Telefónica’s Business Solutions division launched a virtual firewall service based on Fortinet’s platform to protect SD-WAN deployments. The Spain-based telecom giant plans to offer the service through a virtual network function (VNF) marketplace it’s developing.

The Fortinet-based offering allows customers to tap into security features embedded in Telefónica’s network to support end-to-end protection of SD-WAN services. That would include connections between an organization’s on-premises environment into their chosen cloud ecosystem.

Telefónica’s business-to-business (B2B) customers will be able to select the VNF-based service through a marketplace the carrier is developing where it can be deployed into a virtualized environment in real time. Management of the service is through a dedicated web portal or through an API.

Telefónica noted that organizations are experiencing on average 3.4 security incidents per year. Specific to its home market, the carrier said that Spanish companies are forced to stop their operations 17 hours per year due to cyberattacks.

Fortinet, which also offers its own SD-WAN service, earlier this year launched a new ASIC to power its 100F FortiGate security appliance. It also updated its operating system and security fabric to power what it calls security-driven networking, including new features for SD-WAN and other edge and multicloud environments.

The vendor ranked No. 6 in a recent IHS Markit list of the top SD-WAN vendors based on revenues. The company posted $19.4 million in SD-WAN-related revenues during the fourth quarter of last year, which was a 374% increase compared with the previous year.

SD-WAN security was also a hot topic at this week’s Cisco Live event. Gee Rittenhouse, senior vice president of Cisco’s security business, said the vendor is expanding the reach of its security technologies to on-premises SD-WAN appliances using its Umbrella cloud-based secure internet gateway.

“We know that when you’re considering your SD-WAN strategy, security is top of mind,” Rittenhouse said during a keynote address. “The last thing we want to do is force you to bolt on various security technologies” that add complexity and require more maintenance of an organization’s network.

Telefónica today also said it would begin offering Google's Cloud products to its enterprise customers as part of its broader multicloud portal. This means that Telefónica will market Google’s Cloud and G Suite platform in all of the countries where it operates. Those cloud products include Google Cloud Interconnect and Chrome Enterprise.

The deal builds on a local deal struck between the two companies last year for marketing Google’s G Suite in Spain.

Telefónica inked a similar deal with Microsoft last year, which was followed by a more extensive cloud relationship with with Amazon Web Services (AWS). The AWS deal includes specific training for Telefónica employees focused on AWS products and the creation of a specific department in Spain for those employees.