Fortinet has unveiled a new integrated cybersecurity solution that positions its FortiGate VM cloud firewall to operate seamlessly on NVIDIA's BlueField-3 data processing unit (DPU).
This strategic collaboration enables the deployment of core security functions directly within the data centre's infrastructure, ensuring high-performance security for AI and private cloud environments without hindering critical operations.
Adapting data centres for AI
As data centres evolve to accommodate AI, private cloud, and edge applications, there is a growing need for increased throughput beyond what traditional systems can offer.
According to John Whittle, Chief Operating Officer at Fortinet, the integration of FortiGate VM with BlueField-3 DPU offers a way to align security strategies with these heightened performance requirements. He stated, "By moving firewalling, segmentation, and zero-trust controls on the DPU, we help organisations improve isolation, reduce latency, and simplify consistent policy enforcement across their environments."
Infrastructure-offloaded services model
Integration extends the model of infrastructure-offloaded services to incorporate advanced security functions
This integration extends the model of infrastructure-offloaded services to incorporate advanced security functions, providing organisations with the ability to enforce security protocols without adversely affecting GPU workloads.
Kevin Deierling, Senior Vice President of Networking at NVIDIA, remarked, "Together with Fortinet, we’re delivering the secure, high-performance fabric customers need to build and scale their AI-powered data centres with confidence." This collaboration offers a new class of secure and accelerated infrastructure necessary for AI-driven environments.
New era of infrastructure acceleration
As AI and private cloud technologies advance, organisations are constructing high-density computing clusters and swift data centre fabrics to tackle latency-sensitive workloads. Integrating isolated infrastructure acceleration directly into the compute stack enables organisations to handle AI-scale traffic efficiently while maintaining uniform protection.
FortiGate VM, powered by the FortiOS operating system, allows for centralised security oversight, streamlining complexity for security teams.
Performance and security enhancements
The integration of FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField shifts core security roles, such as firewalling, segmentation
The integration of FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField shifts core security functions, such as firewalling, segmentation, and zero-trust controls from the host CPU to the DPU.
This shift results in substantial enhancements, such as improved multitenant isolation and inspection precision for AI workloads. FortiGate VM, running on BlueField, capitalises on infrastructure fabric to enforce segmentation policies, offering zero-impact high-performance and enhanced throughput.
High-speed security for AI infrastructure
Traditional host-based firewall systems struggle to meet the demands of AI workloads, edge services, and emerging agentic AI-era traffic. FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField provides an alternative by ensuring high-speed security inspections with no host-impact, embedding zero-trust security at the network-fabric level, and improving operational efficiency.
This solution is compatible with sophisticated multitenant architectures demanding hardware-accelerated inspection and secure service chaining.
Availability and support
This comprehensive solution is available with FortiOS 7.6.3.
Interested customers and service providers are encouraged to contact their Fortinet representatives to access verified hardware configurations and an authenticated deployment guide.
Fortinet®, the global cybersecurity pioneer driving the convergence of networking and security, now announced an integrated solution featuring FortiGate VM, Fortinet’s virtual cloud firewall, running directly on the NVIDIA BlueField-3 data processing unit (DPU).
This integration embeds networking and brings isolated infrastructure acceleration into the AI Factory, allowing core security functions to run on BlueField instead of the host. By moving protection into the data centre infrastructure itself, the solution helps enterprises secure high-performance private cloud and AI environments without slowing critical workloads.
Data centres to support AI
“As enterprises are modernising their data centres to support AI, private cloud and edge applications require much higher throughput than traditional workloads. Integrating FortiGate VM on BlueField-3 DPU gives customers a practical way to keep security aligned with these new performance demands."
"By moving firewalling, segmentation, and zero-trust controls on the DPU, we help organisations improve isolation, reduce latency, and simplify consistent policy enforcement across their environments,” John Whittle, Chief Operating Officer at Fortinet.
Model of infrastructure-offloaded services
“AI factories demand an entirely new class of secure, accelerated infrastructure. By running FortiGate VM directly on NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs, we’re extending the model of infrastructure-offloaded services to include advanced security. This collaboration allows organisations to enforce firewalling, segmentation and zero-trust policies at line rate, without impacting GPU workloads."
"Together with Fortinet, we’re delivering the secure, high-performance fabric customers need to build and scale their AI-powered data centres with confidence,” Kevin Deierling, Senior Vice President of Networking at NVIDIA.
A new era of infrastructure acceleration
As AI and private-cloud architectures evolve, organisations are building high-density accelerated computing clusters and faster data centre fabrics to support latency-sensitive workloads. By bringing isolated infrastructure acceleration directly into the compute stack, organisations can keep pace with AI-scale traffic and maintain consistent protection across their environments.
Powered by the FortiOS operating system, FortiGate VM delivers industry-pioneering next-generation firewall capabilities that secures hybrid and multi-cloud, and now AI factories, with consistent security policies and centralised visibility and management, reducing complexity for security teams.
Integrating FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField allows organisations to offload core security functions, including firewalling, segmentation, and zero-trust controls from the host CPU to the DPU.
Performance and security benefits
This shift eliminates performance impact while improving multitenant isolation, throughput, and inspection accuracy for AI workloads. Deployed on BlueField, FortiGate VM enforces segmentation policies directly within the infrastructure fabric. As a result, organisations gain the following performance and security benefits:
- Zero-impact high-performance: FortiGate VM running on BlueField executes on the DPU, bypassing the host CPU, reducing latency and enabling higher throughput for massive traffic loads.
- Zero-trust segmentation and isolation: BlueField offloads networking and security functions in an isolated trust domain, purpose-built for isolating the security plane from compute workloads.
- Simplified private-cloud integration: The validated guide covers configuration using standard Open vSwitch bridges (OVS switches for WAN and VXLAN LAN tunnels) and deployment of FortiGate VM images on BlueField-enabled servers.
- Scalable multitenant architectures: The solution is ideal for cloud service providers, Telco edge, and enterprise private clouds needing hardware-accelerated inspection, secure isolation, and service chaining at scale.
Bringing high-speed security to high-speed AI infrastructure
Traditional host-based firewall architectures struggle to keep pace with the demands of AI workloads, edge services, agentic AI–era traffic, and multitenant isolation. With FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField, organisations get:
- Security inspection with zero host-impact: Security is implemented at the hardware level, yet software-defined.
- Infrastructure-embedded zero-trust: BlueField anchors firewall and segmentation at the network-fabric level.
- Operational efficiency and scale: Converged networking and security offloads reduce infrastructure complexity and total cost of ownership.
Availability and support
The FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField solution is supported starting with FortiOS 7.6.3.
Customers and service providers should contact their Fortinet sales representative for access to the validated hardware configurations and deployment guide.
