Forward Networks
★★★★★ 5.0 · 11 Reviews
What is Forward Networks?
Forward Networks, located in Santa Clara, California, was founded in July 2013 by four Ph.D. graduates from Stanford University, Brandon Heller, Peyman Kazemian, Nikhil Handigol, and David Erickson. Our four co-founders have spent their careers working to improve networking as contributors to OpenFlow and pioneers of software-defined networking (SDN). They saw deficiencies in network operations: extreme complexity, human error, and outdated tools. These deficiencies make networks easy to break and hard to fix. Forward Networks delivers an innovative platform that provides network visibility, policy verification, and change modeling. Designed to help network teams eliminate costly network outages, the Forward Networks platform enables engineers and operators to easily visualize and search complex networks, quickly debug problems, verify network-wide policy correctness, and predict network behavior prior to making changes to production equipment — for legacy, SDN, or hybrid environments. Fortune 100 financial institutions, large government agencies, and IT service providers use Forward Networks to de-risk business operations and drive operational efficiency.
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Forward Networks Reviews (11)
- ★★★★★11
- ★★★★★0
- ★★★★★0
- ★★★★★0
- ★★★★★0
Review Summary
Generated using AI from real user reviews
Forward Networks earns universal praise across all 11 reviews, with users consistently highlighting its ability to simplify network visibility and troubleshooting at scale.
Users value the platform most for its intuitive interface, fast search capabilities across large networks, and ability to trace packet flow and verify firewall policies end-to-end. The sandbox testing feature and automatic snapshots let teams validate configurations before production deployment. Beyond the product itself, reviewers repeatedly commend the company's responsive support team and willingness to implement customer suggestions and bug fixes within weeks to months. The vendor-agnostic mathematical model and SaaS delivery model appeal to organizations managing complex, multi-vendor environments without requiring full network overhauls.
Minor criticisms appear sporadically: some users note configurations aren't always current, the search function could be more robust, and snapshot capture could be faster. A few mention wanting better documentation with advanced use cases and additional predictive features like routing forecasts. One reviewer suggests extensive POC testing in a live environment before full deployment.
Overall, the feedback skews heavily positive, with reviewers describing the tool as a genuine time-saver for auditing, troubleshooting, and risk reduction during SDN and SD-WAN transitions.
★★★★★
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
“It's A Brutal Problem They're Solving And They're Doing A…”
It's A Brutal Problem They're Solving And They're Doing A Great Job With It. Forward Networks has really impressed us. It's a very ambitious solution they're providing and the quality of both their engineering and support have proven to be really top notch. I'm a tools engineer myself, so I understand how hard it is to do what they've done with this product. At our scale many tools just get crushed. Theirs held up really well under a vigorous POC and just keeps getting better. Forward just really produces quality software. They've got some great engineers and they're getting battle tested by some really particular customers (us included). While there are particular product features I could point to as my favorite, I think it's the combination of engineering talent and customer service experience we've had with them that I appreciate most. Our experience with Forward before and after becoming a customer has been really good.
