SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Fortinet – the only provider of ASIC-powered, network-based antivirus firewall systems for real-time network protection – today announced that IT industry veteran Bernie Vierich has joined the Fortinet executive team as vice president of worldwide customer support. Vierich brings over 20 years' experience in telecommunications, security and enterprise computing to Fortinet where he will be responsible for overseeing customer and partner support of the global installed base of FortiGate™ Antivirus Firewalls. "With eight products introduced into the marketplace within a year, and a universe of thousands deployed worldwide, this is a key moment for someone with Bernie's unique customer support expertise to come on board at Fortinet," said Ken Xie, Fortinet's founder, president and CEO. "Bernie comes to the job with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the industry, and will prove to be a great asset for Fortinet partners and customers."Prior to joining Fortinet, Vierich directed enterprise customer support and professional services at Kanatek Technologies, a Canadian-based global systems integration company, where he drove delivery of IT services to large international telecommunications organizations and financial institutions. Previous to Kanatek, he was vice president of engineering and customer support at Milkyway Networks, a secure IT firewall provider. Before that he was assistant vice president of North American support services at Mitel Networks, a market-leader in voice, video and data convergence over broadband networks. Fortinet Inc.