Fortinet Announces Breakthrough in IPv6 Security Throughput

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Dec. 29, 2009 - Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT) - a leading network security provider and worldwide leader of unified threat management (UTM) solutions - today announced it has achieved ground-breaking IPv6 performance on its FortiGate®-5140 multi-threat chassis-based system, which delivers 56 Gbps IPv6 throughput, setting a new industry benchmark for network security processing. This leadership IPv6 performance was benchmarked and validated using a BreakingPoint Elite resiliency testing chassis with multiple 10 GbE interfaces.

Continued concern over the eventual exhaustion of publicly available IPv4 addresses is causing many organizations to more seriously plan their move to the IPv6 standard in the near term. This, coupled with rising international adoption requirements from countries like Japan along with the U.S. federal mandate requiring agencies to adopt technologies that support IPv6, makes it clear that vendors will need to make headway into not only supporting IPv6 but also breaking barriers that have hindered adoption to date. Thus, enabling high performance at multi-Gigabit Ethernet rates will remove many of the key impediments related to the adoption of IPv6. Today, Fortinet has successfully demonstrated performance of 56 Gbps for IPv6 throughput based on its proprietary FortiASIC™ technologies that accelerate security processing of the FortiGate-5000 Series blades and additional ADM modules. The FortiASIC processors are specialized security processors that accelerate the processing of network traffic focusing on security enforcement including firewall policies and additional content inspection requirements.

"While IPv6 has been under discussion for many years, its adoption is now in the foreseeable future, so the performance requirements to support this new standard are more important than ever," said Michael Xie, founder and CTO, Fortinet. "Our dedicated-ASIC approach to accelerate security performance continues to hold strong in delivering the processing speeds that are required to seamlessly bring IPv6 online."

Validated With Most Current and Comprehensive IPv6 Testing Platform, Live Attacks and Evasions

Validation of the FortiGate-5000 Series IPv6 throughput was done through IPv6 testing performed using BreakingPoint Elite, enabling organizations to have additional confidence in adopting the new Internet protocol. Testing with the BreakingPoint Elite provided the most current IPv6 standards as well as support for both application and security traffic. This enabled simulation of true global network traffic with stateful application traffic at line-rate speeds and high session counts, delivered from the same address space.

Fortinet's FortiOS™ 4.0 firmware already provides support for the IPv6 standard. The FortiOS 3.0 firmware has also successfully fulfilled all requirements for IPv6 Phase-2 Core Support as a router product. This certification, awarded by the IPv6 Ready Logo Program, demonstrates that Fortinet has developed the critical base support for IPv6 that will allow the company to meet the growing demands of government agencies and enterprises that require IPv6-capable UTM multi-threat security appliances.

About FortiGate
Fortinet's FortiGate systems are ASIC-accelerated security appliances that integrate core security and network functionalities including firewall, SSL and IPSec VPN, antivirus, intrusion prevention, Web filtering, antispam, application control, data loss prevention, SSL traffic inspection and WAN optimization. All FortiGate systems are kept up to date automatically by Fortinet's FortiGuard® Network, which helps protect against the most damaging, content-based threats from email and Web traffic such as viruses, worms, intrusions, other unwanted network traffic and more - around the clock and around the world. Fortinet solutions have won multiple awards and are the only security products that are certified in five programs by ICSA Labs for firewall, antivirus, IPSec VPN, network IPS and antispam.

About Fortinet (www.fortinet.com)
Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) is a worldwide provider of network security appliances and the market leader in unified threat management (UTM). Our products and subscription services provide broad, integrated and high-performance protection against dynamic security threats while simplifying the IT security infrastructure. Our customers include enterprises, service providers and government entities worldwide, including the majority of the 2009 Fortune Global 100. Fortinet's flagship FortiGate product delivers ASIC-accelerated performance and integrates multiple layers of security designed to help protect against application and network threats. Fortinet's broad product line goes beyond UTM to help secure the extended enterprise - from endpoints, to the perimeter and the core, including databases and applications. Fortinet is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., with offices around the world.

Copyright © 2009 Fortinet, Inc. All rights reserved. The symbols ® and ™ denote respectively federally registered trademarks and unregistered trademarks of Fortinet, Inc., its subsidiaries and affiliates. Fortinet's trademarks include, but are not limited to, the following: Fortinet, FortiGate, FortiGuard, FortiManager, FortiMail, FortiClient, FortiCare, FortiAnalyzer, FortiReporter, FortiOS, FortiASIC, FortiWiFi, FortiSwitch, FortiVoIP, FortiBIOS, FortiLog, FortiResponse, FortiCarrier, FortiScan, FortiDB and FortiWeb. Other trademarks belong to their respective owners. Fortinet has not independently verified statements, validations or certifications herein attributed to third parties, such as BreakingPoint, and Fortinet does not independently endorse such statements.