Fortinet Beefs Up Security Fabric Capabilities with Panopta Acquisition

Fortinet on Tuesday said it’s buying Panopta, the network monitoring and diagnostics platform provider. It will strengthen Fortinet’s network and security operations.

Panopta provides full-stack visibility and automated management of an enterprise network’s health. That includes servers, network devices, containers, applications, databases, virtual appliances and cloud infrastructure.

Fortinet didn’t say how much it’s paying for Panopta.

John Maddison is Fortinet‘s chief marketing officer and executive vice president of products.

Fortinet’s John Maddison

“Today’s acquisition of Panopta is another first-class, partner-friendly service offering that remains true to Fortinet’s ongoing commitment to its valued partners,” he said. “Organizations are rapidly adopting digital innovation initiatives to accelerate their businesses, reduce costs, improve efficiency and provide better customer experiences. Now more than ever, user experience determines the success of an application. Making sure infrastructure has 100% uptime is critical.”

Complete Network Picture

Panopta’s cloud-based solution delivers a complete picture of a network in any deployment, Maddison said. That includes containers, cloud, on-premises or hybrid.

“Fortinet’s Security Fabric, combined with Panopta’s scalable, network monitoring and diagnostics platform, will enable Fortinet to offer our partners the most comprehensive network and security operations management solution,” he said.

Panopta built its platform to be partner friendly, Fortinet said. MSSPs and VARs can integrate the multitenant solution into their own offering and add value to their end customers.

With the Panopta acquisition, Fortinet says it will deliver the industry’s most comprehensive security-driven networking platform. It will do so by adding new capabilities in network monitoring, detection and incident response.

“Given the complex and distributed nature of many IT environments, organizations need a high-performance, secure network to successfully achieve their digital business initiatives,” said Ken Xie, Fortinet’s CEO and chairman. “With the convergence of security and networking through a security-driven network approach, organizations can get the connectivity and performance that is crucial to protect today’s hyperconnected businesses.”

 In July, Fortinet bought Opaq Networks. That acquisition gives its partners a beefed-up secure access service edge (SASE) offering.