Fortinet has unveiled an integrated solution that combines its FortiGate VM, a virtual cloud firewall, directly with NVIDIA BlueField-3 data processing units (DPUs). This collaboration aims to enhance security within data centers supporting AI and private cloud environments by embedding networking capabilities and isolated infrastructure acceleration into what is termed an AI Factory.
This approach allows essential security functions to be managed on BlueField rather than on the host, effectively securing high-performance private clouds without impacting critical workloads.
Modernizing Data Centers for AI
The move addresses the evolving needs of enterprises modernizing data centers for AI and edge applications, which demand higher throughput compared to traditional setups. "As enterprises are modernizing their data centers 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," stated John Whittle, Fortinet's Chief Operating Officer.
By leveraging the BlueField-3 DPU, the solution shifts firewalling, segmentation, and zero-trust controls onto the DPU itself, enhancing isolation, reducing latency, and ensuring uniform policy enforcement across environments.
Infrastructure-Offloaded Services
The partnership between Fortinet and NVIDIA exemplifies a new model of infrastructure-offloaded services
The partnership between Fortinet and NVIDIA exemplifies a new model of infrastructure-offloaded services, where advanced security is integrated directly into the data processing units.
Kevin Deierling, Senior Vice President of Networking at NVIDIA, underlines the significance of this collaboration: "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 integration ensures that firewalling, segmentation, and zero-trust policies can operate seamlessly at line speed, optimizing GPU workloads without degradation.
Advancements in Infrastructure Acceleration
As organizations transition to AI and private cloud architectures, new solutions must support latency-sensitive workloads. Embedding isolated infrastructure acceleration into the compute stack meets the demands of AI-scale traffic, maintaining consistent security across environments.
FortiGate VM, powered by the FortiOS operating system, provides next-generation firewall capabilities, supporting hybrid and multi-cloud, including AI factories, with centralized visibility and management.
Enhanced Performance and Security
Deploying FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField offers multiple performance and security advantages
Deploying FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField offers multiple performance and security advantages. The DPU's ability to execute tasks bypassing the host CPU reduces latency while boosting throughput for high-volume traffic. Additionally, the BlueField DPU offloads security functions into an isolated trust domain, providing robust zero-trust segmentation and isolation.
The solution's integration with private clouds is streamlined through standardized configuration practices using Open vSwitch bridges and deployment guides for BlueField-enabled servers.
Scalable and Secure Cloud Architectures
This integrated solution presents an optimal choice for cloud service providers, Telco edge, and enterprise private clouds, requiring scalable, secure architectures. It provides hardware-accelerated inspection and service chaining efficiency suitable for multitenant environments.
FortiGate VM on BlueField resolves the limitations of traditional host-based firewalls, which struggle under AI workload demands.
Innovative Security Infrastructure
Organizations benefit from security that operates at the hardware level but is managed through software
Through this solution, organizations benefit from security that operates at the hardware level but is managed through software, ensuring rapid security inspection without impacting host resources.
BlueField anchors security measures directly at the network-fabric level, enhancing operational efficiency while reducing overall infrastructure complexity and costs.
Availability and Support
The FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField solution is available with FortiOS 7.6.3.
Customers and service providers are encouraged to reach out to Fortinet sales representatives for access to validated hardware configurations and the 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 center 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 centers 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 organizations 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 organizations 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 centers with confidence,” Kevin Deierling, Senior Vice President of Networking at NVIDIA.
A new era of infrastructure acceleration
As AI and private-cloud architectures evolve, organizations are building high-density accelerated computing clusters and faster data center fabrics to support latency-sensitive workloads. By bringing isolated infrastructure acceleration directly into the compute stack, organizations 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 centralized visibility and management, reducing complexity for security teams.
Integrating FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField allows organizations 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, organizations 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, organizations 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.
