Fortinet Data Center Firewalls Prevent Threats While Allowing Savings

As businesses continue to march towards a hybrid infrastructure, one of the biggest challenges facing modern enterprises is how to deliver a consistent security posture within the data center that stops sophisticated attacks and integrates seamlessly with the rest of the increasingly complex network. This new reality is driving many IT teams to reconsider how they manage risk and complexity in the data center as they continue to support work-from-anywhere environments.?

Data center firewall features like advanced functionality, applicability to critical use cases, security efficacy, and total cost of ownership can vary widely depending on model and vendor. With the multitude of companies all spouting performance metrics, it can be perplexing to choose the right solution for your environment. This is especially true because most providers shy away from discussing the time it takes to recoup the upfront investment.?

Fortinet commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a “Total Economic Impact? (TEI) study” to examine the cost savings and business benefits of deploying FortiGate next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) and FortiGuard AI-Powered Security Services within the data center to help customers make an informed purchasing decision when choosing how to protect their critical business assets. The study provides economic metrics around benefits, costs, flexibility, and risks that further assist organizations in evaluating data center firewall solutions.?

TEI Study Findings?

The TEI study found that deploying Fortinet NGFW and services in the data center delivered a significant 318% ROI over three years, with payback in less than six months. These benefits were driven by a 90% reduction in the time Full Time Employees (FTEs) spent on manual updates and fixes—worth more than $1.2 million over three years. IT teams using FortiGate firewalls in the data center also had a 50% reduction in device reimaging and a 95% reduction in ancillary device connections. ?

In addition, FortiGate NGFWs improved networking and security performance thanks to FortiGuard AI-Powered Security Services that enable fast detection and enforcement across the entire attack surface. The study found these improvements was worth $5.4 million over the three years.?What’s more, FortiGate NGFWs for the data center are 40% more cost-effective than the other firewall appliance and services solutions. Over the course of three years, this adds up to more than $2.6 million in total savings.?

Other Benefits include ?

• Improved security posture because FortiGuard AI-Powered Security Services provide real-time protection against known and unknown threats. Fortinet data center firewalls have clear visibility into the threat landscape and are able to protect against and mitigate potential attacks that would lead to severe financial and reputational impacts on the organization.
• Improved visibility and network reliability due to simplified, centralized management for network infrastructure that improves visibility for IT teams and reduces network-related management, maintenance, and monitoring costs.
• Improved sustainability thanks to Fortinet firewalls being powered by purpose-built security processing units (SPUs) designed to deliver high performance that improves and maintains sustainability efforts and ultimately reduces overall power consumption in data centers.

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The Total Economic Impact? Of Fortinet NGFW for Data Center And AI-Powered FortiGuard Security Services Solution is a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Fortinet in June 2023. Download the full study here and learn more about FortiGate NGFWs for the data center here.

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