Palo Alto, May 28, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- – Forward Networks, the industry leader in network assurance and intent-based verification, announced today that its Forward Enterprise solution was named a winner of the Best of Citrix Synergy 2019 Award in the Storage, Networking and Infrastructure category. This category awards products that enhance the role of networking, storage or compute in building and maintaining cloud infrastructures or desktop and application delivery environments. The Best of Citrix Synergy Awards recognizes outstanding products on display at Citrix's annual user conference held this year from May 21 to 23 in Atlanta.

According to the judges, “Forward Networks is taking an interesting approach to network analysis. This tool can confirm or deny whether a problem truly is a network issue and will help IT pinpoint which routers need to be reconfigured.”

 Forward Enterprise is the first accurate software model of large, multi-vendor networks to quickly emulate and analyze all possible network behavior. Forward's advanced software delivers a "digital twin" of the network, a completely accurate mathematical model, in software.  The model becomes a single source of truth for the network, enabling network operators to easily search any and all network data in a clean, friendly interface. Tasks that used to take hours can now be done in seconds.

Users can verify that the network is configured correctly, is in compliance with policies, and is behaving exactly as they intended. Forward’s intelligent digital twin can accurately predict the impact of a proposed change across every possible traffic path, so network operators can roll out changes with confidence.

Forward Enterprise is designed for complex, multi-vendor networks; the platform supports common enterprise network devices, including those from Citrix, Cisco, Arista, VMWare, and Juniper.

“Given the competitive nature of this award, we are honored that Forward Enterprise was recognized in the storage, networking and infrastructure category,” said David Erickson, CEO and co-founder at Forward Networks. “This award reaffirms that our full-featured platform continues to bring the benefits of intent-based networking to large enterprises by providing agility, predictability, and scalability.”

For a full list of the Best of Citrix Synergy 2019 winners, visit searchvirtualdesktop.com.

For more information on Forward Networks and its solution, visit www.forwardnetworks.com

About Forward Networks:

Forward Networks provides a robust network assurance and verification platform to reduce business risk and improve network operations. By enabling network and applications teams to verify intent and predict network behavior, Forward’s solution brings the benefits of intent-based networking to large enterprises: agility, predictability, and scalability.

Forward Networks was founded in 2013 by four Stanford Ph.D. graduates and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, DFJ, and A.Capital. For more information, visit www.forwardnetworks.com.

Popularized by Gartner in 2017, the term ‘Intent-Based Networking’ (IBN) bounced around the IT community ever since. In its infancy, IBN was more of a broad concept, with the specifics of how to enact the vision still in flux. While there was consensus IBN would be central to the future of networking, a major obstacle lay in the disagreement on what exactly constitutes IBN. [READ MORE on MEDIUM.COM]

Most successful IBN deployments focus on the network verification process. Not only is it safe, it also can easily integrate into existing networks and workflows.

Intent-Based Networking (IBN) is one of the most significant IT trends in recent years and is widely considered the “next big thing” in networking. The IBN vision comes as a natural successor to Software-Defined Networking (SDN), with the goal of automating networking operations and better aligning networks with business goals or intent.

Gartner first coined the term IBN in 2017. As defined, IBN comprises of networking software that helps to plan, design, implement and operate networks that can improve network availability and agility. In practice, it boils down to two key capabilities: 1) configuration: the ability to translate high-level policy or intent to network configuration, and (2) verification: the ability to verify that the actual behavior matches the high-level intent... [READ MORE on NETWORK COMPUTING]

Are you attending Citrix Synergy 2019 in Atlanta?  If so, I invite you to add Forward Networks to your MUST SEE list of vendors.

With so many vendors exhibiting at Citrix Synergy this year, how do you know which booths to visit and who to get on your busy schedule?  One of the companies on VMblog's list this year is Forward Networks.  We are excited to visit with them for the first time.

The Forward Networks solution is designed to help network teams eliminate network outages and reduce time to remediate errors.  Its platform enables engineers and operators to visualize and search complex networks, debug configuration problems, verify network-wide policy implementations, and predict network behavior prior to deploying changes. 
Read this exclusive pre-show interview between VMblog and Forward Networks to learn what the company has planned for the upcoming Synergy 2019 event.

VMblog:  As a Citrix Synergy 2019 sponsor, give us the rundown of your booth setup this year. How can attendees find you?

Forward Networks:  Forward Networks is in booth #409, a 10x10 island booth on the perimeter of the exhibits area near HPE.VMblog:  What type of theme do you have planned for this year's booth?

Forward Networks:  Our theme is always very educational and very technical, if that's a theme really. We recognize we are a new vendor in the Citrix ecosystem, and this is certainly a new and revolutionary technology which most people aren't aware of. For this audience, we are sending very technical folks, so we can really start the education process and try and stay short on the marketing gimmicks. We can drill down on details and what's going on under the covers and how this network verification and network assurance technology could apply to attendee's organizations and IT processes. Many attendees walk away from other shows like Synergy ready for an immediate pilot evaluation to learn more in their own environment. We have a special 90-day free self-starter program now up and running, which anyone can take advantage of... [READ MORE on VMBLOG]

Networking technology is undergoing renovations. Vendors are bringing out products that flip the network for multicloud and distributed information technology. These new network types can be a complex, layered handful from an operational perspective. Without visibility into the entire network, operations teams are left guessing about the effects of changes to their systems. Improved network operations, with the help of digital twins, are needed to match the growing complexity.

“In almost every dimension, networking is growing in complexity every single year,” said David Erickson (pictured), co-founder and chief executive officer of Forward Networks Inc... [READ MORE on SILICON ANGLE]

Palo Alto, California-based Forward Networks can create a virtual twin of a network to assure network performance. The firm was launched by four Stanford University Ph.D.s five years ago and has raised $33 million in two funding rounds.

Forward's software taps into configuration data and operational state information from every device on the network to create the virtual copy. The flow of data is constant, so the digital twin always is current. It tracks how the network is doing and assesses the impact that any hardware or software change has on operations. The data collection is done via APIs that link to major manufacturers' network equipment... [READ MORE on FIERCE TELECOM]

TechTarget has named Forward Networks a winner of its Network Innovation Award. Learn how the company's visibility and verification software supports intent-based networking.

SearchNetworking has named Forward Networks Inc. the latest winner of TechTarget's Network Innovation Award in recognition of its assurance and verification software. The platform collects configuration states from network devices and creates a real-time behavioral model of the environment -- what the company calls the network's digital twin.

This information enables IT pros to confirm their network is behaving as expected and intended, or alerts them if it's not. The platform also enables operators to test hypothetical changes in a virtual sandbox to predict how they will influence performance.

Forward Networks CEO David Erickson recently discussed the technology and the role it plays in intent-based networking... [READ MORE on TECH TARGET]

As the ability to reason about network behavior goes mainstream, choose use cases wisely and avoid product hype to ensure project success.

Intent-based networking (IBN) is one of the most interesting and significant trends in networking in recent years. But, like many disruptive technologies, it’s still suffering through an initial adoption phase of being poorly-defined, over-hyped, and co-opted by too many disparate networking vendors. The challenge for savvy IT leaders is to focus on realistic capabilities that are now starting to accelerate IT processes and provide greater insights into network behavior... [READ MORE on NETWORK COMPUTING]

IBN is set to take network management to the next level. Is your organization ready to join the ride?

If you're not yet familiar with intent-based networking (IBN), you soon will be.

Although software-defined networks (SDNs) now automate most network management processes, a growing number of organizations are coming to the realization that they need even more capabilities to ensure that their networks are operating as intended. IBN technology helps users by quickly identify lurking network problems via a series of rich insights and then troubleshoots and remediates the issues. Meanwhile, IBN's powerful security and policy capabilities provide simplified segmentation, consistent policy deployment and an ability to detect threats hidden in encrypted traffic... [READ MORE on NETWORK COMPUTING]

Forward Networks was one of the top presenters at TFDx at Cisco Live 2019 in Barcelona in my opinion.

I really didn’t know much about what they were all about before we had the presentation. One thing I did notice was that they were really organized, even handing out agendas before beginning the presentation. Also, we were told that their engineering department in San Jose were staying up late to watch the Live Stream! Talk about dedication.

So what does Forward Networks provide? – Very deep visibility into your network is the answer. This solution is by far the most comprehensive i have seen. But allow me to perform a breakdown of what im talking about... [READ MORE on PACKET-FORWARDING.NET]

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