Fortinet-Microsoft tech alliance to benefit enterprise clients

Fortinet, the global leader in high-performance cybersecurity solutions, recently announced an expanded technology alliance with Microsoft through its Fabric-Ready Partner Program and new integrations for cloud security services.

Fortinet and Microsoft Collaborate to Securely Move Enterprise Customers to the Cloud. According to a recent report by McKinsey & Company, more large enterprises are likely to move workloads away from traditional and virtualized environments toward the cloud, with the number of enterprises hosting at least one workload on an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform set to increase to 41 percent by 2018.

In order to drive this increase in adoption of IaaS, enterprises need to be sure that their data is kept safe as it moves to and through a cloud-computing model.

Through the expansion of the Fortinet and Microsoft technology alliance, enterprise customers benefit from integrated cybersecurity that can share intelligence in real-time and ensure automated protection across on-premises and cloud workloads.

Microsoft Becomes Fortinet Fabric-Ready Partner: As a Fabric-Ready Partner, Microsoft Azure customers benefit from the broad and automated capabilities of the Fortinet Security Fabric with pre-integrated, end-to-end cloud security offerings, reducing technical support burden and costs for enterprise customers. Fortinet’s virtualized solutions provide Azure customers with real-time threat intelligence feeds and automated security controls to give a more comprehensive view of the security state of their Azure workloads and enable faster, more intelligent responses to threats.

FortiWeb Web Application Firewall Now Available in Azure Security Center: Security automation and recommendation is essential for cloud deployments. With the growing variants in cyberattacks, having automated, analytics-driven policies in place to respond is critical. FortiGate Enterprise Firewalls have been available on ASC and now FortiWeb has been validated for Azure workloads to deliver greater security automation with analytics-based detection and multi-layered application threat protection, giving Azure customers more control over their security posture.

Security Fabric Extends to Enterprise Security Group Reference Architecture: The FortiGate Enterprise Firewalls have been validated as a recommended security solution as part of the ECG’s comprehensive enterprise deployment model. The extension of Fortinet’s virtualized firewalls into the ECG reference architecture enables Azure customers to maximize their existing infrastructure investments and securely move to the cloud.

Fortinet Security Fabric virtualized solutions, including FortiGate Enterprise Firewalls, FortiAnalyzer for centralized network logging, analytics and reporting, FortiManager for centralized cloud security management, FortiMail for secure mail gateway, and FortiWeb web application firewalls are available now in the Azure Marketplace.

“While connected technologies drive immense opportunity for enterprises, to accelerate business innovation and mitigate risks, security needs to be built in everything we do. By integrating Fortinet’s technologies into Microsoft Azure and assuring high security hygiene through Azure Security Center, Microsoft and Fortinet deliver on a shared commitment to protecting modern enterprises with advanced cybersecurity for a mobile-first, cloud-first world.” says Ann Johnson, vice president, Worldwide Enterprise Product and Cybersecurity Groups, Microsoft Corp.