PHUKET, Thailand, April 21, 2004 – Fortinet, the only provider of ASIC-powered, network-based antivirus firewall systems for real-time network protection – today kicked off its first-annual Fortinet Partner Conference at the Novotel Coralia resort in Phuket, Thailand. The conference is being held April 21-23 and is being attended by more than 50 major technology distributors, resellers and managed service providers (MSPs) throughout the Asia Pacific region. The conference features targeted sales and technical training sessions, strategy workshops, and customer and partner case study presentations designed to help Fortinet and its partners forge a winning strategy for continued growth by leveraging competitive advantages, vertical market opportunities, and the growing need for complete content protection that only Fortinet’s antivirus firewalls provide.

The two-day conference will provide Fortinet channel partners the opportunity to network with and gain insights on the company’s strategy and direction from key Fortinet executives – including Fortinet Founder and Chief Technology Officer Michael Xie, Vice President of Asia Pacific Matthew Young, and Vice President of Marketing ichard
Kagan. Additionally, real-world success stories and solutions selling strategies will be presented by guest speakers from SooChow University, a Fortinet customer in Taiwan; DACOM, a major fixed line carrier and Fortinet partner in Korea; and Fortinet solution technology partners Aventail, Cerberian and eIQ Networks.

“Driven by market demand for Fortinet’s FortiGate Antivirus Firewalls that defeat sophisticated content-based attacks, Fortinet has experienced dramatic growth in the APAC market, with offices now in 10 countries and channel partners across the region. As a completely channel-focused company, this growth would not have been possible if not for our partners,” said Matthew Young, vice president and general manager of Fortinet Asia Pacific. “Our first partner conference will be all the more exciting thanks to the presence of key customers representing the education, financial services, service provider, and other target markets who will tell in their own words about the value they’re obtaining with Fortinet’s unique solutions.”

Fortinet partners offered the following comments about the company and its APAC partner conference:

Charles Leung, business manager for security solutions at DMX, a Fortinet reseller, said: "We've been reselling Fortinet products for more than a year now, and the growth we’ve encountered has been just staggering. The market is demanding high-performance security solutions and Fortinet is delivering. They have clearly arrived as a force in the Asia Pacific security scene. I am looking forward to an exciting, informative event."

T.K. Kim, team head of information security for DACOM said: "We recently signed with Fortinet and have been quite impressed with the company and its competitively-superior products. We are very excited to be attending their conference and are looking forward to meeting key executives, hearing about plans for the company and its products, and gaining valuable tools that will help us sell even more FortiGate products. This should be a first-rate event, consistent with Fortinet’s excellent and cutting-edge products.”

Fortinet products are sold through a worldwide network of solution providers who are supported via the FortiPartner Program. The tiered Program is tailored to meet the needs of distributors, resellers and managed service providers with different business requirements. For more information on the FortiPartner Program, please visit: http://www.fortinet.com/partners/