SD-WAN and firewall vendor Fortinet today announced support for Amdocs' orchestration platform in a bid to help service providers deploy SD-WAN and security services wherever they're needed.

According to Fortinet, the way service providers have traditionally developed SD-WAN and security offerings is both time consuming and resource intensive, requiring them to certify that products from different companies will work together before they can be deployed. However, by teaming up with Amdocs, Fortinet claims the two companies can eliminate this costly integration and testing phase and deliver an SD-WAN and security platform that's ready for service providers to deploy.

"Partnering with Fortinet allows us to further enable service providers to deliver differentiated managed secure SD-WAN services while improving time to market," said Anthony Goonetilleke, group president of media, network, and technology at Amdocs, in a statement.

Ronen Shpirer, senior manager of solutions marketing at Fortinet, explained in an email to SDxCentral that service providers are looking for ways to automate and orchestrate their service delivery and operations.

According to Shpirer the integration between Fortinet's SD-WAN and next-generation firewall and Amdocs' service lifecycle management and orchestration platform takes place at the API level. "Customers via a self-service portal will be able to choose between different packages containing SD-WAN and or security," he said, adding that the SD-WAN deployment itself can take place on-premises, in the data center, or the public cloud.

Service provider partnerships have become increasingly important for Fortinet. In recent quarters, SD-WAN has grown to become a major revenue generator for the company.

Last week the company announced strong fourth-quarter revenues of $614 million, up 21% year over year, as well as a partnership with Equinix. During Fortinet's earnings call CEO Ken Xie credited much of the company's continued success on the strength of its SD-WAN platform, which late last year surpassed 21,000 customers.

"Fortinet has seen strong momentum with service providers who see the value of Fortinet's unique security-driven networking approach to SD-WAN, such as Orange, GTT, Equinix, Softbank, Telenor," Shpirer said.

In other SD-WAN news, Tallac Networks this week unveiled several improvements to its SD-branch offering. These features include automated device discovery and management, penetration testing, network performance monitoring and remediation, as well as network failover using a VPN to secure an LTE connection.

The Rocklin, California-based SD-branch vendor aims to provide customers with a highly automated, low maintenance SD-branch product that can automatically identify and resolve common network issues and reduce the need for onsite IT intervention.

"The goal is to provide a 24/7 presence everywhere so users have uninterrupted access to everything they need," said Bill Johnson, president of Tallac Networks, in a statement.

The company's branch appliance features integrated WAN optimization, internet, a Gigabit switch with power over Ethernet, AC power, and USB ports for LTE failover.

The company's newly announced features and branch appliance are on display this week at the SD-WAN Expo in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

And finally, security provider e92cloud announced a partnership this week with SD-WAN vendor Aryaka. The partnership aims to address connectivity and security challenges faced by enterprises as they migrate to the cloud.

As more enterprises embark on digital transformations and begin to transition their workloads to the cloud, e92cloud — which provides security services and consulting in the United Kingdom and Northern Europe — says connectivity is becoming an important factor.

According to Sam Murdoch, managing director at e92cloud, SD-WAN is the answer. "SD-WAN is a growing sector, but the variety of offerings make it a challenge for resellers to pick the right partner," he said in a statement. "Aryaka has been a fundamental part of network connectivity for thousands of organizations for many years, but their development of Cloud-WAN as a service fundamentally changes how connectivity breaks free from MPLS and complex contracts."

Aryaka joins a growing list of e92cloud partners. These include Contrast Security, Cymulate, Check Point, Ping Identity, Radware, and Swimlane.