The transition began with a working VPN platform
The bank introduced FortiGate VPN headends in 2019. That capacity supported the subsequent shift to remote work. As older firewalls reached end of life, Trustmark extended the Fortinet architecture to its branches and offices.
This was a staged adoption rather than a single estate-wide swap. The initial deployment gave the team experience with the platform before its role expanded. The sequence matters because a new network architecture must become operationally familiar to the people responsible for it. A successful first use provided evidence that the wider migration could build on.
Branch paths served different application needs
The recorded design combined a 60 Mbps internet connection, a 20 Mbps VPN connection to headquarters and 5G backup through FortiExtender. Voice and mainframe traffic retained the path characteristics the bank required. FortiManager applied destination-specific device profiles to accelerate deployment.
The value was not the sum of the link speeds. Different paths served different requirements, and backup connectivity addressed failures of the primary arrangements. A design like this can preserve a business session through a transport problem only to the extent that its routing and application behavior support that transition. The bank’s reported experience is therefore more informative than an aggregate bandwidth figure.
Device placement became less dependent on the wall port
After a six-month proof of concept, Trustmark used FortiNAC to identify devices and assign the appropriate network segment. ATMs and other sensitive equipment received separate treatment. The bank reported fewer service tickets and fewer technician visits caused by employees moving equipment to another port.
That outcome links automation to a specific source of field work. The physical move still happened, but the network no longer depended entirely on a person choosing a port with the intended static assignment. Device classification and policy helped preserve the relationship between the equipment and its permitted traffic. The case does not establish that every possible device could be identified without exception.
Continuity improved while external faults remained
Trustmark’s CIO reported that landline failures continued at roughly the same frequency, but staff no longer noticed them because failover improved. The account provides that operational observation without a published failover-time benchmark.
Cartennas’s assessment is that the bank changed its exposure to recurring faults rather than claiming to eliminate their external cause. Staged firewall replacement, multiple transport paths, reusable profiles and automated segmentation addressed different parts of the branch operating problem. Their combined effect was a network that required less local intervention and better protected the user experience from the disruptions the bank could not control.