Federal agencies have a lot to contend with when it comes to their IT network infrastructure. Many continue to use siloed or legacy infrastructure that cannot keep up with the demands of modern operations or constituents. To combat this, policies and mandates such as the Modernizing Government Technology Act have come into effect to create processes and avenues for agencies to retire legacy systems and embrace digital transformation efforts. For many, this means deploying new apps, IoT devices, and moving workloads to the cloud. However, it is not just as simple as retiring old systems and rolling out new ones.

The Focus on Cybersecurity at the Federal Level

Federal agencies store highly sensitive data, ranging from information on national security to personally identifiable information on each citizen in the nation. Cyber criminals, hacktivists, and nation state threat actors are regularly developing sophisticated attacks to exploit this information and disrupt operations on a national level.

This is why cybersecurity must be considered alongside every instance of modernization. In fact, in 2017 the President issued the Executive Order on Strengthening Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure. This order dictates that agencies are responsible for implementing risk management tools and processes and conforming to various compliance standards such as The Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity from NIST.

Enabling Federal Partners to Achieve Security Goals

As federal agencies aim to modernize networks and enhance cybersecurity simultaneously, they must ensure they have the resources in place to evaluate how current threat trends impact their risk, and how to enforce strong security policies without sacrificing performance.

This is why Fortinet is hosting its Federal Partner Forum for the second year.

The forum, which takes place on May 9^thin Reston, VA, brings together key executives from the Fortinet team with our federal partner ecosystem, including service providers, value-added resellers, system integrators, and more, to explore the market opportunity to meet federal security goals with the Security Fabric.

Key Sessions and Themes at the Federal Partner Forum

Partners will have the chance to sit in on keynotes, panel discussions, and tech spotlights that will illuminate the best strategies and tools to help the partners secure federal networks.

Visionary Keynote with Phil Quade

The forum will kick off with a visionary keynote from Fortinet CISO, Phil Quade, on the convergence of cyber and physical environments, or Cy-Phy. This refers to the growing numbers of IoT devices that connect to our networks and exist in our physical spaces -from mobile phones to IP-enabled cameras, which were common targets for malicious activity over the last year. 

          Fortinet Federal Go to Market Overview with Bob Fortna

Key to enabling our federal partners will be Bob Fortna's, President of the Fortinet Federal Team, session on the federal go-to market strategy. The Fortinet team recognizes the importance of securing the nation's critical infrastructure, and continues to make investments in ways to enable partners to meet these needs.

Fireside Chat with Jim Richberg

Partners will also gain a unique understanding of the challenges which government agencies face on the path to securing modernization during the fireside chat with Bob Fortna and Jim Richberg, Field CISO at Fortinet. 

Tech Spotlights

The forum will also include spotlights on technology that has become integral to the federal networks.

• Secure SD-WAN:SD-WAN promises to play an important role in the modernization of federal infrastructure. SD-WAN enables federal agencies to meet the networking demands of digital transformation in an agile and cost-effective way across high traffic networks. Felipe Fernandez, Director of Systems Engineering for Fortinet Federal, will review how our Secure SD-WAN solution fortified with FortiGuard Next Generation Firewall delivers the performance and security required of federal networks.

• Cloud:60% of federal IT leaders state that the majority of budget over the next three years will go to a combination of cloud services -private, public, and hybrid. As federal agencies embrace these multi-cloud environments, they must maintain visibility into what is stored across each cloud and who has access to it. Lior Cohen, Senior Director of Product Marketing for Cloud Security at Fortinet, will lead a tech spotlight on how to leverage cloud security controls as agencies make this move.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI):Artificial intelligence and machine learning are essential in detecting and responding to the rapid nature of attacks. Keith Rayle, Fortinet Strategist, will discuss machine collaboration, how to connect AI into their efforts, and how partners can specifically assist agencies in leveraging these innovations.  

Final Thoughts

Fortinet is committed to ensuring that our federal partners are empowered with the information they need to help transform and secure government networks. The Federal Partner Forum allows this partner community to learn how to address the challenges facing the federal space from top thought leaders in the industry.

Learn more about Fortinet Federal's effective and comprehensive cybersecurity solutions securing sensitive government information and mitigate the risk of cyber attack.

For more information about Fortinet's technology alliance partners program, visit here.