Case Study: U.S. Public University strengthens student and data protection with Fortinet FortiGate next-generation firewalls

Tier 1 Research University Leverages Next-Generation FortiGate Capabilities to Protect Students and Data

U.S. Public University, a top-tier research institution with a highly decentralized IT environment, needed stronger cybersecurity to protect students, research data, and grant eligibility requirements. It chose Fortinet’s FortiGate next-generation firewalls, along with FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer, to replace aging security tools and support its Firewall-as-a-Service model across departments.

Fortinet implemented centrally managed FortiGate NGFWs with FortiGuard AI-Powered Security Services, giving the university a single pane of glass for policy control, logging, and threat response. The results include blocking over 2 million threats per day, 100% accurate IP blocking with no false positives, faster IT security operations, and visibility into compromised systems and inactive rules—improving campuswide protection and helping staff respond to both known and zero-day threats more effectively.