A global agreement has been reached by Fortinet and NEC to jointly develop secure 5G networks for communication service providers. Together, Fortinet and NEC would enable the carrier-grade networking security needed for 5G through the provision of their comprehensive security solutions. It includes FortiGate, Fortinet’s next-generation firewall.
Considering that 5G will significantly increase data traffic and introduce new network architectures like Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC), it would be crucial to guard against new risks without compromising customer experience. Due to the current state of the industry, according to Fortinet and NEC, communication service providers (CSPs) must make end-to-end security 5G network design and protection a top priority.
In the 5G era, Fortinet and NEC’s collaboration would allow CSPs to successfully protect themselves against known and unknowable threats by gaining comprehensive insight into users, applications, and threats through a single pane of glass. RAN, mobile roaming, Gi-LAN/N6, and telco/edge cloud security are just a few of the key use cases and services that the vendors will concentrate on.
AI-Driven Threat Intelligence
With automation capabilities and AI-driven threat intelligence, Fortinet’s “high-performance” security solutions would offer “reliable protection” across all domains and levels of the intricate 5G networks used by CSPs. Utilizing its worldwide reach across more than 150 countries, NEC, as the network integrator, will rely on Fortinet technologies to offer customer-focused and carrier-grade services. Additionally, NEC would be able to provide CSPs with future-proofed solutions in a safe and secured manner thanks to its network experience accrued at NEC Centers of Excellence (CoEs) and NEC Open Networks, an ecosystem made up of an end-to-end suite of open products and solutions.
The two companies plan to accelerate their collaboration in pursuing secure 5G networks for CSPs around the world.
“5G success and growth depends on service providers’ ability to deliver innovative enterprise-facing use cases while meeting their security requirements,” said John Maddison, Executive Vice President of Products and CMO at Fortinet. “We’re pleased to partner with NEC to deliver the required solutions and expertise to facilitate enterprises’ 5G adoption and CSPs’ success.”
“The global partnership with Fortinet is a perfect fit for NEC Open Networks’ ecosystem to enable our services to meet the customer’s urgent and diverse needs for network security in the 5G era,” said Hideyuki Ogata, General Manager, Service Provider Solutions Department, NEC Corporation. “NEC CoEs already have rich experience in network security, including the recent success with Fortinet for CETIN and others. This partnership promises to further enrich our service portfolio facing customers as a global network integrator.”
