Your stakeholders require fast, uninterrupted access to your network and cloud-based data and applications, regardless of location or device. Network access patterns are moving fast due to cloud migrations, sustained work from home, increased reliance on web applications, 5G, IoT and more. Digital innovation has transformed the traditional centralised network into a network of many edges.

In this environment, dynamic security services have to be delivered anywhere from any place, at any time and to any device – the WAN Edge, Cloud Edge, Data Center Edge, Core Network Edge, Branch Edge, and Mobile Remote Worker Edge. This requires the convergence of on-site and cloud-based security services as well as tight integration between security and networking elements.

Your challenge is to secure every network edge with fit-for-purpose security services that perform as a single unified system at speed. Every component must be part of an integrated security fabric bound together by centralised management and coordinated event response. They also need to be able to dynamically adapt as your networking environments evolve.

You have a network. Check. You have lots of users, data and applications (ie network edges). Check. You have security services. Check. Your security services all work together as an integrated whole to protect all of your users, data and network edges? Not so fast.

Indeed, do you have a handle on all of your network edges? Before you can secure the edges, you have to know where they are hosted and who uses them. You'll need to assess the level of security for each edge. And then you'll need to ensure that these security services are able to support your SOC (security operations centre), SASE (secure access service edge), SOAR (security orchestration and automated response) and SIEM (security information event management) requirements.

Not an easy task nor one which happens overnight. But the good news is that all of these security services are available right now, on both sides of the Tasman, as managed security services. These security services can be deployed almost immediately and managed remotely by a team of experts. We're talking, of course, about Fortinet's Security Fabric and Fortinet's constellation of Authorised Partners across ANZ.

The logical places to begin deployment of integrated dynamic security services are the edges that are either unsecured or secured by stand-alone point services not integrated into your overall security profile.

Traditional edges, such as the Endpoint edge which identifies devices on the network or the Identity edge which validates users on the network, should be secured. Evolving edges, just as critical, include the WAN edge which can secure branch offices via SD-WAN and the Cloud edge which requires virtualised tools. We are also seeing, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Home edge to support remote workers. And IoT devices represent a whole new breed of edges.

Indeed, all these edges are ideal candidates for the deployment of managed security services and can set the stage for ‘stepping out' further security services for the core network or other cloud-based services.

A significant advantage of the Fortinet Security Fabric is that you can buy, lease or subscribe to any or all of Fortinet security services on either a CAPEX or OPEX basis. You can structure your engagement as a licensed service or pay-as-you-go. All of the security services are available as managed services so you won't need any security specialists on your payroll. Indeed, Fortinet Partners can provide SOC (security operations centre) as a service that will give you expert-level, 24x7 security event management.

Fortinet's comprehensive Security Fabric Services are available from Authorised Partners across ANZ as appliances, virtual appliances and cloud-based or managed services. SOC as a Service adds an extra layer of expertise to your team and FortiSOC ties them all together to ensure interoperability and a unified defence profile.

Fortinet's Security Fabric is backed by the global constellation of FortiGuard Labs to ensure that your defences are always updated with the very latest threat intelligence. And Fortinet's commitment to research and development means that, regardless of which way your network evolves, Fortinet will be right there with the fully-integrated security services to protect it.

About the author
Jon McGettigan is Fortinet's Australia, New Zealand - Pacific Islands Regional Director. As such, he is responsible for driving Fortinet's continued expansion in the region through building and maintaining relationships with businesses, Partners and staff. As a senior executive, he understands the risks, motivations and opportunities that face IT managers as they transform their networks into 21st-century revenue centres.

About Fortinet

Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) secures the largest enterprises, service providers and government organisations around the world. Fortinet empowers its customers with intelligent, seamless protection across the expanding attack surface and the power to take on ever-increasing performance requirements of the borderless network - today and into the future. Only the Fortinet Security Fabric architecture can deliver security without compromise to address the most critical security challenges, whether in networked, application, cloud or mobile environments. Fortinet ranks #1 in the most security appliances shipped worldwide and more than 375,000 customers trust Fortinet to protect their businesses. Learn more at the Fortinet website, the Fortinet Blog, or FortiGuard Labs.