TOKYO, Japan - April 27, 2009 - Fortinet^® - a market-leading network security provider and worldwide leader of unified threat management (UTM) solutions today announced that the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries esearch Network (MAFFIN) has selected FortiGate^® appliances to secure the network for its Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries esearch IT Centre for esearch (AFFIT). AFFIT maintains a computing environment powered by high performance supercomputer, databases for bibliographic searches and Internet services to promote advanced usage by researchers across 20,000 PCs nationwide.

With high-speed connectivity in a dynamic environment and cyber attacks are rampant, exacerbated by bandwidth-consuming applications such Web 2.0 and VoIP, AFFIT needed to a solid Web content filtering solution. Thus, the FortiGate-3810A was selected. Customized for enterprise and carrier grade security demands, AFFIT has implemented two FortiGate-3810A appliances to leverage functions such as firewall, antivirus and IPS with Web content filtering as core usage. A FortiAnalyzer^™-2000A appliance is also utilized for logging and reporting functions.

According to a member of the operations team, ÏThe FortiGate-3810A appliance has proved to be a solid choice with a clear cost-performance advantage, as indicated in its sales catalog. This is an excellent testimony of how well Fortinets solutions have worked for us. The team added that another strength that the FortiGate appliances presented is the virtualization function, also called Virtual Domain (VDOM), which enables MAFFIN to set up 24 virtual machines by defining multiple virtual domains for each research institute. Another strong suit is that the FortiGate appliance employs a fees system based on the number of appliances without any limitation on the number of clients, thus resulting in a substantial reduction in OpEx.

According to a spokesperson from MAFFIN, ÏWith Internet threats abound, Web filtering is an essential security measure. The implementation of FortiGate appliances also significantly reduces the teams anxiety about security and we are pleased with its manageability, usability and high-performance. FortiGuard^® services have also proved to be a reliable source of security updates and information, since most dangerous sites have been quarantined centrally.

AFFIT is now also considering the implementation of FortiGate-620B appliances at each research institute and plans to leverage the VDOM function to better manage security across.

Akio Sakamoto, Fortinets vice president for the Far East region concludes, ÏWe are honored to be able to part of AFFIT and MAFFIN security strategy to protect its intellectual information to better serve its constituents. Clearly, Fortinets solutions are highlighted in the adoption of FortiGate, FortiAnalyzer appliances and FortiGuard services to secure the organizations gateways to enable better collaboration and data exchange. Fortinet looks forward to continuing to provide highly competitive security solutions with strong cost-performance advantages.