Fortinet Named 2004 Worldwide Leader of the Unified Threat Management (UTM) Security Appliance Market
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 30, 2005 – Fortinet – the pioneer and market leader in Unified Threat Management and only provider of ASIC-accelerated, network-based multi-threat security systems for real-time network protection – today announced that it has retained its worldwide leadership of the Unified Threat Management (UTM) security appliance market for the second consecutive year, according to a new report issued by leading IT market research and advisory firm IDC. New statistics contained within IDC report “Worldwide Threat Management Security Appliances 2005-2009 Forecast and 2004 Vendor Shares: Security Appliances Remain a Well Oiled Machine,” (#33997, September 2005) show that Fortinet held 18.1 percent of the UTM market in 2004 — dominating the category, which also includes vendors Juniper, Symantec, Check Point, Secure Computing and others. Fortinet uniquely delivers best in class security applications (firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention systems (IPS), VPN, Web filtering, anti-spam and traffic shaping) that are deployed separately on its FortiGate systems, or collectively to comprise a unified multi-threat management system.
Global Customer Demand Drives 200% Growth
According to the IDC report, the UTM segment of the Threat Management Appliance category continued to be the fastest-growing segment of the security appliance market in 2004. Strong global customer demand for UTM systems, which integrate multiple security applications into one device, generated more than $330 million in revenues and led to a 200 percent growth rate compared to 2003. In its report, IDC forecasts that by 2009 the UTM market will be the largest single market in the Threat Management security appliance sector, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48 percent (2004-2009).
“The rise in evolving and blended network threats requires a greater breadth of integrated functionality and deployment flexibility, which has caused explosive growth in the UTM market,” said Charles Kolodgy, research director for security products at IDC. “Fortinet led this category for the second consecutive year and continues to be a driving force in the space. Fortinet’s ASIC-accelerated FortiGate systems offer advantages in the way of performance, flexibility and cost and the company is leading the way in integrating new applications like SSL VPN and VoIP into the devices.”
IDC defines Unified Threat Management (UTM) security appliances as products that unify and integrate multiple security features onto a single hardware platform. Qualification for inclusion within this category requires network firewall capabilities, network intrusion detection and prevention (IDP) and gateway antivirus functionality. All of these security features do not need to be utilised concurrently, but need to exist in the product.
FortiGate Systems Continue to Lead the UTM Security Appliance Market
Fortinet’s FortiGate systems provide the industry’s broadest suite of security protections in a single platform, spanning firewall, VPN, antivirus, intrusion detection/prevention, Web filtering, antispam, antispyware and traffic shaping functionality. Deployed as an integrated or standalone solution, FortiGate systems detect and eliminate today’s threats as well as emerging blended threats that cannot be detected and eliminated by competitive solutions.
Since introduced in May 2002, Fortinet’s FortiGate systems have gained widespread market adoption, with more than 100,000 systems shipped to thousands of customers worldwide. Additionally, the FortiGate systems have earned numerous industry awards based on third party testing including ICSA certification for six distinct security applications (firewall, server antivirus, desktop antivirus, intrusion detection/prevention, IPSec VPN and SSL VPN), and NSS certification for its IPS technology.
“Customers around the world continue to realise the significant benefits of Fortinet’s solutions, confirmed by our continued leadership of the UTM market,” said Ken Xie, founder, CEO and president of Fortinet. “Our FortiGate multi-threat security systems deliver the broadest array of best in class security applications, which can be deployed individually to solve specific enterprise security needs or collectively as a comprehensive multi-threat network security solution that extends beyond the parameters of UTM.”
For more information on Fortinet’s FortiGate systems, please visit: www.fortinet.com/products/
About Fortinet (www.fortinet.com)
Fortinet is the confirmed leader of the Unified Threat Management market. The company’s award-winning FortiGateâ„? series of ASIC-accelerated multi-threat security systems, winner of the 2004 Security Product of the Year Award from Network Computing Magazine and the 2003 Networking Industry Awards Firewall Product of the Year, are the new generation of real-time network protection systems. They detect and eliminate the most damaging, content-based threats from e-mail and Web traffic such as viruses, worms, intrusions, inappropriate Web content and more in real time – without degrading network performance. FortiGate systems are the only security products that are certified six times over by the ICSA (server antivirus, desktop antivirus, firewall, IPSec, SSL, NIDS), and deliver a full range of network-level and application-level services in integrated, easily managed platforms. Named to the Red Herring Top 100 Private Companies, Fortinet is privately held and based in Sunnyvale, California.