Fortinet: Delivering the Fastest and High Performance Network Security Solutions…

Founded in 2000, Fortinet is a worldwide provider of Network Security Appliances and a market leader in Unified Threat Management. Last quarter the company shipped more than 200 million units becoming the largest shipper of Network Security appliances.

A global leader and innovator in Network Security, with their headquarters in CA, Fortinet’s mission is to deliver the most innovative and highest performing network security platform to secure and simplify clients IT infrastructure. A provider of network security appliances and security subscription services for carriers, data centers, enterprises, distributed offices and MSSPs, team Fortinet has a rapidly growing and highly satisfied customer base, including the majority of the Fortune Global 100 companies, because of constant innovation of its custom ASICs, hardware systems, network software, management capabilities and security research.

With an interesting story behind how the company was renamed as Fortinet and their logo was created, Founder Ken says that, “Businesses and Individuals are never safe from threat. So they need to fortify or rather set up a fortress that guards them. We were initially named as ‘AppSecure’ but we later renamed ourselves as Fortinet, our name and logo, both signifies victory and security that we ensure by building up a fortress to keep our customers safe.”

Indeed, Fortinet does serve the needs of customers across verticals ranging from Critical Infrastructure/SCADA, Education, Federal, Financial Services, Healthcare and Manufacturing & Retail, keeping them secure and perform better. Fortinet’s vast and innovative product line goes beyond UTM to help secure the extended enterprise – from endpoints, to the perimeter and the core, including databases and applications. With the FortiCare and FortiGuard Services, team Fortinet follows up with their clients to address their changing needs and assisting them in daily operations, etc.

Securing Networks and Delivering Quality Solutions and Services
The Telecommunications, Healthcare, Federal, Retail, Education, Financial verticals are some of the verticals where Fortinet’s offerings have gained immense popularity over the years. For such customers, the company has a set of innovative Products for Network Security, Network Access, Application Security and Management lined up.

Their Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), Data Center Firewall, Internal Segmentation Firewall (ISFW), Next Gen Firewall (NGFW/NGIPS), Public Cloud Computing, Secure Hybrid WAN, SDN & Network Virtualization and Wireless LAN (WLAN) Services on the other hand have helped simplify and consolidate an infrastructure that is safe and secure from advanced threat attacks.

That said, the company plans to continue invest in innovation and ensure optimum security for customers in the upcoming years to come.

In Conversation with team Fortinet

What urged you to set this company up? What are core areas of focus?
Since 2000, the traditional Firewall protection techniques have seen a gradual shift, or rather a gigantic shift, thanks to the technological evolution. And after recognizing that firewalls and VPNs alone could not stop content and application network attacks such as viruses, intrusions, spam and malicious Web content, we founded Fortinet. Fortinet pioneered Unified Threat Management (UTM). Our core area is Network Security. And from the Firewall, to datacenters and Unified Threat Management, we provide end to end solutions. Be it the Network Security to Application Security, DataCentre and Software

Tell us something about FortiCare’s recently launched Cloud Managed LAN Access Point?
The wireless market place needs security and we are trying to make the access point itself have security services like antivirus injected in it. So from the beginning the security is ensured as the Access Point is the first place to be hit with a malware.

Why should you be a preferred choice over your competitors?
Security has been changing over the years. But no matter what criminals are always a step ahead of new innovations. But our products and solutions have a higher security level because we keep evolving with time and the client’s needs, instead of being stagnant.

We are dedicated and provide more functions and better security as compared to our competitors like Cisco, etc. We have a lot of investment but we believe it has been fruitful indeed. Today, we have our own Silicon Chip in the Network Security space and that itself, probably speaks a lot about how we have grown since 2000. We think that the security market has a lot of breaches, be it the Banks or somewhere else, we grow with our customers and are focused on changing with time, in a planned manner. We are a customer and technology focused company which believes in multi-layer protection, for all of our customers, be it small, medium or Fortune 100 companies. So overall, when compared to our competitors, we are more customer friendly as well as efficient in providing our services to them, which we think sums up why we are popular.

Knowing the Key Executives

Ken Xie, Founder, Chairman & CEO
A seasoned and successful entrepreneur, Ken started his first network security company SIS in 1993, designing software firewalls while studying at Stanford University. In 1996, he realized the performance limitations of software firewalls running on PCs/servers, and then started NetScreen. He lead the company to develop the industry’s first ASIC and dedicated hardware systems for high performance firewalls and VPNs. NetScreen (NASDAQ: NSCN) later was acquired by Juniper (NASDAQ: JNPR) for $4 billion. Ken earned an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electronic Engineering from Tsinghua University. He is also a member of National Academy of Engineering; a state registered Professional Engineer; a member of Committee 100; and holds certificates of Advanced Project Management, Strategic Decision and Risk Management from Stanford University.

Michael Xie: Founder, President & CTO
With more than 15 years of experience in the network security industry prior to founding Fortinet, Michael has held positions of Software Director and Architect at NetScreen. He was honored with 2009 Tech Innovator Awards by Everything Channel’s CRN and was also named a 2006 Northern California Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young and a Top Technology Innovator by VARBusiness Magazine in 2004. Michael has an M.S. degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Manitoba as well as M.S. degrees in Automobile Engineering from Tsinghua University.

Andrew Del Matto: Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Andrew “Drew” Del Matto brings over 20 years of financial management experience and expertise in the network security market. Prior to joining Fortinet, Drew held a variety of senior management roles at Symantec including serving as their acting Chief Financial Officer, as well as Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. Drew also served as Symantec’s Corporate Treasurer and Vice President of Finance Business Operations, responsible for all treasury functions, various aspects of mergers & acquisitions, pricing and licensing, financial planning and analysis, and revenue operations. Prior to Symantec, Drew previously held senior finance leadership roles with Inktomi Corporation and SGI Corporation, and began his career as a CPA in public accounting with KPMG LLP.

Peter Brant: Sr Vice President, Americas Sales & Marketing
Peter Brant brings more than 20-years of sales and channel experience to Fortinet, where he leads a team of more than 800 security sales specialists across North and South America, working to develop the right strategies to take Fortinet’s fast, secure and global network security solutions to market. He joined Fortinet, as vice president of Americas Enterprise sales in 2010, and in that role was responsible for developing a national channel-based team and establishing a significant footprint for Fortinet within the Fortune 100. During his time with the company, Peter has been instrumental in driving thought leadership and innovative approaches with customers across the Healthcare, Cloud, Education, Financial Services, Retail, Federal and IT markets. Prior to joining Fortinet, he held executive and management sales roles at organizations including Breach Security, AdmitOne Security and SonicWALL. Peter holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in business finance and marketing decision sciences from Western Washington University. He currently resides in the Seattle area with his family.