The cybersecurity space is fast-moving and continually in flux as new threats arise and the scale of attacks expands. For the cybersecurity platform Fortinet Inc., this reality has translated into a very busy year.

Since April, the 21-year-old company has fine-tuned its Secure Access Service Edge, or SASE, solution, announced integration of Secure SD-WAN with Google Cloud’s Network Connectivity Center, was named as a manufacturer on a contract with the U.S. Army, and unveiled a high-performance, next-gen firewall with zero trust access for hybrid datacenters.

Cybersecurity vendors such as Fortinet have been so busy because rising ransomware attacks have raised the stakes for enterprises around the globe. Attackers are breaching highly sensitive networks just by luring one employee to click on a malware-loaded link.

“I don’t think you can eliminate people clicking on stuff,” said John Maddison, chief marketing officer and executive vice president of products at Fortinet, in a recent interview with SiliconANGLE. “What it means is you have to put more proactive things in place, like zero trust, like micro-segmentation, like web application file warning. We want to help our customers apply best practices and start architecting longer term to implement zero trust or secure access service edge.”

Fortinet will bring customers, partners and top professional golfers together September 13-19 in Napa, California, for the Fortinet Championship Tournament, part of the PGA Tour season. A Security Symposium will be held on September 14 and 17, concurrent with the event, and will feature executives and leading security experts discussing new and emerging technologies in the cybersecurity community. TheCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, will livestream interviews as part of the Fortinet Cybersecurity Summit event on Sept. 14, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. PDT. (* Disclosure below.)

Zero trust hits peak

Fortinet defines zero trust as automatic, secure remote access that verifies any human or machine on a given network. The firm’s zero trust offerings exemplify the IT community’s significant interest in finding ways to manage network intrusions that could involve lengthy reconnaissance by threat actors over a prolonged period of time.

Interest in zero trust may have hit a peak this year. Microsoft published the results of interviews with 1,200 security decision-makers and found 96% believed that zero trust was critical to organizational success.

In late July, Fortinet released details of its most recent high-performance firewall with integrated zero trust network access. Expansion of the attack surface as a result of pandemic-driven distributed hybrid networks has fueled interest in a zero trust solution that can manage permissions and inspect the growing volume of encrypted traffic.

“Zero trust says: ‘I’m only going to allow you access to this application, and I’m going to keep checking on you to make sure you are who you say you are,’” said Maddison in an interview with SiliconANGLE. “It just narrows the attack surface down from this giant network approach to a specific application. It’s going to be important technology.”

SD-WAN bolsters security

Fortinet has also been adding to its software-defined networking or SD-WAN portfolio of solutions to further bolster security in the hybrid datacenter. SD-WAN is taking on greater importance in hybrid IT environments because the technology allows organizations to converge multifactor and endpoint security solutions with key network functionality.

In June, the company announced that four new service providers had been added to the list of customers using its Fortinet Secure SD-WAN products. The list is instructive in that it shows the breadth of businesses seeking software-defined security solutions. CommandLink is a cloud management and productivity SaaS platform, while DNA is itself a leading SD-WAN service provider in the Nordics.

Syringa Networks Inc. operates a fiber optic communications business, and Telecom Italia is Italy’s market leader as a mobile network provider. Fortinet has also published a case study that detailed how a large global packaged foods provider utilized Secure SD-WAN to provide protection for the company’s network edge locations, a key consideration for securing hybrid networks.

SASE offers converged model

In the middle of 2020, Fortinet acquired OPAQ Networks Inc. to enhance its existing SASE offering. The acquisition added OPAQ’s Zero Trust Network Access, or ZTNA, cloud solution and brought the firm’s Fortune 1000 and midsize enterprises into the Fortinet fold.

On its website, Fortinet states simply that “SASE is the future of converged security and networking.” The company offers SASE services as an extension of its Fortinet Security Fabric, an offering that landed in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls last year.

Fortinet views its SASE technology outside of an isolated, cloud-only approach through a distributed model that lets users leverage the entire portfolio of Fortinet solutions.

“More and more, I’m finding that customers want to converge, which is the basis of SASE,” Maddison noted in an interview with SiliconANGLE. “We did the acquisition of OPAQ Networks because that gave us an additional consumption model and additional form factor. We believe long term in the SASE model, once you’ve got the platforms in place, SD-WAN in place, your cloud access security broker, zero trust, then long-term you’re going to need an orchestration system.”

Livestream of the Fortinet Cybersecurity Summit

The Fortinet Cybersecurity Summit is a livestream event, with additional interviews to be broadcasted on theCUBE. You can watch theCUBE’s event coverage here for free. Plus, you can watch theCUBE interviews here on demand after the live event.

How to watch theCUBE interviews

We offer you various ways to watch the live coverage of the Fortinet Cybersecurity Summit, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s events on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE Insights podcast

SiliconANGLE also has podcasts available of archived interview sessions, available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify, which you can enjoy while on the go.

Guests

Guests who will be interviewed on theCUBE during the Fortinet Cybersecurity Summit include Ken Xie, founder, chairman of the board and CEO of Fortinet; Glenn Katz, senior VP and BM manager of Comcast Business Enterprise Solutions at Comcast; John Maddison, chief marketing officer and executive VP of products at Fortinet; Harry Dewhirst, chief executive officer of Linksys; and Erika Walk, senior director of digital business services at Waste Management.

Stay tuned for a complete list of speakers.

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Fortinet Cybersecurity Summit. Neither Fortinet Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: Fortinet