Fortinet’s CEO Ken Xie has a habit of being in the right place at the right time. Xie started out as an entrepreneur in the 90s while he was a student at Stanford University, creating a small enterprise consulting business called SIS that helped clients get online securely. His second web security business was the company NetScreen, which he eventually sold to Juniper for $4 billion in 2004.
Since 2000, Xie has been the CEO of Fortinet, a multinational network security powerhouse. By developing custom cybersecurity software appliances, and services such as firewalls, intrusion prevention and endpoint security, Fortinet has quickly risen to become the fourth-largest network security company by revenue in the world.
According to some estimates, the amount of data available on the web has grown by 40 times since 2008. Xie and the Fortinet team face a constant struggle to adapt to change while at the same time improving processes that already exist. The average business is growing its spending on security by about 10% year over year, putting Fortinet in a good place to reap the rewards of being in a dynamic growth space.
According to Xie, the company is involved in five specific areas of security: detection, performance, value, prevention, and integration. For him, it’s all about providing better quality and performance at lower costs to clients.
One of the newest additions to the Fortinet portfolio is Fortinet Federal, a standalone subsidiary that was created in 2017 to provide cybersecurity solutions specifically to federal agencies. With the federal government budgeting approximately $28 billion on cybersecurity in 2016 alone, it’s a market that is well worth tapping.
With over 400 patents and 300 additional patents pending, the company is investing in the future of security. One of the company’s unique innovations is the security processor unit, a custom-designed application-specific integrated circuit chip which processes security functions exponentially faster than competitors. It’s one of many steps the company has taken to invest in the long term development of technology.
Headquartered in Sunnyvale California, the company employs almost 5,000 people with revenues of over $1 billion. Clients range from Fortune 500 companies down to small businesses.
It’s impossible to know what the future of cyber security will bring, but based on the many years of experience, Xie and his team are well prepared for whatever may come.
