Fortinet Extends Partner Education Program with New Segmented Online Network Security Courses

Modular, Self-Paced Classes Prepare Network Admins to Implement, Manage and Operate Fortinet Products within a Network at No Cost to Channel Partners

Dubai, UAE: May 22, 2014 ― Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT) ― a world leader in high-performance network security ― today announced new segmented online courses that prepare network administrators to implement, manage and operate Fortinet products within a network. The courses, accessible from Fortinet’s Learning Center, cover Fortinet’s expansive network security portfolio, building in-depth expertise around a wide range of products that include the FortiGate, FortiAnalyzer, FortiManager, FortiMail and FortiWeb platforms. All courses have been strategically-designed for self-paced instruction and are available free to all registered Fortinet channel partners.

Two new preparatory online courses, Fortinet Certified Network Security Associate (FCNSA) and Fortinet Certified Network Security Professional (FCNSP), can be taken at any time and help prepare partners to take proctored Fortinet network security product certification exams.

FCNSA Preparation consists of 10 online modules plus one day of proctored online lab exercises. When completed, FCNSA prepares network administrators to implement, manage and operate Fortinet’s FortiGate products. Course topics include firewall policy setting, user authentication, VPN, virus detection, email filtering, Web filtering, application control and more.

FCNSP Preparation consists of 12 online modules as well as two days of proctored online lab exercises. The second course in the series covers routing, virtual domains, high availability, advanced IPSec VPN, intrusion prevention, diagnostics and resource utilization, among other topics. 

“Education is a key enabler, allowing us to expand our businesses and differentiate in the market,” said John Gapinski, president of Secured Retail Networks. “Today, Fortinet has found a way to make this fundamental training more flexible and accessible, and at no cost to partners.” 

“These courses have proven to be very popular because they provide both theoretical and practical knowledge, as well as cover topics that Fortinet administrators and architects need to know,” said Matt Phillips, director of training services at Fortinet.

Fortinet is implementing these online courses to make training more flexible and widely available to a larger number of channel partners. That, in turn, better enables the company’s channel sales teams to deliver award-winning network security solutions and a wide range of additional services to customers.

“We believe strongly that a trained channel is a more effective channel,” said Joe Sykora, VP Americas sales operations and channels. “Not only does technical training reduce sales cycles, it enables our partners to deliver additional professional services and support offerings.”

Previously, both FCNSA and FCNSP courses were only offered in traditional classroom or live online formats. In order to make training more accessible for partners, the content of both courses were rewritten for self-paced instruction and broken into segments, which now allows students to focus on specific topics of interest. Both courses still include an online hands-on lab session that is proctored by a Fortinet trainer.

“Someone with a question about IPSec VPN, for example, can just take the module that covers IPSec VPN and not have to take the whole course series,” Phillips said.

In addition to self-paced online courses, Fortinet offers a full range of instructor led courses, in both online and traditional classroom formats, as well as custom training. For more information on Fortinet’s full breadth of educational offerings, please visit: www.fortinet.com/training