Fortinet eyes 20% growth

The local unit of global cybersecurity solutions provider Fortinet is expecting a compound annual growth rate of 20 percent in the next two years as Philippine firms direct more funds for cybersecurity.

Fortinet Philippines country manager Louie Castaneda said the increasing number of companies seeking to establish their branches outside of Metro Manila has also contributed in driving the demand for security services.

“That’s our objective — how do we grow 20 percent year on year, which is actually just about right because the Philippine economy is growing at least five to six percent in the last eight years. So double of that is more than acceptable for vendors like us,” Castaneda said in a briefing for Fortinet’s 361° Security conference at the Bonifacio Global City on Wednesday.

“The pace of digital transformation in the Philippines is accelerating. Since the entry of this mindset into the mainstream consciousness roughly three years ago, we have seen local businesses start undertaking their transformation journey,” he added.

Fortinet takes up 23 percent of the vendor market share in the Philippines, an annual growth of 14 percent. Castañeda attributed the increase to the company’s likewise rising investments in manpower including cybersecurity professionals as well as research and development.

For the year alone, the services provider is targeting to put more focus on new markets in the Visayas and Mindanao region, which now accounts only for less than 20 percent of their operations.

Fortinet is also looking to come up with agreements with players in the banking, government and education, telecommunications and retail and distribution sectors for the deployment of its software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) product.

The product, at its core, will link enterprise networks such as branches and data centers over large geographic distances.

Director of Solutions & Marketing for Fortinet South East Asia and Hong Kong Matthew Kuan said the Philippines is the next growth engine for Fortinet, given the catching up that the country has to do compared to its other neighbors in terms of adapting security solutions.

“The one thing we see that’s very encouraging across the region is that the spend on security is increasing,” Kuan said.

He added that services utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning will especially be on the rise as security vendors race to address threats such as nation state attacks, or the politically-motivated cyber-attacks which the country has before proven vulnerable to.