Fortinet Breaks Into Germany

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Fortinet -- the only provider of ASIC-powered, network-based antivirus firewall systems for real-time network protection -- today announced that it has established a new office in Ludwigshafen/Rheinm, Germany headed up by security industry veteran Michael Grace as regional director.Additionally, the company announced it has signed a distribution agreement with eSeSIX Computer GmbH, a leading German distributor of server-based computing, storage and security products. To kick off the Fortinet- eSeSIX strategic alliance, the two companies are jointly exhibiting at CeBIT Hannover Feb.12-19, 2003, Halle 15, Stand B05. "We believe the demand for high speed, network-based antivirus gateways, at exceptional price-per-performance, particularly in the German market, is the next big growth area in enterprise networking and communications," said Engelbert Tretter, Managing Director and Founder of eSeSIX Computer GmbH. "As a result of this agreement, we'll be able to utilize our unmatched capabilities in networking and security to leverage Fortinet's unique expertise in real time, policy-based antivirus screening. We also have many customers who are longing for a cost-effective integrated security platform and the Fortinet product is exactly what they're looking for." eSeSIX will distribute Fortinet's complete line of FortiGate Antivirus Firewalls, from the SOHO-focused FortiGate 50 model to the recently introduced, gigabit capacity FortiGate 3000. Fortinet's FortiGate family of antivirus firewalls combines hardware and software in integrated platforms that deliver a full complement of network- and application-level security and productivity services. The ASIC-based content processing engines in the FortiGate units enable real-time analysis of content at the application level, and support perimeter deployment of services -- including antivirus protection and content filtering -- that have traditionally relied on host- or client-based processing. Fortinet's new German headquarters will provide sales and technical support to Fortinet's Western European customers and enable the company to serve its customers throughout the Central European region including Austria, Switzerland and Scandinavia. Adding to the already established offices in the UK and France, Fortinet is extending its reach to key European markets to capitalize on growth opportunities for antivirus firewall and VPN solutions. Fortinet Inc.