Fortinet partner in Dubai
We join firewall, switching, wireless and analytics into one Fabric that shares policy and telemetry, instead of leaving you another set of separate consoles.
Our Fortinet partnership
iConnect is a certified Fortinet Engage partner in the UAE, delivering the Security Fabric across branch, data centre and cloud for organisations in Dubai and the wider Emirates.
Our engineers hold NSE4, NSE5 and NSE7 certifications, covering security professional, infrastructure management and enterprise firewall and SD-WAN architecture. We deliver the full project lifecycle from assessment and design through deployment, configuration and managed support rather than product resale.
The Fabric only pays for itself when it is genuinely joined up: firewall, switching, wireless, endpoint and analytics sharing policy and telemetry. Deployed as isolated appliances it becomes another set of consoles, and designing against that outcome is most of the work.
Fortinet products we deploy
The Fabric spans network, access, endpoint, email, application and security operations. We scope which elements to join up against what you already run.
How we deliver Fortinet
We review current topology, the existing firewalls, WAN contracts and regulatory obligations, then design the Fabric around the estate you run today.
- Existing topology, circuits and contract end dates mapped before any hardware is specified
- Sizing calculated on inspected throughput, not the raw firewall figure on the datasheet
- Obligations confirmed early, since they drive both segmentation and log retention
Existing policy is analysed before anything is converted. Carrying twenty years of accumulated any-any rules onto new hardware defeats the exercise, so unused and shadowed rules are identified and removed first.
- Unused, shadowed and overly permissive rules identified across a full business cycle
- Objects and services consolidated, so the new policy is smaller than the one it replaces
- Removals staged with monitoring, a batch at a time
Cutover is staged per site with a documented rollback position at each step, scheduled around your change windows. Multi-site SD-WAN rollouts are phased specifically to avoid disruption to operations.
- Each window opens only once the previous site has run a full business day cleanly
- SD-WAN rollouts sequenced so no two critical sites move in the same weekend
- Out-of-band access confirmed working before the first site is touched
Segmentation is designed against the standard you report on, with policy written to intent, because a rule-for-rule conversion carries the old problems across. OT environments are segmented from corporate networks explicitly.
- Segments designed against the control you report on, which rarely matches existing VLANs
- Policy written to application and user identity instead of translated port for port
- OT and corporate networks separated explicitly, with every crossing point documented
Firewall, switching, wireless, endpoint, mail and analytics are integrated so telemetry and policy are genuinely shared. This is where the value of the Fabric sits and where isolated deployments lose it.
- Switching, wireless and endpoint registered to the Fabric, which most deployments never finish
- Automation stitches configured so an endpoint detection can trigger a network action
- Single sign-on and central management proven working before handover
Ongoing policy administration, firmware lifecycle management, log review and periodic rule base clean-up are handled by our team in Dubai under defined response times.
- Firmware tracked against the supported release, with upgrades planned into change windows
- Rule base re-measured periodically, because it grows back
- Changes reviewed against the segmentation design instead of approved in isolation
Fortinet and UAE regulatory requirements
UAE Information Assurance Standards
The IAS expects segmentation, monitoring, logging and incident response. FortiAnalyzer carries pre-built templates and audit trail retention, and our deployment method includes a compliance mapping exercise so each configuration is documented against the control it satisfies.
DESC ISR
Dubai government and semi-government bodies are examined on network control, segmentation and log retention. FortiAnalyzer retention is configured to the period the standard requires rather than left at the appliance default.
Central Bank of the UAE
Financial institutions face specific expectations for segmentation and monitoring of payment environments. FortiSIEM rule sets are built against CBUAE reporting obligations explicitly.
Critical infrastructure and ADHICS
Operators of essential services must demonstrate separation between IT and OT networks; Abu Dhabi healthcare entities need segmentation between clinical, corporate and connected device networks. Both are designed for explicitly and evidenced in the handover documentation.
Why organisations choose iConnect
Scoped before it is quoted
We establish what you run and which obligations apply before recommending modules, so you are not paying for capability that duplicates something already in place.
Configured for your environment
Policy is built around the systems you run and the way your teams work, not left on vendor defaults.
Local delivery and support
Deployment and support come from our team in Dubai, working your hours and your change windows.
Documented for assessors
Configuration is mapped to the UAE framework you report against and documented, so an audit becomes a retrieval exercise instead of a reconstruction.
Integrated with your estate
The platform sits alongside your identity, endpoint and infrastructure systems. We handle those integrations as part of the deployment.
Reviewed on a schedule
Estates change and attacker technique moves. Policy is revisited at agreed intervals, not left as it was at go-live.
What our clients say
“Whenever an issue arises, iConnect is there immediately: quick, efficient and proactive in keeping everything running without disruptions. iConnect has become a crucial part of our operations.”
Head of IT Infrastructure and Network SecurityDragon OilFrequently asked questions
Yes. iConnect is a certified Fortinet Engage partner in the UAE. Our engineers hold NSE4, NSE5 and NSE7 certifications, covering security professional, infrastructure management and enterprise firewall and SD-WAN architecture, and we deliver the full project lifecycle from design through to managed support.
A standard FortiGate deployment for a UAE enterprise typically takes one to three weeks depending on the size of the environment, the number of sites and the complexity of the policy being migrated. We provide a project plan with defined milestones before any work begins, and phase multi-site SD-WAN rollouts to avoid operational disruption.
In most cases yes. Secure SD-WAN provides application-aware routing, automatic failover and integrated security managed from the same interface. UAE organisations typically see meaningful WAN cost reduction against pure MPLS while improving application performance. We run a network assessment before recommending it, because the answer depends on your site count and traffic profile.
Yes, and the rule base analysis matters more than the conversion itself. We identify unused, shadowed and overly permissive rules before migration, so you move a policy set worth having rather than copying the old one onto new hardware.
The Security Fabric was built with auditability in mind. FortiAnalyzer provides pre-built compliance report templates, continuous log management and audit trail retention for UAE IA Standards, ISO 27001 and PCI DSS. Our deployment method includes a compliance mapping exercise so every configuration is documented against the control it satisfies.
Yes. We deploy Fortinet's OT security platform including ruggedised industrial firewalls and FortiNAC for OT asset discovery and segmentation, for energy, utilities, manufacturing and critical infrastructure operators. These deployments follow the recommended IT and OT convergence architecture and align to the UAE Information Assurance Standards.
Yes. Managed FortiGate operations, FortiSIEM monitoring and alerting, FortiEDR endpoint response and ongoing optimisation are available for organisations that would rather not build an internal security operations team. Managed services run on structured monthly agreements with defined response times for security events and configuration changes.
Talk to our team about your requirement
We’re happy to answer any questions you may have and help you determine which of our services best fit your needs.
Our Value Proposition
- Tailored Solutions for Your Organization
- Unbiased Expertise
- Proven IT Competence
- Outcome-Driven Approach
- Proactive Problem-Solving
- Transparent Processes
What happens next?
We’ll arrange a call at your convenience.
We do a discovery and consulting meeting
We’ll prepare a detailed proposal tailored to your requirements.
