GTT Partners with Fortinet, Expands SD-WAN Portfolio

GTT Communications is giving enterprises a new SD-WAN solution by partnering with Fortinet.

GTT added Fortinet Secure SD-WAN as a technology option, saying that Fortinet’s solution will appeal to industries like retail, fast food restaurants, hospitality and finance.

GTT’s Rick Calder

“Clients rely on GTT to securely connect their locations across the world and to every application in the cloud,” GTT president and CEO Rick Calder said. “Our broad portfolio of SD-WAN service options, that now includes Fortinet, ensures that clients can run their applications with superior security, performance and reliability to support their business goals.”

GTT has offered a managed SD-WAN service in partnership with VeloCloud Networks (now owned by VMware) since 2017. Fortinet’s offering includes an integrated next-gen firewall and unified threat management.

Ovum’s Mike Sapien

“By adding Fortinet as another vendor platform, GTT has enhanced and broadened its SD-WAN service to offer enterprises even greater networking agility and integrated security capabilities,” said Mike Sapien, vice president and chief analyst US for enterprise services at Ovum. “The integration of SD-WAN technology with GTT’s Tier 1 IP network offers performance and efficiency advantages when leveraging the core network for internet traffic destined for the cloud.”

Fortinet has been gaining momentum in SD-WAN. It landed in fourth place in IHS Markit’s latest revenue-based market share study.

Fortinet’s John Maddison

“Fortinet Secure SD-WAN allows GTT to build a smart connectivity platform that delivers additional value to customers through security, analytics and cloud-acceleration services,” said John Maddison, Fortinet’s senior vice president of products and chief marketing officer. “The combination of GTT’s Tier 1 global IP network and Fortinet secure SD-WAN enables high-performing and differentiated services for GTT clients worldwide. We’re pleased to partner with GTT to deliver our carrier-grade secure SD-WAN solution to global enterprise organizations.”

Ernie Ortega, GTT’s division president of the Americas, told Channel Partners last fall that GTT and its partners face a prime opportunity to sell SD-WAN to customers whose MPLS contracts are about to end.

“Now those MPLS networks are moving toward an SD-WAN. All of your enterprises are really starting to make those decisions, and that’s where we’re starting to focus a lot of our efforts,” Ortega said.

Windstream last summer added Fortinet to its SD-WAN portfolio, which already included VeloCloud.

Jon Bove, Fortinet’s vice president of Americas channels, recently penned a blog about the relationship between SD-WAN and security.