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November 4, 2010 - Fortinet®- a leading network security provider and the worldwide leader of unified threat management (UTM) solutions - and Spirent Communications plc. (LSE: SPT), the leading provider of testing solutions for networks, devices and services, today announced the results of performance tests conducted on the FortiGate®-3040B, the newest Fortinet multi-threat security appliance purpose-built for large enterprise and data center environments. Testing with Spirent solutions showed that the FortiGate-3040B delivers a steady 40 Gbps of performance in both UDP and TCP traffic through four 10 Gbps Ethernet ports and supports full line-rate application traffic with zero packet loss. The appliance also achieves latency as low as 3.94 microseconds under 100 percent load. Other test results unveil that the FortiGate-3040B supports up to 5,600,000 concurrent sessions and 160,000 transactions per second.

FortiGate-3040B comes standard with eight 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports, all in a single, compact 2-RU appliance form factor. The appliance also includes both of Fortinet's innovative FortiASIC™ processors -- content processor (CP7) and network processor (NP4).

The UDP traffic throughput test was performed with Spirent TestCenter™, which was used as a UDP traffic injector through a total of four 10 Gbps Ethernet ports. The test was conducted with a mix of packets, including 66, 594 and 1518 byte packets, and showed performance of 13 million packets per second. The amount of latency introduced by the FortiGate-3040B was minimal, with an average of 7.14 microseconds and getting as low as 3.94 µs at 64 bytes and zero packet loss.

The TCP traffic throughput test was performed with the Spirent Avalanche, used as an HTTP application traffic generator through a total of four 10 Gbps Ethernet ports. The test was conducted under the following parameters: three-way TCP handshakes; TCP Window Size at 64kB; and 10 HTTP transactions in 1 TCP connection. It showed application data performance of 37,65 Gbps throughput, which is equivalent to 40 Gbps of line-rate Ethernet.

"The Spirent TestCenter platform has become the standard for testing high-end security products in complex networks," said Jeff Schmitz, vice president, Networks & Applications at Spirent Communications. "Large enterprise and data center environments must protect their most critical assets while, at the same time, keeping up with the increased bandwidth requirements of their network. The test of FortiGate-3040B validates the robustness, performance, and stability Fortinet's customers can expect from this high-end network security system."

The Spirent test results highlight the best-in-class firewall price-performance of the FortiGate-3040B. This 10-GbE network security appliance provides the highest 10-GbE port density in its class and includes the latest FortiASIC™ network processors (NP4), which work inline with the flow of traffic and accelerate firewall and VPN functions.

"For several years now, we've been able to prove to our customers that our high-end UTM appliances can compare with point solutions in terms of performance and robustness. The addition of the FortiGate-3040B to our network security product line is no exception," said Michael Xie, founder, CTO and vice president of engineering for Fortinet. "By leveraging Spirent's test methodology and services, we enhance our customers' confidence in our new products. With this test in particular, we are able to objectively demonstrate the outstanding performance and quality of the FortiGate-3040B, which delivers an unmatched mix of performance, flexibility, and security for its price class."

Fortinet's FortiGate-3040B appliance is the latest to join the FortiGate-3000 series product family, and integrates high-performance firewall capabilities with advanced unified threat management protection in a single system to help protect organizations' vital assets. It adds to the FortiGate-3950B series, which was introduced earlier this year and delivers up to 120 Gbps of low-latency firewall inspection performance to help secure the most demanding enterprise environments, including high-speed data centers and network perimeters.

Fortinet's FortiGate-3040B provides high bandwidth connectivity to the security gateway and delivers up to 17 Gigabits-per-second of virtual private network (VPN) performance. The appliance provides exceptional deployment versatility by providing the industry's greatest port-density in its price class. A total of 20 ports are included on the system comprised of modular SFP+, SFP and traditional RJ-45 ports.

Like other enterprise-class multi-threat security appliances from Fortinet, the FortiGate-3040B is equipped with the FortiOS 4.0 MR2 operating system to effectively neutralize a wide range of security threats facing networks today.