Many small and midsized businesses (SMBs) run into similar issues when they rely on legacy routers to connect multiple sites and the internet: - Complex management: Traditional WAN and VPN setups are often hard to configure and maintain, especially across several locations. - Need for deep expertise: IT teams must understand VPN configuration, routing protocols, and firewall rules, which can be a stretch for lean teams. - Limited visibility: Legacy routers typically lack application-layer visibility across the WAN, making it harder to troubleshoot performance issues. - Inconsistent user experience: Without intelligent traffic steering, users may see slow or unreliable access to critical applications. - Gaps in security: Older solutions often don’t include advanced, integrated security to protect users, devices, and data. Fortinet Secure SD-WAN with OaaS is designed to address these pain points by: - Replacing legacy branch routers with a Secure SD-WAN platform that optimizes user experience and improves operational efficiency. - Embedding advanced security directly into the SD-WAN, so you don’t need separate security appliances. - Providing centralized management via FortiGate Cloud, simplifying deployment, configuration, and monitoring. - Offering cost-efficient connectivity options (such as broadband internet) while maintaining secure, reliable connections between branches, the cloud, and the internet. - Using OaaS to automate secure site-to-site connectivity, reducing the need for in-house VPN and routing expertise. For SMBs with limited budgets and small IT teams, this combination helps simplify WAN operations, improve application performance, and strengthen security without adding significant complexity or hardware costs.

Overlay-as-a-Service (OaaS) is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering from Fortinet that focuses on simplifying secure connectivity between sites, especially for lean IT teams. In a traditional model, to build secure VPN tunnels between branches you would typically need to: - Host and manage your own Secure SD-WAN hubs (often in a data center). - Configure IPsec VPN tunnels between every site. - Set up and maintain routing and firewall policies to control traffic between sites and the internet. - Allocate IT time and budget for additional hardware, hosting, and ongoing management. OaaS reimagines this process by: - Being fully managed by Fortinet and accessed through the FortiCloud portal. - Providing a simple, GUI-driven workflow to create secure IPsec tunnels and full-mesh connectivity between sites in minutes. - Eliminating the need for self-hosted hubs, which helps reduce both capital expenses (no extra hub hardware) and operational expenses (less to manage and maintain). - Automating much of the VPN configuration work, which helps reduce configuration errors and speeds up deployment. From a business perspective, this means you can: - Quickly interconnect branches for secure data, file, and resource sharing. - Support better collaboration across locations without building a complex VPN infrastructure. - Rely on Fortinet to manage the overlay layer, while your team focuses on policies, applications, and user experience rather than low-level tunnel configuration.

When SMBs adopt Fortinet Secure SD-WAN together with Overlay-as-a-Service, they can expect a set of practical, business-focused outcomes: 1. Improved application performance and user experience - Secure SD-WAN can steer traffic intelligently based on application needs and service-level agreements (SLAs), helping users get more consistent performance. - Direct internet access and optimized paths to cloud services help reduce latency for SaaS and cloud-based applications. - This is increasingly important as organizations now use a large number of SaaS tools—Gartner estimates organizations average more than 125 SaaS applications—making fast, reliable access a key productivity factor. 2. Stronger, integrated security - Advanced security is embedded directly into the SD-WAN, so you get threat protection without adding separate security appliances at each branch. - Consistent security enforcement is applied across branches, cloud connections, and internet access. 3. Easier management for lean IT teams - Centralized management via FortiGate Cloud simplifies deployment, configuration, and monitoring of the SD-WAN environment. - OaaS automates the creation of secure VPN overlays between sites, reducing the need for deep VPN and routing expertise. - The cloud-based portal and guided workflows help reduce configuration errors and shorten rollout times. 4. Cost-efficient connectivity and operations - You can use broadband and other cost-effective connectivity options while still maintaining secure, reliable links between branches, data centers, and cloud environments. - Eliminating self-hosted hubs for site-to-site connectivity reduces both capital expenses (hardware, hosting) and operational expenses (management overhead). 5. Better support for modern work models - Branch office connectivity: Branches can securely access centralized applications and resources with consistent policies. - Cloud connectivity: Secure SD-WAN helps maintain performance and security as you adopt more cloud-based services. - Hybrid workforce support: Secure connectivity can extend to employees working from anywhere, helping you support flexible work without sacrificing security or performance. Overall, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN and OaaS help SMBs rethink their WAN by simplifying operations, improving collaboration between locations, and providing secure, reliable access to both on-premises and cloud applications—within the constraints of limited budgets and small IT teams.