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Fortinet transitions from partner to FortiGate SD-WAN vendor

In a change from forging security partnerships with SD-WAN vendors, Fortinet introduced FortiGate SD-WAN, which integrates SD-WAN into its FortiGate next-generation firewall appliance.

Fortinet, a security vendor that has established partnerships with many software-defined WAN vendors, opted last week to start selling FortiGate SD-WAN, its own proprietary SD-WAN service.

In its previous SD-WAN partnerships, Fortinet offered its security services as a virtual network function or integrated into other vendors' SD-WAN products. To make this transition, Fortinet upgraded its existing next-generation firewall product, FortiGate, to make SD-WAN available as an integrated feature, releasing an updated operating system to support the move. Fortinet's website states the SD-WAN feature comes at no additional cost with a FortiGate license.

FortiGate SD-WAN includes security features such as application control, web filtering, antivirus, intrusion prevention and cloud advanced threat detection. FortiGate SD-WAN customers have access to FortiManager to monitor and configure deployed appliances, which are available as hardware appliances, virtual machines or cloud instances.

Fortinet counts Alorica, Edward Jones and the Upper Grand District School Board in Guelph, Ont., as FortiGate SD-WAN customers.

Cato Cloud SD-WAN adds identity-aware routing

Cato Networks made a series of upgrades to its SD-WAN-as-a-service product, Cato Cloud, which includes the introduction of what Cato calls identity-aware routing.

According to a Cato statement, identity-aware routing goes deeper than application-aware routing, which directs traffic based on application type. Instead, Cato said identity-aware routing assigns networking and security policies that "direct traffic or restrict resource access based on team, department and individual users."

To do this, Cato Cloud accesses company data from Microsoft Active Directory, distributed repositories and real-time logins to identify each packet flow. This allows Cato Cloud to prioritize traffic on business processes, Cato said.

Cato also added or enhanced its SD-WAN features for real-time network analytics, failover options and multisegment, policy-based routing.

Aryaka expands global private network to Canada

Aryaka Networks added its twenty-seventh point of presence (PoP) to extend the reach of its SD-WAN-as-a-service offering. The latest PoP is located in Toronto and is the first PoP Aryaka has in Canada, although it previously offered its SD-WAN service in Canada through channel partners.

Aryaka also introduced its new director of business development for Canada, Craig Workman, who joins Aryaka from Gigamon, a network visibility provider.

"The PoP in Toronto will further enhance our software-defined network optimization and access capabilities in the region and open up new markets for our partners," Workman said in a statement.

Aryaka uses its global private network as the basis for its SD-WAN service, which IHS Markit listed as a notable SD-WAN product generating revenue in 2018.

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