Fortinet Boosts Security Message for Carrier Push to 5G

Fortinet touted a new proprietary virtual security processing technology a week before the MWC Barcelona trade show in a race to boost security for carriers moving from 4G LTE to 5G. The virtual technology is designed to aid faster connection speeds and secure mobile control at the core and edge cloud to support IoT infrastructure. The company described its system of virtual security processing unit (SPU) technology that powers virtual network functions (VNFs) for delivering increased application security with only a small footprint that requires less storage and a boot time lasting “within seconds.” The goal behind the virtual SPU is to apply the software to off-the-shelf hardware for virtual firewalls, SD-WANs, routers, and VPNs, said John Maddison, executive vice president of products at Fortinet. Pricing for the virtual SPU is subscription-based, determined by the number of cores a service provider operates.