Complexity of Network Operations

The challenges of increasingly complex and naturally fragmented infrastructures continue to enable a rise in cyber events and network outages. Too many point products deployed by most enterprises almost always operate in isolated silos with their own management consoles and automation frameworks that are narrow and only relevant for that one product. Subsequently, network operations teams rarely have clear and consistent insight into what controls and configurations are set up across the infrastructure. Even more importantly, they lack comprehensive visibility into the network to detect anomalies.

An integrated network security architecture with network automation capabilities can easily eliminate the complexity challenge for network operators. The Fortinet Fabric Management Center includes FortiManager combined with FortiAnalyzer to address three key use cases for effective network operations: n_nCentralized management n_nNetwork automation and orchestration n_nSecurity Fabric analytics

Centralized Management 

When it comes to network security, disparate products typically cannot share threat intelligence or coordinate responses across organizational infrastructure. This critical cybersecurity shortcoming is often compounded by a lack of skilled security personnel to manage a wide assortment of disconnected point products. But even large organizations with dedicated IT security staff still have difficulty monitoring the network to keep track of which devices are connected, who has access to the network, and which resources are needed by which applications and workflows.

A centralized management solution with a single-pane-of-glass view like the Fabric Management Center enables streamlined visibility that reduces complexity. It allows network operations teams to monitor data movement and identify anomalous activity, simplifies solution optimization, and centralizes the management of next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) and other security tools from a single location. It also streamlines operations for limited or under-resourced administrators and staff—requiring fewer man-hours while reducing total cost of ownership (TCO).

Network Automation and Orchestration

Automation and orchestration are increasingly implemented, especially in enterprises that have complex infrastructures. These businesses are looking for ways to consolidate configuration and change management for security across complex, hybrid networks—and most importantly, across use cases like NGFW, SD-WAN, and many others.

Operations teams need to actively monitor for anomalies as enterprises increasingly embrace remote work. They also must identify irregularities with virtual private network (VPN) access in real time. This cannot be cohesively achieved if the tools in place are not integrated and automated. The Fabric Management Center enables automation and orchestration across complex infrastructures via connectors, automation hooks, and real-time alerts for any network abnormalities.

Security Fabric Analytics

Real-time network visibility is not easy—especially as enterprises add on an increasing number of point products to already complex infrastructures. As network teams consolidate point products and leverage FortiOS for intrusion prevention (IPS), VPN, NGFW, SD-WAN, SD-Branch, and other functions, they can easily share telemetry data between all deployments and enable real-time visibility of anomalies.

The Fabric Management Center’s FortiAnalyzer solution enables organizations to apply FortiGuard Labs threat intelligence to identify problems in real time. FortiAnalyzer helps correlate threat intelligence across the Security Fabric, leveraging its built-in analytics engine. It applies risk scoring to prioritize anomalies and shares findings across the infrastructure. These core analytics capabilities are managed via FortiManager’s unified console view.

Additionally, the analytics engine powers visualization of the Security Fabric in real time. These visualizations enable operations teams to identify and investigate any network risks in real time. FortiAnalyzer also comes with built-in dashboards and reports that can easily be customized. These functions include over 700 datasets for easy onboarding—advanced queries that are optimized for real-time respon