BT adopts Fortinet Enterprise firewalls and fabric (Image Source : Fortinet)
BT adopts Fortinet Enterprise firewalls and fabric
Mark Hughes CEO BT Security (Source BT)
Mark Hughes CEO BT Security

BT has announced a deepening of its relationship with Fortinet. The new agreement will see Fortinet’s Fortigate enterprise firewalls integrated into its global portfolio of managed services. Mark Hughes, CEO of BT Security commented: “We are committed to supporting our customers with solutions that can help them stay secure and support their journeys into the digital world. Together with Fortinet, we provide them with security solutions to protect themselves against today’s evolving threat landscape without additional complexity or slowing down their networks.”

This latest announcement follows an agreement with Palo Alto in March. That agreement saw BT’s Assure Managed Firewall service integrated with WildFire cloud-based malware prevention, which is a key component of the Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Security Platform.  Although Palo Alto and Fortinet were founding members in 2014 of the Cyberthreat Alliance, that organisation seems to be largely inactive now and Fortinet and Palo Alto are not technology partners. It will therefore be interesting to see how the Fortinet and Palo Alto solutions are placed within the BT architecture, especially as they both seem to be offering BT malware protection

BT are already a platinum partner of Fortinet. They are a Fortinet Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) and this agreement cements that relationship. For customers there is a comfort in knowing that BT Security experts are not just supporting the firewalls for them but also for their much larger BT network.

The Firewalls will provide a number of security services that will compliment other BT services, they include application control, intrusion prevention, web content filtering, Virtual Private Networking (VPN), spyware prevention and malware defence.

Ready for IoT

With the growth of IoT endpoints, security is becoming increasingly important. Recent articles have flagged the danger of connected vehicles, most recently the Mitsubishi Outlander. The Fortinet’s Security Fabric may have been chosen for its ability to deliver a distributed security for all types of environments including IoT. The fabric has been designed to manage the evolving landscape as companies embrace the digital economy. It has five founding principles to help deliver that: scalability, awareness, security, actionable intelligence, and an open API strategy.

Conclusion

Ken Xie, Founder, Chairman of the Board, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Fortinet
Ken Xie, Founder, Chairman of the Board, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Fortinet

This is a major deal for Fortinet who will look to BT to sell their Fortinet Firewalls across the globe. It will give them a wider exposure to newer threats that will improve their solutions in the medium term. Ken Xie, founder, chairman of the board and chief executive officer, Fortinet, commented: “BT’s global reach combined with our intelligent and adaptive Security Fabric are a powerful combination, which underlines our success together in the fast-growing worldwide managed security services market. We are excited to expand our already strong relationship to provide the security technologies customers need to protect and grow their businesses.”.

This is a sensible move for BT. The new technology will strengthen its security portfolio and deliver a security platform into which IoT can be integrated. This will be an increasing requirement as more and more devices become connected.

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