Fortinet and Equinix Secure Distributed AI at Scale

FortiAIGate on the Equinix Distributed AI Hub strengthens governance, data protection, and control across hybrid and multi-cloud AI environments.

Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) has announced the availability of FortiAIGate on the Equinix Distributed AI Hub. The companies have introduced a validated reference architecture to help organisations secure and govern distributed artificial intelligence (AI).

The architecture addresses environments where AI models, data, computing resources, applications, and agents operate across multiple locations. It embeds security and policy enforcement into AI infrastructure. As a result, organisations can protect sensitive data, support sovereignty requirements, and maintain visibility and control as AI deployments grow.

Anthony James, Executive Vice President of Marketing at Fortinet, said, “Enterprise AI is quickly moving beyond isolated applications to distributed environments where models, agents, data, and infrastructure span clouds and geographies. Security needs to be built into that architecture from the start. By bringing FortiAIGate to the Equinix Distributed AI Hub, we are giving customers a simple way to secure AI interactions, protect sensitive data, maintain control over where that data is processed, and scale AI with confidence.”

Built-in Security for Distributed AI

As organisations move from experimentation to enterprise-wide AI adoption, workloads increasingly span clouds, data centres, edge environments, models, and data sources. This creates new challenges around governance, data protection, regional requirements, and performance.

The Equinix Distributed AI Hub connects AI agents, models, data, computing resources, and cloud providers. It uses private, high-bandwidth, low-latency interconnection to support these connections.

The validated reference architecture demonstrates how FortiAIGate can inspect AI traffic and enforce security policies. It also supports sensitive data protection and visibility into AI usage. Equinix has validated FortiAIGate as an AI security guardrail within its Distributed AI Hub. Therefore, organisations can apply security closer to AI workloads and data while maintaining consistent protection as deployments scale.

Maryam Zand, Vice President, Partnerships & Ecosystem Development at Equinix, said, “AI isn’t centralised, which means enterprises need security that extends across every environment. Enterprises need to connect models, data, and clouds while retaining control over their architecture and security choices. Our distributed AI hub brings those resources together through private interconnection. The validated architecture with Fortinet gives customers a way to apply FortiAIGate security and governance to AI interactions across that connected environment.”

Secure and Scale AI Without Adding Operational Complexity

FortiAIGate on the Equinix Distributed AI Hub supports security, governance, and visibility across distributed environments. According to Fortinet, these capabilities help organisations move AI initiatives into production and scale their deployments.

The company identifies five key benefits:

• Govern AI interactions with consistent controls: Low-latency guardrails inspect prompts and responses in both directions. They also apply centralised security policies across sanctioned large language model (LLM) and Model Context Protocol (MCP) traffic. Fortinet states that these controls operate without slowing teams down.
• Control AI costs: Organisations can track per-token LLM costs and set budgets, limits, and alerts. These controls provide greater visibility into AI consumption as adoption grows.
• Protect sensitive data and support AI sovereignty: Organisations can keep control, management, and inspection within customer infrastructure. According to Fortinet, no data leaves the environment. This approach supports data residency and region-specific governance requirements.
• Gain visibility across sanctioned and shadow AI: FortiAIGate governs approved AI interactions. Meanwhile, FortiGate provides visibility into unsanctioned AI usage across the network.
• Maintain AI performance as security scales: The architecture uses graphics processing units (GPUs), including those from NVIDIA, to support network-layer security inspection. Fortinet states that this enables inspection with zero performance impact on AI workloads.

Consistent Protection From Network Connectivity to AI Interaction

The Fortinet AI-Native Security Fabric combines AI security, secure networking, and infrastructure protection. In addition, Fortinet and Equinix collaborate on network security through FortiGate VM on Equinix Network Edge.

The FortiAIGate reference architecture focuses on AI traffic inspection and governance within the Equinix Distributed AI Hub. Together, these technologies provide protection across network connectivity, data movement, and AI interactions. They cover applications, models, agents, and users.

According to the companies, this approach helps organisations apply security consistently and govern AI activity with greater confidence.

To learn how Fortinet and Equinix help organisations secure and govern AI across distributed environments, visit the Fortinet and Equinix partnership page.

Additional Resources

• Learn more about the Fortinet AI-Native Security Fabric.
• Explore the Fortinet Open Ecosystem.
• Visit Fortinet Trust for information about product security, innovation, and collaboration.
• Read about Fortinet customers.
• Learn about Fortinet’s commitment to product security and integrity through Fortinet Trust.
• Follow Fortinet on X, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
• Read the Fortinet Blog or visit Fortinet on YouTube.

About Fortinet

Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) is a driving force in the evolution of cybersecurity and the convergence of networking and security. Its mission is to secure people, devices, and data everywhere, delivering cybersecurity wherever customers need it through an integrated portfolio of more than 50 enterprise-grade products.

Fortinet reports more than one million lifetime customers. It describes its solutions as among the industry’s most deployed, most patented, and most validated.

The Fortinet Training Institute offers cybersecurity training and new career opportunities. Fortinet describes it as one of the industry’s largest and broadest training programs.

Fortinet also collaborates with public and private sector organisations to improve global cyber resilience. These include Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs), government entities, and academic institutions.

FortiGuard Labs, Fortinet’s threat intelligence and research organisation, develops and uses machine learning and AI technologies to provide customers with threat protection and actionable threat intelligence.

More information is available at Fortinet, the Fortinet Blog, and FortiGuard Labs.