LONDON, Dec. 2, 2009 - Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT) - a market-leading network security provider and worldwide leader of unified threat management (UTM) solutions - today announced that 20:20 Mobile Group, Europe's largest mobile handset distributor, has chosen Fortinet's suite of multi-threat security solutions as the cornerstone of its IT security strategy. The integrated approach of Fortinet's security products to enable end-to-end protection isenhancing security flexibility and performance across 20:20 Mobile Group's business while significantly reducing operating costs and relieving management complexity.

Managing and operating its silo'd security infrastructure had become too resource-intensive for the Mobile Group's IT team. Spencer Johnson, Head of IT Infrastructure at 20:20 Mobile, explains: "Using separate vendors for each and every security functionality was a nightmare to manage. The point security approach was complex and costly for our large workforce, and simple tasks such as patch management or creating profiles were very resource-intensive."

With much of its disparate security infrastructure reaching end-of-life, 20:20 decided to re-evaluate its entire security strategy and sought a more consolidated approach. Based on the strong performance results of 20:20's existing FortiGate multi-threat security platform, the company decided to extend its use of the solution. Johnson adds, "We had a mix and match security infrastructure, the incumbent FortiGate we used for firewall had impressed us the most. It made sense to build on this success during the wider evaluation process."

Working with trusted IT partner, AIS, 20:20 explored Fortinet's end-to-end functionality across network, content and application security. "We knew we wanted best of breed, but without the silo'd approach," continued Johnson. "We quickly found that the FortiGate and FortiMailT appliances more than stood up to competitive point products across our various security requirements, while FortiClientT would enable us to extend our network security policies to remote users. Fortinet was the only vendor able to provide an integrated approach for more comprehensive security without impinging on network performance."

Consequently, Fortinet's integrated, high-performance appliances have replaced an array of disparate point products at 20:20 for end-to-end security protection. Fortinet partner AIS has deployed two FortiGate-310B appliances for firewall, anti-virus, anti-spam and web-content filtering protection for the UK's 750-strong workforce. Adding two FortiMail-400 appliances provides layered e-mail protection for low-latency messaging security, while the FortiClient endpoint security software is protecting the workforce's mobile devices. All of 20:20's Fortinet systems are kept up to date automatically by Fortinet's FortiGuardT subscription services, ensuring real-time automatic security updates round-the-clock enabling 20:20 to be assured of the highest level of protection.

The Mobile Group also sought a central management platform that would help direct resource away from prolonged operational tasks and enable the business to maximise the specialist skills of the IT team. 20:20 centralised its security management and reporting functions with Fortinet's FortiAnalyzerT and FortiManagerT security reporting and management platforms, providing the increased visibility and ease of management across its network.

Johnson continues, "Fortinet has enabled us to create an integrated security strategy that not only gives us a tighter shield against the evolution of blended threats, but its FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer platforms have provided us with a simplified and flexible management structure and a low total cost of ownership with its per-box licensing model."

"This is a great example of how our multi-threat network security solutions are meeting the end-to-end security needs of global businesses, like 20:20 Mobile," comments Patrice Perche, International vice president at Fortinet. "This deployment underscores the high-performance of our solutions when compared with point security products. Providing a granular approach to security and a management that is both scalable and flexible, 20:20 are benefiting from an integrated network security strategy at optimised operational costs and with maximum control and visibility."