Fortinet at LEAP 2024: Introducing State-of-the-art Cybersecurity Technologies to the Saudi Market
Riyadh:
Fortinet, the global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security, showcased various advanced cybersecurity solutions and innovations, including SASE, OT Security, and Cloud Security, at LEAP 2024, held from March 4 to 7 at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Center.
Saudi Shopper recently spoke with Alain Penel, Vice President, Middle East, Turkey & CIS in Fortinet, on various topics and, more importantly, why Fortinet is a name to look out for in the coming days in the Kingdom.
Fortinet brings a broad, complementary portfolio of cybersecurity solutions built from the ground up with integration and automation in mind. These solutions enable more efficient, self-healing operations and rapid response to known and unknown threats.
At LEAP 2024, Fortinet is showcasing its offering at its dedicated booth (Hall 1, M28); they also have a pod on the Google Cloud booth and a pod with two of its key distributors, Redington and Exclusive Networks, where demos and the latest products are showcased. Fortinet has also arranged for its regional and local executives to meet with businesses and discuss the industry’s critical issues today.
Speaking about the company’s offering, Alain highlighted that the Fortinet Security Fabric is at the heart of the Fortinet security strategy. It’s a platform organically built around a standard operating system and management framework to enable broad visibility, seamless integration and interoperability between critical security elements, and granular control and automation.
He said, “Through the Security Fabric, we’re able to provide customers in the Middle East with better protection across the entire digital attack surface, reduced complexity, better risk management, and faster time-to-prevention. Our services also serve organizations seeking a more holistic and integrated approach to security and networking challenges.”
Fortinet has also recently collaborated with Google Cloud to support the launch of the new Cloud region in the Kingdom. Alain said about the partnership’s benefits, “Through the partnership with Google in Saudi Arabia, joint customers of both the companies have started to secure their workloads on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) using Fortinet solutions.”
He added, “Given Fortinet’s strong presence in the Kingdom and the relevance of our solutions on GCP, we expect many of these joint customers to adopt Fortinet security in their migrations to GCP. With the vast number of deployments being hybrid, these customers can extend the security perimeter and enforce consistent security policies across their GCP and IT environments to secure their applications no matter where they are deployed.”
The presence of Fortinet at LEAP 2024 is significant as digital threats become more sophisticated and complex, and organizations’ responsibilities have evolved in tandem. Fortinet has been active in the Kingdom to prepare it for its next leap forward.
For example, Fortinet’s 2023 Global Cybersecurity Skills Gap Report found that due to unfilled IT positions due to the cyber skills shortage, 68% of organizations indicate they face additional cyber risks. Alain said: “Amidst a landscape of increasingly sophisticated threats and the global skills gap, we’re looking forward to empowering local talents, providing cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions, and fostering innovation that will play a pivotal role in securing the Kingdom’s digital transformation journey.”
In line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 initiative, he said, Saudi Arabia has recently launched investments worth $6.4 billion in future technologies. Saudi Arabia’s digital sector is already valued at around $40 billion, making it one of the largest in the region. The government has also invested $1.2 billion to improve the digital skills of 100,000 Saudi students by 2030, with a focus on cybersecurity and programming. “This will have a hugely positive impact on the acceleration of digitalization in the Kingdom,” he added.
Speaking about Fortinet initiatives in line with Vision 2030, Alain highlighted that the company has been working to advance the Kingdom’s efforts to close the cybersecurity skills gap and address the local talent shortage by building a new program for recent graduates at Fortinet in KSA. The company has also signed agreements with universities and other local academic institutions as part of the Academic Partner Program, providing Fortinet Training Institute certification curriculum to Saudi students as they prepare for a career in cybersecurity and to help build the
