Fortinet (FTNT Quick QuoteFTNT - Free Report) announced that it has been selected by KDDI for the new Global Managed SASE Service. KDDI will leverage FTNT’s Unified SASE solution as its core product for the Global SASE Platform Service by Fortinet offering.

Fortinet’s Global SASE Platform simplifies and unifies various security standards and policies, which require a highly secure hybrid work environment that can be accessed from anywhere globally. KDDI will combine Fortinet’s services with their KDDI Global IP-VPN, KDDI Wide Area Virtual Switch, KDDI Wide Area Virtual Switch2 and other network services provided by KDDI, which would secure applications, networks and users by providing various cloud and Internet services.

Fortinet Unified SASE has been selected by KDDI after a rigorous verification process. KDDI will utilize Fortinet Unified SASE as a foundation to offer various services. KDDI will also strengthen security postures and adopt advanced networking technologies seamlessly across industries for customers all around the world.

Year-to-date Performance

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Fortinet’s Strong Partner Base to Aid Long-Term Growth Prospect

Fortinet has a strong partner base, which attracts companies like KDDI and is expected to aid the company’s long-term growth prospects. Its robust partner base includes public cloud providers like Oracle (ORCL Quick QuoteORCL - Free Report) , Microsoft (MSFT Quick QuoteMSFT - Free Report) and Alphabets’ (GOOGL Quick QuoteGOOGL - Free Report) Google.

Fortinet’s partnership with Oracle provides an enterprise-class cloud security solution. Fortinet Security Fabric seamlessly integrates with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (“OCI”) to protect applications across cloud environments and data centers. This partnership helps companies migrate their workloads seamlessly to OCI.

FTNT, in partnership with Microsoft, provides broad protection to Azure and Office 3655 users. It is integrated into MSFT’s network to provide consistent enforcement and visibility across multi-cloud infrastructure. Fortinet provides integrated security at all stages of Azure adoption. Fortinet also simplifies security management, ensuring full visibility and providing broad protection across the Azure environment.

Fortinet protects business workloads across data centers, cloud environments and on-premises by providing multi-layered security for Google’s cloud-based applications. Additionally, the company’s hybrid mesh firewalls combine cloud firewalls and data centers together into a unified system to provide unified and seamless protection.

Conclusion

Fortinet’s’ strong partner base is a major positive. However, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have gained 1.8% year to date, underperforming the Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s growth of 29.4%. The underperformance is attributed to an uncertain economic environment, primarily due to changing customer spending behavior. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

For the past few months, various competitors in the cybersecurity space have noticed that the companies have been breaking their cybersecurity investment plans into phases and implementing the same over longer periods of time instead of making a single large investment.

This uncertain economic environment makes us slightly cautious about the company’s near-term performance.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FTNT’s second-quarter 2024 earnings per share is pegged at 41 cents per share, which has remained unchanged in the past 30 days. The consensus mark for 2025 earnings is pegged at $1.93 per share, which has decreased a cent in the past 30 days.