003 Networking Industry Awards Firewall Product of the Year, and has been reviewed by PC Magazine [1].
Patents
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has awarded Fortinet eight patents for networking inventions. The patents are part of the intellectual property Fortinet acquired from CoSine Communications, Inc., in May 2006. The patents strengthen Fortinet's intellectual property portfolio, and provide the company with ownership of key innovations that address critical management, storage, measurement and network performance needs of the enterprise and managed service provider markets. Fortinet now holds eight patents and has more than 70 pending patent applications.
Gateway Security
The FortiGate series of multi-threat security systems provide the ability to detect and eliminate the most damaging, content-based threats from email and Web traffic such as viruses, worms, intrusions, spam, inappropriate Web content and more in real time - without degrading network performance. The product line is based on a new custom ASIC design which reduces performance bottlenecks and increases processing power. The FortiGate series product line currently includes models FortiGate-50B, FortiGate-60, FortiGate-100A, FortiGate-200A, FortiGate 300-A, FortiGate-400A, FortiGate-500A, FortiGate-800, FortiGate-1000A, FortiGate- 3000, FortiGate-3600A and FortiGate-5000 series. Two additional products called the FortiWifi series provides additional wireless networking security features in a similar form-factor to the low-end FortiGate series including the models FortiWifi-50B and FortiWifi-60A.
Gateway Products
• FortiGate-50B • FortiWifi-50B • FortiGate-60 • FortiWifi-60AM • FortiGate-100A • FortiGate-200A • FortiGate-300A • FortiGate-400A • FortiGate-800 • FortiGate-1000A
Core and Data Center Security
The FortiGate-5000 series is a family of ATCA (Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture) compatible chassis and security modules which are used to provide data center class performance, availability and network security. Two, five, or fourteen slot chassis are available to hold various Fortinet multi-threat security modules including the FortiGate-5001 and FortiGate-5005 blades. Each FortiGate-5000 series module can be configured for either full UTM (Unified Threat Management) security capabilities or separate individual security functions such as Firewall, VPN, antivirus, antispyware, antispam, IPS (Intrusion Protection System) or web filtering. Current chassis models available include the FortiGate-5020, FortiGate-5050, and FortiGate-5140.
Fortinet also offers an expanded FortiGate-3000 Series of appliances and a series of expansion modules that meet the throughput requirements of enterprise and MSSP applications. The FortiGate-3810A and FortiGate-3016B platforms build upon the performance enhancements of the FortiGate-3600A. Performance is achieved through a combination of Fortinet’s existing FortiASIC-CP6 Content Processor and its new FortiASIC-NP2 Network Processor, which enables firewall throughput of up to 26 Gbps from a single device. Additionally, hardware-accelerated gigabit Ethernet interfaces are available for all FortiGate-3000 Series platforms to enable wire speed firewall and near wire speed VPN performance to ensure time-sensitive applications like VoIP or IPTV do not suffer from network latency or jitter.
Core and Data Center Products
• FortiGate-3000 • FortiGate-3600A • FortiGate-3016B • FortiGate-3810A • FortiGate-5000 Series
See Intel case study
Email Security
The FortiMail family of email security appliances are specialized appliances which protect an organization’s email infrastructure from damaging and resource consuming malware and spam content.
Email Products
• FortiMail-100 • FortiMail-400 • FortiMail-2000 • FortiMail-4000A
Host-Based Security
The FortiClient family is a host-based security solution, which runs on desktop and mobile platforms. Host-based security software protects users at the desktop level from network and file-based threats. FortiClient PC combines personal firewall, IPSec VPN client, antivirus, web filtering, antispam and intrusion detection security modules into a single application for Windows desktops. FortiClient Mobile combines personal firewall, antivirus and SMS Filtering/Antispam for Windows Mobile/CE and Symbian OS devices.
Host-Based Products
• FortiClient PC • FortiClient Mobile
Security Management
The FortiManager system is the cornerstone of the Fortinet central management solution. FortiManager is an integrated management and monitoring platform that enables organizations of any size to easily manage Fortinet products. It minimizes the administrative effort required to deploy, configure, monitor, and maintain the full range of network protection services provided by Fortinet products. FortiManager appliances are available in different sizes depending on how large of a network of devices it will manage. Currently available models include FortiManager-100, FortiManager-400A and FortiManager-3000.
Management Products
• FortiManager-100 • FortiManager-400A • FortiManager-3000
Security Reporting and Analysis
The FortiAnalyzer family of real-time network logging, analyzing, and reporting systems are a series of dedicated hardware solutions that securely aggregate and analyze log data from FortiGate security appliances. It provides network administrators with a comprehensive view of network usage and security information, supporting the needs of enterprises and service providers responsible for discovering and addressing vulnerabilities across dispersed FortiGate systems. Fortinet offers different models depending on the type and amount of FortiGate devices in use. Current FortiAnalyzer series models include the FortiAnalyzer-100B, FortiAnalyzer-800, FortiAnalyzer-2000, and FortiAnalyzer-4000A.
Reporting and Analysis Products
• FortiAnalyzer-100B • FortiAnalyzer-800 • FortiAnalyzer-2000 • FortiAnalyzer-4000A
Security Research and Services
Fortinet also delivers four primary security subscription services under the "FortiGuard" brand. These include Antivirus, intrusion-prevention system, Antispam, VPN and content-control software.
Research and Services
• Fortinet Global Threat Research Team • FortiGuard Antivirus Service • FortiGuard Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) Service • FortiGuard Web Filtering Service • FortiGuard Antispam Service
Other
Fortinet contributes to the security community through its Global Security Research Team. An example of this is Fortinet’s membership in the Microsoft Virus Information Alliance (VIA) [2]. Fortinet in recent years has led to the discovery of several critical vulnerabilities in commonly used software [3].
According to the OpenNet Initiative [4], FortiGuard is used by the dictatorship of Myanmar to block communications critical of the regime carried over the internet, a system known as the Myanmar Wide Web [5]. Fortinet has promised to investigate the allegations, and the implied violation of US Government sanctions against the regime, noting that the software may have been sold to the regime by a third party [6]; meanwhile, the Myanmar government features its adoption of the Fortinet firewall on its official website [7] with other photos showing a Fortinet sales director presenting a gift to the Myanmar Prime Minister during a ceremony [8].
In 2005, the gpl-violations.org project uncovered evidence that Fortinet had used GPL code in its products against the terms of the license, and used cryptographic tools to conceal the violation. The violation was alleged to have occurred in the FortiOS system, which the gpl-violations.org project said contained elements of the linux kernel. In response, a Munich court granted a temporary injunction against the company, preventing it from selling products until they were in compliance with the necessary license terms [9]; Fortinet was forced to make their FortiOS available free in compliance with GPL licensing [10].Also in 2005 Fortinet was found guilty of Patent infringement against Trend Micro regarding AntiVirus code [11]. Fortinet later settled out of court [12].
External links
- Fortinet Ranked No. 1 in Worldwide UTM Revenue for 2006 by IDC
- Fortinet Certified as Five-Star Vendor from CMP's VARBusiness for Second Consecutive Year
- Fortinet Adds Five Patents to Its Growing Intellectual Property Portfolio
- Fortinet Wins Two SC Magazine Reader Trust Awards
- Fortinet Named One of the Ten Most Influential Security Companies by Computer Business Review
- Fortinet Co-Founders Ken Xie & Michael Xie Named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2006 Award Winners Ernst & Young
- Fortinet across the board ICSA certification
- Fortinet is Fastest Growing Security Appliance Vendor Worldwide According to the market research company IDC
- Fortinet's FortiGate Security Appliances Achieve NSS Certification for Unified Threat Management (UTM) Capabilities
- Wikipedia Japanese FortiGate