Wireless WAN Resiliency with Secure 5G and 4G/3G LTE

Multi-site enterprise organizations and retailers today demand agility and dependable cellular connectivity as a backup to their primary wired broadband connections.

With FortiExtender secure 5G and LTE, enterprise organizations and retailers alike are able to leverage wireless WAN connectivity to assure an always-on value chain and avoid the risks of network downtime that come with relying on traditional broadband connections alone.

As the enterprise network grows more distributed and defined by thin branch network locations, remote access and mobile services, traditional broadband connectivity is often not enough to maintain resiliency and network uptime demands, especially in industries heavily dependent Internet of Things (IoT) devices. For example, in retail stores and kiosks are widely distributed and processing point-of-sale (POS) transactions also face strict Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance requirements. Relying on on conventional broadband is often not cost-effective and can be unreliable.  

Establishing and maintaining a higher level of secure, resilient connectivity is key in maintaining business continuity and real-time agility wherever networks are sprawling and the number of connected devices is growing.

FortiExtender delivers reliable wireless WAN connectivity, including both LTE and 5G, offering high-performance resilient failover connectivity alongside any DSL/cable broadband or multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network. From enterprise IT to multi-site retail, FortiExtender affords infrastructure leaders cost-effective access to FortiSASE service at thin branch locations while providing connectivity assurance and redundancy.

In addition to resiliency, FortiExtender offers a high level of failover deployment flexibility and options to bolster any broadband network.

FortiExtender provides a reliable WAN connection to a firewall, such as a FortiGate, using the cellular LTE infrastructure (3G, 4G), as well as 5G. These connections are commonly used as a second broadband connection for reliability or increased throughput. But those businesses that want to use multiple WAN connections, including for SD-WAN, can also use FortiExtender for one of those WAN links.