Addressing the Cybersecurity Talent Gap: Fortinet's Strategy

Current state of the cybersecurity talent market

The current cybersecurity talent market is characterized by a significant skills gap, with organizations linking breaches to this shortage. There is a strong demand for certified professionals and diverse talent pools, alongside increasing federal budgets for cybersecurity, indicating ample opportunities for skilled workers.

"The very best talent builds the very best cybersecurity, and we have ample runway ahead of us to revolutionize, innovate, and, of course, consolidate this year and well into the future. I'll now turn the call over to Burt for our financial updates. Thank you." --- (CRWD, earning call, 2025/Q1)

"Key findings from the report include: Organizations are increasingly attributing breaches to the cyber skills gap. Breaches continue to have significant repercussions for businesses, and executive leaders are often penalized when they happen. Certifications continue to be highly regarded by employers as a validator of current cybersecurity skills and knowledge. Numerous opportunities remain for hiring from diverse talent pools to help address the skills shortage." --- (FTNT, press release, 2024/06/26)

"Federal is very interesting. They spend a lot of money in cybersecurity, approximately $18,000,000,000 to $20,000,000,000 a year, but it's a 75% services business." --- (PANW, conference, 2024/06/04)

"And when you look at the additional budget that's being released into these governments, given cybersecurity's importance, we think we can play a meaningful part in those opportunities." --- (CRWD, earning call, 2025/Q1)

"Combined, Fortinet will gain over 900 customers and talented sales and engineering teams. And I'll just pause here to offer a very warm welcome to team members from both companies. Continuing with our Q2 highlights, we've taken the lead in partnering with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA through a secure by design pledge and are leading with our responsible transparency practices." --- (FTNT, earning call, 2024/Q2)

Impact of technology on cybersecurity skills demand

The demand for cybersecurity skills is surging due to technological advancements, as highlighted by collaborations from Microsoft and IBM aimed at equipping individuals with essential skills. Additionally, innovations like quantum-capable cybersecurity reflect the evolving landscape, further emphasizing the need for skilled professionals in this critical field.

"This collaboration will empower individuals globally, particularly those aspiring to break into the tech industry, with critical skills to thrive in today's digital economy. Expanding access to popular Microsoft skills Amid surging demand for Microsoft cloud, AI, and cybersecurity experts, Coursera has partnered with Microsoft and community organization Women in Cloud to launch the Universal Access to Microsoft Skills Scholarship." --- (MSFT, press release, 2024/05/20)

"Through this collaboration, we are demonstrating a commitment to equipping our residents with the skills and practical experience required to excel in the high demand fields of cybersecurity and data analytics." --- (IBM, press release, 2024/07/22)

"In response to the demand for quantum-capable cybersecurity, Scope AI Corp. (CSE:SCPE) (OTCQB:SCPCF) has upgraded its advanced flagship platform, GEM (General Enterprise Machine Learning)." --- (Scope AI Corp., press release, 2024/08/15)

"We launched our Secure Future Initiative last fall for this reason, bringing together every part of the company to advance cybersecurity protection, and we are doubling down on this very important work, putting security above all else, before all other features and investments." --- (MSFT, earning call, 2024/03/08)

"Our clients are facing increasing demands for workloads given rapid business expansion, the complex regulatory environment and increasing cybersecurity threats and attacks.IBM Z addresses these needs with a combination of cloud-native development for hybrid cloud, embedded AI at scale, quantum-safe security, energy efficiency, and strong reliability and scalability." --- (IBM, earning call, 2024/Q2)

Fortinet's strategies for talent acquisition

Fortinet's talent acquisition strategy focuses on enhancing its workforce through strategic acquisitions, such as adding skilled engineers and expanding its sales team. Additionally, the company emphasizes training and certification programs to address the cybersecurity skills shortage, ensuring a robust talent pipeline.

"This acquisition also brings an experienced sales team and a talented group of engineers whose expertise will be instrumental in delivering industry-leading solutions to Fortinet's customers." --- (FTNT, press release, 2024/08/02)

"This acquisition increases our total addressable market by $10 billion and add a team of talented engineers dedicated to cloud-native security while also expanding our sales force that can sell the entire Fortinet portfolio of." --- (FTNT, earning call, 2024/Q2)

"Tune in to FortinetLIVE as #Fortinet's Sarah Ryba interviews our recent #Accelerate24 Ultimate Fabric Challenge winners about their careers and how our #Fortinet Training Institute helped boost their skills for the competition! 👉 https://t.co/pTuspG4uBE https://t.co/n1FL0kqBez" --- (FTNT, Twitter, 2024/06/11)

"And to offer one final example, the customer partner of SASE Fast Track training program at Fortinet, which launched in January is already umber two most attended technical training session, trending only a single vendor SASE partner, SD-WAN." --- (FTNT, earning call, 2024/Q1)

"Additionally, Fortinet is committed to addressing the cybersecurity skills shortage through training and certification programs for customers, partners and employees." --- (FTNT, sec filing, 2024/Q1)

Role of training and partnerships in talent development

Fortinet emphasizes the importance of training and partnerships in addressing the cybersecurity talent gap. They focus on enabling their sales force and recognize the need for additional expertise and training to enhance service delivery. Strategic partnerships also play a crucial role in developing talent and capabilities.

"But we've got really a big focus in the company to really train up that sales force, enable that sales force, make sure we have the incentives in the right place and make sure we have the support. So when they do qualify different opportunities in different solution sets, the support to support them in that sale." --- (FTNT, earning call, 2024/Q2)

"We had strategic partnerships, Red Hat growth profile, and we had future acquisitions as we're going to continue to be opportunistic around our M&A criteria and the synergistic value of how consulting plays to our portfolio. If you look right now, 90 days later, as we look to the second-half, many of those are still playing out." --- (IBM, earning call, 2024/Q2)

"They are just a little bit behind on the technology, on the headcount, on the training to make their service to the enterprise to their customer, which they do need additional secured expertise to do that." --- (FTNT, conference, 2024/05/21)

"SASE, SIEM, and EPP. This extensive integrated product coverage, combined with open APIs and a deep technology alliance partner ecosystem of over 500 third-party vendors, ensures customers can start building a platform based on what they currently have deployed and leverage the Fortinet Security Fabric in the way that drives the most value for their unique needs." --- (FTNT, press release, 2024/04/02)

"Keith Jensen: Yes, I think when you say partners, I would say that all the large distributors that we're working with their offering financing programs, either in some cases, it might be through their own captive." --- (FTNT, earning call, 2024/Q1)

Industry initiatives to address the talent gap

Industry initiatives to address the cybersecurity talent gap focus on collaboration and capability building. Companies like Palo Alto Networks are partnering with service providers and system integrators to enhance security operations, which indirectly supports talent development in the cybersecurity field.

"This allows organizations to comprehensively address cloud security issues as part of the security operations.Additionally, we are partnering with many service providers and system integrators to build capability together continue accelerating our XSIAM opportunity.And finally, a quick note on the recent widespread outages in the industry." --- (PANW, earning call, 2024/Q4)

"Those are sort of the two internal efforts, if you will.On the customer support side, again, the most fascinating discovery for us is we have an internal customer support copilot, which is consistent with our co-pilots we are sharing with our customers across Cortex, Prisma, and Strata. And those customer support people. The best one" --- (PANW, earning call, 2024/Q4)

Fortinet's unique value proposition in talent acquisition

Fortinet's unique value proposition in talent acquisition lies in its integrated Security Fabric platform and recognition in multiple Gartner Magic Quadrant reports. This positions the company as an attractive employer for skilled professionals, emphasizing the need for expertise in managing advanced, unified security solutions.

"Fortinet's Platform Approach Wins Over JuventusFortinet's Security Fabric platform and unique ability to converge networking and security helps organizations like Juventus reduce complexity by consolidating siloed security tools, increasing visibility, improving performance, and decreasing the mean time to respond to incidents." --- (FTNT, press release, 2024/08/20)

"Fortinet believes this unique approach is why it has been recognized in eight Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ reports, including reports for single-vendor SASE, SD-WAN, SSE, enterprise wired and wireless LAN infrastructure, network firewalls, SIEM, endpoint protection platforms, and access management." --- (FTNT, press release, 2024/04/18)

"All five network security offerings from Fortinet are uniquely built on one operating system, FortiOS, and seamlessly integrate into the Fortinet Security Fabric platform, so customers can better mitigate risk, reduce complexity, and realize a superior user experience." --- (FTNT, press release, 2024/04/18)