Fortinet, a provider of network security solutions, this week unveiled a new high performance, firewall designed for enterprise data centers, large service providers, cloud providers and carriers.
The new FortiGate-3700D, which includes four 40 GbE (QSFP+) and 28 10GbE (SFP+) ports, is able to achieve up to 160 Gigabits per second (Gbps) firewall throughput and IPS throughput of 16 Gbps.
Powered by the company’s FortiOS 5 network security operating system, the FortiGate-3700D allows for flexible deployment models within the data center such as core firewall, which provides very high performance firewall with ultra low latency or edge firewall, which can be used to serve internal or external communities with varying trust levels using different firewall personalities, including firewall + VPN, firewall + IPS, NGFW, advanced threat protection and more.
The FortiGate-3700D supports network segmentation that may be based on perimeter architecture, services, function or regulatory requirements and effectively separates networks physically or virtually to better provide security service level agreements. Fortinet offers physical, hybrid or virtual network segmentation via its virtual domain (VDOM) capability.
The FortiGate-3700D also features the latest FortiASIC NP6 processor, which has been designed in-house by Fortinet’s network ASIC experts and delivers performance benefits over a traditional CPU plus software approach, the company said. The FortiASIC Network Processor also allows FortiGate appliances to deliver comparable IPv6 and IPv4 throughput and translation, eliminating common performance bottlenecks.
FortiOS 5 also provides multiple forms of high availability (HA) such as Active-Active, Active Passive or Virtual Cluster. Depending on the configuration, failover times are in the sub-second range. Multiple HA deployment modes allow tight integration into different data center architectures, the company said.
The device also leverages FortiAnalyzer, the company’s centralized management platform that allows security administrators to configure and manage thousands of physical appliances and virtual machines. It also supports APIs, such as JSON and XML, which allow for automated configuration and provisioning of devices.
Infonetics recently conducted a high-speed firewall survey of large organizations (over 1,000 employees) that have already deployed high-end firewalls, defined as firewalls that currently support greater than 40 Gbps aggregate throughput. The move to faster network technologies is forcing enterprises to look at upgrading every component of their IT infrastructure, and the need to add new high speed interfaces to firewalls (10 GbE, 40 GbE and eventually 100 GbE) tops the list of drivers for investing in new high-end firewalls.
“After port speeds, we asked respondents to tell us what maximum stateful inspection throughput they will require their high-end firewalls to support in the next year, and over 80% are looking for platforms with over 100 Gbps of aggregate performance, with the largest group looking for 100 Gbps to 199 Gbps,” Jeff Wilson of Infonetics commented. “Having high speed interfaces means nothing unless the device has the throughput to match.”
Priced at $99,998, the FortiGate-3700D will be available this quarter.