ARTICLE | Apr 29, 2025

Digital Twins and Generative AI: A New Era for Network Management and Security

Digital Twins, virtual replicas of physical objects, systems, or processes, have been steadily gaining traction in the technology sector, particularly in networking and security.

Visit Our Press Room Read the article

Industry Recognition

2025 Globee Golden Cybersecurity Award - Forward Networks

Forward Networks is once again recognized as an industry leader in network cybersecurity with the 2025 Globee Awards Winner for Cybersecurity.

Watch our product demo

Digital Twins, virtual replicas of physical objects, systems, or processes, have been steadily gaining traction in the technology sector, particularly in networking and security. These sophisticated models have the potential to revolutionise network management and cybersecurity by offering a dynamic, real-time, and comprehensive approach to managing, optimising, and securing complex systems. McKinsey & Company underscores that Digital Twins have become indispensable business tools for leading companies and are poised to become pivotal in optimising processes and decision-making across every industry.

The intrinsic value of Digital Twins lies in their ability to provide a real-time copy of an environment, enabling security and networking teams to test and manipulate scenarios without impacting the live environment. The recent evolution of these tools incorporates Generative AI (GenAI), empowering teams without specific network or security expertise to query the models.

Additionally, they offer a sandbox for testing new tools and technologies, allowing teams to assess their impact on the environment without compromising operational resilience.

Enhanced Scenario Planning and Testing

Digital Twins emulate live production environments, allowing organisations to test changes in a controlled manner, which is often impractical on live networks. This includes testing firewall rules, routing changes, and other network configurations to evaluate their impact on traffic flow. Teams can test various scenarios to optimise traffic flow to desired levels, eliminating the guesswork from implementing network changes. By previewing outcomes before applying changes to production, teams can make informed decisions.

For example, a company might use a Digital Twin to simulate the impact of a new firewall rule on network traffic. By doing so, they can identify potential bottlenecks or vulnerabilities before implementing the change in the live environment. This proactive approach not only enhances network performance but also ensures that security measures are robust and effective.

From a security perspective, Digital Twins offer several advantages. They ensure compliance with security policies by validating planned changes against these policies. Furthermore, network and security teams can analyse the blast radius of potential breaches or compromised nodes. Simulations can be run to understand the impact on connectivity and interactions between nodes, identifying potential paths for bad actors. This helps pinpoint vulnerable paths that require attention to contain and mitigate risks and the impact of breaches.

Minimising Disruption and Downtime

In DevOps environments, developers continuously make changes that can jeopardise network stability and security posture. Digital Twins provide a robust solution, allowing developers to work in a DevOps environment with automated testing and change management while maintaining network integrity and security posture. Operational resilience is safeguarded while accelerating change and the ability to release functionality, code, and products.

By flagging potential issues, such as configuration or security policy problems, Digital Twins prevent deployments that could compromise the network. This ensures network integrity and can reduce network outages by up to 50%, according to Forward Networks. Developers can innovate within a safe space identical to the real system, balancing agility and security.

Read the complete article here...