Fortinet named top IT/OT network protection leader again for 2025

Westlands Advisory has named Fortinet as the Overall Leader in its IT/OT Network Protection Platform Navigator 2025 report for the third consecutive time.

Recognition for IT/OT network protection

Westlands Advisory, an operational technology (OT) security industry analysis and strategy firm, has again positioned Fortinet at the top of its latest report, recognising the company's performance in both strategic direction and capability in securing IT and OT network infrastructure. The report says Fortinet's experience in OT network security has been extensive and highlights its commitment to this sector.

The report states, "OT cybersecurity has been a key strategic pillar" for Fortinet, "resulting in significant innovation, product expansion, growing alliances, and increasing market share."

Industry response

"For more than 20 years, organisations have trusted Fortinet to protect OT environments and ensure compliance with the evolving needs of OT infrastructures. Fortinet uniquely delivers a comprehensive OT security platform, built from the ground up with the industry's most advanced threat detection and protection capabilities to enable converged IT/OT infrastructure. Our latest recognition from Westlands Advisory reflects the deep and growing trust our customers, partners, and the broader OT security community place in Fortinet," said Nirav Shah, Senior Vice President, Products and Solutions, Fortinet.

Platform features highlighted

The Westlands Advisory report identifies several features of Fortinet's OT Security Platform. The platform delivers end-to-end network segmentation, OT asset and network visibility, and advanced threat protection within a unified and centrally managed environment. The platform integrates with the broader Fortinet Security Fabric to help improve cyber resiliency, reliability, speed of deployment, and to simplify operations for protecting critical OT infrastructure from ongoing threats.

Benefits and technology breadth

According to the report, one of the platform's core strengths is its breadth of integrated, high-performance security solutions across IT and OT environments. Westlands Advisory describes Fortinet's solution as providing, "a single platform across IT and OT to help reduce cyber risks across the entire organisation."

The report further notes, "The OT Security Platform, an extension of the Fortinet Security Fabric, uniquely provides the widest and deepest breadth of networking and cybersecurity solutions in the market." Fortinet's offering includes over 20 products across Secure Networking, Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), and Security Operations. These integrate with third-party technologies, delivering what the report calls, "a comprehensive and centralised OT service."

Innovation and industry awards

Fortinet's OT Security Platform is recognised in the report for its innovation in addressing pressing OT security issues, such as asset discovery, network protection, endpoint protection, and secure remote access. According to the report, "Fortinet offers the broadest range of industrial-grade security hardware solutions, including FortiGate Rugged firewalls and FortiSwitch industrial switches... Fortinet's product roadmap is highly responsive to customer requirements and industry standards and has resulted in a number of industry awards, including the 2024 Red Dot Product Design Award [FortiGate Rugged 70G with Dual 5G Modems]."

Further acknowledgements mentioned include the Control Engineering 2024 Silver Product of the Year Award for FortiGate Rugged 70F, and the 2025 Gold Product of the Year Award for FortiGate Rugged 70G-5G-DUAL. The report also highlights Fortinet's work in artificial intelligence and machine learning, noting initiatives in "detections, understanding risk, and improving security operations."

Performance and efficiency

The report credits Fortinet's custom-built application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) technology, embedded in its FortiGate appliances, as a key factor in its high level of network security performance and reliability. This is particularly relevant for critical OT environments that require continuous operation. Fortinet's ASICs, integrated with the FortiOS operating system, are designed to support high-performance networking as well as security for complex environments.

Westlands Advisory concludes that the Fortinet OT Security Platform illustrates the importance of IT/OT convergence and supports the view that organisations can combine high performance with robust protection.