When choosing a BT leased line, your business has two options. The first is the Cisco Meraki route which is an out of the box solution which is easy to deploy and is pre-configured with set policies. The majority of new and BT upgrade customers opt for the Meraki edge device because the solution is an easy and powerful route to protect the business.
When it comes to needing more robust and comprehensive security, BT also offers Fortinet's NGFW (Next Generation Firewall) solution as a co-managed service. BT's Fortinet solution surpasses the capabilities of the BT Meraki option but is similar in respect of configurability.
In simple terms, the BT Fortinet Firewall product is designed to protect your internal network by controlling what data is passed through into the business based on predefined policies by using NGFW (Next Generation Firewall) capabilities.
BT Fortinet NGFW service is part of the Fortinet Security Fabric which offers integrated and automated protection across the entire digital attack surface. The Security Fabric enables multi-security solutions to work together to coordinate threat detection and response.
Before we discuss the features offered by BT's implementation of Fortinet in more detail, here is a high level top 10 feature table.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| 1. Security-Driven Networking | BT's Fortinet NGFW integrates networking and security across the entire network infrastructure with consistent policy enforcement to prevent security risks. |
| 2. Scalability and Performance | BT's Fortinet NGFW is built on Fortinet's purpose-built Security Processing Units (SPUs) which delivers scalable performance and low latency. |
| 3. Secure SD-WAN | BT's Fortinet NGFW includes built-in Secure SD WAN with advanced routing, application steering and resiliency together with a full stack of integrated security solutions to protect the WAN edge. |
| 4. Inspection of Encrypted Traffic | BT's Fortinet NGFW can inspect encrypted traffic (including TLS 1.3) to identify hidden threats without significantly impacting network performance. |
| 5. AI-Driven Security Operations | BT's Fortinet NGFW uses AI to automate security operations which includes threat detection, response and remediation. |
| 6. Integration with the Fortinet Security Fabric | As part of the Fortinet Security Fabric, BT's Fortinet NGFW provides broad, integrated and automated protection across the entire digital attack surface which enables different security solutions to work together for coordinated threat detection and response. |
| 7. Granular Visibility and Control | BT's Fortinet NGFW provides granular visibility and control of applications, users and devices using user and device identification to apply security policies and protect against threats. |
| 8. Advanced Threat Protection | BT's Fortinet NGFW includes advanced threat protection features which includes intrusion prevention, web filtering, antivirus and application control. |
| 9. Flexible Deployment Options | BT's Fortinet NGFW can be deployed as a cloud based solution or as WAN edge services which includes a wide range of deployment modes including high availability, clustering and load balancing. |
| 10. Management and Analytics | BT's Fortinet NGFW includes powerful management and analytics tools which provides detailed insights into network traffic and security events allowing for centralised management of security policies and configurations. |
The BT Fortinet NGFW service is built on Fortinet's purpose-built Security Processing Units (SPUs) which deliver scalable performance and low latency. SPUs allow the firewall to handle demanding network security needs without sacrificing speed or performance.
One of the key features of the BT Fortinet NGFW service is the built-in Secure SD WAN. Fortinet SD WAN includes advanced routing, application steering and resiliency with a full stack of integrated security solutions to protect the WAN edge.
The BT Fortinet NGFW service also has the ability to inspect encrypted traffic (including TLS 1.3) to identify threats that may be hiding in encrypted communications. This is done without significantly impacting network performance - even if a threat tries to hide in encrypted traffic, BT's Fortinet NGFW service can locate and remove the threat.
Fortinet uses AI (Artificial Intelligence) to automate security operations which includes threat detection, response and remediation. The AI-driven security operations help to reduce the complexity of managing network security which in turn makes day to day operations easier for your IT team to keep your network secure.
Granular visibility and control of applications, users and devices is built into Fortinet's core technology to enable views of user and device identification. Your IT team is able to apply security policies and protect against threats. The result is complete control over who and what can access your network.
Finally, BT's Fortinet NGFW service also includes advanced threat protection features which includes intrusion prevention, web filtering, antivirus, application control and more. These features work together to detect and prevent sophisticated attacks so the network is protected from a wide array of threats from common malware to advanced persistent threats.
Finally, the BT Fortinet NGFW service includes powerful management and analytics tools. These tools provide detailed insights into network traffic and security events and they allow for centralised management of security policies / configurations.
BT's Fortinet NGFW service can be deployed in a variety of environments including:
- On-premises
- Cloud
- Hybrid environments
The above includes a wide range of deployment modes including high availability, clustering and load balancing. Fortinet NGFW service can provide robust security.
Conclusion
BT's Fortinet NGFW service is equipped with proactive monitoring capabilities providing the data direct to the BT SOC which in turn notifies you and your team of any threats with swift fault resolution.
The BT Fortinet NGFW solution offers the ability to manage and monitor activities across all of your sites in one centralised dashboard. The service seamlessly integrates with Eagle Eye which is a BT-specific add-on that provides valuable security insights not available with other products.
Regular updates ensure that the BT Fortinet NGFW service is equipped to handle emerging threats. With over 4,000 threats identified daily, the firewall is constantly updated to protect against various severities of threats.
Fortinet is recognised as an industry-leading vendor as one of the leaders within the Gartner Magic Quadrant. Key features of the service include highly scalable project management, managed service policy design and deployment and the ability to tailor setups based on customer requirements. The service also includes patching upgrades, access to a self-serve portal and service management with regular reviews.
Recommended reading: What is BT Fortinet Managed SD WAN?