Fortinet updates network security appliances

Security vendor Fortinet has released two systems designed to help enterprises manage and secure corporate networks.

The company said that the FortiGate and FortiSwitch blade modules offer the ability to manage high-bandwidth networks while maintaining security.

Both modules are designed for use with the company's FortiGate-5000 series appliances.

"You can't take a 'cookie-cutter' approach to network security, especially in large-scale, business-critical environments supporting hundreds of thousands or millions of end customers and clients," said Fortinet chief technology officer and vice president of engineering Michael Xie.

"That is why we continue to innovate with agile and modular approaches to network defence because each customer environment has a unique threat profile and corresponding security and performance requirements."

The FortiGate 5001B blade couples network security and firewall protection with 10-Gigabit Ethernet support.

The company estimates that the systems will offer up to 40Gbit/s firewall throughput and 17Gbit/s throughput for virtual private network deployments.

The 5001B also offers anti-malware, web filtering, intrusion prevention and application management services.

Fortinet is pitching the FortiSwitch 5003B blade at companies looking to manage high-bandwidth network traffic. The switching module is designed to complement the 5000-series platform by improving performance and maintaining security protection.

The company is targeting the FortiSwitch blade at high-traffic datacentre areas such as service providers, carriers and extremely large enterpises.