Not all organizations are the same. Each has its own goals, components, structures, number of sites, IT resources,andunique budgets. However, what almost all organizations do have in common is the need for secure network connectivity across all their locations to support file sharing and video surveillance, secure VoIP calls, and access to internal and hosted applications. Employing a legacy router solution for these functionalities can be cumbersome and expensive.

Shared Concerns

Most organizations also share several important concerns, starting with the challenge of their networks' architectural design. Decisions must be made on how to build the network with considerations like where the hubs will be located, what hub resources will be made available (redundancy, WAN links, accessibility), and how the hub will be managed. Hub management must ensure that the network is accessible and available. Also, cost considerations are an important issue for smaller organizations with limited resources.

The Solution

Fortinet's Overlay-as-a-Service (OaaS) provides a simplified and rapid provisioning method for interconnecting locations securely. It is a turnkey service designed as a cloud-hosted, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model that saves small and medium organizations on hosting and management budgets, deployment time, and costs. Our OaaS also provides two dedicated geo-redundant hubs hosted and managed by Fortinet, driving continuous operations.

 OaaS offers organizations with small staff a solution that is simple to use with a point-and-click interface and requires minimal technical expertise. The ideal candidates for OaaS are small business and mid-market organizations with limited technical IT resources and budgets. They also require do-it-yourself (DIY) management.

How Our OaaS Works

Fortinet OaaS has an easy-to-use graphic user interface (GUI), enabling full mesh security on-demand. It is also a simple way to connect your branches and your data centers. Deployment is effortless. As a SaaS turnkey solution for provisioning SD-WAN service, you would only need to do these three steps:

• Ensure all the FortiGate Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) at the branch offices are registered with FortiCare and activated.
• Select two Fortinet-hosted overlay hubs for redundancy purposes that will facilitate the branch-to-branch connectivity.
• Add sites that need to be connected and the ISPs and subnets for each branch.

This rapid deployment for organizations with limited IT resources and budgets requires minimal technical knowledge.

Ideal Use Cases

Several use cases are ideal for OaaS solutions. Consider these two:

1. Enhance collaboration and data sharing between sites
   With automated and secure on-demand inter-site connectivity, you'll enjoy savings on capital expenditures and operating expenses.You'll also see that OaaS accelerates inter-site connectivity, flexible Investment, and management. The high-availability architecture that OaaS offers an organization ensures continuous operations.
2. Modernize legacy VPN locations
   OaaS uses SD-WAN for intelligent path steering and dynamic routing to convert legacy VPN to modern SD-WAN networks. It also features redundant, on-demand connectivity between locations.

Conclusion

Many organizations have multiple sites and seek to safely connect to the internet, applications, and remote locations for efficient and seamless data sharing and collaboration. Accomplishing these tasks with a legacy router solution can be awkward and costly.

Fortinet OaaS is a turnkey service for overlay connectivity that is offered and managed by Fortinet via our easy-to-use FortiCloud portal. It provides a simple and fast provisioning method for interconnecting locations securely. OaaS is purpose-built for lean organizations that have limited technical expertise or budgets.

To learn more, read thesolution briefand watch the overviewvideo and demo.