Forward Looking Statements
Who needs a dashboard?
April 20, 2020
Who needs a dashboard? by Fabrizio Maccioni The idea of building the Forward Dashboard has been floating around for a while now, but we kept postponing it to give priority to other features, like In-App Network Query Engine Checks, that built on the functionality and the customization of the…
Can all of these customers be wrong?
March 27, 2020
Can all of these customers be wrong? by Lisa Garvey “As a customer of Forward Networks I can tell you that I wouldn’t want to ever be without their software. Even the simplest task of finding a mac address or IP address on your network is done instantaneously on Forward Enterprise. The…
In-App NQE Checks examples now available on GitHub
January 6, 2020
In-App NQE Checks examples now available on GitHub by Fabrizio Maccioni Network Query Engine (NQE) is my favorite Forward Enterprise feature and is one of the reasons why I decided to join Forward Networks. After working on Network Programmability and Automation for years, the idea of a single…
Closing the Loop on Automation: Forward Networks + Ansible
November 21, 2019
Closing the Loop on Automation: Forward Networks + Ansible by Fabrizio Maccioni In my previous blog post Query Your Network like a Database, I talked about how companies are embracing Network Automation in order to become more agile. I described how Network Automation can be very powerful but…
Query Your Network like a Database
November 21, 2019
Query Your Network like a Database by Fabrizio Maccioni As companies are trying to become more agile to provide new services to their customers at a faster pace, more and more of them are embracing Network Automation in some shape or form. Network Automation can be very powerful, but it comes with…
What Do Boba Tea and Network Verification Have in Common?
October 12, 2019
What Do Boba Tea and Network Verification Have in Common? by Lisa Garvey Last week, Forward Networks presented at Networking Field Day 21. For two hours on a beautiful Thursday afternoon in Palo Alto, we hosted an esteemed group of network industry influencers, bloggers, and all-around experts. We…
Network Query Engine (NQE) with Postman
July 17, 2019
Network Query Engine (NQE) with Postman [VIDEO] by Fabrizio Maccioni If you are already a Network Query Engine (NQE) ninja, feel free to jump to the “NQE with Postman” section, otherwise, keep on reading. Network Query Engine (NQE) If you are familiar with the Forward Platform, you might already…
Introducing Partial Collection
June 20, 2019
Introducing Partial Collection [VIDEO] by Fabrizio Maccioni Every time I explain the Forward platform and what a Snapshot is, I know the next question I will be asked. I would start with something like "A Snapshot is a collection of the network devices’ running configuration and state at a specific…
Live from Citrix Synergy 2019
May 22, 2019
UPDATE: We won!! The Best of Citrix Synergy 2019 Award for Storage, Networking and Infrastructure goes to Forward Networks! DAY ONE AT CITRIX SYNERGY was off the charts. We have broken all previous records on the number of visitors to our booth (409) with lines of people longer than we’ve…
Network Query Engine: Automate Network Health Checks in Minutes
February 21, 2019
Last month we introduced our Network Query Engine (NQE) at Cisco Live Europe and to a very impressive technical audience as part of Tech Field Day 2019. If you didn’t have the chance to read through our introduction blog, NQE leverages the internal network data model that Forward Networks builds…
Does intent-based marketing really suck?
February 13, 2019
Last week, on February 8, 2019, Packet Pushers published our second podcast with them covering a range of customer use case updates and new features like our Network Query Engine (NQE), VMware NSX support, Cisco ACI announcement and more. We have always gotten great feedback on our shows with hosts…
Query Your Network Like a Database to Gain Knowledge and Simplify Operations
January 23, 2019
There is a wealth of untapped information in your network. Learn to query and extract it! Even before packets start flowing, enterprise networks are complex, data-intensive repositories of topology, configuration and state information. This information is often required to solve operational…
Why should data centers have all the fun?
Network verification now available for AWS
November 29, 2018
What’s been the biggest change to networking in the past decade? While there have been tremendous improvements in automation, capacity and mobility, nothing has had a greater impact on IT organizations than cloud migration. We all know the business drivers behind this evolution, from cost…
Vulnerable to Cisco ASA and Firepower SIP DoS attacks? Find out how to fix in only a few minutes.
November 2, 2018
On October 31, 2018, Cisco released a security advisory for its ASA and Firepower threat defense software regarding a Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerability. The full security advisory can be found here. The summary (below) notes that the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) inspection engine could…
You Can Now Diff Your Entire Network in One Intuitive Platform
October 8, 2018
In tech terms, a diff is a listing of changes or differences between documents, files, source code, etc. As a Unix command, it became a common method of distributing patches and source updates, or just comparing versions of text files. Diffs became so easy to do and use, and common to so many use…
Forward Enterprise and Cisco NSO deliver Verification + Automation
July 27, 2018
The great panacea for network IT the last several years has been more and more automation. Automation through orchestration. Simplifying and accelerating network administration tasks at the scale of large enterprise and cloud networks. Automation to keep up with the accelerated deployment of…
Separate Policy Analysis Between Network and Security Teams with Forward Networks Permit-All Mode
July 10, 2018
A new feature in Forward Enterprise now allows customers to simplify the analysis of network access issues between the network and security teams. We call this feature ACL-less analysis, or permit-all mode. First some context why multiple customers asked us to develop this feature, and the use case…
Forward Networks a Gartner Cool Vendor in Enterprise Networking
May 17, 2018
We were very excited to be selected as a Gartner Cool Vendor in Enterprise Networking for 2018 according to their report (download now) released on May 7. We believe this recognition reflects the innovations we've made around intent-based networking, network operations and IT automation over the…
Automate Policy Verification to Accelerate NetOps and Change Windows
April 26, 2018
In agile network operations, network configurations need to be updated to reflect new application or policy requirements, or to implement a change in network behavior. As business and application requirements change, we have to translate new policies into specific network configuration changes in…
A Better Way to Document Your Network Topology than Visio
January 12, 2018
Yesterday, Brandon Heller and I recorded a podcast with Ethan Banks and Greg Ferro of Packet Pushers fame. If you are not a fan of Packet Pusher Podcasts, you should be. They have a large following of highly technical network nerds and their podcasts are always engaging and educational. When they…
Co-Founder Nikhil Handigol on Accelerating Network Operations – ONUG 2017
November 28, 2017
Back in October, our co-founder Nikhil Handigol presented at the Open Networking User Group (ONUG) meeting in New York on how Forward Enterprise helps accelerate and de-risk network operations. Click on the image below to launch the video on vimeo.com: ONUG was created in early 2012 by Nick…
Recent Internet Outage Likely Prevented with Forward Networks Intent-based Verification
November 8, 2017
Monday morning this week, Internet access in many areas across the U.S. were severely compromised and routes through several carriers reported problems. Although remediation was fast (about 90 minutes), a simple router misconfiguration in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) set-up through one of the…
Verification in Forward Enterprise: Become “Absolutely Sure” of Your Network Intent
November 8, 2017
In Part 1 of this blog, I discussed the power of network verification compared to traditional network testing. Verification is the mathematical and logical analysis of your current network configurations and state to detect and highlight violations of your policies and intent. Verification can take…
“Pretty Sure” Your Network is Behaving as Intended? It Could be Costing You Big Time
October 31, 2017
The more networks have evolved and the more complex data center architectures have become, more and more organizations are realizing they've got time bombs latent in their network, just waiting for the right set of circumstances to take down critical portions of their infrastructure. In the past, a…
Moving Forward: Our New Sales VP Discusses the Opportunity at Hand
October 11, 2017
The following post is from Forward Networks new Vice President of Global Sales, Ryan Mac Ban, and previously posted on LinkedIn under the title "Why Forward Networks and Why Now?" If you are reading this, you most likely know that I have recently joined Forward Networks to run Global Sales. My…
Seeking Truth in Networking: From Testing To Verification
April 27, 2017
Sharp network admins already verify the network in a variety of ways, right? Pings, traceroutes, and custom scripts verify expected connectivity. Link and CPU utilization monitoring programs verify normal operation. Maybe pushed configs are read back in to verify that the device accepted them. And…
Network path not found?
February 23, 2017
How to use an army of tests to understand and diagnose your network! You’ve probably heard about how hard it is to operate networks. The complexity of the devices, the diversity of protocols operating simultaneously, and the sheer size of the network are all well-known reasons for getting…
Delivering business value with the Forward Platform
January 26, 2017
Since making our platform available, many of the world’s largest banks, telcos, and IT companies have come to rely on Forward Networks to keep their networks healthy and operated efficiently. From the CTO to a junior engineer, people quickly grasp the value of what the Forward Platform can deliver,…
Why Testing and Debugging Networks is so Difficult
December 1, 2016
The network lies at the heart of a modern enterprise’s ability to perform its daily business and operations. When a network outage occurs, due to a policy misconfiguration or a device failure, business grinds to a halt. Almost every week, it seems, we read a new headline where a Fortune 500 company…
Presenting the Forward Platform at Networking Field Day 13
November 22, 2016
As part of Forward Networks’ public launch, we had the privilege of presenting to a lively delegation at Networking Field Day 13 on November 17th, 2016. The event took place at Andreessen Horowitz’ campus in Menlo Park, CA and constituted our first public unveiling of the Forward Platform. The idea…
Unveiling the Forward Platform
November 14, 2016
Networks today are integral to many if not all aspects of our lives. A multitude of data packets whizz by on wired or wireless networks enabling us to carry out both our personal and business lives in the digital world. It is therefore easy to understand the chaos that is caused when these networks…
We’re Launching From Stealth to Combat the Complex and Error-Prone State of Networking
November 14, 2016
After years of work, we’re proud to leave stealth today and officially unveil Forward Networks. Our Background My three co-founders: Brandon Heller, Nikhil Handigol, Peyman Kazemian and I were fortunate to be members of the team that created Software Defined Networking while working on our PhDs at…