Fortinet named leader for network firewalls and WAN Edge Infrastructure

Fortinet has been named a Leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls, marking the twelfth time the company has been recognised in this Magic Quadrant.

"Fortinet's Security-driven Networking innovations continue to set us apart from the competition," says John Maddison, EVP of products and CMO, Fortinet.

"FortiGate Next-generation Firewalls are designed to deliver advanced security and threat protection, while also enabling the network to scale and change without compromising security operations," he says.

"We believe that our recognition again as a Leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls is a testament to our ability to deliver industry-first innovations, such as built-in Secure SD-WAN and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) capabilities, that enable customers to adapt to changing business requirements such as supporting remote and hybrid work.

Powered by Fortinet's custom-built SPUs, FortiGate Next-generation Firewalls deliver enterprise security to protect any edge at scale for customers around the globe. As part of Fortinet's security-driven networking approach, which deeply integrates an organisation's network infrastructure and security architecture, the FortiGate NGFW is the only cybersecurity solution on the market that provides natively integrated Secure SD-WAN and ZTNA capabilities without requiring additional licensing to improve security, reduce costs and complexity, and simplify network operations.

Fortinet says it believes that its placement as a Leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls is a result of FortiGate's ability to deliver:

Broad protection 
The digital attack surface has continued to expand and organisations are facing growing cyberthreats.

The latest FortiGuard Labs Global Threat Landscape Report reported a tenfold year-over-year increase in ransomware attacks. With artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML)-enhanced FortiGuard Security Services, the FortiGate NGFW enables large enterprises to manage internal and external threats, prevent ransomware attacks, and avoid business disruptions to protect hybrid and hyperscale architectures with coordinated, automatically shared threat intelligence of AI/ML-powered FortiGuard services.

Consolidation
IT teams struggle to keep pace with the volume and sophistication of cyberthreats as the threat landscape expands and organisations continue to introduce new digital innovations. To reduce product sprawl and simplify operations, FortiGate consolidates essential services like intrusion prevention system (IPS), anti-malware, and web and video filtering capabilities with networking functionality such as SD-WAN to achieve the industry's best total cost of ownership.

Automation
Network and security leaders continue to face challenges as a result of the growing cybersecurity skills gap. The FortiGate NGFW, managed through the Fabric Management Centre, helps address these challenges by providing a centralised single pane of glass management capabilities and integration with 400+ ecosystem partners to simplify operations, coordinate workflows, and deliver consistent policy enforcement across the hybrid network managed via on-premise or from the cloud.

Work from anywhere
As businesses rapidly transition to the work from anywhere model, security must be top-of-mind. FortiGate natively enables both Zero Trust Network Access Proxy and SD-WAN without additional licences, allowing users to access applications and resources from anywhere, at any time with constant authentication, while building effective compliance and security controls.

In addition to being a Leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls, Fortinet was also named a 2021 Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for Network Firewalls for the second year in a row. Fortinet believes that this customer validation further emphasises Fortinet's ability to deliver advanced security to customers across any edge, at scale.

Fortinet was also recognised as a Leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure, placing highest in the Leaders quadrant for its ability to execute for Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, which is delivered on the same product – the FortiGate Next-generation Firewall.