The growth of connected devices at the edge is forcing security firms to rethink protection architectures to ensure critical endpoints are fully covered. Today’s users have different devices and applications consuming services from the cloud, and this requires a broad platform with the right tools to manage it all.

“For that kind of approach, you cannot have point products provide the visibility, control and management,” said Nirav Shah (pictured, left), vice president of products at Fortinet Inc. “You need to have a comprehensive cybersecurity platform which gives you security from that endpoint to the edge to the user so that you can have simple, but effective management and have solid security in place to get working from anywhere in a better user experience. That’s what Fortinet has described as a security management platform.”

Shah spoke with John Furrier, host of SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming video studio theCUBE. He was joined by Peter Newton (pictured, right), senior director of product marketing at Fortinet, and they discussed how the company employs edge and wide-area network technologies to protect customers, concepts behind zero trust security, the importance of cross-platform communication in a hybrid world, and ways that interested users can be trained for free to become cybersecurity professionals. (* Disclosure below.)

Technology for the modern edge

Two important services that power Fortinet’s platform are Secure Access Service Edge, or SASAE, and SD-WAN, a software-defined wide-area network. SASE is cloud delivered and combines network and security functions with WAN capabilities to cover the field, from edge to cloud to an on-premises datacenter and back.

“SD-WAN is one of the core foundation elements of SASE,” Shah explained. “The intelligent edge modern technology that SD-WAN provides is absolutely necessary for a successful SASE deployment. Having the right SD-WAN foundation in the edge, working in tandem with cloud delivered security makes for a win-win situation for both networking and the security team.”

Providing the tools for a secure platform is only part of the battle for IT departments. Setting the right policies for network and application access is critical as well. In recent years, this has entailed implementation of zero trust and zero trust network access policies.

“Everything has to be zero trust; you no longer can afford to have a trusted internal zone and an untrusted external zone,” Newton said. “Zero trust network access is how you bring in users and connect them to applications, whether those applications are on-premises or in the cloud.”

Security as a team sport

Fortinet’s focus on WAN technology that enables extensive application identification, including encrypted traffic and multi-path steering across hybrid connected systems, is grounded in its philosophy that communication is essential.

“We really believe that security is a team sport; you need those products to be talking together,” Newton said. “Today’s cybersecurity moves so fast. You need that team approach to be able to protect and stop breaches.”

In order to combat rising global security threats, the team also needs to be fully staffed. Fortinet has been confronted with a shortage in cybersecurity talent, a problem that has impacted the entire industry.

To address this concern, Fortinet offers a program – the NSE Training Institute – to train those interested in becoming cybersecurity experts … for free. The company had over 800,000 registrations for the free training in 2020.

“There are not enough trained professionals who know about cybersecurity,” Newton said. “We offer free training so you can start from knowing nothing to becoming certified up to a security architect level. The industry needs you.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s CUBE Conversations. (* Disclosure: Fortinet Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Fortinet nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE