Alkira and Fortinet partner to secure cloud area networking traffic

Alkira’s integration with Fortinet, unveiled at AWS re:Inforce this week, provides automated configuration and deployment of firewall services to protect traffic to and inside all major public cloud providers. Alkira automates the network ‘plumbing’, allowing customers to insert firewall services across their cloud area networking infrastructure. The features enabled by the partnership are now available to all Alkira and Fortinet customers.

Alkira cloud area networking is the fastest way to unify an enterprise’s on-prem infrastructure with public clouds. It’s an enterprise-grade network with built-in routing and network services–100% cloud-built, with no agents to install, and delivered as a service.

“This integration demonstrates the continuing momentum behind cloud area networking,” said Atif Khan, CTO, Alkira. “Modern organisations have a tough time managing a messy sprawl of sites, regions, users, SD-WAN fabrics, and clouds. They need a quick way to connect all these pieces together. Cloud area networking does that.”

Alkira and Fortinet have made it easier for enterprises to secure their clouds by leveraging their existing Fortinet investment. Alkira customers in turn can extend their Fortinet firewalls to protect cloud workloads. Alkira’s automated connectivity allows customers instantly to apply these services across their entire cloud network and across multiple cloud providers.

Khan said: “Customers can immediately spin up and autoscale their Fortinet firewalls across the cloud area networking infrastructure. There are no complicated routing domains, no risk of overprovisioning, and no more deployment delays.”

Key features enabled by the partnership include:

FortiManager integration: Alkira and Fortinet are seamlessly integrated. Security teams can manage FortiGate firewalls with the FortiManager platform they already know. They can also spin up new FortiGate virtual firewalls with just a few clicks.

Auto-mapping of zone to segments: Alkira’s Fortinet integration allows enterprises to extend existing zones on their firewalls into and across clouds. Alkira takes existing on-prem security and expands it to multiple clouds.

Auto-scaling: Customers can automatically scale Fortinet firewalls when traffic surges and then reduce them when traffic normalises. This reduces the likelihood of network outages.

“Organisations are relying more and more on cloud area networking to operate their businesses,” said Vinod Sundarraj, senior director, cloud security product and solutions at Fortinet. “Safeguarding traffic between users, sites, and multiple clouds can be incredibly complex. This collaboration and integration with the Fortinet Security Fabric provides a quick, easy, and reliable way to protect cloud area networking traffic, securing traffic to the cloud, within the cloud, and between clouds.”