Windstream Enterprise has extended its work with Fortinet by adding a new managed cybersecurity platform that can integrate with an enterprise’s existing security, cloud and networking environments.

The new Windstream Secure Flex Premium platform is a single-tenant (Fortinet) architecture that can be deployed on top of an existing on-premises, hybrid or cloud environment. It uses Fortinet’s long-standing Security Fabric platform to automate and synchronize a cybersecurity posture across those environments.

It can be integrated into an enterprise’s networking environment to provide single-point management of secure access service edge (SASE), zero-trust network access (ZTNA), endpoint protection endpoint protection platform (EPP), SD-branch and SD-WAN services. Windstream offers different levels of management for the platform all the way up to being fully managed by Windstream.

The security service builds on past work between Windstream and Fortinet.

Windstream added Fortinet’s SD-WAN capabilities in mid-2019. More recently, Windstream added Fortinet’s LAN services to the carrier’s SD-WAN platform to provide security for Wi-Fi connections, analytics from those connections and cloud-managed switches for LAN deployments.

Windstream Enterprise President Mike Flannery noted in a statement that this ongoing collaboration provides Windstream with “unique insight into Fortinet’s technology and expertise. Windstream has invested in this relationship from both a technological perspective and through refining our processes and techniques, resulting in customers having the ultimate high-quality experience.”

Windstream Enterprise has also worked with Cato Networks to power a manage security services provider (MSSP) edge product and to bolster Windstream’s SASE architecture. It also worked with VMware to add SASE features to Windstream’s SD-WAN service.

The Windstream Enterprise deal is the latest feather in Fortinet’s cap.

The company last month reported robust quarterly earnings bolstered by strong growth in its SASE and security operations businesses, which recently gained an increased focus by the vendor. Fortinet CFO Keith Jensen told investors that those two segments accounted for more than 20% of a half-dozen deals the vendor closed, each valued at more than $10 million.

Fortinet’s SASE solution includes standard capabilities such as secure web gateways (SWGs), firewall-as-a-service for secure internet access, ZTNA and SD-WAN from the security vendor’s points of presence (PoPs), secure private access, cloud access security brokers (CASBs) and data loss protection.  These integrate with its security operations center (SOC)-as-a-service and FortiClient, which provide a customer with EPP and vulnerability scanning, Jensen claims.which provide a customer with EPP and vulnerability scanning, Jensen claims.

Fortinet also added 40 new features to its SASE during the final three months of last year, including support for over 150 global PoPs and a partnership with Google Cloud to tap into the cloud provider’s extensive network of global locations for its expansion of SASE PoPs.

“We believe Fortinet is the only company with a unified SASE solution, all integrated into a single FortiOS that includes a full networking and security stack,” Fortinet CEO Ken Xie said during the earnings call. “We see that’s a huge opportunity for SASE. It’s not just SASE using the traditional cloud approach, but also on-premises SASE, the private SASE.”