FortiManager 5.6: Centralized Control for Today’s Networks

The adoption of a digital business model has forced the rapid transformation of networks today regardless of size, from small business to large enterprises and even managed service providers. These new networks span across physical, virtual, and cloud ecosystems, include a dizzying array of user and IoT endpoint devices, and need to support a growing number of critical applications that now have access to critical data resources.

Cybercriminals have begun to exploit this new networking paradigm by targeting new technologies, like IoT devices, in order to gain entrance into networks. This rapid adoption of new applications and devices is one of two weak links in many security strategies. The other has been a lapse in effective network hygiene. Far too many IT administrators have lost track of the devices on their network, so vulnerable systems aren’t being patched or replaced. Recent high-profile attacks like WannaCry and Petya, for example, targeted vulnerable devices for which patches had been available for months. And those are just the ones that got all the press.

In fact, according to Fortinet’s latest quarterly threat report, the average breach enters the network through a vulnerable device for which a patch has been available for three or more years. And many attacks still successfully exploit devices that have been vulnerable for more than ten.

From a security standpoint, this radical network transformation has been a nightmare, especially where visibility is concerned. To meet new security challenges, organizations have now deployed, on average, security solutions from over 32 different vendors, each with their own separate management and control tools. Even organizations that have tried to consolidate their security through a single vendor that offers multiple network security solutions, like a Cisco or PAN, still find that they are required to manage their security using an array of management consoles that can’t see or share information with each other. Which means hand-correlating data and manually orchestrating policies in order to detect and respond to threats. And given the sophistication and speed of many of today’s attacks, this means that IT security teams are flying blind. Which is why today’s attacks take nearly six months to detect, over a month to contain, and nearly a month and a half to remediate.

It’s time for a new strategy.

The Fortinet Security Fabric now allows organizations to deploy security tools across their entire distributed network, including deep into the data center and core and out to remote devices and the cloud, and then tie them together through a common, management strategy. FortiManager 5.6 provides a single pane of glass management dashboard to present consolidated monitors and controls across a wide range of network and endpoint security products, as well as critical network devices, through an intuitive and customizable dashboard.

FortiManager 5.6 is also designed to scale as your network continues to expand. Unlike tools from other vendors, which may require as many as a dozen different management consoles, or that can max out at supporting 1,000 devices, FortiManager is designed for today’s most robust enterprise networks. It is available in three different form factors. There are six different physical appliances to choose from, along with both virtual and cloud-based solutions, providing the power and flexibility to manage the security of organizations of any size or configuration. It also provides the industry’s most robust scalability, supporting up to 100,000 physical devices and an unlimited number of virtual appliances. 

View FortiManager 5.6 in action on video below.

Its Unified Management approach provides a common GUI to centrally manage FortiGate solutions, endpoint clients, wireless access points, switches, and remote VPN connections. In addition to its FortiGate management interface, FortiManager’s VPN manager console simplifies the deployment of VPN connections by enabling a centrally provisioned VPN community combined with the real-time monitoring of VPN connections through a Google Map interface. The FortiAP Manager tool allows for the configuration, deployment and monitoring of Fortinet wireless access points from a single console. This has also been combined with a Google Map view so you can see every device regardless of where it has been deployed. And the FortiClient Manager allows for the centralized configuration, deployment, and monitoring of FortiClients. And its native support of Restful API enables task automation, and integration with the rest of your existing security infrastructure to reduce the cost of operations.

This integrated approach allows you to review, approve and audit policy changes from a central location, automate processes to facilitate policy compliance and lifecycle management, and manage workflows to eliminate the risks often associated with policy changes.

Its end-to-end approach, with a single, centralized place to establish, distribute, and orchestrate policies and configure devices not only reduces security complexity, but the number of skilled personnel required to maintain network visibility and control. Which is especially critical today because IT teams are not only faced with planning, deploying, and securing new network ecosystems, but they are having to do all of that in the middle of a severe cybersecurity skills shortage. Centralized management not only eliminates the sort of high touch hand correlation of events and policies that traditionally siloed approaches require, but can also simplify such things as the training and operations required to manage different products by providing a single, common GUI across the entire Security Fabric.

Today’s expanded networks require powerful network visibility for the rapid detection, investigation, and response to threats. It provides the accurate pinpointing of problems, enables drilling down for critical details, and the central distribution and orchestration of a coordinated response that can leverage a wide range of security and networking tools deployed across distributed the ecosystem. All from a single-pane-of-glass management solution designed to enable full control of your network and its expanding attack surface.

Click here for more information about FortiManager 5.6 and the benefits it can provide to your organization.