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SUNNYVALE, Calif., February 28, 2011 - Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT) - a leading network security provider and the worldwide leader of unified threat management (UTM) solutions - today celebrates the growth of the staff and programs at its Ottawa office, which is a main hub for the company's product training, research and development and technical support teams. Fortinet, which recently acknowledged its 10th year of innovation in the computer security industry, provides end-to-end security solutions to enterprises, service providers and government entities worldwide, including the majority of the Global 500. The company attributes a significant amount of its growth in the size of its Ottawa team not only to increased regional customer adoption and support requirements in these segments, but also advances in Fortinet's technical support offering in the region.

Fortinet's Ottawa office was established in 2002 with just one full-time employee and one contractor, but has since grown to boast more than 70 employees, with a number of jobs still to be filled. This growth has helped to establish Fortinet as a solid partner within the Ottawa technology community and allows Fortinet to continue to build out its bilingual technical assistance center (TAC), which also creates opportunities for local job seekers.

While Fortinet has TAC presence throughout the world, this is a significant focus for the company's Ottawa office. The company recently announced upgrades to its overall technical customer support offering, including real-time online training in addition to its in-person product training coursework and also introduced packaged professional services.

"Most of the growth we've seen this year in our employees in Ottawa has been in the area of technical support and our new professional and educational services," said Michael Anderson, vice president of services at Fortinet. "Due to an increase of Federal Government and large enterprise customers, our support staff in Ottawa has increased significantly - and we're still hiring."

To help with Fortinet's ongoing staffing requirements, the company has engaged with ITO Ottawa and the Ottawa branch of Willis College. ITO Ottawa, which was created to help unemployed information technology workers find jobs in the burgeoning technology sector, has been working closely with Fortinet since April 2010. Since the partnership began, 60 percent of Fortinet's Ottawa office staff has come from the ITO program.

Fortinet is also establishing a partnership with Willis College, a privately-funded, Ottawa-based adult educational training provider. In the partnership, Fortinet will provide a number of enterprise-grade network security solutions to the school and collaborate on a comprehensive classroom curriculum that will graduate students with complete network security installation and configuration experience. Fortinet currently employs two former Willis graduates in technical support positions within the company.

Ten Years of Innovation

Fortinet was originally founded in 2000, went public on NASDAQ in November 2009. The main driver behind Fortinet's growth is the company's technology expertise, having built the world's only ASIC-accelerated network-based multi-threat security systems and introduced the first FortiGate® systems in May 2002. In terms of innovation, Fortinet has more than 60 issued patents, with over 100 patents pending, has more product certifications than any other security appliance company and has earned more than 100 product awards from Information Security magazine, SC magazine and Network World magazine. The company, which provides network security infrastructure to everyone from small to medium-sized businesses to high-end TELCOs, currently has 23 offices, 1,300 employees and more than 100,000 customers around the world.

"As Fortinet has continued to innovate competitive end-to-end security solutions, we have continued to bring these solutions into the technology centers of large enterprises, service providers and government agencies," said Graham Bushkes, vice president of Canadian sales at Fortinet. "We are proud of the growth that we have seen in Ottawa and throughout Canada, and will continue to work with our customers and the community to provide products, services and education addressing critical security measures."