Fortinet Secures Ryerson University's Gigabit-Speed Network of Over 50,000 Users

SUNNYVALE, Calif., October 27, 2005 - Fortinet - the pioneer and market leader of Unified Threat Management and only provider of ASIC-accelerated, network-based multi-threat security systems for real-time network protection - today announced that Ryerson University, a leading Toronto, Ontario-based university, has deployed a comprehensive enterprise network security platform from Fortinet. Ryerson University deployed over 40 FortiGate™ enterprise security appliances to protect its campus' vast IT network, including over 50,000 student, employee and alumni users and numerous data services such as video conferencing, multicasting, interactive multimedia course-ware and other multi-platform technologies.

Of Gigabits and Bottom Lines: Universities Need to Secure Internet Gateways and Subnets
Ryerson University was tasked with the challenge of protecting its vast network against increased attacks and unwanted traffic such as viruses, spyware and worms, while securing a growing amount of multi-platform devices that have restricted and unrestricted access to its campus network, which includes gigabit speed Internet connections. In addition, Ryerson University had different security needs in different parts of its network, with various subnets for academic disciplines and departments such as administration, finance and human resources that required individual security policies.

With the help of LCM Security, a leading Canadian-based supplier of security products and technologies and Fortinet Platinum Partner, Ryerson University evaluated security vendors such as Alteon, Cisco, Juniper and Nortel, and chose Fortinet's FortiGate enterprise security appliances to protect its campus-wide and extended network.

"Fortinet's FortiGate enterprise security appliances were able to be configured in a variety of modes, and seamlessly integrate into existing networks," said Larry Lemieux, assistant director IT support for Ryerson University. "Combining security into the network gateway can add overhead resulting in performance issues. Fortinet's high-performance security appliances significantly alleviate this by providing gigabit speed throughput at the gateway, while still maintaining comprehensive protection without adversely affecting real-time applications such as VoIP."

Word to the Wise and Bang for the Buck: FortiGate Enterprise Security Appliances
To secure its University network, consisting of numerous multi-platform subnets for various departments, Ryerson University deployed an enterprise network security platform with Fortinet's flagship ASIC-accelerated FortiGate enterprise security appliances. FortiGate-3600 large enterprise security appliances are deployed in a cluster at the Internet gateway through which all traffic is filtered and scanned for viruses, intrusions and other unwanted network traffic, using integrated firewall, antivirus and intrusion prevention technologies.

FortiGate-800 enterprise security appliances and FortiGate-300 mid-enterprise security appliances are deployed throughout the campus to protect different buildings and subnets for various academic and administrative departments. The subnets' security appliances are configured with individual and varied firewall policies and leverage integrated antivirus and intrusion prevention functionality for comprehensive internal network protection. Ryerson University centrally manages its FortiGate security appliances using Fortinet's FortiManager system, a management and monitoring tool that allows enterprises to easily manage large numbers of FortiGate systems.

Additionally, Ryerson University subscribes to three separate Internet Service Providers (ISPs), which are connected to the University's redundant core network switches. In the event of component failure, the network will automatically reroute ISP traffic from the FortiGate-3600 cluster to another FortiGate-3600 system running in firewall mode only. Another FortiGate-3600 system is used for testing of new versions of patches.

"Complex, enterprise scale networks should not compromise on peace of mind, especially when it comes to leveraging limited resources, which is often the case in academic settings," said Ken Xie, founder, president and CEO of Fortinet. "We are proud to deliver Ryerson University with the high performance enterprise security appliances that it requires for its numerous and varied security needs, while reducing the amount of resources needed to maintain its network in favor of focusing on its academic pursuits."

To learn more about Fortinet's FortiGate security appliances, please visit: www.fortinet.com/products

To read a complete case study, highlighting Ryerson University's Fortinet deployment for enterprise security, please visit: www.fortinet.com/doc/cases/RyersonUniversity.pdf

About Fortinet (www.fortinet.com)
Fortinet is the confirmed leader of Unified Threat Management market. The company's award-winning FortiGate™ 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. Fortinet's solutions are the only security products that are certified six times over by the ICSA (server antivirus, client 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.