HONG KONG, 21 April 2008 - Fortinet - the pioneer and leading provider of unified threat management (UTM) solutions - is announcing an aggressive channel-growth strategy aimed at significantly boosting the number of enterprise resellers in Asia Pacific in 2008. The new strategy - delivered through Fortinet's high-performance FortiGate™ multi-threat security appliance and newly improved FortiPartner™ program - is focused on growing the company's participation in the enterprise market, particularly with resellers specializing in education, financial, government and healthcare.

Key elements of Fortinet's new channel strategy include the following:

• Tripling of marketing resources over 2007 to enhance and tailor FortiPartner program to Asia Pacific resellers, including a series of demand-generation programs in the ten cities throughout the region where Fortinet has a presence;
• Pursue enterprise and vertical segments with high-performance FortiGate-3810A and FortiGate-3600A security appliances;
• Focus on replacement market for aging firewall and virtual private network (VPN) equipment.

Working with strategic value-added resellers (VARs) and solution provider partners, Fortinet will be able to provide integrated network security specialization, leadership high-performance products and broad geographic coverage to a wide range of corporate customers. Fortinet will support the strategy through additional enterprise channel partners and direct touch sales staff, and revising its regional partner program to further improve business efficiency and deliver more value to Asia Pacific enterprise partners .

"Fortinet has already achieved significant success with small-to-medium enterprises across the region throughout all industries. While the SME market continues to thrive, more resources will now be dedicated to supporting activities to achieve the same results in the enterprise segment," said Fortinet's Jens Andreassen, vice president of sales, APAC.

Already, Fortinet is playing an important role with resellers involved in the replacement of aging equipment deployed during the VPN and firewall boom six years ago. With its expertise in network security consolidation, Fortinet is well-placed to assist enterprises in deploying new VPN and firewall equipment with additional, integrated security features rather than stand-alone equipment. This represents a significant business opportunity for Fortinet in 2008.

The foundation for this new strategy and promising growth in the Asia Pacific region is provided by two enterprise-grade UTM appliances introduced last year - FortiGate-3810A and FortiGate-3016B. By consolidating even just two or three features within one device, enterprise customers can realize many benefits, including improved security, ease of management and lower cost of ownership. In addition, customers can improve their environmental impact by reducing the number of appliances required to run their network, which has an advantageous effect of lower power consumption. Due to the modular and flexible platform that the FortiGate appliance offers, enterprise customers can later easily turn on additional security functions should they decide to further consolidate their networks.

New, Improved FortiPartner Program
The FortiPartner program will be at the forefront of Fortinet's aggressive enterprise expansion plan. To encourage closer cooperation with enterprise resellers, there will be an emphasis on value and commitment as well as added incentives such as attractive profit margins, discount promotions, technology leadership and a professional certification program.

Illustrating the importance of its channel partners, Fortinet is about to embark on a series of demand-generation programs which include customer-facing events, telemarketing campaigns and industry surveys in the ten countries where Fortinet currently has a presence. This will provide customers in vertical markets opportunities to learn about how Fortinet provides secure network protection while giving channel partners the ability to reach out and generate leads from key vertical industries.

"Tremendous inroads have already been made by Fortinet in the consolidated network security market with a worldwide customer base of more than 20,000. By rolling out this new enterprise-focused strategy, there is every opportunity for Fortinet to continue our growth, especially in Asia Pacific," added Andreassen.

Interested resellers can apply online on Fortinet's website at http://www.fortinet.com/partners. All applicants will be evaluated for membership in the program.

Recent figures from market researcher IDC shows that Fortinet ranked the highest in worldwide UTM factory revenue for 2007, as it did the previous year. This success was fueled by significant large enterprise, MSSP and carrier adoption of its high-end FortiGate network security appliances. Specifically, Fortinet was named by IDC as the No.1 vendor in the high-end (US$50K to US$99.9K) price band for both factory revenue and units shipped; No.1 vendor in the enterprise UTM price band segments (US$10K to US$24.9K and US$25K-$49.9K) for both factory revenue and units shipped; and the overall leader in UTM factory revenue for Asia Pacific.