SCIENCE

Fortinet has announced the newest flagship model in the FortiGate-5000 series appliance family along with a new high-performance switching option. These products combine to deliver essential network defenses for dynamic, multi-tenant large enterprise and service provider networks, including security-as-a-service and infrastructure-as-a-service environments.

The new FortiGate-5001B is a high-performance security blade that integrates a wide range of critical security services and native 10-Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) support for FortiGate-5000 chassis-based platforms. Delivering up to a blazing 40 Gbps of firewall throughput and up to 17 Gbps of virtual private network (VPN) throughput, the FortiGate-5001B integrates essential security functions in a compact Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (ATCA)-compliant blade form factor. This includes enterprise firewall, virtual private network, application control, intrusion prevention, anti-virus/anti-malware, anti-spam and Web filtering. To optimize the performance of these security services, the FortiGate-5001B security blade integrates the latest Intel 4-core CPU and two Fortinet FortiASIC NP4 network processor chips. This is Fortinet's fourth generation of ATCA-compliant solutions, having shipped the first generation of its ATCA chassis-based FortiGate-5001SX and FortiSwitch-5003 in 2004. Fortinet brought its second generation of ATCA-compliant appliances in 2006 with the FortiGate-5005FA2 and FortiController-5208 and the third generation in 2008 with the FortiGate-5001A and FortiSwitch-5003A. Adding onto Fortinet's pioneering innovation in the telecom industry is the FortiGate's achievement of NEBS Level 3 compliance -- a requirement for operation of carrier-class equipment in the central offices of major telecommunications companies.

Delivering 10-GbE switching to the backplane fabric of the FortiGate-5000 series chassis, the new FortiSwitch-5003B switching blade operates with exceptionally low latency to maximize multi-threat security performance required by increasingly bandwidth-hungry data centers. Fortinet's new products, designed for very large enterprises, carriers and managed service providers, provide consolidated security services and simplified network infrastructures that deliver substantially increased performance, dramatically improved multi-threat protection and significantly lower operating costs.

When coupling the FortiGate-5001B with the FortiGate-5140 chassis, telecommunications and managed security service providers will have up to 500 Gbps firewall throughput performance, making the chassis the fastest blade system firewall in the industry. By combining a FortiGate-5000 series chassis with the new FortiGate-5001B security blade and optional FortiSwitch-5003B switching blade, customers have access to a modular, multi-threat security solution with carrier-grade reliability and scalability required by 10-GigE network environments. As a highly modular platform, the FortiGate-5000 series is designed to be the cornerstone of high-performance security infrastructures. Ideal for high-speed multi-threat security gateways, managed security services, and complex security zoning applications, the FortiGate-5000 series, equipped with the new FortiGate-5001B and FortiSwitch-5003B blades, can be integrated with Fortinet's centralized management and reporting solutions to provide broad control of large-scale deployments.

The FortiGate-5000 Series also offers the following benefits:

--  Redundant, hot swappable power supplies and fans to minimize single-points of failure.

--  Use of active/active and active/passive high availability modes for uninterrupted service.

--  Integration with Fortinet's FortiManager centralized management and FortiAnalyzer centralized reporting appliances to simplify security management, reporting and analysis while reducing operating expenses.

--  Availability of FortiGuard Subscription Services to deliver automated, real-time and up-to-date protection against security threats and exploits.

--  Deployment flexibility that includes network segmentation by customer, business unit or any other logical partition to maximize control through the use of virtual domains. The platform is also ideal for virtualized environments.

--  Complements or upgrades existing security infrastructure by enabling only the services needed in integrated, all-in-one security blades. 

--  Design the exact mix of multi-threat security, load-balancing, and high-speed networking required to support organizational security requirements.

"You can't take a 'cookie-cutter' approach to network security, especially in large-scale, business-critical environments supporting hundreds of thousands or millions of end customers and clients," said Michael Xie, founder, CTO and vice president of engineering at Fortinet. "That's why we continue to innovate with agile and modular approaches to network defense because each customer environment has a unique threat profile and corresponding security and performance requirements. In recognition of this, we are once again pushing the envelope of high-performance network security with the introduction of the FortiGate-5001B and FortiSwitch-5003B blades."

Availability

The FortiGate-5001B and FortiSwitch-5003B will be available this quarter.