FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField targets AI data centres

FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField marks a shift in how security is delivered in AI-driven and private cloud data centres, with core protection functions moving from host systems into the infrastructure fabric itself.

The integrated solution runs Fortinet’s virtual cloud firewall directly on the NVIDIA BlueField-3 data processing unit, enabling networking and security services to operate independently of the host CPU. This approach is designed to support high-throughput, latency-sensitive workloads common in AI factories and modern private cloud environments.

Security embedded into infrastructure

As organisations modernise data centres to support AI, edge and private cloud workloads, traditional host-based security models are increasingly challenged by performance and isolation requirements. By running FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField, firewalling, segmentation and zero-trust controls are offloaded to the DPU.

Powered by FortiOS, the solution provides next-generation firewall capabilities with consistent policy enforcement, centralised visibility and unified management across hybrid, multi-cloud and AI environments. Offloading these functions to the DPU removes processing overhead from the host while improving inspection accuracy and multitenant isolation.

Supporting high-density AI environments

The integration enables isolated infrastructure acceleration directly within the compute stack, allowing organisations to manage AI-scale traffic without slowing GPU-intensive workloads. Security policies are enforced within the network fabric rather than at the host layer, improving throughput and reducing latency.

Deployed on BlueField, FortiGate VM enforces segmentation directly inside the infrastructure, supporting high-density accelerated computing clusters and faster data centre fabrics built for AI workloads.

Performance and operational benefits

According to the companies, running FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField delivers several infrastructure-level advantages. Security inspection is performed at line rate with no host CPU impact. Zero-trust segmentation is enforced within an isolated trust domain, separating the security plane from compute workloads.

The solution also supports simplified private cloud integration through validated configurations using Open vSwitch bridges for WAN and VXLAN LAN tunnels. It is positioned for scalable multitenant environments such as cloud service providers, Telco edge deployments and enterprise private clouds requiring hardware-accelerated inspection and service chaining.

Industry perspectives

John Whittle, Chief Operating Officer at Fortinet, said the integration aligns security with the performance demands of modern AI and private cloud data centres by moving firewalling and segmentation onto the DPU, improving isolation and reducing latency.

Kevin Deierling, Senior Vice President of Networking at NVIDIA, said running FortiGate VM directly on BlueField-3 DPUs extends infrastructure-offloaded services to advanced security, enabling firewalling and zero-trust enforcement without impacting GPU workloads.

Availability

FortiGate VM on NVIDIA BlueField is supported starting with FortiOS 7.6.3. Customers and service providers can access validated hardware configurations and deployment guidance throughFortinet.