Customer Perspectives

As organizations expand their footprints in branches, stores, home offices, and a variety of other locations, they are evolving the way they manage and secure their distributed network infrastructure. At the remote edges, many companies are already using Fortinet Secure SD-WAN to deliver cost-effective, optimized wide area network (WAN) performance while ensuring enterprise-level threat protection. To help protect the internal network, access control and identity management tools continue to proliferate, increasing cost and complexity. 

To help ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of your technology investments, it is critical to integrate the LAN and WAN security and management platforms, quickly identify and control the growing number of devices in your environment, and deliver consistent, coordinated protection across your entire network; from branch office to home office. This is the idea behind Fortinet Secure SD-Branch. 

The following examples of customer SD-Branch implementations in different industries show a common shift in perception: The WAN edge and LAN edge are now viewed as a holistic IT infrastructure, which must both be simplified and defended in depth.

Network Infrastructure Refresh at Headquarters Sparks Retail SD-Branch Deployment

A U.S.-based grocery cooperative with more than 500 supermarkets took advantage of a headquarters expansion to rethink their networking technology. As the company reevaluated their previous approach, they knew a more secure network that could scale, while remaining easy to manage across their headquarters and store locations was necessary. Though a solution had been in place from another vendor for years, this retailer determined that Fortinet's comprehensive, centrally managed SD-Branch solution-including access points (FortiAP), switching (FortiSwitch), and next-generation firewalling with internal LAN segmentation and integrated SSL VPN with two-factor authentication-was the optimal choice to achieve the security and performance required at their store locations. 

By simplifying security and network management, this organization expects to lower costs and improve response times. Further, the Fortinet Security Fabric-including our large Security Fabric ecosystem of seamless third-party integrations-gives this company the opportunity to adopt new solutions that easily integrate into their existing infrastructure as needed.

Financial Services Organization Ensures Security and Compliance

A financial services firm with over 800 employees in multiple countries embarked on a journey to consolidate spend on national and international WAN links. To achieve these cost savings while also enabling robust connectivity and security, they chose to implement Secure SD-WAN. While searching for the right solution, this company was thrilled to see the additional benefits that Fortinet's Secure SD-Branch solution had to offer beyond the traditional SD-WAN capabilities of other vendors.

Fortinet Secure SD-Branch offers integrated security not only in the WAN edge but also on the LAN. By implementing FortiNAC for network access control, this firm was able to secure their device edge from the various and growing number of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices connecting to their network. This organization uses the Fortinet Fabric Management Center to configure and monitor their entire SD-Branch setup from a single platform, improving visibility and control across their entire network infrastructure.

This example highlights how addressing a problem in one part of the network can reveal other opportunities to improve the enterprise's network. With Fortinet Secure SD-Branch, this financial services company is able to ensure it operates securely and in compliance with relevant regulations at all times, without needing to complicate their branch networks.

SD-Branch as Part of a Complete Security Fabric

A European tourism operator felt their IT infrastructure was getting too complex, which was driving up costs and increasing cybersecurity risk. While they were already using FortiGate firewalls in the data center, equipment from another vendor was being used at the WAN edge and LAN edge. 

The company sought a more manageable and secure solution with flexibility that would solve for both its data center and WAN connectivity needs. After reviewing many options, this company found that greater performance and cost savings could be achieved with Fortinet Secure SD-WAN than with its legacy solution, especially under the real-world constraints such as SSL deep packet inspection. Further, Fortinet Secure SD-Branch could provide a complete LAN/WAN solution for the company's 90 stores and travel centers in several countries. In addition to securing their physical locations, this company also needed to secure and optimize their web presence. To accomplish this, Fortinet's FortiWeb web application firewalls (WAFs) were deployed along with FortiADC, Fortinet's application delivery controllers, to ensure availability and secure scalability.

With Fortinet's integrated Security Fabric, this organization was able to reduce overall complexity and simplify network management. And by leveraging the Fabric Management Center, this tourism operator was also able to gain greater visibility and control for FortiGate firewalls deployed in the data center and throughout the enterprise.

A Security-Driven Networking Approach to Branch Networking

From branches and data centers to LAN and WAN edges, the walls separating networking and security topologies, technologies, and teams are slowly but surely coming down. As they do, IT professionals are expecting a new approach from their vendors. After years of pursuing best-of-breed point products, more and more customers are seeking to simplify their infrastructure and maximize technology investments. By adopting Fortinet Secure SD-Branch, these organizations can extend the benefits of Fortinet's broad, integrated, and automated Security Fabric to branch locations to reduce network complexity, simplify management, and lower TCO.

Consolidate your branch services while delivering security, agility, and performance with Fortinet SD-Branch.