Calgary’s cybersecurity ecosystem is gaining new expertise, training capacity and opportunities for collaboration as global cybersecurity company Fortinet expands its presence in the city.
Fortinet is opening a multi-use downtown cybersecurity innovation hub with training facilities, community space and specialized operational technology capabilities, which creates new opportunities for local businesses, talent and technology partners to connect with Fortinet’s global expertise.
For Gordon Phillips, Regional Vice President, Western Canada Sales at Fortinet, several factors aligned as the company considered where to grow next.
“We saw the technology boom coming into Calgary,” Phillips said.
“It’s got the right post-secondaries and a good talent pool of professionals — all those things lined up and made it a very attractive place to expand.”
The investment reflects priorities identified in Calgary’s economic action plan, Uplook, including developing talent, supporting innovation and strengthening the city’s competitiveness in high-growth sectors.
Why Fortinet chose Calgary
Talent was a major consideration for Fortinet, which has been growing its Canadian workforce. Canada now accounts for roughly 20 percent of Fortinet’s global employee base according to Phillips.
Calgary offers an expanding pool to draw from. The city’s tech talent workforce grew 56 per cent between 2022 and 2025, adding 28,900 workers to reach more than 80,000 — the fastest growth among the 50 North American markets ranked by CBRE.
That surge in talent, combined with Calgary’s affordability, professional workforce and post-secondary ecosystem, helped set the city apart.
So did proximity to customers.
Fortinet is seeing growing demand for cybersecurity supporting critical infrastructure and operational technology — areas closely connected to Calgary’s strengths in the energy and industrial sectors.
“A lot of our growth has come from critical infrastructure and operational technology,” Phillips said.
“Calgary is the hotbed for that.”
Calgary’s air connectivity, downtown business concentration and quality of life also factored into the decision, while keeping Fortinet connected to its major research and development operations in Burnaby.
How Calgary helped move Fortinet’s investment forward
As Fortinet evaluated expansion opportunities across Canada, Calgary Economic Development worked with the company to provide market intelligence, data and connections to partners that could support its growth.
That support helped move forward Fortinet’s decision to establish its Calgary presence, including a $30-million investment to acquire a downtown building in September 2024 — the same space it has now transformed into its new cybersecurity innovation hub.
Phillips said the responsiveness from CED — and partners including Invest Alberta and the Government of Alberta — stood out, with information and connections turned around in days compared with weeks or longer in some other jurisdictions.
“There’s no egos in Calgary,” Phillips said.
“It really is about, ‘What can we do to help you grow and expand?’ Calgary did an excellent job of that.”
Calgary Economic Development President and CEO Brad Parry said the investment is another signal of Calgary’s growing appeal to global technology companies.
“Fortinet's decision to invest in Calgary reflects what more global companies are discovering: this is a place where you can find the talent, partnerships and momentum to build what’s next,” said Parry.
“By bringing critical cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure to Calgary, Fortinet is helping create the conditions that allow ambitious companies to grow, scale and have global impact from the Blue Sky City.”
Fortinet's downtown Calgary office building. Photo: Calgary Economic Development
Inside Fortinet’s Calgary cybersecurity innovation hub
Fortinet’s newly renovated eight-storey, 122,000-square-foot downtown Calgary cybersecurity innovation hub will expand the company’s cloud infrastructure and cybersecurity capabilities in the city.
Designed to be more than an office, the facility will give customers, technology partners and Calgary’s broader tech community space to collaborate, access expertise and test cybersecurity solutions.
A training centre will support networking, cybersecurity awareness, incident response and incident readiness, helping businesses strengthen their cyber preparedness while developing local talent.
Fortinet is also developing an operational technology hub focused on sectors including energy and critical infrastructure, where customers and technology partners can work directly with Fortinet experts and test industrial cybersecurity solutions.
“We’re building something not just for us,” Phillips said. “We’re really building something that’s for greater Calgary and beyond.”
Fortinet’s Alberta workforce has also grown 27 per cent since acquiring the company-owned building two years ago, highlighting the province’s important role in the company’s growth.
With Fortinet planning to work closely with tech-focused post-secondary programs, the investment adds capacity to Calgary’s tech talent pipeline at a time when demand continues to outpace local graduates. Between 2022 and 2025, Calgary added 28,900 tech jobs compared with 3,660 technology degrees awarded — a gap of more than 25,000 and the second largest among markets studied by CBRE.
Fortinet is also establishing a scholarship at the University of Calgary. The annual Fortinet Award in Computer Science and Engineering will provide a $3,000 merit-based scholarship each year for five years to students studying computer science, data science, computer engineering or software engineering.
Through its education and training programs, Fortinet provides cybersecurity curriculum, lab equipment and expertise to post-secondary institutions and is looking to deepen local relationships as demand for digital skills grows.
What’s next for Calgary’s technology sector?
For Phillips, Fortinet’s expansion reflects a broader shift underway in Calgary, as the city’s established strengths intersect with growth in emerging areas like cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, aerospace and defence.
“Calgary will always be seen as the oil and gas capital of Canada,” he said. “But I think we’ll also see, just because of the pace of technology, a really big impact around tech.”
“It’s taken decades and decades to build us into the energy king that we are. I don’t think it’ll take that long from a tech perspective.”
Learn more about Calgary’s technology sector and why companies are choosing the Blue Sky City to build and grow.