On-demand data center provider, SoftLayer (News - Alert) Technologies, is using Fortinet FortiGate-3810A multi-threat security systems at nationwide data centers to help secure customers’ virtualized network and protect them from malicious Internet attacks.

 

The deployment of the Fortinet solution at their nationwide data centers has enabled SoftLayer to easily add new customers without having to bring on additional network resources, according to Ric Moseley, vice president of Engineering at SoftLayer Technologies.

 

Fortinet’s virtual domain functionality allows for them to easily scale and meet the rapidly growing needs of their business, all while saving costs and improving customer satisfaction.

 

SoftLayer’s firewall offering provides customers with an essential layer of security, said the company sources. This can be provisioned on-demand without service interruptions. SoftLayer was looking for a very reliable and highly scalable solution as the security solutions and firewalls are a critical service offering for SoftLayer and its customers.

 

Delivering virtualized network security through its Virtual Domain (VDOM) technology, Fortinet offers the ability to create up to 250 independent security domains on a single FortiGate-3810A security appliance. By using Fortinet’s VDOM feature, network security virtualization provides a separately provisioned and managed security domain for each of SoftLayer’s customers. This capability gives SoftLayer administrators flexibility in policy configuration and traffic management capabilities for each customer.

 

Fortinet’s FortiGate-3810A multi-threat security systems are deployed at multiple SoftLayer locations including their Dallas, Texas data center; the Seattle, Washington data center; and the new Washington D.C. data center. These systems are helping to provide customers with firewall protection. Company officials explained that as each FortiGate-3810A allows for up to 250 VDOMs, SoftLayer is able to easily scale its business to meet the needs of additional customers while providing customers with their own security domain.

 

Each virtualized security domain can be completely separated from other customer domains thanks to the VDOM functionality of the FortiGate systems. With Fortinet’s solution, if a DoS attack is launched, only one domain would be affected. This results in more efficient network operations and reduced impact of these attacks on the customer servers.

 

Noting that Fortinet is at the leading edge of security virtualization functionality, Karl Soderlund, vice president of Americas sales and business development for Fortinet, said that FortiGate systems can easily scale to meet the needs of enterprises of all sizes, but are highly cost efficient for enterprises and carriers because of the available 250 virtual domains on the higher end appliances.