Sponsor: Forward Networks

Network verification is a new technology for managing network chaos and automating key IT tasks such as troubleshooting, compliance processes, audits and change windows. Verification has been used in other engineering disciplines, such as software and semiconductor design, but has never been viable for networking until recent breakthroughs that Forward Networks helped pioneer. Since 80-90% of large enterprises are looking to incorporate intent-based networking into their IT strategy in the next few years, now is the time to determine how a verification platform can fit into your architecture going forward, and which use cases will bring the most benefit for your organization.

Today, networks have become so large and complex, along with constant changes to accommodate new services and business requirements, that networking teams can no longer document or manage all the details end-to-end. With potentially tens of thousands of devices and billions of lines of code, until now there has been no way to automate the analysis of network designs to quickly verify what devices you have, how they’re connected, where traffic goes, whether it’s really working, or what needs to change. Network verification is a rapidly emerging technology that provides deep insight to network behavior end-to-end, as well as automating many network troubleshooting and remediation tasks. Organizations are leveraging verification to help avoid outages, facilitate compliance processes and accelerate change windows.

Network verification is a rapidly emerging technology that is a key part of Intent-Based Networking (IBN). Verification can help avoid outages, facilitate compliance processes, and accelerate change windows. Full-feature verification solutions require an underlying mathematical model of network behavior to analyze and reason about policy objectives and network designs. A mathematical model, as opposed to monitoring or testing live traffic, can perform exhaustive and definitive analysis of network implementations and behavior, including proving network isolation or security rules.

In this paper, we will describe how verification can be used in key IT processes and workflows, why a mathematical model is required and how it works, as well as example use cases from the Forward Enterprise platform. This will also clarify what requirements a mathematical model must meet and how to evaluate alternative products.

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, avoid outages, and simplify network management.

Network verification is a rapidly emerging technology that is a key part of Intent Based Networking (IBN). Verification can help avoid outages, facilitate compliance processes and accelerate change windows. Full-feature verification solutions require an underlying mathematical model of network behavior to analyze and reason about policy objectives and network designs. A mathematical model, as opposed to monitoring or testing live traffic, can perform exhaustive and definitive analysis of network implementations and behavior, including proving network isolation or security rules.

In this paper, we will describe how verification can be used in key IT processes and workflows, why a mathematical model is required and how it works, as well as example use cases from the Forward Enterprise platform. This will also clarify what requirements a mathematical model must meet and how to evaluate alternative products.

This ESG Technical Review documents hands-on validation of Forward Enterprise, a solution developed by Forward Networks to help organizations save time and resources when verifying that their IT networks can deliver application traffic consistently in line with network and security policies. The review examines how Forward Enterprise can reduce network downtime, ensure compliance with policies, and minimize adverse impact of configuration changes on network behavior

Intent-based networking (IBN) products are now available to intelligently automate many networking tasks, including verification and compliance reviews. IBN can provide the end-to-end view of network policies and behavior needed to verify device configurations and connectivity. IBN has the ability to intelligently reason about network behavior to automate many remediation and testing processes.