Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT) today announced that it is sharpening its business focus to prioritise high growth, differentiated markets. Effective today, the company’s research & development (R&D) and go-to-market (GTM) strategy will be organised around three markets: Secure Networking, Universal SASE, and Security Operations. This evolution underscores and reaffirms the company’s commitment to providing value to its customers and fostering a culture of innovation.
“Throughout our over 20-year history, Fortinet’s commitment to continual evolution has enabled us to remain at the forefront of innovation that supports our customers in safeguarding their infrastructure and data,” said Ken Xie, Founder, Chairman of the Board, and Chief Executive Officer at Fortinet. “Throughout this time, our founding principles of converging networking and security and consolidating point products into an integrated platform continue to reverberate across today’s cybersecurity market. Looking forward, we are confident that this is the right time to focus our operations around Secure Networking, Universal SASE, and Security Operations.”
Fortinet’s existing portfolio of integrated and organically developed products and services has a distinct competitive advantage in these three critical markets, making technology the cornerstone of this strategic shift.
– The Secure Networking market is expected to grow at nearly 9 percent annually to $86 billion in 2027. It consists primarily of network firewalls, secure switches, access points, and 5G gateways. As Fortinet’s firewall business grows, its revenue for attached AI-powered FortiGuard Security Services is expected to grow as well. As Fortinet’s largest addressable market—and one where Fortinet is the leader in both firewall revenues and units shipped—secure networking remains an essential part of its strategy.
– The Universal SASE market is expected to grow nearly 20 percent annually to $36 billion by 2027. It comprises SD-WAN, SWG, CASB, DLP, ZTNA, SASE, and other cloud-native networking and security technologies designed to simplify the implementation of a zero-trust strategy. Fortinet is the only company with a SASE solution that can perform all functions in the cloud or in an appliance, all supported through a common operating system, networking and security stack, and management console. Fortinet was recently included in the inaugural 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Single-Vendor SASE.
– The Security Operations market is expected to grow just over 14 percent annually to $78 billion by 2027. Fortinet’s SecOps platform is the most comprehensive, integrated, and broadest in the industry, providing EDR, SIEM, SOAR, NDR, and additional integrated enterprise-grade cybersecurity technologies to help organisations gain control and insight into their distributed operations.
Fortinet is uniquely positioned to deliver Secure Networking, Universal SASE, and Security Operations solutions as integrated platforms underpinned by AI-driven technologies, unified management, leading threat intelligence, and one of the largest open ecosystems in the industry.
Operational technology (OT) systems differ significantly from traditional IT systems; with that in mind, Fortinet will also continue to deliver OT-aware security capabilities across all three areas, as well as provide OT-specific InfoSec tools, threat intelligence, and integration with third-party OT solutions to reduce risk and effectively secure OT environments.
In connection with re-focusing its technology investments, Fortinet will continue to drive its industry-leading innovation engine through a culture that encourages and rewards innovative thinking. This approach has already resulted in 949 U.S. industry patents—over two times more than the next closest cybersecurity competitor. Strategic shifts in Fortinet’s R&D investments have already resulted in the following major product launches and enhancements in 2023:
– Secure Networking: Fortinet made significant strides in network security and secure connectivity innovation, particularly in the evolution of NGFW to Hybrid Mesh Firewall. Fortinet introduced the Security Processor 5 (SP5) ASIC to accelerate networking and security convergence across network edges with the introduction of new higher-performance FortiGate 90G, FortiGate 120G, and FortiGate 900G appliances. ASICs continue to showcase Fortinet’s dedication to sustainability, providing customers with power efficient products with a smaller footprint to minimise environmental impact. Notably, a Forrester Total Economic Impact (TEI) analysis revealed substantial ROI and payback for enterprise data centres utilising FortiGate appliances with FortiGuard AI-powered security services deployed as a Hybrid Mesh Firewall. Fortinet also announced newer switches to deliver intelligent, scalable connectivity that seamlessly integrates with AIOps to simplify network operations.
– Universal SASE: Fortinet introduced innovations across SD-WAN and SSE to ensure secure access for hybrid workforces across the internet, SaaS, and private applications. In 2023, Fortinet expanded its network reach to over 100 global locations through strategic partnerships with providers such as Google Cloud and investments in Fortinet’s own SASE locations. These innovations prioritise unified management and end-to-end digital experiences, enabling automated operations and network visibility for Fortinet customers. For existing SD-WAN clients, Fortinet enabled seamless integration with FortiSASE to provide secure private access to a broader range of applications. Fortinet also introduced enhancements across ZTNA, DLP, and inline-CASB, reinforcing the company’s commitment to supporting customers in achieving a Zero Trust security posture for all applications and data. In addition, Fortinet recently expanded its flexible consumption model using FortiFlex to extend AI-powered security services across today’s hybrid environments.
– Security Operations: In 2023, Fortinet announced enhancements across its security operations portfolio to introduce tighter integration and improve its ability to automate detection and response, accelerating discovery and remediation. Significant updates included new AI and machine learning capabilities and additional real-time response and automation capabilities to improve efficacy, increase effectiveness, and accelerate time to resolution of sophisticated attacks. In addition to technology, an expanded set of FortiGuard expert services, including SOC-as-a-Service, were introduced to uplevel the skill and efficiency of SecOps people and processes.
Fortinet’s investments in R&D are complemented by strategic shifts in its GTM investments that will also be centred around Secure Networking, Universal SASE, and Security Operations. Sales will be organised around these three strategic areas, enabled by training and marketing support, to ensure enhanced market penetration and improved customer engagement.