Fortinet this week introduced its new FortiGate 120G secure access service edge (SASE) appliance, featuring its Security Processor 5 custom ASIC for processing acceleration and performance boost. The vendor also partnered with Google Cloud to expand its SASE points-of-presence (POPs) footprint.

The Security Processor 5 chip can accelerate many SASE elements, Nirav Shah, VP of products and solutions at Fortinet told SDxCentral in an email. For example, the FortiGate 120G SASE appliance delivers 3 Gb/s of SSL inspection, which is six times faster than the industry average for visibility into encrypted traffic at scale, while it also can provide 13 times more firewall throughput compared to the industry average, and can run 54 times as many concurrent sessions as the industry average, he touted.

“The FortiGate 120G was purpose-built to deliver the highly scalable performance and throughput that a campus/branch environment requires,” Shah added.

He also noted that similar to Fortinet’s other FortiGate next-generation firewalls and SD-WAN appliances, the new SASE appliance delivers security and networking capabilities through the FortiOS operating system for capabilities such as bi-directional firewall, SD-WAN, secure web gateway (SWG), encryption and decryption, cloud access security broker (CASB), data loss prevention (DLP) and zero-trust network access (ZTNA).

“This approach enables over 30 converged networking and security functions to be managed through a single console. Fourteen of these functions are accelerated when deployed on our new FortiASIC Security Processor 5-based FortiGate 120G SASE appliance,” Fortinet Founder and CEO Ken Xie said in a statement.

In addition to the new SASE appliance, Fortinet also announced its SASE solution now delivers over 100 FortiSASE cloud locations globally to expand the service availability.

In their latest SASE reports, Gartner and Forrester analysts noted Fortinet’s limited geographical reach in terms of PoPs compared to other major SASE vendors. Shah told SDxCentral in an earlier interview that what sets Fortinet apart is the focus on low latency and full security stack at each PoP.

“Fortinet is committed to delivering the most reliable and secure SASE solution globally,” he said, adding that one of the most recent moves was partnering with Google Cloud.

Earlier this month, Fortinet partnered with Google Cloud to tap into the cloud provider’s extensive network of global locations for its expansion of SASE PoPs. According to Google Cloud, it has 187 network edge locations across 39 regions and more than 200 countries and territories.

“By leveraging Google Cloud, Fortinet Universal SASE is even better positioned to serve a more extensive global footprint, ensuring that customers can seamlessly connect and secure their hybrid workforces to critical applications,” said Fortinet CTO Michael Xie in a statement.

For a better user experience, Fortinet has extended its FortiFlex flexible consumption program to its Universal SASE solutions.

FortiFlex offers usage-based licensing across cloud, hybrid cloud and on-premises deployments. And now the entire SASE stack can be consumed as part of FortiFlex.

Shah noted Fortinet SASE customers can still purchase the stack via traditional product licenses.

“FortiFlex offers on-demand licensing, reducing procurement cycles and providing organizations the flexibility to only pay for the solutions they use. Traditional product licensing is ideal for businesses who understand the services they need for set periods of time,” he explained.