Introduction

This document provides an overview of the FortiCloud SaaS (Security as a Service) portal and how it supports and relates to Fortinet Security-Driven Networking.

FortiCloud as Fortinet's suite of SaaS portals

FortiCloud provides a single point of access to all your Fortinet Cloud portals.

“Cloud” is the go-to word for computer companies these days. It can be confusing figuring out exactly what a cloud option is, because context matters and Cloud Services versus Cloud Infrastructure versus Cloud Platforms are, in fact, different things. All those variations can obscure the fact that when we are talking about computers and not fluffy white things in the sky, “The Cloud” really just means “The Internet.” That is, any cloud interaction is interacting with a computer that someone else owns and is responsible for, instead of an in-house computer that local IT staff are responsible for.

Any use of an Internet service, especially if it involves the user logging in and otherwise controlled access to data on the Internet side, is in fact making use of cloud computing, following the Software/Security as a Service (SaaS) model. Online shopping is cloud computing, as is video streaming services, online banking, customer relationship management, and really, virtually everything on the Internet including Fortinet’s support site. In fact, the FortiCare support site is the gateway to FortiCloud services!

At Fortinet, to best serve our customers with our Security-Driven Networking, we have a range of cybersecurity and secure networking products that can be managed online via a web browser (Security as a Service). These service portals simplify management of our products, and maintain their data and configurations in Fortinet managed secure data centers; a vital service for businesses that would prefer not to maintain their own data centers.

FortiCloud is the umbrella portal for delivering all of Fortinet’s cloud-based security and security management services. FortiCloud provides easy single sign on to all Fortinet cloud security services, and unifies those services with FortiCare support, Fortinet Asset Management, and Fortinet Identity and User Management (IAM).

The FortiCloud SaaS portal does not, of course, preclude using Fortinet products in, or as part of, a cloud-based infrastructure. FortiGate VMs, and other Fortinet VM products, can absolutely be deployed in, and used to secure, public, private, and hybrid cloud infrastructures, including all the major Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) vendors, including AWS, Azure, Google cloud and others. Nevertheless, this document is focused not on those types of cloud computing, but on FortiCloud SaaS portals.

Several FortiCloud SaaS Management solutions are particularly well suited to LAN Edge and SD-Branch solutions, with several options targeting Security-Driven Networks built around FortiGates, FortiSwitches, and FortiAPs/WLANs.

Intended audience

This guide is intended for an audience which is interested in learning about the FortiCloud Security as a Service portal and its usefulness in managing Fortinet Security-Driven Networking solutions in particular. Readers should have a basic understanding of networking and network security before they begin. Interested audiences may include:

• Network, wireless, and security architects

• Network, wireless, and security engineers

About this guide

This guide aims to provide a broad overview of Security as a Service and FortiCloud concepts. It introduces Fortinet SaaS products, particularly the Fortinet Cloud Management products used with Security-Driven Networking devices such as FortiGate, FortiAP, FortiSwitch, and FortiExtender.