Fortinet, the Nasdaq-listed specialist in computer network security appliances, plans to tie up with important telecom carriers in India to offer managed security services. The company is also planning to expand its India workforce to analyse local security threats and serve the market accordingly.

Vishak Raman, regional director — Saarc, Fortinet, said: “We have been offering managed security services through our tie-up with Tata Communications for over one and a half years. The unified threat management service (UTM) is offered on a subscription basis to about 80 customers. We plan to tie up with more carriers to expand in India.”

Fortinet is a global major in UTM that refers to a comprehensive solution to manage almost all security functions including firewall, antivirus, load balancing and content filtering from one single appliance. The solutions are fast gaining popularity because disparate point solutions working in silos at different locations of computer networks are not able to tackle real-time threats in this era of information explosion.

According to IDC, the global market for UTM is about $3.2 billion, growing at a compounded annual growth rate of about 14 per cent. It is emerging as the biggest technology in the security segment.

“Apart from launching security solutions for wireless networks this year, we have also started to ‘verticalise’ our offerings in India, especially for the telecom and government sectors. Each vertical has its own requirements in terms of security such as preventing real-time phishing threats in case of bank websites. Our clients are spread across banking, telecom and government verticals among others,” Raman added.

California-based Fortinet was founded in 2000 and has made about 15,000 installations in India so far.