December 1, 2022

Evaluating Network Validation Solutions

by Fabrizio Maccioni

Sometimes as a network engineer, you may feel like you're walking through a carnival where the barker shouts, "Step right up, ladies and gentlemen," promising something never seen before, only to find a poorly constructed paper mache replica of the impossible (or in our world, vaporware). Eventually, you become jaded and ignore the shouts until someone you trust tells you to take a look. (TLDR - check out the GigaOm Network Validation Radar and Key Criteria Report)

Some may believe network validation technology is too good to be true. In an era where network complexity is increasing exponentially, it’s impossible for the human mind to make sense of the environment and ensure it’s performing as intended. The average enterprise network includes multiple clouds, tens of thousands of networking devices, and us running billions of lines of configuration. The only thing constant in the modern network is change. Simple changes such as adding a rack, upgrading the operating system (OS), or adding a border gateway protocol (BGP) peer or virtual local area network (VLAN) can cause an outage with significant business repercussions. 

Even in this era of unprecedented complexity, many enterprise IT shops are approaching network validation manually. According to GigaOm, manual validation is “error-prone, operationally tedious, and ineffective,” leaving network teams uncertain if the network is in policy and functioning as designed.

GigaOm states that enterprises need a modern approach to change management and ensuring compliance across the entire compute estate. Network validation offers an automated approach that can accelerate the pace of change while reducing risk by injecting consistency and discipline. Network and security operations teams need a single network source of truth to ensure that the network is performing as intended, including:

  • Business intent: The intent of the business is to ensure that customers, employees, and partners have secure access to the required applications, data, and services based on predefined service-level agreements (SLAs).
  • Network intent: The intent of the network is to ensure the physical underlay and the virtual connectivity overlay are in place to support customer, employee, and partner access to applications, data, and services based on defined service-level objectives (SLOs).
  • Security intent: The intent of security is to protect corporate, customer, employee, and partner assets by implementing consistent, policy-based zero-trust network access (ZTNA) spanning on-premises, cloud, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments.

GigaOm recommends automating as much of the process as possible with pre-change and post-change network validation to assess whether the network is performing as desired before and after each change. To that end, they’ve written a key criteria report that provides detailed recommendations on evaluating network validation software. They’ve broken down the process to help ensure enterprises are successful. Beginning by ensuring that the validation project is scoped correctly, done at the right time, and uses the right approach for the network or use case. They then break down the most common features by category (Table Stakes, Key Criteria, Emergent Technologies) to help enterprises select the best technology for their needs.

The corresponding Radar Report provides an overview of notable network validation vendors, their use cases, and supported features.

Source: GigaOm 2022
+++ Exceptional: Outstanding focus and execution
++ Capable: Good but with room for improvement
+ Limited: Lacking in execution and use cases
— Not applicable or absent

Evaluating new technology and determining its value to your organization takes time and effort. That’s why we’re making the GigaOm Network Validation Key Criteria and Network Validation Radar Reports available to you free of charge. As a respected third-party research firm, GigaOm has advised IT leaders in every industry and frequently evaluates vendor technology. The reports they’ve written offer an objective source of data and starting point for anyone looking to adopt network validation.

Read the reports now.

Subscribe to our blog!

RELATED FORWARD CONTENT 
February 6, 2023
Visit Stand E08 at Cisco Live EMEA

Let the Games Begin! Cisco Live Amsterdam has officially started, and we’re delighted to be here meeting with the best and brightest of the European networking community. Stop by to say hello, and play Forward Quest to learn how easy it is to put your people back in charge of the network and register to […]

Read More
January 25, 2023
MSD Partners Leads Forward Networks $50M Series D Funding

Following 139% year-over-year growth, Forward Networks closed $50M in series D funding. The round was led by MSD Partners with support from new investors, Section 32, and Omega Venture Partners. Demonstrating ongoing support, existing investors Goldman Sachs Asset Management (Goldman Sachs), Threshold Ventures, A. Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz participated in the round. Since its last […]

Read More
January 18, 2023
Forward Networks to Host Cloud Field Day 16

I don’t know which is more exciting: the fact that there’s no rain forecast for the next two weeks or that we’re hosting Cloud Field Day 16 at the Forward Networks headquarters in Santa Clara, CA. It’s a nice dose of synchronicity that we get a break in the rain to dry out and clean […]

Read More
crossmenu linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram