Day: April 13, 2020

Growing Number of MSSPs Leverage Fortinet Secure SD-WAN to Deliver Differentiated Value-Added Services to Customers

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Integrated Next-Generation Firewall Security, Advanced Routing and Open Fabric Ecosystem Allow MSSPs to Better Meet Customers’ Evolving Business Needs

 

News Summary

Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), a global leader in broad, integrated, and automated cybersecurity solutions, today announced increasing global momentum with managed security service providers (MSSPs), including Node4, Zain Jordan and Liquid Networx, leveraging Fortinet’s industry-leading Secure SD-WAN solution to provide customers additional high-value services.

 

SD-WAN provides organizations reliable and cost-effective connectivity to support their digital innovation goals. Recent research from IDC found that the SD-WAN infrastructure market is poised to reach $5.25 billion in 2023. As an increasing number of businesses look to deploy SD-WAN, many are turning to MSSPs to fill skill shortages and other gaps within their teams. MSSPs can fill this growing need by creating value-added services for customers that want to enhance user experience and reduce WAN complexity and cost, while securing their distributed networks.

 

John Maddison, EVP of products and CMO at Fortinet

“Fortinet’s global partners leverage our innovative Secure SD-WAN solution to take advantage of the new business opportunities presented by the rapidly growing SD-WAN market. Increasingly, MSSPs in particular are delivering new managed services built on Fortinet’s industry-leading Secure SD-WAN solution to meet customers’ evolving business needs. Our MSSP partners realize that delivering connectivity-only SD-WAN services is not sustainable long-term and are choosing to differentiate their services through the inclusion of security, which Fortinet Secure SD-WAN uniquely provides offering networking and security functionalities through a single offering.”

 

Fortinet Enables MSSPs to Unlock SD-WAN Opportunity

Recognizing this opportunity, Node4, Zain Jordan and Liquid Networx join a growing number of MSSPs who have chosen Fortinet Secure SD-WAN to deliver new managed services to their customers. Fortinet’s Security-Driven Networking approach to SD-WAN integrates both networking and security functionalities in one offering, enabling MSSPs to offer advanced security across their WAN infrastructure with a significantly lower total cost of ownership (TCO). Below is an overview of how three of Fortinet’s partners are utilizing Fortinet Secure SD-WAN to benefit their customers.

 

Node4

Node4 uses Fortinet’s SD-WAN technology to provide Secure SD-WAN managed services to its customers in the United Kingdom. Its offering provides customers with security at the edge for enhanced protection to multi-site businesses and Quality of Service (QoS) to protect voice and latency-sensitive applications, maximizing user experience.

 

“Fortinet gives us a competitive advantage over other service providers as we’re able to provide continual service innovation in line with our customers’ biggest SD-WAN challenges and requirements,” shared Paul Bryce, CCO at Node4. “Since using Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN solution, Node4 has seen our business grow with an increase in network sales, all while reducing our operating costs and overall TCO by about 40 percent.”

 

Additionally, using Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN technology in its own network has also allowed Node4 to improve performance for its cloud and SaaS services, which contribute up to 80 percent of Node4’s network traffic, by blending MPLS and internet facing connectivity. As a result, Node4 can provide its customers with accelerated cloud connectivity by reducing latency and removing WAN complexities.

 

Zain Business

Zain Business selected Fortinet to deliver Jordan’s first secure SD-WAN managed services to existing and new enterprise customers. Through its new services built on Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN solution, Zain Business can ensure customers run their applications with advanced security, performance and reliability, helping customers realize their business goals. Zain Business’ new SD-WAN service is particularly beneficial for distributed enterprises in verticals such as banking and retail with distributed branches and locations.

 

“The addition of these services powered by Fortinet Secure SD-WAN to our portfolio will make Zain Business a one-stop-shop for all information and communications technology (ICT) services required by many of today’s businesses, including connectivity, security, cloud, colocation and WiFi management,” said Mohannad Audeh, Director of the Enterprise Business Unit at Zain. Business. “Zain Business’ customers will benefit from our simple and cost-efficient SD-WAN offering that delivers security and enhanced connectivity all in one.”

 

Zain Business is also using Fortinet solutions to enhance its overall security services with Fortinet’s Next-Generation Firewall, Unified Threat Management, Advanced Threat Protection with Sandboxing and SIEM offerings.

 

Scandinavian Beauty & Flair

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Nordic experiences in Norway

By Shereen Shabnam

Exploring the area of the Northern lights and the midnight sun is on the bucket list of every traveler and Norway is home to this and some of mother nature’s most scenic landscapes of towering mountains, rolling green hills and dark cobalt waters.

Bergen is possibly my favourite area – On reaching Norway, get to the Oslo railway station and board the train for about 300km to Bergen, the gateway to the fjords. The ride is one of the most scenic train journeys in the world with mountain ranges where abundant snowfall feeds the glaciers.

In the distance, the icy summits of the mountains show the phenomenal melting of glaciers to remove ice load, cutting a U-shaped valley and like most of nature’s show pieces, the formation of fjords is a continuous work in progress.

There is so much joy in wandering the tangled maze of streets through several quarters clinging to the hillside on the Nordnes peninsula – Head to the World Heritage Site by the old Bryggen wharf and enjoy the fjords and islands surrounded by seven mountains with Mount Ulriken as the highest point at 700m above the sea level.

The vibrance of this tourist area, the sounds of the seagulls and water birds hovering above the quay add vigour to the atmosphere and the area near the fish market affords easy access to Mount Floyen for a spectacular view of the city.

Bergen is a city of culture and a 1,000-year-old history of harmonious living with the sea, fjords and mountains. It was founded by King Olav Kyrre and become the medieval centre of Norway from 1217 to 1299, when Oslo was oriented the country’s modern capital. By the end of the 13thcentury, Bergen became one of the Hanseatic League’s most important cities to the house state officials.

Bergen was established late 1300 as the centre of trading activity in Norway. The Saxon Hanseatic merchants lived in their own separate quarters in the town and enjoyed exclusive right of trade with the fisherman in the north that sailed to Bergen each summer.

The interesting Hanseatic Museum, located close to the fish market, shows how the German merchants used to live and work. Today, the soul of Bergen, the Bryggen is a jumbled labyrinth of narrow streets with shops and houses in pastel colors of the old part quayside.

It is great to explore deeper into the fjords to experience a total scene of adventure in a surprisingly stunning and intact natural ecosystem. The fjords offer a full range of tourist’s activities: trekking, hiking, biking, caving, canoeing, angling and an encounter with local cultures to boot.

You can also head to Flam, which literally means “little place between steep mountains”, nestled in the innermost part of the Aurlandsfjord. The harbor district offers nature-based activities with nearby attractions, charming culture, historic traditions and is lined with low-rise hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops.

After Flam, cruising through Godvangenfjord, past several villages, enjoy the landscape with hillsides and blooming wild flowers. Next stop is stunning Hardangerfjord. Here, visitors can hire boats to visit nearby villages and explore the farming culture. The local tribes, their lifestyle, clothing, cuisine and dance are one of the great attractions in Hardangerfjord as well as landscapes like fjords, glaciers, waterfalls and lush mountains.

Also known as fruit bowls of Norway; the region produces some of the world’s most delicious apples, plums, apricots, cherries and a wide variety of berries. Take an excursion to Hardaner Vidda Natursenterat Eidfjord. Housing a museum, restaurant and souvenir shop, this complex is a must visit.

Revitilised, return to Bergen, home of the regional music genius: Edvard Grieg who lived in the locality of the picturesque Nordaas Lake. His works are commonly performed in the theaters in town.

The best way to end the journey is by watching the sun slowly cooling down at the dusk, lighting the facade of heritage buildings and transforming Bergen into a fairy-tale town at sunset.

NetApp Powers the Data Fabric Bringing Digital Humans to Life

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3Lateral uses the power of NetApp’s technology to offer a ‘friendlier face’ for artificial intelligence, biometrics, healthcare and life sciences

NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP), the leader in cloud data services, has been selected by 3Lateral, a global leader in the “digital humans” industry, to help deliver a data-driven approach for the creation of incredibly realistic human characters for video games, movies, and wider industrial and AI applications.

3Lateral, part of Epic Games, has pioneered the concept of digital humans for over a decade with its work featured in award-winning game, and film. “Creating digital humans requires a deep understanding of every aspect of our appearance and motion, both of which portray our inner self and tell stories around us,” said Vladimir Mastilovic, founder and director of 3Lateral. “We read all these visual cues with great precision as instinct to analyze an image of another human being is deeply embedded in our DNA.”

Data-driven approach

Behind the realistic models that can be controlled in real time is a data-driven approach which requires the studio to collect data with a unique facial scanner, soon to be peaking at 1 PB per scanning session. Multiple teams at 3Lateral using both custom software and cloud environments use this data to generate realistic models and scenes. The data pipeline has to integrate with multiple project requirements for a variety of unique hardware, software and synthesize technologies.

3Lateral and NetApp developed a data fabric based on AFF and FAS platforms that could follow up the immediate challenges, which also meets the needs for further development, storage capacity demands and workflow changes. The data fabric allows seamless access to petabytes of data that spans multiple technology foundations. In preparation for the massive performance requirements of the future, the teams are experimenting with enhancing their data fabric with NetApp Memory Accelerated Data (MAX Data). The integration could then be extended with a NetApp Hyper Converged Infrastructure (HCI) and NetApp Kubernetes Services (NKS), enabling the studio to further simplify and accelerate their development environment.

Enhancing data collaboration

The teams at 3Lateral predict an increase in data density and Mastilovic aims to develop a framework which enables people to create new applications in industries beyond the entertainment sector. A wide range of applications in medicine, biometrics and research are possible. For this purpose, Mastilovic considers scaling up the cloud capacities of 3Lateral to cover further spikes. According to him, a data fabric strategy offers the necessary “gateway to the cloud”.

“Working with 3Lateral has been an exciting project that showcases the potential of a data fabric enabled by NetApp solutions,” said Matt Watts, CTO EMEA at NetApp. “Through the adoption of a data-driven approach, 3Lateral has built a foundation, which solved the immediate challenges of inflexible data silos that have hindered innovative collaboration. The new infrastructure design can deal with the issues of increasing data collection speed and capacity. 3Lateral’s data fabric will adapt and evolve with them as they are looking to solve new and future challenges.”

To learn more about the digital human concept carried out by 3Lateral, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMQmWW5w_1s

Airport Show 2020 rescheduled to October

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Dubai to play its important role in supporting global aviation recovery

October event will be a catalyst for faster industry resurgence

The world’s largest annual airport industry B2B platform has been rescheduled to take place from 26-28 October 2020 at the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) where it was scheduled earlier for June.

The new dates reflect the aviation industry’s confidence of normalcy returning to global markets by then and the lifting of extensive travel restrictions around the world following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Organized by Reed Exhibitions Middle East under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of Dubai Airports and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, the event is supported by Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA), Dubai Airports, Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects (DAEP) and dnata, amongst a host of global and regional aviation bodies, suppliers’ associations and working groups.

His Excellency Mohammed Abdulla Ahli, Director General of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and CEO of Dubai Air Navigation Services (dans) said: “Every industry has come to a standstill due to the unforeseen circumstances we are faced with. Our past experiences of handling crises will help us to bounce back into the aviation business, once the crisis is contained. We shall all play our part in the recovery.”

Airport Show is expected to attract 375 exhibiting companies and over 8,500 visitors coming from almost 100 countries. Now in its 20th edition, the event showcases the most advanced global aviation technologies and allows attendees to participate in a series of conferences, matchmaking programmes and workshops. The collocated Global Airport Leaders Forum (GALF) and Women in Aviation General Assembly will host over 1,500 delegates and 100 speakers, covering the latest industry developments across 4 key themes of Air Traffic Control, Airport Security, Airport Passenger Experience and Ground Handling. Last year’s Show hosted 351 exhibitors on 15,599 square metres exhibition space and attracted 7,100 attendees from 89 countries.

Daniyal Qureshi, Group Exhibitions Director, Reed Exhibitions Middle East, said: “Global air transport supports almost US$3 trillion in global economic activity, with the world’s airlines carrying more than 4 billion passengers and 60 million tonnes of freight every year. Aviation’s contribution during periods of global emergencies such as we are facing today is critical, delivering thousands of tonnes of food, medicines and essential supplies to the worst affected and enabling world leaders and experts to efficiently collaborate and support rehabilitation efforts. There is no doubt that COVID-19 has and will severely affect our industry. However, we are confident that once we are through these challenging times, aviation will once again play its important role in supporting economic recovery efforts around the world.”