(Fortinet's continuous improvement and innovation of product and service architecture)
SD-WAN software defines wide area network, which is a relatively new technical field. Gartner has released the first "Magic Quadrant Report for WAN Edge Infrastructure" in 2018, which is also Gartner's first Magic Quadrant report in the SD-WAN field. Only three years have passed since the latest 2020 report. The Gartner Magic Quadrant Report is an assessment of technology vendors in a certain professional technology market. In other words, it is recognized that the professional technology has formed a certain market size and competitors. Then three reports in only three years show that this field is still An emerging market.
Many people confuse SD-WAN software-defined wide area network with SDN software-defined network. In fact, SD-WAN is mainly based on multi-link to optimize cloud application software access experience, and branch enterprise networking based on WAN, while SDN It is the network virtualization and interconnection within the data center and between multiple data centers. SD-WAN is an emerging market that has emerged with the maturity and large-scale development of the public cloud market. Since entering the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Wide Area Network Edge Infrastructure (SD-WAN) in 2018, Fortinet, a security vendor, has been a “challenger”. The edge of the "Quadrant is running wildly", and will quickly become one of the world's top two SD-WAN vendors in the "Leader" quadrant by 2020.
(Gartner Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure, September 2020)
Today, Fortinet is the only leader that uses a product to enter the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Wide Area Network Edge Infrastructure (SD-WAN) and the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls. Cen Yitao, senior product marketing manager for Fortinet, said this means that Fortinet has Opportunity to provide converged network and security solutions. And Zhang Lue, technical director of Fortinet China, emphasized that Fortinet's SD-WAN technology is fully self-developed and constantly innovated for customer needs, especially the rich SD-WAN scenario solution architecture capabilities to meet the needs of different SD-WAN customers.
Why is SD-WAN more and more important?
As early as 2017, IDC, another market research and consulting company, released an SD-WAN market research report. The report at that time pointed out that the most important driving factors for SD-WAN growth in the next five years are digital transformation, the continuous rise of SaaS applications, and Enterprises accept and adopt software-defined networking more widely. IDC experts pointed out that the traditional WAN is not designed for the cloud, nor is it suitable for the security requirements related to distributed and cloud-based applications, while the hybrid WAN meets the needs of next-generation network connectivity and is built on the SD in the hybrid WAN. -WAN can provide a more complete solution.
In July 2019, IDC released SD-WAN market analysis data again, pointing out that the global SD-WAN market will continue to experience a compound annual growth rate of 30.8% from 2018 to 2023, and will reach US$5.25 billion in 2023. IDC pointed out that SD-WAN is one of the fastest-growing segments in the network infrastructure market. An important reason is that traditional enterprise WAN WANs cannot meet the needs of modern enterprise digital services, especially when it is necessary to support SaaS applications and multi-cloud and When hybrid cloud. In addition, enterprises are more interested in how to easily manage multiple types of connections in their WAN to improve application performance and end user experience. Global communications operators are also quickly embracing SD-WAN. These trends continue to drive SD-WAN Adoption.
Simply understand, with the advancement of corporate digital transformation, more and more companies have developed their own digital SaaS applications, and SaaS applications are for users and users distributed in a wide range of geographic locations, so companies need to manage more than just Its own network and network infrastructure also involves the management and optimization of public networks and network infrastructure, the purpose of which is to improve the stability and service quality of SaaS applications. SD-WAN, with its ability to perceive SaaS application software, can dynamically adjust the underlying WAN network link serving SaaS applications, including the optimization and management of cost, response time, stability, and security. Therefore, it is important for enterprise digitalization. Very important for transformation.
Especially this year's global epidemic has caused many employees of enterprises to work from home, which suddenly increased the enterprise's demand for SD-WAN. Gartner’s "Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure Report 2020" pointed out that by 2023, in order to provide flexible, cost-effective and scalable bandwidth, 30% of corporate locations will have only Internet WAN connections, and this proportion will be approximately 15%; By 2024, in order to improve agility and support for cloud applications, 60% of enterprises will implement SD-WAN, and in 2020 this proportion is about 30%.
Fortinet's three-year three leap forward
Whether it is IDC or Gartner's report, while pointing out that the SD-WAN market is a booming emerging market, it also points out that the sales growth in this market is very rapid, leading to fierce competition. Gartner's 2020 report believes that there are more than 80 suppliers in the SD-WAN market, and there are more technology vendors in this field in the Chinese market. The overall SD-WAN market is similar to the network firewall market in terms of competition.
According to IDC statistics, Fortinet is the most deployed network security equipment supplier in the world. Fortinet also ranks among the world's top three network security companies, providing more than 5 million network security devices to more than 400,000 customers worldwide. Fortinet is able to cross the border into SD-WAN from the field of network security, largely because Fortinet's network firewall FortiGate can reach the world-class level of recognition of SaaS applications. Fortinet's self-developed security chip SPU and network security operating system FortiOS , Able to grasp the basic technology of SD-WAN independently.
According to Zhang Lue, Technical Director of Fortinet China, there are four major genres of SD-WAN vendors in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant: original SD-WAN vendors; SD-WAN vendors transformed from security vendors, including Fortinet; traditional network vendors transformed SD-WAN vendors; and the transition from WAN optimization vendors to the SD-WAN field. And Fortinet entered the Gartner Magic Quadrant in 2018. At that time, it was crowded with many manufacturers on the edge of the "challenger"; in 2019, Fortinet moved from the edge of the "challenger" to the "leader" quadrant quickly; by 2020, Fortinet quickly entered the "Leaders" quadrant and became the world's second largest SD-WAN vendor.
(Fortinet SD-WAN rich components and application scenarios)
Since deciding to enter the SD-WAN field, Fortinet’s execution and forward-looking has always been in the forefront of many manufacturers. The most important thing is that Fortinet’s SD-WAN is a completely self-developed product, unlike other manufacturers that entered through acquisitions. The "Leader" quadrant may maintain its ranking in the "Leader" quadrant. Cen Yitao introduced that Fortinet has been involved in the SD-WAN field since 2016, initially positioned as Secure SD-WAN, and launched the industry’s first SD-WAN ASIC chip in 2019, providing performance and cost performance that are 10 times higher than the industry average. At the same time, it launched the SD-Branch software-defined branch solution, incorporating the security and network capabilities of the branch into the Fortinet SD-WAN orchestration system. From 2018 to 2019, Fortinet launched a number of innovations in the SD-WAN field, including cloud connectivity, hybrid cloud SD-WAN and SD-WAN orchestration platform, etc.; in 2020, Fortinet launched a self-healing SD-WAN.
Cen Yitao emphasized that because Fortinet's SD-WAN capabilities are built and self-developed based on the Fortinet platform, Fortinet continues to invest in ASICs to keep hardware equipment and software at a strong price-performance ratio, and SD-WAN capabilities in software are also increasing. All, even after the safety functions are fully turned on, it can still maintain high performance. In the Gartner 2020 SD-WAN report, Fortinet was evaluated as one of the vendors with the strongest security solution capabilities in this study, and combined with SD-WAN capabilities, it provided the most complete solution.
For Fortinet, its SD-WAN vision is to help users build a security-driven network, not to separate the network from security. Fortinet's FortiGate is the only leader manufacturer that enters the two magic quadrants of Gartner's network firewall and SD-WAN at the same time. FortiGate is also the only product in the industry that can provide users with converged network and security capabilities.
Rich SD-WAN scenario solutions
Fortinet has been focusing on the development of SD-WAN since 2016, and has carried out a lot of innovative work in terms of hardware, software and solution architecture. Currently, Fortinet has more than 30,000 WAN edge device users and more than 8,000 SD-WAN users worldwide, covering many industries of all sizes, including retail, life and health, manufacturing, finance, and education. Gartner commented that Fortinet continues to expand its market share by continuously winning customers, expanding its channels and ecosystem, especially in the field of operators.
The Gartner 2020 SD-WAN report pointed out that SD-WAN vendors can achieve 8 major aspects of differentiation: ease of use, application performance optimization, reasonable pricing model, cloud connection, orchestration and integration with third-party solutions, LET support, AI /ML troubleshooting, integrated SASE. Cen Yitao introduced that Fortinet has covered the main 6 of these 8 differentiated dimensions, especially this year Fortinet acquired SASE vendors specifically to accelerate the ability to integrate SASE, and in AI/ML troubleshooting and third-party solution orchestration And integration is also making up.
In terms of the scale of SD-WAN usage scenarios covered, Zhang Lue introduced that Fortinet has focused on SD-WAN since 2016. An important decision at that time was to add SD-WAN functions to all FortiGate models, which greatly expanded. The use scenario of SD-WAN, especially the low-end access end only needs a router to achieve simple SD-WAN functions. The Gartner 2020 SD-WAN report specifically emphasized that SD-WAN vendors need to cover the smallest to largest SD-WAN market. Fortinet has done a solid job in this regard.
Fortinet SD-WAN has three basic usage scenarios: performance assurance of key business applications, providing the best user experience for key business applications through "self-healing" SD-WAN; optimizing cloud connections, optimizing the SaaS experience and implementation by accelerating cloud connections Multi-cloud interconnection; simplify operation and maintenance, reduce cost and complexity through orchestration platform, and realize automatic operation and maintenance of wide area network. Zhang Lue introduced that Fortinet SD-WAN can be applied to two ways that enterprises purchase equipment to build their own SD-WAN network and operators provide SD-WAN services. In 2020, Fortinet will cooperate with many operators to utilize Fortinet SD-WAN technology and operations. The vendor’s network and operation and maintenance have helped customers realize many important SD-WAN application scenarios, which is also an important reason for Fortinet to enter the Leader’s Magic Quadrant.
(One of the application scenarios of Fortinet SD-WAN: aggregate public clouds through operator network boundaries)
For SD-WAN vendors, the solution architecture for scenarios is very critical. Fortinet's retail store/branch office SD-WAN solution architecture, public cloud and private cloud interconnection SD-WAN solution architecture, data center/headquarters interconnection SD-WAN solution architecture, cross-border interconnection and application-optimized SD-WAN Solution architecture, etc., all represent Fortinet's ability and strength in SD-WAN solution architecture. Zhang Lue introduced, for example, if SD-WAN vendors want to accelerate the Office 365 SaaS software, they may need to find out all their IP addresses or connect their data centers through a dedicated line. Office 365 has more than 4 million IP addresses and does not work every day. Stop changing, this is the test for SD-WAN vendors, that is, SaaS services must be accurately identified and tested before they can be selected by customers. Of course, Fortinet has such strength. On the other hand, the cost-effective solution of connecting its data center through a dedicated line is low. Fortinet also provides a cloud connection solution based on a backbone network dedicated line to accelerate the user experience of accessing mainstream SaaS and IaaS.
In summary: With the continuous deepening of digital transformation and the widespread application of network acceleration technology in cloud computing, SD-WAN has become the fastest growing network technology in the market in recent years. The biggest advantage of Fortinet SD-WAN is that it integrates network and security into one product, allowing users to meet the two major needs of network and security through a unified management interface, and integrate corporate network and security monitoring and management into one. This is an important reason why Fortinet has quickly become a leader in SD-WAN within three years, and it will also greatly promote the revolutionary upgrade of the WAN edge infrastructure. (Text/Ningchuan)