Case Study: Grupo Universal achieves centralized management, enhanced security, and $100,000 annual savings with Fortinet Secure SD-WAN

Grupo Universal Integrates Communications and Security with Secure SD-WAN

Grupo Universal, a 55-year-old Dominican Republic conglomerate of 10 subsidiaries spanning insurance, financial services and more, launched a large-scale digital transformation to modernize IT and decentralize a previously centralized network. The company needed to move from a headquarters‑centric architecture to autonomous branch connectivity and wireless access while improving security, availability and administrative simplicity across distributed offices.

Partnering with Fortinet, Grupo Universal deployed Secure SD‑WAN and an integrated Security Fabric (including centralized management with FortiManager/FortiAnalyzer, FortiGate, FortiNAC, FortiClient, FortiMail, FortiWeb and FortiAP) to achieve single‑pane‑of‑glass control, local cloud breakouts and stronger threat detection. The rollout delivered 99.9% network availability, faster cloud access, fewer support tickets and improved performance, with annual savings of about $70,000 in WAN optimization and $30,000 in communications links.

Grupo Universal

Miguel Raúl González

IT Operations Management Director