SEATTLE -- Aventail Corporation, the leading provider of clientless SSL VPN appliances and services, today announced a strategic partnership with Fortinet, the only provider of ASIC-powered, network-based antivirus firewall systems for real-time network protection.

By combining the power of Aventail's EX-1500 SSL VPN appliance with the Fortinet FortiGate Antivirus Firewall, enterprises can more effectively provision a complete, secure remote access solution. This helps enterprises prevent their networks from being compromised by hackers and agent-based programs that launch application-layer attacks inside the corporate network. As the speed of business continues to accelerate, workers require easy access to private data resources and applications across any network, from any device, at any time. However, providing "anywhere, anytime" access can also expose organizations to the increased risks posed by viruses, worms and other content-based threats. The combination of the Aventail and Fortinet solution delivers the secure, anywhere access that companies need, while also delivering high-performance, real-time protection against viruses, worms, Trojans and other content-based threats.

"Aventail, through rigorous certification testing, chose the FortiGate Antivirus Firewall platform because it delivers high performance, ICSA-certified antivirus protection and integrates transparently into a customer's network, requiring no configuration changes to the network or the Aventail appliances," said Sarah Daniels, vice president of product management and marketing for Aventail. "Our joint customers can now provide an additional layer of content security to their remote access solutions, preventing the end-user PC or other device from becoming a vehicle for viruses or other unwanted intrusions into enterprise networks."

The Aventail EX-1500 clientless SSL VPN appliance provides cost-effective, easy-to-use, secure remote access from any Internet browser to all Web, client/server and legacy applications. FortiGate Antivirus Firewalls are based on a groundbreaking architecture designed specifically to deliver application-layer security and content processing services in addition to network-layer services in real time. FortiGate systems analyze content and behavior in real time, and deliver a combination of services and performance that cannot be matched using conventional layer 3/layer 4 networking architectures or by deploying software applications on conventional computer systems. The joint Aventail/Fortinet solution requires no special software or complex configuration.

"Aventail has established a well-deserved leadership position in the SSL VPN appliance and services market by delivering cost effective solutions that enable simple, secure remote access," said Richard Kagan, vice president of marketing, Fortinet. "The combination of Fortinet and Aventail takes clientless remote access to the next level by ensuring that SSL-based remote access connections are not used to deliver malicious content. The partnership with Aventail is clearly a strategic win for our customers."

Aventail Corp.

Fortinet Inc.