The Sunnyvale, CA-based cybersecurity firm Fortinet has announced it has acquired the cloud security startup Opaq for an undisclosed sum.
Fortinet already has a powerful Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) platform, which is typically delivered on-premises or in the data center. Opaq has developed a Secure Web Gateway (SWG) and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) in the cloud. The acquisition of Opaq will help Fortinet deliver cloud-based security to its customers.
“Adding Opaq allows us to be more flexible in terms of where and how customers want to apply security,” said John Maddison, executive vice president of products, Fortinet. “We already had the most complete SASE offering, but this gives us more flexible consumption options.”
Opaq was formed in 2016 and has 50 employees. The Herndon, Va.-based firm delivers security-as-a-service to medium-sized enterprises and several Fortune 1000 firms in a variety of markets via its partner network. The platform has been developed to be easy for MSSPs to integrate into their own security offerings. The acquisition will allow Fortinet to provide true Zero Trust security without the unprotected gaps in the attack surface that are left by many other ZTNA providers.
Opaq’s solution will be blended with the Fortinet’s Security Fabric to provide protection for distributed networks. The Fortinet ZTNA will also be one of the most partner friendly solutions on the market, which will make it easy for MSSPs to adopt the solution to protect their customers’ distributed networks and protect data centers, branch offices, IoT devices, and remote workers.
The combination of Fortinet and Opaq solutions will allow the company to deliver a truly comprehensive range of security solutions, including next-generation firewall and SD-WAN capabilities, web security, sandboxing, advanced endpoint, identity/multi factor authentication, multi-cloud workload protection, cloud application security broker (CASB), browser isolation, and web application firewalling capabilities.
“Now, we will deliver the most complete SASE platform on the market with the broadest security and industry-leading SD-WAN and networking offerings that can all be delivered to customers and partners through a flexible, cost efficient and patented zero-trust cloud architecture,” explained Fortinet.
Opaq is one of several companies to have been acquired by Fortinet in recent years. In December 2019, Fortinet acquired CyberSponse, a leading provider of Security Orchestration, Automation & Response (SOAR). In October 2019, Fortinet acquired the endpoint security startup enSilo, and the threat analysis firm ZoneFox and IoT security firm Bradford Networks were both acquired by Fortinet in 2018.
