Forward Networks  

Santa Clara,  CA 
United States
https://www.forwardnetworks.com

• Booth: 302

Forward Networks is revolutionizing the way large networks are managed. Forward’s advanced software delivers a “digital twin” of the network, enabling network operators to verify intent, predict network behavior, and simplify network management. The platform supports devices from all major networking vendors and cloud operators, including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Forward Networks is currently deployed within US military, civilian, and intelligence organizations.

 Press Releases

• FORWARD NETWORKS AND ITENTIAL TEAM UP TO DELIVER SEAMLESS CLOSED-LOOP AUTOMATION FOR PHYSICAL, VIRTUAL, AND CLOUD NETWORKS (Jul 15, 2021)

  Combining proven verification capabilities and industry-leading automation means
  network operations teams can reliably deploy changes at scale

   

  SANTA CLARA, Calif., and ATLANTA May 5, 2021 – Forward Networks, the industry leader in network assurance and intent-based verification, and Itential, the leader in network and cloud automation, today announced during ONUG Spring 2021, seamless integration between the companies’ two platforms to deliver closed-loop network automation. Combining the power of Forward Networks’ Digital Twin with Itential’s low-code network automation platform enables network operations teams to take full advantage of automated network configuration without the risk of unintended consequences from change windows.

   

  “Network Automation is essential for managing the complex, hybrid enterprise networks that are the backbone of today’s businesses, however with increased scale and speed, comes increased risk,” said Nick Lippis, ONUG co-chair and co-Founder. “The integration between Itential and Forward Networks will help companies maintain their network health at scale while ensuring that changes made adhere to network policies and do not create unforeseen compliance issues. ONUG is pleased that this much-needed integration is being launched during our spring event.” 

   

  Forward Enterprise helps network operations engineers avoid outages through its unique mathematical model. The platform creates a digital twin of the network (across on-premises devices, private and public cloud) enabling network operators to map all possible traffic flows, instantly troubleshoot, verify intent, predict network behavior, and reduce MTTR (mean time to resolution). 

   

  Itential simplifies and accelerates the deployment and management of multi-domain network infrastructure. The Itential Automation Platform, Itential’s cloud-native, software-as-a-service offering, provides a low-code interface that seamlessly connects to any IT system, cloud, or network technology for end-to-end and closed-loop network automation and orchestration capabilities. Both platforms support major network equipment vendors and AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud platforms. 

   

  “Our customers include public sector organizations and Fortune 100 companies in highly regulated industries including telecommunications and finance, and all of them span on-prem, virtual layers, and multi-cloud environments composed of tens of thousands of devices,” said Chiara Regale, vice president of product, Forward Networks. “Networks of this size depend on automation capabilities to maintain network health and provision new mission-critical services; network verification ensures network correctness and reliability. Itential’s easy-to-use platform is the only network automation solution that supports the reality of multi-environment networks. Through the Forward Networks and Itential integration, we can enable large organizations to embrace the benefits of automation and provide the assurance that everything works as promised and that the network is compliant.”

  
  

  Automation is becoming the dominant strategy for supporting the increasing complexity in modern networks. As organizations progress on their automation journey, building confidence and trust in the network is paramount. Itential’s Automation Platform provides a low-code, drag-and-drop interface for rapid automation as well as pre-built use cases for the most common operations tasks and use cases. The Forward Networks platform enables network operations engineers to verify that the automated workflows are correct and compliant with intent policies. Integrations with change management systems such as ServiceNow and JIRA ensure common operational knowledge as well as integrating with notification and source of truth systems to support distributed and cloud environments.     

   

   

  Capitalizing on these capabilities, the integration of Itential and Forward Networks enables closed-loop network automation. Network changes initiated in Itential can be validated against Forward Networks mathematical model of the network, while anomalies identified by Forward Networks can be remediated via the Itential Automation Platform.

   

  “At Itential, we strive to make network management easier for our customers who operate global enterprise-scale networks through our low-code approach to network automation,” said Chris Wade, CTO of Itential. “Itential’s integration with the Forward Networks platform provides our customers with industry-leading network verification and closed-loop automation, ensuring complete visibility into their network behavior, enables them to predict how changes will impact the production environment before they are pushed live and complete end-to-end automation across physical, virtual, and multi-cloud networks.”

   

  Both Forward Networks and Itential are currently exhibiting at ONUG Spring 2021, taking place May 5-6 and participating in a joint proof of concept session, “Itential & Forward Networks: Closing the Loop on Network Automation.” To learn more about the collaboration between Forward Networks and Itential as well as their networking solutions, visit www.forwardnetworks.com or www.itential.com.

  About Forward Networks

  Forward Networks is revolutionizing the way large networks are managed. Forward’s advanced software delivers a “digital twin” of the network, enabling network operators to verify intent, predict network behavior, and simplify network management. The platform supports devices from all major networking vendors and AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Platform.

   

  Forward Networks was founded in 2013 by four Stanford Ph.D. graduates and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. Investors include Goldman Sachs, Andreessen Horowitz, Threshold Ventures, and A. Capital. For more information, visit www.ForwardNetworks.com.

  
  

  About Itential

  Itential is intelligent automation for network and cloud infrastructure. The Itential Automation Platform is a low-code, SaaS offering for rapid automation across physical, virtual, and hybrid, multi-cloud networks. Our vendor-agnostic solution seamlessly connects to any IT system, cloud, or network technology for end-to-end and closed-loop network automation and orchestration capabilities, enabling enterprise organizations the freedom to choose the right tools and best solutions for their needs. For more information and to get started with a free trial of the Itential Automation Platform, visit www.itential.com.

• FORWARD NETWORKS UNVEILS NEW FEATURES TO VERIFY AND VALIDATE ZERO TRUST ARCHITECTURES (Jul 15, 2021)

   Single Source of Truth Improves Effectiveness and Efficiency of

  Security and Network Operations Centers

  
  

  SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 28, 2021 – Forward Networks, the industry leader in network assurance and intent-based verification, today announced enhancements to the Forward Enterprise platform that will help security professionals identify, contain, and prevent security incidents with greater ease and efficiency than ever. The three new features enable security engineers to determine the blast radius of compromised devices immediately, create an always up-to-date zone-to-zone security matrix, and simplify efforts to remediate cybersecurity vulnerabilities (CVs). 

   

  “Forward Enterprise enables network operations engineers to access and gain insights from network information that previously was painfully slow, or even impossible, to find. Fast, easy access to insights speeds up troubleshooting, reduces outages, and enables IT teams to deliver more applications without increasing staff,” said Brandon Heller, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder at Forward Networks. “Security operations engineers can benefit from the same information, too!  They’re under constant pressure to identify and remediate issues immediately, but their efforts are slowed by a lack of network clarity, especially when firewalls, load balancers, and complex network paths are involved. By providing a single source of truth and “easy buttons” to complete common security tasks, we help enterprises to strengthen their network security posture and validate their zero-trust architecture, with a level of accuracy and efficiency that was previously impossible.”

   

  Creating a single source of truth for NOC (Network Operations Center) and SOC (Security Operations Center) engineers helps both teams deliver business value faster by eliminating the need to request and share information via phone or email.  Now, everyone can instantly access always current information on network behavior, security posture, and topology. Security engineers tasked with remediating or preventing events now have up-to-date information on traffic paths availability or isolation, device connectivity, and the ability to track network configuration changes that may have created a vulnerability.  

   

  “Traditionally, security teams haven’t had access to the detailed analysis of network behavior they need to diagnose issues or verify compliance without requesting it from the NOC,” said Chiara Regale, vice president of product for Forward Networks.  “Forward Enterprise collects information on configuration and network behavior from Layer 2 through Layer 4, which SOC and InfoSec teams need be effective.  The features we are announcing today are designed to curate and present this information in a way that helps security teams accomplish their goals faster and more accurately.”

   

  The three new features announced today simplify labor-intensive processes for security teams and enable them to resolve issues without conducting data calls.  

   

  • Blast Radius Identification and Isolation—using data already collected by the Forward Enterprise platform, security operations engineers can now identify the reach of a compromised host with a single mouse click.  Once the exposure is identified, isolating the devices is a much simpler and faster process.
     

  • Zone-to-Zone Connectivity Matrix—by continuously capturing firewall configuration information, Forward Enterprise is an always-current source of truth for zone-to-zone connectivity.  The platform offers a graphical matrix that clearly delineates which zones have full connectivity, partial connectivity, or no connectivity.  Using the platform’s Path Analysis, Network Query Engine, and network-diff capabilities, engineers can easily determine the cause of unintended connectivity. Additionally, the engineer can build verification baselines from the Zone-to-Zone Connectivity Matrix using Forward Intent verification checks.
     

  • Cybersecurity Vulnerability Reporting—Using information from the NIST National Vulnerability Database and the specific device and configuration data collected from the network, Forward Enterprise automatically analyzes the network for vulnerabilities and presents information in an actionable format. Our API integration with ServiceNow can automatically generate tickets, expediting the entire process.

  Visit www.forwardnetworks.com/security to learn more about these features and security use cases for Forward Enterprise.

   

   “The NetOps and SecOps teams typically work with different toolsets and datasets to assure service integrity and mitigate problems and threats respectively.  While the use of role-specific views and controls certainly add operational value, a single source of truth and shared management platform boost the efficiency and effectiveness of IT operations overall,” said Mark Leary, Research Director, Network Analytics, IDC. “Here, IT organizations move forward by breaking down technology silos, promoting cross-functional teamwork, and increasing IT staff productivity and service levels.”

   

  About Forward Networks

  Forward Networks is revolutionizing the way large networks are managed. Forward’s advanced software delivers a “digital twin” of the network, enabling network operators to verify intent, predict network behavior, and simplify network management. The platform supports devices from all major networking vendors and cloud operators, including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.

   

  Forward Networks was founded in 2013 by four Stanford Ph.D. graduates and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. Investors include Goldman Sachs, Andreessen Horowitz, Threshold Ventures, and A. Capital. For more information, visit www.ForwardNetworks.com.

  Media Contact:

   

  Dawn Slusher

  Forward Networks

  dawnslusher@forwardnetworks.com

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