Alain Penel, Regional Vice President – Middle East and Turkey, Fortinet,talks about the cybersecurity mesh platform that will be showcased at the GITEX and explains how Fortinet’s solutions offer a holistic solution in an era of rapid digitization.
What are the plans for you to be part of GITEX GLOBAL this year and why is it important for you to be part of the weeklong show?
Fortinet will be participating at GITEX Global this year focusing on organizations requiring a hybrid approach that converges networking and security to be able to reduce complexity, while securing and connecting hybrid and remote users to advanced security with superior performance. Furthermore, our focus will also be on the cybersecurity mesh architecture, an approach that is designed to create a collaborative ecosystem of security tools operating across the digital infrastructure. The primary objective is to place security everywhere it’s needed, anywhere in the network, even as users, devices, and applications multiply and become more mobile.
As the world has outgrown the pandemic to an extent, organizations will be looking at their technology investments from a new perspective; one that will ensure their businesses’ overall security posture and boost businesses continuity. This year GITEX, will be a platform for people to gather, share their knowledge and help take global digital transformation to the next level.
Please highlight the products and solutions that you will be showcasing at the GITEX?
Our focus at GITEX this year is to showcase the cybersecurity mesh platform or what we refer to as the Fortinet Security Fabric architecture which gives businesses a broad, integrated, centralized management and visibility, supports, and interoperates across a vast ecosystem of solutions, and automatically adapts to dynamic changes in the network.
The Fortinet Security Fabric mesh architecture has been available for several years now, and over time, customers keep adding to it. Our portfolio of more than 50 security and networking technologies is designed from the ground up to interoperate, sharing threat intelligence, correlating data, and automatically responding to threats as a single, coordinated system.
On site, visitors will experience the key pillars of the Fortinet Security Fabric such as the Zero-Trust Network which securely connects applications hosted everywhere with users working from anywhere; Security Operations which enables fast, coordinated detection and enforcement across the entire attack surface; Network Security which addresses digital acceleration challenges by tightly integrating network infrastructure with advanced security across all edges; and Cloud Security which delivers visibility and control across cloud infrastructures, enabling secure applications and connectivity in the data center and across cloud resources while maximizing the benefits of cloud computing. Also, in focus will be FortiSASE, Fortinet’s cloud-delivered security that secures remote users and powered by widely deployed FortiOS and FortiGuard AI-powered security services including SWG, FWaaS, ZTNA, CASB to allow organizations to shift from a CAPEX to OPEX business model.
Which are the major cybersecuity trends influencing the Middle East?
The FortiGuard H1 2022 Threat Report findings show that the convergence of IT and OT networks, combined with today’s Work-From-Anywhere (WFA) environment, mean that bad actors are finding more opportunities to carry out both familiar and new cyberattacks while using more clever techniques to evade detection.
The 2022 Global Threat Landscape report identifies several cybersecurity trends.
• Defense Evasion is the Most Prominent Attack Tactic
• Ransomware-as-a-Service Opens the Door to New Variants
• IT and OT Endpoints are Still Prime Targets as Work-From-Anywhere Continues
• Wiper Malware an Increasing OT Security Concern
• Maximize AI and Machine Learning (ML)
How does your offerings enable organisations to enhance their cybersecurity preparedness in the new normal?
To keep organizations aware and prepared to respond to the ever-changing cyber threat landscape, Fortinet introduced earlier this year three major new offerings designed to support security teams.
1. Security: Fortinet Introduces the World’s Fastest Compact Firewall
2. Networking & Security Convergence: Fortinet and Comcast Partner to Offer SASE Services
3. Cloud: Fortinet Introduces FortiCNP for Cloud Risk Management
These solutions offer a comprehensive solution for today’s hybrid approach that converges networking and security to be able to reduce complexity, while securing and connecting hybrid and remote users to advanced security with superior performance.
What message would you like to give to the customers visiting the show and why should they meet you?
Looking at the development of the security market over the past two decades makes it clear that the original insight of Fortinet’s founders will continue well into the future: Security will become a larger share of the networking market. New advanced solutions, such as AIOps, integrated zero-trust network access (ZTNA) and identity, zero-trust, and AI-enhanced outbreak detection, are only possible because Fortinet has converged critical security and network functions into a single, expansive platform.
What are your expectations from this year’s GITEX?
Over these past two years, business continuity has required networks to rapidly adapt and diversify, resulting in the creation of hybrid networks and highly distributed workforces. This resulting digital acceleration also led to fundamental changes in businesses, customers, industries, and governments. Today, people worldwide expect to access any information or application, regardless of where it has been deployed, using any device, and from any location and we expect GITEX will be a place for everyone to see how Fortinet has been on the forefront of all these challenges.
Where can we find you at GITEX? (booth no and hall no)
You can find us at Hall 7, stand no A20.