Northwestel partners with Fortinet to deliver cybersecurity and SD-WAN solutions to Northern Canadian businesses.
New partnership brings enterprise-grade security to Northern businesses, providing solutions to securely connect.
Whitehorse, YT, April 14th, 2025 - Northwestel, the largest Northern Canadian internet service provider, today announced a strategic partnership with Fortinet, the global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security. This partnership will further enable Northwestel to deliver leading-edge security solutions to connect and secure the networks of offices, worksites, and enterprise businesses across Northern Canada—all backed by Northwestel’s team of dedicated technical experts.
Through this collaboration, Northwestel and Fortinet will combine their respective expertise to offer a range of solutions addressing the specific needs of industries of the North such as mining, government, non-for-profits, and education. This includes a secure SD-WAN solution leveraging Fortinet’s platform to connect customer’s networks at scale without compromising security.
"Managing a fully integrated network and security solution has never been more complex, especially as cyber threats continue to evolve. For IT and cybersecurity teams, staying ahead of these challenges is a constant effort” said Paul Gillard, Vice President of Business Markets, Northwestel. “Through our collaboration with Fortinet, we’re reducing the effort for organizations by providing a unified, scalable network and security solution, enhancing protection while simplifying management and resource allocation.”
Graham Bushkes, Sr. Vice President of Sales at Fortinet Canada, added: “We are proud to partner with Northwestel to help secure infrastructure for businesses in Northern Canada. Leveraging our 25 years of expertise across Canada and our strong R&D and threat intelligence presence in Burnaby, BC, we are making a significant step towards protecting businesses, enterprises, and government partners operating in the Canadian Arctic and elsewhere in the North from the ever-present risks associated with cyber-attacks.”
To support decision makers, Northwestel is now offering eligible business customers a no-cost cybersecurity assessment. Northwestel’s “Assess Cyber Threats” (ACT) program is a short-term assessment that builds upon Fortinet’s robust analytics platform to provide meaningful reports detailing their network’s security risks, utilization, and performance.
To learn more about Northwestel’s solutions for businesses, or to schedule a cybersecurity assessment, visit www.nwtel.ca/managed-services today.
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About Northwestel
Northwestel is the largest telecommunications provider in Canada’s North, serving 97 communities across the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, British Columbia and Alberta. Beginning in 2020, Northwestel’s Every Community project significantly improved broadband services for northern residents, governments, and businesses using the latest fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite technologies. Now, over 95% of homes in Yukon and NWT have access to high-speed, unlimited fibre-powered internet, either fibre to the home or fibre to the neighbourhood. Northwestel is proud to provide service on the traditional territories of Indigenous peoples across Canada’s North. In 2024, Sixty North Unity, a consortium of Indigenous organizations, announced its plans to purchase Northwestel and make it a wholly owned Indigenous company, which will make it the largest Indigenous-owned telecommunications in the world.
About Fortinet
Fortinet is a driving force in the evolution of cybersecurity and the convergence of networking and security. our mission is to secure people, devices and data everywhere, and today we deliver cybersecurity everywhere our customers need it with the largest integrated portfolio of over 50 enterprise-grade products. Well over half a million customers trust Fortinet’s solutions, which are among the most deployed, most patented and most validated in the industry. The Fortinet Training Institute, one of the largest and broadest training programs in the industry, is dedicated to making cybersecurity training and new career opportunities available to everyone. Collaboration with esteemed organizations from both the public and private sectors, including Computer Emergency Response Teams (“CERTs”), government entities, and academia, is a fundamental aspect of Fortinet’s commitment to enhance cyber resilience globally. FortiGuard Labs, Fortinet’s elite threat intelligence and research organization, develops and utilizes leading-edge machine learning and AI technologies to provide customers with timely and consistently top-rated protection and actionable threat intelligence. Learn more at https://www.fortinet.com, the Fortinet Blog, and FortiGuard Labs.
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