Fortinet is a Visionary in the 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure for the Second Year

Wired and wireless local area network (LAN) infrastructure technologies are among the oldest and most established in the networking industry. Even so, we believe there is always room for innovation. To that end, our vision for wired and wireless networking leverages Fortinet’s ground-breaking Security-Driven Networking approach and AIOps, which evolve our LAN Edge solution beyond typical market offerings. Specifically, we leverage extensive, deployment-wide data for better outcomes and break down technology silos for intelligent networking. This reduces complexity, lowers costs, ensures consistent user experiences, and tightens security. 

With Security-Driven Networking, integrated security and control of the network edge is a requirement, both to eliminate security gaps, and offer simplified management. This approach drives us to also offer built-in, base network access control (NAC) features at no extra cost. And with FortiAIOps, we can leverage the Security Fabric’s comprehensive data collection to offer advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning (ML) capabilities to ease the burden on network operations teams.

We believe this drive to build upon our Security-Driven Networking vision has led to our recognition as a Visionary in the 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure for two years in a row.

Fortinet Networking Delivers Unique Benefits

Fortinet Security-Driven Networking is accomplished through a platform approach, enabling Fortinet to offer simplified operations with a single interface and operating system (FortiOS). This allows for centralized management, automation, and orchestration of not only the wired and wireless LAN edge, but the WAN edge as well through seamless integration with our Secure SD-WAN solution. Fortinet was also recently recognized as a Leader, placed highest for Ability to Execute, in the 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for WAN Edge Infrastructure.

The reduction in complexity is not limited to technology. Our wired and wireless LAN solution goes against the current trend of licensing core features (and even operating systems) by offering fewer licenses with more function for clear-cut value.

Our unique take on the LAN edge starts by leveraging our FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) as a network controller. This integration is enabled through FortiLink, a protocol that integrates Fortinet’s secure Ethernet and secure wireless access products into the Fortinet Security Fabric. FortiLink enables the FortiGate to directly control, configure, and manage FortiAPs and FortiSwitches as if they were part of it. These Ethernet switches and Wi-Fi access points are deliberately engineered and architected to be part of the Fortinet Security Fabric.

Advanced Capabilities Go Beyond the LAN

Building upon Security-Driven Networking and integrating solutions across Fortinet’s broad portfolio delivers a simplified, better-performing solution that goes beyond the LAN edge. For example, we leveraged crucial centralized data to develop FortiAIOps. FortiAIOps leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to allow IT administrators to reduce, if not eliminate, the more mundane daily tasks. This also enables quicker identification and resolution of network operations issues.

We also continue to improve our ability to monitor the performance of applications across wired, wireless, and WAN with FortiMonitor. FortiMonitor both measures and improves the user experience (UX) with performance ratings and recommendations to improve application performance. 

Base NAC features such as discovery, onboarding, and segmentation are included—at no cost—for our wired and wireless equipment. But we also offer a separate, multi-vendor NAC solution for organizations that require advanced features. 

Proud To Be a Visionary Again

We are excited to be recognized as a Visionary in the 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure. Fortinet continues to invest, develop, and improve, following our clear vision to differentiate in a mature market. Our goal is to make it more secure, more manageable, and more intelligent with licensing that is fair and easy to understand. 

Learn more about Fortinet’s secure, simple, and scalable LAN Edge solution. 

Get your complimentary copy of the 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure.

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This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Fortinet.

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure, By Mike Toussaint, Christian Canales, Tim Zimmerman, 16 November 2021. 

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure, Jonathan Forest, Naresh Singh, Andrew Lerner, Evan Zeng, 20 September 2021.