Fortinet’s SASE enhancements target remote-user access to private cloud, SaaS apps

New capabilities in Fortinet’s secure access service edge (SASE) package are designed to help customers better secure their private and cloud-based assets.

Fortinet added Secure Private Access and Secure SaaS Access features to its FortiSASE security platform, which includes SD-WAN, secure web gateway, firewall as a service, and zero-trust network access. All of Fortinet’s offerings run on top of its FortiOS operating system.

The Secure Private Access capability lets branch customers access Fortinet’s cloud-based SD-WAN connectivity features to ensure secure remote communications with private cloud applications. 

“The idea is to let customers take advantage of our existing SD-WAN capabilities, including Fortinet Universal ZTNA, right inside the point of presence to further allow secure private access,” said Nirav Shah, vice president of products with Fortinet. “Now those users who are working remotely can get that secure private access with better user experience without making any changes to their existing network architecture.”

The Secure SaaS Access feature brings visibility and control for all SaaS applications supported by FortiSASE. To enable this feature, Fortinet added support for dual-mode, inline and API-based cloud access security broker (CASB) capabilities.

“Here the idea is to let customers see all sanctioned and unsanctioned applications to address shadow IT and data exfiltration challenges,” Shah said.

The new features bolster Fortinet’s standing in the developing integrated, single-vendor SASE market that includes Cisco, Cato, Palo Alto, Versa, VMware and others.   

According to Gartner, single-vendor SASE offerings deliver multiple converged network and security as-a-service capabilities – including SD-WAN, secure web gateway (SWG), CASB, network firewalling and zero trust network access (ZTNA) – using a cloud-centric architecture. The goal is to reduce complexity for enterprise customers.

“The adoption of cloud and edge computing and work-from-anywhere initiatives has radically shifted access requirements. For most organizations, there are now more users, devices, applications, services and data located outside of an enterprise than inside,” Gartner stated in a recent report on single vendor SASE offerings. 

“Attempts to use traditional perimeter-based approaches to securing anywhere, anytime access have resulted in a patchwork of vendors, policies, consoles and complex traffic routing, creating complexity for security administrators and users.”

Fortinet’s Secure Private Access and Secure SaaS Access enhancements are available now.