Secure Thin Edge

Fortinet Extends Security to All Locations

What Is a Thin Edge?

Many enterprises find themselves with locations where a small network exists and needs to be secured, but where it is unnecessary or cost prohibitive to deploy a firewall appliance. In those situations, security can be extended to the site in question from a centralized location, leaving only a “thin edge” of networking equipment at the site, while security actions are performed elsewhere.

Thin edge deployments are particularly important as digital acceleration has increased the numbers and types of IoT devices installed in many networks. IoT devices are typically incapable of supporting a software agent, and therefore need to be secured in another manner.

Types of Thin Edge Deployments

Thin edge deployments can come in several forms, but they most commonly fall into one of three possible situations:

Microbranch

Small fixed sites or kiosks without a large network stack, but with devices onsite that can’t leverage a software client

Home office

Home office setups where the company is providing a phone, printer, and possibly more, in addition to a laptop for the user.

Temporary Locations

Temporary installations often found at events, emergency situations, or mobile sites where networks need to be small and transportable.

Fortinet Solves the Thin Edge

Fortinet offers easy solutions to secure the thin edge that can be leveraged as appropriate. All solutions are centered on the FortiOS operating system, which unifies our security platform.

FortiSASE: The Fortinet secure access service edge (SASE) solution enables secure access to the web, cloud, and applications for the hybrid workforce, in addition to managing thin edge infrastructure devices.

Remote FortiGate: Whether hardware installed in a private data center or a VM in a public cloud, FortiGates can control, configure, and manage remotely deployed thin edge networking devices.

FortiGate-as-a-Service: Fortinet offers FortiGate hardware appliances as a service, delivering the same high-performance ASIC-based security as FortiGates on-premises. As with any remote FortiGate, thin edge networking devices can be managed.