TOKYO, Japan - May 11, 2009 - Fortinet^® - a market-leading network security provider and worldwide leader of unified threat management (UTM) solutions today announced that Sohgo Security Services Co., Ltd (ALSOK for short) has recently launched a customer premise based (CPE) managed security service called Network Monitoring. Subscribers will be able to leverage Fortinets FortiAnalyzer™ and FortiManager™ capabilities to perform log analysis and updates at ALSOKs premises. The type of FortiGate® appliance that will be deployed depends on the number of users onsite.

This new MSSP service aims to secure networks against viruses and hackers externally. Inside the network, it also aims to help customers protect against internal data leakage threats. For instance, in the event of an unsafe connection, ALSOK will prevent the damage from spreading under an emergency act.

Susumu Hoshino, the Executive Managing Director of esearch and Development at ALSOK elaborates, ÏWe are focusing on expanding our information security business and thus, now is a good time to launch Network Monitoring, as a program to protect our customers networks. Fortinet was selected as the preferred provider of security systems for our MSSP deployment because of the companys strong brand and high quality performance.

To reinforce this notion, Akio Sakamoto, Vice President of the Far East at Fortinet added, ÏFortinet is honored to partner with ALSOK in this groundbreaking deal to offer customers better security services. Indeed, this is a strong opportunity for us to strengthen our core business value proposition and promote security consolidation to combat the blended threatscape.

A key target segment under the Network Monitoring service program are enterprises looking to replace ageing firewalls and switch from point solutions to UTM as the preferred security approach, while reducing CapEx costs with security services fees subscription instead of buying the appliances upfront. In addition, this program also targets companies struggling to streamline their security management, which Fortinet is able to address with its manageability aspects.

The program also allows customers to customize their security services offerings, which include firewalling, intrusion prevention (IPS), P2P shaping, antispam and Web content filtering - all of which are supported by FortiGate appliances. Maintenance services will be handled by ALSOKs on-demand information monitoring centre, which provides replacement services upon request. Data log analysis carried out by FortiAnalyzer will be compiled monthly and abnormalities flagged up. Additional services such as emergency blocks and reporting are also available.