Fortinet Integrates with Google Cloud Network Connectivity Center to Simplify Cloud On-ramp

In March, Google Cloud announced Network Connectivity Center (NCC), designed to provide its customers a cloud connectivity framework for Google Cloud. Using Network Connectivity Center, Google Cloud helps customers improve the cloud-connected SD-WAN experience to create, connect, and manage cloud networks on its global infrastructure.

Today, Fortinet is pleased to announce that we continue to expand our already broad coverage of cloud on-ramp and security use cases by adding support for Network Connectivity Center to Fortinet’s industry-leading Secure SD-WAN and Adaptive Cloud Security solutions. This is great news for customers using Google Cloud as part of their cloud transformation journey.

Addressing Cloud on-ramp, Multi-cloud and Hybrid Cloud Challenges

Fortinet Secure SD-WAN integration with Network Connectivity Center allows customers to more effectively interconnect applications and workloads running on Google Cloud for hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud deployments. This delivers the best of both worlds, bridging a first-party native cloud underlay from Google Cloud with a best-in-class secure SD-WAN and cloud on-ramp service from Fortinet. The result is an even more simplified, automated, and operationally efficient cloud on-ramp and SD-WAN experience.

With more than 90% of enterprises employing multi- and hybrid clouds (according to the Flexera 2021 State of Cloud report), applications and workloads can reside anywhere among the various combinations of data centers, network edges, and clouds that may be used. And let’s not forget the extra twists that can be added when global and regional deployments are thrown into the mix. This combination often results in significant challenges and overhead for network, security, and cloud operation teams to manage, operate, and secure, particularly if these teams are also faced with a lack of resources and a skills gap shortage.

• Where applications reside should not matter to end users. It’s no stretch of the imagination to say that end users are typically unforgiving and expect a superior application experience at all times. As such, an organization’s choice of deployment options and strategy should be transparent to its users. As a result, the interconnecting of applications across cloud regions, hybrid clouds, and multi-clouds requires performance, scalability, and visibility into the application user experience to make timely adjustments as required.
• Spanning across multiple points of deployments across data center, hybrid clouds, and multi-clouds creates extra work and visibility gaps for network and security teams. Often, this means needing to configure and manage multiple networks and clouds. To simply, streamline, and secure across this highly distributed environment, organizations need to pursue consistent policies across their deployment and automate operational and response tasks as much as possible.
• Organizations are driven to deliver business results and outcomes. In today’s and tomorrow’s world, this means cloud. However, given the inherit complexities of hybrid- and multi-clouds and the need to interconnect applications and data across these instances, organizations sometimes do so at the expense of security and operational efficiency and effectiveness.

Fortinet Secure SD-WAN and Adaptive Cloud Security 

Fortinet Secure SD-WAN together with Adaptive Cloud Security helps customers solve these challenges by enabling better, more secure application experiences for users and branch offices by providing encrypted data transports, granular segmentation, and application-layer protection against advanced threats, along with a seamless overlay network with uniform policies across multi-clouds. As a recognized leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls and WAN Edge Infrastructure, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN is the only solution in the market providing converged networking and security capabilities through one single solution, including:

• Site-to-Cloud and Site-to-Site Connectivity for Improved User Experience: Fortinet Secure SD-WAN delivers seamless cloud on-ramp orchestration to provide customers fast and reliable network connectivity for organizations to keep productivity across globally distributed sites and across cloud environments.
• Protection of the Cloud On-ramp: Fortinet supports organizations’ cloud on-ramp journey, providing faster access to cloud resources and the best possible user experience. As a result, organizations are able to ensure their critical data, applications, and workflows are consistently available while receiving consistent protection.
• Security Across Multi-cloud Environments: Fortinet provides centralized visibility and control and consistent security policies across multi-cloud environments, enabling secure applications and connectivity from data center to cloud.
• Security Within the Cloud: Fortinet delivers leading cloud network security, segmentation, visibility, and best-in-class security protection powered by FortiGuard Labs to protect applications, workloads, and their underlying data within the cloud from inbound and lateral threats.

And, Fortinet brings it all together on a single broad, integrated, and automated cybersecurity platform through the Fortinet Security Fabric. Using FortiManager within the Fortinet Security Fabric, customers have a single place to manage, automate, respond, and gain visibility across their entire deployment— from campus to branch to data center to cloud to Google Cloud.

Expanding Partnership with Google Cloud

For customers leveraging Google Cloud with Fortinet, this goes beyond 1+1 = 3. Not only do customers benefit from Google Cloud’s global and secure infrastructure, but they can seamlessly deploy Google Cloud-integrated solutions from Fortinet to gain an even higher level of security protection and simplified cloud operations. 

• FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall on Google Cloud: The FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall on Google Cloud delivers networking and SD-WAN capabilities for organizations of all sizes, with the flexibility to be deployed as next-generation firewall and/or VPN gateway. With Network Connectivity Center support, it’s even easier to interconnect and manage applications and workloads on Google Cloud and across all points of deployments secured and connected by FortiGates.
• FortiWeb Cloud WAF-as-a-Service: FortiWeb WAF gateways are able to run in several Google Cloud regions. This allows organizations to scrub application traffic within the same region that their applications reside, addressing performance and regulation concerns, as well as keeping traffic cost to a minimum.
• Cloud Workload Protection with FortiCWP: FortiCWP uses API-level integration into Google Cloud management and security services to monitor and track cloud resources, including their configurations, activity, traffic flows.

End-to-End Security for All Cloud Environments 

No one ever said deploying and managing applications and workloads across hybrid- and multi-clouds is easy, but many agree it’s a necessity. Fortinet is committed to helping organizations simplify cloud operations and secure any application on any cloud to deliver seamless, secure, and superior quality of experience (QoE) of applications, no matter where the application is deployed. With the integration of NCC, Fortinet continues this mission and empowers Google Cloud customers to more effectively interconnect applications and workloads running on Google Cloud for hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud deployments. The result is an even more simplified, automated, and operationally efficient cloud migration experience, all with the industry-best security intelligence and protection from FortiGuard Labs.

Lastly, multi-cloud customers should be happy to know that Fortinet also offers the broadest native cloud security with tight integrations on major cloud platforms in addition to Google Cloud, including Azure, AWS, and others, and is supported by a large number of Fortinet Fabric-Ready ecosystem partners and integrations. This further enables customers to integrate, automate, and orchestrate securely between all major public cloud platforms, network edges, and data centers. 

Learn how Fortinet’s adaptive cloud security solutions provide the necessary visibility and control across cloud infrastructures, enabling secure applications and connectivity from data center to cloud