Today’s increasingly sophisticated and threatening cybersecurity landscape is prompting businesses to invest in tools and expertise to protect their people, data and systems. Fortinet is a cybersecurity leader and distributor Ingram Micro provides proven customer and partner training in the vendor’s key enterprise-grade cybersecurity products.
Fortinet recently recognised Ingram Micro’s performance by awarding the distributor its Asia Pacific Authorised Training Centers (ATC) Partner of the Year Award for 2024. Fortinet ATCs are organisations accredited to provide training in the vendor’s Network Security Expert Certification curriculum.
Fortinet’s ATC network spans 16 languages and more than 150 countries and territories worldwide.
“Fortinet and Ingram Micro have forged a deep, complementary relationship to provide market-leading cybersecurity products and services to partners in Australia,” said Trent Gomersall, Director Cloud A/NZ, Hybrid Business Applications and Cyber Security, Ingram Micro. “This partnership is highly relevant to the Australian marketplace given the widespread adoption of cloud infrastructure by business and government and the unique security challenges this presents.”
From a Fortinet perspective, ATC courses are key to the vendor’s long-standing commitment to help close the cyber skills gap. The vendor recently noted that nearly 4 million professionals are needed to fill key cybersecurity roles and 68% of business leaders say their organisations face additional risks because of the cybersecurity skills shortage.
ATC Partner of the Year is awarded to the organisation that trains the greatest number of individuals in the region and commits to delivering critical cybersecurity skill sets and Fortinet’s products and solutions.
“This Award recognises Ingram Micro’s proud track record of being a Fortinet ATC,” said Amanda O’Brien, General Manager – HBA & Cyber Vendor Management and Technical Enablement, Ingram Micro. “Our technical training extends to certification and enablement that elevates customers’ and partners’ credentials to new levels, enabling them to help deploy cybersecurity appliances that protect customers’ network perimeters.”
Ingram Micro runs its instructor-led courses from its premises at Rosebery in Sydney’s inner south. These courses impart knowledge in the administration and configuration of FortiGate, described by Fortinet as the world’s most-deployed network firewall, and associated products and issues. Courses operate once a quarter or on-demand and run in-person, virtually or in a hybrid format. Courses in other Fortinet products are available on demand.
“Our students primarily come from MSPs, system integrators or resellers in IT and cyber security,” explained Ben Le Huray, Solutions Architect Team Leader, Ingram Micro. “While most students come from the implementation side, their interaction with others in end user roles, such as education, government and logistics, provides a range of perspectives to the course content.”
Students gain access to the expertise and capability of seasoned instructors and a learning model that follows a logical path to cover all topics systematically. The course includes discussion sessions and other learning approaches designed to optimise learning. In addition, students can connect with peers to expand their professional networks.
Further, because the training takes place in a distraction-free focused learning environment, they can concentrate fully on the course materials.
“We typically train about six to 15 people per course in the core component of FortiGate and extend out to configuration items using real-life examples,” said Le Huray. “Students who attend in person can undertake hands-on exploration of the product in our dedicated labs at Rosebery.”
At the conclusion of each course, students have the knowledge they need to successfully complete the exams needed to achieve certification. This not only helps partners market and deliver their services more effectively but enables individual participants to build more marketable qualifications to further their careers.
From a partner standpoint, the knowledge imparted by Ingram Micro trainers enables them to understand in greater depth the full functionality of FortiGate. “We’ve received informal feedback from some course participants that acquiring this knowledge has enabled them to help rationalise customers’ product-sets that were performing functions that FortiGate could in fact undertake,” said Le Huray. “Given that vendor and product rationalisation is a key priority for many IT leaders today, this is a considerable benefit.”
