Customer Perspectives

As the mining industry becomes ever more reliant on digital technology, remote operations, and automation, businesses in the sector are at increased risk of cyberattacks. These threats not only raise the risk of financial losses but also pose significant safety and environmental risks. As a result, robust end-to-end cybersecurity measures are vital to stay ahead of evolving threats.

A New Approach to Security

For one international mining company headquartered in the U.S., the time had come to re-evaluate its networking and security infrastructure. The organization was using three separate vendors to supply its next-generation firewall (NGFWs), SD-WAN, and security service edge (SSE) solutions.

However, the company struggled to integrate these solutions into its overall IT and networking infrastructure. This lack of integration hindered its ability to scale systems into its OT environment and increased operational costs. 

Consolidation the Fortinet Way

Having gotten to know Fortinet through an executive briefing session, the company was impressed with its solution set, highly integrated Fortinet Security Fabric, and innovative roadmap. Following three successful proof-of-concept projects, Fortinet was selected to deliver on the company's vision of a consolidated approach to networking and security.

Today, the company is deploying Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, which incorporates FortiGate NGFWs for secure networking. The FortiGuard Enterprise Protection bundle provides a comprehensive package of FortiGuard AI-Powered Security Services across the platform. This includes antivirus, intrusion protection, web filtering, and advanced malware protection-including IoT devices.

The Fortinet solution is managed centrally using FortiManager, with FortiAnalyzer providing logging, analytics, and automation. The company also uses the FortiGuard Outbreak Detection Service, which provides critical outbreak reports and event handlers to FortiAnalyzer.

The company also deployed FortiSASE with 3,000 user licenses. FortiSASE is Fortinet's SSE solution, which is part of its single-vendor secure access service edge (SASE) offering. It provides a consistent security posture and an optimal user experience for hybrid or remote employees. Delivered from the cloud, FortiSASE includes an AI-powered secure web gateway (SWG), zero-trust network access (ZTNA), cloud access security broker (CASB), and Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS), all running on a single OS managed through a unified console. FortiSASE is also fully integrated with Fortinet Secure SD-WAN to provide a best-of-breed single-vendor SASE solution.

The solution is supported by FortiCare Premium Support, which provides 24x7x365 device support, with one-hour response for critical issues. In addition, the company uses FortiCare Professional Services, which delivers access to a technical account manager and a resident engineer who support and operationalize Fortinet solutions. Finally, the company benefits from training delivered by the Fortinet Professional Services team. 

A Cost-Effective and Seamless Approach to Secure Networking

For the mining company, one of the key benefits of partnering with Fortinet is access to its high-performance technology. Fortinet's security processing units (SPUs) leverage application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips, dramatically increasing speed, scale, value, and efficiency while reducing power requirements. Fortinet's powerful, cost-effective hardware has helped deliver a high return on investment for the customer. As per Forrester's Total Economic Impact (TEI) study of Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, end customers could see an average of 300% ROI with only eight months payback. Further cost saving is expected through efficiencies in day-to-day network management, with team productivity potentially increasing by 50% and a 65% reduction in network disruptions.

Most importantly, Fortinet has delivered on the company's need for consolidation and integration. As a result, the customer sees an immediate improvement in its IT and networking security posture by eliminating multiple standalone solutions while reducing costs by over 65%. With Fortinet solutions in place, the customer now has a highly scalable networking and security platform that is easy to manage.

This is just the start of the partnership. The company has identified four additional opportunities to leverage the Fortinet Security Fabric further in everything from enterprise software security to OT security and demilitarized zone security (the part of the network that exposes external-facing services to the Internet).

There is no escaping that mining companies face increased risk from cybercriminals. This U.S. company has dramatically reduced cyberthreats by rationalizing and consolidating its network while driving efficiencies and minimizing cost.

Learn more about how Fortinet's single-vendor SASE integrates SD-WAN and a cloud-delivered SSE to deliver networking and security to the network edge and remote workers. This Forrester TEI study also provides more information about the value that enterprises can achieve by deploying Fortinet Secure SD-WAN.