Fortinet and Arista Networks Announce Joint Secure AI Data Center Solution

Joint solution combines security and low-latency networking to provide a secure AI data center blueprint

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Dec. 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fortinet^® (NASDAQ: FTNT), the global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security, today announced a Secure AI Data Center solution, built in close collaboration with leading technology partner Arista Networks, deployed at Monolithic Power Systems (MPS). This solution unites best-of-breed networking and security to deliver a validated, scalable, zero-trust architecture for the AI data center.

“AI infrastructure is advancing faster than most organizations can secure or operationalize it,” said Nirav Shah, Senior Vice President of Products and Solutions at Fortinet. “By collaborating with industry leader Arista Networks, we’re delivering a secure AI data center architecture and integrated solution that brings security, performance, and operational simplicity together from day one. This alliance gives customers a validated blueprint to scale AI with confidence, without compromising protection or creating unnecessary complexity.”

Building on the Secure AI Data Center Framework

The collaboration expands upon the Secure AI Data Center solution introduced by Fortinet, now enhanced through multivendor integration to provide the blueprint for deploying and scaling AI infrastructure with guaranteed performance, operational resilience, and security. Key advantages of the multivendor architecture include:

• Modular best-of-breed design for maximum flexibility and long-term ROI
• Hyperscale-grade performance optimized for AI training and inference
• Zero-touch provisioning, enabling deployments up to 80% faster
• Future-proof compute integration, supporting next-generation AI accelerators without redesigning infrastructure

By offloading HTTPS/TLS to Fortinet’s ASIC, delivering up to 33x performance with sub-single-microsecond latency, server CPUs are freed from compute- and cache-heavy crypto, reserving cores and memory bandwidth for forward passes and token sampling. This cuts networking contention, reduces latency and jitter, boosts tokens-per-second, and tightens tail latencies under load.

These capabilities ensure organizations can scale AI with higher confidence, lower total cost, and greater performance resiliency.

Integrated Multivendor Architecture

The collaboration delivers an integrated, scalable, and modular reference architecture designed to secure and accelerate every layer of the AI stack, from high-performance compute clusters and ultra-low-latency networking to storage, data pipelines, and LLM workloads.

The joint solution integrates:

• Arista Networks: Ultra-low-latency, high-performance networking with cluster load balancing, addressing the needs of the highest capacity data center networks and large-scale AI/ML clusters
• Fortinet: ASIC-accelerated firewalls, AI-aware threat protection, zero-trust segmentation, encrypted traffic inspection, and automated response for AI workloads

This solution design delivers continuous end-to-end security and resilient, high-performance infrastructure to maximize uptime, eliminate data bottlenecks, streamline operations, and improve compute ROI.

Addressing the Core Barriers to AI Adoption

AI projects face significant challenges, including skyrocketing infrastructure costs, vendor lock-in, performance bottlenecks, and security risks ranging from model tampering to data leakage. The Secure AI Data Center reference architecture identifies architectural complexity and skill gaps as key reasons 95% of AI deployments fail.

The alliance directly addresses these barriers by providing:

• Zero-trust protection from the network core through model inference
• Hardware-accelerated security that improves AI performance
• Open, modular architecture that eliminates vendor lock-in
• Self-healing automation for real-time detection and remediation
• Unified management across security and networking
  

This solution empowers organizations to scale AI confidently while reducing cost, complexity, and operational risk.

Empowering Customers with Proven Infrastructure and Scalable Deployment Services

Through this joint effort, MPS has leveraged the Fortinet security ecosystem as a core foundation for securely building and consuming AI services across its global operations. MPS collaborates closely with Fortinet to design and operate an AI data center infrastructure that meets the performance and scale demands of modern, compute-intensive workloads. By co-developing and validating the architecture with Fortinet, MPS demonstrates how the Fortinet Secure AI Data Center solution can help organizations adopt an AI-ready infrastructure that is secure, scalable, and aligned with real-world deployment and operational requirements.

Demonstrating the Power of the Fortinet Security Fabric

The solution further underscores the openness and collaborative capabilities of the Fortinet Security Fabric and the Fortinet Open Ecosystem, enabling integrated, automated solutions that converge advanced networking, security, and AI infrastructure. The solution leverages Fortinet Fabric-Ready technology partner Arista Networks to accelerate AI innovation.

Partner Perspectives

“Arista Networks is a leader in data-driven AI networking solutions. Our collaboration with Fortinet brings together best-in-class cybersecurity with Arista’s ultra-low-latency, high-speed networking, which is essential for AI applications,” said Ed Chapman, Vice President of Business Development at Arista Networks. “We are delighted to accelerate the deployment of AI-driven data centers with this integrated offering.”

“AI is transforming every aspect of our business, from product design to supply chain management, while introducing new operational challenges,” said Huy Ly, Head of Global Infrastructure/Security at Monolithic Power Systems. “Leveraging the scalable, affordable, and high-performing reference architecture and integrated solution gives us the visibility, performance, and protection we need to operate high-density GPU clusters with confidence. With this solution integrated into our AI environment, we can safeguard sensitive models and data while maintaining hyperscale throughput with greater efficiency and cost performance.”

Additional resources:

• Read more about the Fortinet data center firewall solutions.
• Read more about the Fortinet Security Fabric.
• Learn more about the Fortinet Open Ecosystem.
• Visit fortinet.com/trust to learn about Fortinet innovation, collaboration partners, product security processes, and enterprise-grade products.
• Read about how Fortinet customers are securing their organizations.
• Learn about Fortinet's commitment to product security and integrity, including its responsible product development and vulnerability disclosure approach and policies.
• Follow Fortinet on X, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Subscribe to Fortinet on our blog or YouTube.
  

About Fortinet

Fortinet (Nasdaq: FTNT) is a driving force in the evolution of cybersecurity and the convergence of networking and security. Our mission is to secure people, devices, and data everywhere, and today, we deliver cybersecurity everywhere our customers need it with the largest integrated portfolio of over 50 enterprise-grade products. Well over half a million customers trust Fortinet's solutions, which are among the most deployed, most patented, and most validated in the industry. The Fortinet Training Institute, one of the largest and broadest training programs in the industry, is dedicated to making cybersecurity training and new career opportunities available to everyone. Collaboration with esteemed organizations from both the public and private sectors, including Computer Emergency Response Teams (“CERTS”), government entities, and academia, is a fundamental aspect of Fortinet’s commitment to enhance cyber resilience globally. FortiGuard Labs, Fortinet’s elite threat intelligence and research organization, develops and utilizes leading-edge machine learning and AI technologies to provide customers with timely and consistently top-rated protection and actionable threat intelligence. Learn more at https://www.fortinet.com, the Fortinet Blog, and FortiGuard Labs.

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