Concept: California’s software startup Forward Networks has launched a network tracking software that can track and debug packets in hybrid networks, particularly those that connect multiple clouds and local, on-premises networks. It offers businesses complete visibility into network configuration and behavior in an effective, vendor-agnostic way, allowing them to securely operate the business in the cloud. The platform provides all the statistics about the network nodes in one place. 

Nature of Disruption: The platform offers a digital twin of an enterprise environment that works across on-premises and hybrid multi-cloud systems. By computing all available traffic paths, it empowers IT personnel to rapidly troubleshoot, verify intent, and predict network behavior. The new platform also ensures that security policies are followed and that expensive multi-cloud routing issues are addressed. Its dashboard normalizes the data collected from all of the devices. The tool also assists security professionals with auditing the security parameters and access rules in use across the network regularly. Developers and cloud operators could rapidly confirm that new apps’ pathways comply with corporate governance standards by using custom verification and intent checks. When a non-compliant multi-cloud traffic pattern is installed, it enables specific verification checks that instantly inform engineering. It thus helps businesses to rectify the incorrect route and minimize financial concerns. The platform eliminates manual policy checks, speeding up the process and allowing businesses to generate revenue quicker. 

Outlook: The cloud promises agility, economies, and security to companies with huge and sophisticated networks, but has also offered the complexity, expense, and risk. DevOps teams and network administrators are looking for solutions to help them manage the more complicated flows. Forward Enterprise provides IT departments with a 360-degree view of both physical and virtual environments, as well as a unified view for end-to-end connection analysis and policy and security verification. It claims to be the only platform on the market that can deploy software models from all major networking suppliers and services, as well as hybrid multi-cloud applications. The platform also integrates with the most prominent cloud platforms, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

This article was originally published in Verdict.co.uk