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Fortinet Named Leader Of Unified Threat Mgmt Security Category

Fortinet announced its confirmed leadership position in the Unified Threat Management (UTM) security market. Data from industry research firm IDC's recent report #31840, titled "2003 Threat Management Security Appliance Market" released today, shows that Fortinet holds 29.5 percent of the UTM security market -- the leading share of a new category consisting of integrated multi-function security appliances.

Growth Outpaces Traditional Firewall/VPN Appliances

According to IDC, the UTM segment of the Threat Management Appliance category was the fastest growing segment of the security market -- exceeding $100 million in revenue in 2003 and growing 160 percent over 2002. By 2008, IDC projects the UTM security system category will consist of a majority of the $3.45 billion market -- outpacing the traditional firewall/VPN appliances sector -- with 58 percent of the overall share.

"The emerging Unified Threat Management (UTM) Security Appliance market transforms single function appliances into a more flexible environment for deploying multiple security features on a single platform. UTMs are quickly gaining popularity because they offer security application performance, operating cost savings, and capital cost preservation," said Charles Kolodgy, research director for security products at IDC. "As the leading UTM vendor, Fortinet is a driving force in this market. It helps customers thwart blended threats, offers a wide variety of functionality, integrates security services, and solidly supports applications with high-performance hardware systems."

IDC defines Universal Threat Management security appliances as products that unify and integrate multiple security features integrated onto a single hardware platform. Qualification for inclusion within this category requires network firewall capabilities, network intrusion detection and prevention (IDP), and gateway anti-virus (AV) functionality. All of these security features do not need to be utilized concurrently, but need to exist in the product. In fact, larger enterprises and service providers offering managed security service offerings vary their use of the seven different Fortinet FortiGate antivirus firewall capabilities in their networks. IDC attributes the rapid market adoption of UTM security appliances to the fact that the rise in blended threats requires a greater breadth of integrated functionality and deployment flexibility.

Leading Universal Threat Management: FortiGate Antivirus Firewalls

Fortinet's FortiGate antivirus firewalls deliver the highest level of security available and are the only security systems in the world that are certified by the ICSA for antivirus, IPSec, firewall and intrusion detection functionality. The systems add a critical layer of real-time, network-based antivirus protection that complements host-based antivirus software and supports "defense-in-depth" strategies without compromising performance or cost. Fortinet platforms are deployed for antivirus protection and content filtering alone in conjunction with existing firewall, VPN, and related devices, or as complete dynamic network threat prevention systems with just a simple configuration change.

Since introduced in May of 2002, Fortinet's FortiGate antivirus firewalls have gained widespread market adoption, with more than 60,000 systems shipped to thousands of customers worldwide. Additionally, the products have earned numerous industry awards based on head-to-head third-party testing including the 2004 Security Product of the Year Award from Network Computing and the 2003 Networking Industry Awards Firewall Product of the Year.

"Fortinet remains the first and only company to address the need for security solutions that deliver high-performance, integrated anti-virus and network security," said Ken Xie, founder, CEO and president of Fortinet. "Confirmed market leadership from global research firm IDC validates the rapid market adoption of our FortiGate antivirus firewalls over competing point products and our effectiveness in delivering the universal threat management solutions customers need to thwart the new generation of attacks."