Fortinet’s Tested and Validated Architectures for Cloud Network Security - Improve Protection and Save Design Time

Oct 25, 2026

Fortinet provides tested and validated reference architectures for cloud network security to support organizations during cloud migration. The document explains what a tested reference architecture is, how it helps reduce mistakes, and how it improves agility while optimizing deployments. It details key benefits such as reduced risk, consistent security posture, integration with cloud security tools, and best-practice enablement. It also describes common use cases including ingress traffic inspection, redundancy, SSL inspection, IPS, and related security services.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryTechnology

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Executive Summary

What Is a Tested Reference Architecture?

Key Benefits of Fortinet Reference Architectures

Fortinet Validated and Tested Architectures

Routed ingress traffic inspection

WHITE PAPER Fortinet’s Tested and Validated Architectures for Cloud Network Security Improve Protection and Save Design Time Executive Summary Cloud adoption continues to grow as organizations take advantage of cloud computing’s unique ability to accelerate digital transformation. However, the rapid expansion of cloud deployments presents a new set of challenges that range from simply having a bigger attack surface to protect to ensuring network performance. Organizations migrating to the cloud can speed deployments and improve security posture by leveraging a tested reference architecture. Fortinet offers tested and validated architectures for cloud network security that include ingress, egress, east-west traffic inspection, and SD-WAN. There are a variety of benefits to adopting these architectures including reduced risk, consistent security posture, and comprehensive protection. This white paper will explain what each of the architectures listed above achieves and how they are set up. We also cover the security services needed for each to be effective. What Is a Tested Reference Architecture? A tested reference architecture is essentially a blueprint that outlines best practices for designing and securing cloud environments. Developed by security experts and battle-tested against real-world threats, it provides a proven framework for organizations to build upon. “The biggest cybersecurity threat is human error, accounting for over 80% of incidents. This is despite the exponential increase in organizational cyber training over the past decade, and heightened awareness and risk mitigation across businesses and industries.”1 Reference architectures can increase agility and help you optimize your cloud deployments. These architectures can also reduce mistakes that may compromise security. Key Benefits of Fortinet Reference Architectures Use of Fortinet reference architectures will help: Reduce risk with industry-standard security controls and configurations to mitigate the risk of misconfigurations. This predefined approach also helps organizations avoid the time-consuming process of building security from scratch, accelerating cloud adoption. Promote consistency and repeatability by providing a standardized approach to security across all cloud deployments within your organization. This consistency simplifies security management and ensures all deployments adhere to the same baseline security controls. Offer integration and interoperability by considering the integration of various cloud security tools and services. This ensures a well-coordinated security posture where different tools seamlessly work together to provide comprehensive protection. Leverage expertise to implement best practices built by knowledgeable, experienced security professionals. By adopting a prevetted approach, you gain access to best practices that might not be readily available within your internal security team. Fortinet Validated and Tested Architectures The following tested architectures for securing applications and data in the cloud cover the most common cloud network security use cases. In each example, the same virtual network can also contain related tools such as the FortiWeb web application firewall (WAF) or FortiSandbox for the detection of previously unknown malware. Management and analytic tools, such as FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer, can be placed in the virtual network with the FortiGates, in another virtual network, in a separate cloud, or on-premises. 2 Routed ingress traffic inspection Ingress traffic is the flow of data into a private network from an external source. A team building virtual networks in a public cloud might want an architecture specifically for ingress traffic inspection to enhance security by detecting and blocking threats without introducing latency. This can be achieved by forcing all traffic from the internet to be routed through a dedicated security virtual network with

FAQs

What is a tested reference architecture for cloud security?

It is a blueprint of best practices for designing and securing cloud environments, developed by security experts and validated against real-world threats.

What benefits do Fortinet reference architectures provide?

They reduce risk through industry-standard security controls, improve consistency and repeatability across deployments, and support integration and interoperability among security tools.

How does the routed ingress traffic inspection architecture improve security?

It routes internet traffic through a dedicated security virtual network with a virtual network firewall and inspection tools to monitor and control inbound connections while enabling inspection such as SSL inspection and IPS.

Oct 25, 2026

Upload by River Wang