With nearly 35,000 WAN Edge customers worldwide, organizations across industries and vertical markets trust Fortinet to address their WAN transformation and security challenges. Fortinet was the first SD-WAN provider to integrate advanced networking and connectivity capabilities with a full stack of enterprise-class security solutions in a unified and powerful platform. And we are now pleased to announce that Fortinet has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SD-WAN Infrastructure 2021 Vendor Assessment (doc # US47279821, November 2021) report.
This IDC MarketScape used a comprehensive framework and set of parameters to determine which of the 12 SD-WAN infrastructure vendors have the capabilities and strategies most conducive to successfully providing an effective SD-WAN infrastructure solution.
We believe that Fortinet’s robust and fully integrated networking and security capabilities, our high visibility in the market, and our consistently high customer ratings all contributed to our being positioned as a Leader in this latest IDC MarketScape report.
In addition to this most recent recognition in the IDC MarketScape, Fortinet has also been named a Leader in the 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for WAN Edge Infrastructure and ranked #1 for three out of five Use Cases in the 2021 Gartner® Critical Capabilities for WAN Edge Infrastructure. What’s more, Fortinet was named a top SD-WAN vendor in the 2021 Frost Radar and received Frost & Sullivan’s 2021 Global SD-WAN Vendor Product Leadership Award.
In addition to naming Fortinet as a Leader, the IDC MarketScape also identified several Fortinet strengths that enable it to address a wide variety of customer use cases. These include:
- Fortinet offers a highly integrated security and networking SD-WAN capability. Most Fortinet SD-WAN customers deploy the product on the company’s FortiGate physical or virtual security appliance, which has integrated next-generation firewall capabilities, along with SSL inspection.
- Fortinet also offers LAN and WLAN products, giving customers an opportunity to work with an existing vendor across LAN + WAN.
- Fortinet has successfully built up a channel partner strategy that includes strong relationships with communications SPs, as well as managed SPs and VARs.
- Fortinet’s FortiGate infrastructure uses custom ASICs that improve performance and allow the company to do inline SSL inspection.
The report also noted, “Fortinet also offers a range of WLAN (Wi-Fi) and LAN (Ethernet switch) products along with recently announced wireless WAN (LTE/5G functionality via FortiExtender), giving customers an opportunity to manage LAN + WAN functionality from FortiManager.” The report went on to say, “For cloud and multicloud connectivity, Fortinet offers cloud on-ramp and a virtualized version of its custom ASIC instantiated in a VM form factor that can be deployed at IaaS cloud provider sites; Fortinet also has integrations with Equinix Network Edge, Megaport Virtual Edge, and Teridion for SaaS optimization”
Most SD-WAN vendors have failed to include robust security with their SD-WAN connectivity solutions. This has left customers struggling to build and manage an overlay security system that can adapt to the shifting parameters and connections of most SD-WAN deployments. This challenge is why, five years ago, Fortinet pioneered our security-driven networking approach to SD-WAN with the release of Fortinet Secure SD-WAN. Today, it still provides the industry’s most advanced security and high-performance connectivity to customers worldwide.
To accelerate performance, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN is powered by the industry’s first custom-built SD-WAN ASIC, which improves security posture effectiveness and user experience while making it the most cost-effective solution on the market. In addition, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN is powered by a single operating system, FortiOS, and a single management console. Running all security, networking, and connectivity functions on a single OS improves efficiency across all WAN and cloud edges.
Time and again, Fortinet has been identified as a leader in SD-WAN innovation. Most recently, we were the first vendor to deliver built-in zero-trust network access (ZTNA) proxy to support work-from-anywhere initiatives. But that is just the start. Business strategies and digital acceleration will continue to transform today’s networks, and Fortinet is committed to delivering solutions designed to enable and secure the way our customers need to run their business.
Learn more about why Fortinet was named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SD-WAN Infrastructure 2021 Vendor Assessment
Gartner, Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure, By Jonathan Forest, Naresh Singh, Andrew Lerner, Evan Zeng, Published 20 September 2021
Gartner, Critical Capabilities for WAN Edge Infrastructure, By Jonathan Forest, Naresh Singh, Andrew Lerner, Evan Zeng, Published 20 September 2021
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