Fortinet has announced that it has been named a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Zero Trust Edge Solutions, Q3 2023 report.

The 32-criterion evaluation identifies the most significant vendors and evaluates their zero-trust edge (ZTE) solutions. Fortinet tied for the highest score in the strategy category.

Secure networking with ZTE, also known as SASE

Known as secure access service edge (SASE), a ZTE architecture merges and delivers networking and security functions as a service using a combination of zero-trust network access (ZTNA), secure web gateways, and cloud security gateways.

The Fortinet FortiSASE platform converges cloud-delivered security, including secure web gateway, universal ZTNA, next-generation dual-mode cloud access security broker (CASB), firewall-as-a-service, and Secure SD-WAN networking.

Powered by a single operating system, FortiOS, FortiGuard AI-Powered Intrusion Prevention Security Services, and a unified FortiClient agent, FortiSASE helps improve efficiency and delivers consistent security everywhere, the company states.

By bringing together all of the components needed to converge networking and security, it's designed to protect the hybrid workforce with zero implicit trust and helps organisations reduce complexity and consolidate point products.

In the report, Forrester points out that Fortinet differentiated itself in the market by developing and integrating networking functions such as routing into its remote office firewalls, which eases the rollout of its ZTE solution with a unified management interface.

The Forrester report also states, Fortinet balances security and networking with eye-popping value.

The report goes on to state, "One of the most compelling aspects of the Fortinet value proposition is its cost. As with its firewalls, the Fortinet option is priced quite literally an order of magnitude lower than the vendors most expensive competitors. FortiSASE can help organisations securely and seamlessly reduce complexity and maximise their return on investment."

How the Forrester Wave results are calculated

The Forrester Wave evaluation is an assessment of the top vendors in the market. For the report, Forrester conducts primary research to develop a list of vendors and narrows the list based on the inclusion criteria.

Details of product and strategy are gathered through a questionnaire, demos, briefings, and customer reference surveys and interviews.

The evaluation criteria is based on:

• The strength of the offering based on remote workforce security capabilities; zero-trust principles; network control, management, monitoring, visibility and observability; and integrations
• The strength of the vendors strategies, including vision, innovation, roadmap, partner ecosystem, pricing flexibility and transparency, and supporting services and offerings
• The vendors presence in the market based on revenue and installed base

Each of the vendors included in the assessment has:

• At least US$75 million in annual revenue attributed exclusively to ZTE technologies
• A ZTNA product in addition to a secure web gateway or cloud security gateway as of May 30, 2023
• At least 30% of revenue must come from outside the vendors home region and they must have point of presence in every continent except Antarctica
• A remote site appliance that provides physical WAN connectivity, link load balancing, or routing capabilities
• Complete or partial cloud-based administration across the ZTE components