Fortinet opens US$30-million cybersecurity hub in downtown Calgary
Fortinet has opened a US$30-million cybersecurity hub in an eight-storey building it owns in downtown Calgary, the company announced Sept. 16. Calgary becomes Fortinet's third Canadian site, after Burnaby, B.C., and Ottawa.
The most practical change for Alberta organizations is a new Fortinet cloud point of presence in the city. Fortinet says it brings its cloud security network physically closer to customers in the province and addresses data sovereignty requirements, a growing concern for Canadian public bodies and regulated industries that want security traffic processed in Canada.
What is in the building
According to Fortinet's announcement, the 122,000-square-foot building, which the company bought in September 2024, houses:
- a community hub with a lab for demonstrating and validating security products for critical infrastructure;
- a customer experience centre;
- a training facility for hands-on cybersecurity education;
- the cloud point of presence, built on Fortinet's own appliances.
Fortinet said research in Calgary will focus on AI-driven threats and risks to operational technology, the systems that monitor and control physical equipment in sectors such as oil and gas, utilities and manufacturing, BetaKit reported. The company did not say how many jobs the hub will create.
The Alberta government, Invest Alberta and Calgary Economic Development supported the project. Fortinet is also creating an annual award in computer science and engineering at the University of Calgary worth US$3,000 a year for five years.
Why it matters
Alberta's energy, utility and agriculture operators are connecting industrial equipment to cloud services at a fast pace, which widens the range of systems attackers can reach. A local lab focused on operational technology gives those operators a place to test products against their own environments. Gordon Phillips, Fortinet's regional vice-president for Western Canada, told BetaKit the Calgary presence will let the company work more closely with partners and customers across the province.
The opening came a day after Fortinet announced a similar company-owned hub in New York City.
