Fortinet Named Worldwide Leader of the Unified Threat Management Security Appliance Market

Leading Market Research Firm Attributes Market Growth to Increased Large Enterprise Adoption of UTM Solutions

Middle East, Nov. 26, 2007 ? Fortinet® - the pioneer and leading provider of unified threat management (UTM) solutions - today announced that it has been named the overall UTM market leader for 2006, according to leading market research firm IDC. New data within the November 2007 IDC report, "Worldwide Threat Management Security Appliances 2006-2011 Forecast and 2006 Vendor Shares: Still Stacking the Racks," shows that Fortinet owns 14.4 percent of the worldwide market over all other vendors, including Check Point, Cisco, Crossbeam, Juniper and SonicWall.

Enterprise Demand Driving UTM Adoption

According to the IDC report, the UTM segment of the Threat Management Security Appliance category reached $967 million for 2006 with a 42 percent annual growth rate - the fastest growth rate of any of the Threat Management Security Appliance submarkets. IDC forecasts that by 2011, UTM will account for nearly 50 percent of the overall network security market, and will demonstrate an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.2 percent.

"Past UTM market growth was primarily driven by small- to mid-enterprises adoption, however for 2006 market growth saw an increasing demand by large enterprises for comprehensive security solutions " said Charles Kolodgy, research director for security products at IDC. "Fortinet's leadership in the UTM market is fueled by its ability to provide enterprise-class appliances that deliver true integration of multiple security applications and services, as well as integration of routing and switching, all managed from a single GUI.  In the future, enterprises will demand strong security that includes networking, rather than having two separate devices, or a networking device that only incorporates adequate security."

According to IDC, UTM security appliance products include multiple security features integrated into one device. To be included in this category, as opposed to other Threat Management appliance segments, UTM appliances must contain the ability to perform network firewalling, network intrusion detection and prevention, and gateway antivirus. All of the capabilities need not be utilized, but the functions must exist inherently in the appliance. In addition to the mandatory applications, UTM appliances may also host other security or networking features.

Fortinet Spearheads Advances in UTM

Fortinet's leadership in the UTM market is fueled by demands from large enterprise, MSSP and carriers for a comprehensive, integrated network security solution that can help to meet a variety of security requirements with reduced cost and management complexity.  Fortinet's FortiGate systems are ASIC-accelerated security appliances that integrate essential security applications such as antivirus, firewall, VPN, intrusion prevention, Web filtering, anti-spam and traffic shaping. All FortiGate systems are kept up to date automatically by Fortinet's FortiGuard Network, which helps provide protection against the most damaging, content-based threats from email and Web traffic such as viruses, worms, intrusions, other unwanted network traffic and more - around the clock and around the world.

As the fundamental requirements for security gateways change, FortiGate systems have been designed to go beyond traditional UTM to also offer traditional networking capabilities, performing switching and routing at both layers two and three. Fortinet is also the only vendor to offer virtualized UTM security for large enterprises, MSSPs and carriers on a high-performance platform for manageability of multiple domains from a single device. Other vendors who claim similar solutions are limited to virtualizing no more than three security functions, while Fortinet can virtualize up to eight, plus routing and switching.

"The realization of the benefits of a comprehensive and fully integrated network security appliance has moved beyond traditional small and medium business and branch office deployments and into the largest enterprises and service providers," said Ken Xie, founder, president and CEO of Fortinet. "Our ASIC-accelerated FortiGate appliances were built to meet the networking, performance and security demands of enterprises and service providers, who are increasingly adopting Fortinet solutions. We are very pleased with our continued UTM market leadership position and committed to continuing to innovate in this arena."

"In the Middle East, with the development of online-based applications and communications as well as the increase for branch offices directly connected to the network, we have seen enterprises investing in UTM systems to provide complete protection and benefit from ease of management and deployment," says Bashar Bashaireh, Middle East Regional Manager, Fortinet. "As the UTM leader, we have a clear commitment to further educate companies on the solutions they need to increase their threat prevention capabilities for in-depth defense."

For more information on Fortinet solutions, please visit: www.fortinet.com/products.

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About Fortinet (www.fortinet.com)
Fortinet is the pioneer and leading provider of ASIC-accelerated unified threat management, or UTM, security systems, which are used by enterprises and service providers to increase their security while reducing total operating costs. Fortinet solutions were built from the ground up to integrate multiple levels of security protection--including firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention, VPN, spyware prevention and anti-spam -- designed to help customers protect against network and content level threats. Leveraging a custom ASIC and unified interface, Fortinet solutions offer advanced security functionality that scales from remote office to chassis-based solutions with integrated management and reporting. Fortinet solutions have won multiple awards around the world and are the only security products that are certified in six programs by ICSA Labs: (Firewall, Antivirus, IPSec, SSL, Network IPS, and Anti-Spyware). Fortinet is privately held and based in Sunnyvale, California.

Fortinet is a registered trademark of Fortinet, Inc. Fortinet, FortiGate, FortiOS, FortiAnalyzer, FortiASIC, FortiCare, FortiManager, FortiWiFi, FortiGuard, FortiClient, and FortiReporter are trademarks of the Fortinet, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks referred to herein are the property of their respective owners. Certain data included in this press release, including competitive data used to compare Fortinet to other companies, IDC's conclusions about growth rates,  and other statements by IDC, is provided by IDC and has not been independently verified by Fortinet, and is not endorsed by Fortinet.

© Press Release 2007