Fortinet Allies With Secure Computing To Beef-Up Its Web Filtering System

By Gretchen Hyman

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Fortinet, a maker of network protection systems, announced an alliance with Secure Computing Corporation to bundle web filtering software applications.

Founded in 2000 by Ken Xie, also the founder of NetScreen Technologies, Fortinet has carved a niche in the network security industry by producing a line of FortiGate Network Protection Gateway hardware/software platforms that provide application-based anti-virus protection, and functions such as firewall deployment, virtual private networks, intrusion detection, and content filtering.

Under terms of the agreement, Secure Computing’s SmartFilter application, an On-Box Web filtering software solution, will be bundled with Fortinet’s FortiGate Gateways, resulting in a more thorough, turbocharged content filtering option for the FortiGate product line.

In light of the growing need for companies to harness employee down-time and make sure that corporate dollars aren’t paying for visits to the Webcast of Victoria’s Secret fashion show or any number of sordid online destinations, Secure Computing is currently one of the rising star providers of software solutions that help companies monitor and control access to public networks such as the Internet.

Another company cashing in on this booming industry is San Diego-based Websense, an employee management software company that has seen its revenues skyrocket in recent months.

Secure Computing software products include SafeWord, Sidewinder, PremierAccess, and SmartFilter filtering software.

The bundled SmartFilter solution will be made available on all FortiGate platforms and marketed to small office/home office market and service providers as a low cost option for deploying a pre-installed content filtering service onto a network.

Prior to the alliance with Secure Computing, the content filtering portion of Fortinet’s FortiGate platforms was of their own making, according to a company spokesperson.

Bundling with SmartFilter and its Control List of millions of pre-categorized, blockable URLs, will give FortiGate a boost in effectiveness in enabling companies to more easily monitor and manage employee Web activities and protect their networks from the pratfalls of the Internet.

“Our customers are increasingly aware of the productivity benefits of establishing and enforcing smart Web usage policies,” said Ken Xie, CEO of Fortinet, Inc. “With the combination of Secure Computing’s SmartFilter application and our FortiGate Network Protection Gateways, we have an unbeatable solution in terms of performance, manageability, and total ownership costs.”

Fortinet also maintains offices in Canada, China, Japan, Korea, and Singapore.

Reprinted from siliconvalley.internet.com.

Small Business Computing Staff
Small Business Computing Staff
Small Business Computing addresses the technology needs of small businesses, which are defined as businesses with fewer than 500 employees and/or less than $7 million in annual sales.

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