Software used to manage networks hasn't kept up with the expansion of networks themselves. But that's where Forward Networks comes into play. VMblog first met up with the company and viewed their technology during a Citrix Synergy 2019 video interview. Recently, we spoke with Lisa Garvey, the company's VP of Marketing, to explore and find out more about the company and its technology.
VMblog: For
VMblog readers who might not be familiar with you yet, give us a little
background on the company.
Lisa Garvey: We're really set on
revolutionizing the way large networks are managed. Forward's software
delivers a "digital twin" of the network, enabling network operators
to verify intent, predict network behavior, avoid outages, and simplify network
management.
We help our
customers achieve more reliable networks, reduced outages, and reduced
business risk.
Headquartered in
Palo Alto, CA, the company was founded by 4 Stanford PhD graduates who were
pioneers in software-defined networking (SDN). We've earned some great
recognition in the industry, including being named a Gartner "Cool Vendor
in Enterprise Networking," winning "Best in Show" at Citrix Synergy, and very
recently earning the "Product of the Year" award from Cloud Computing magazine.
VMblog: VMblog spoke with your company at Citrix Synergy this year. And I
remember you won a "Best of Citrix Synergy 2019" award. Did you get any
feedback as to what helped you secure this award?
Garvey: We
were delighted to win the "Best of Show" award at Citrix Synergy!
That was a great event for us -- we actually had long lines of people waiting
to see our demo. For me, it's really gratifying to present the software to
network engineers, because you can watch their eyes light up when they realize
how much troubleshooting time they can save, and how valuable it is to have
complete end-to-end path analysis.
VMblog: How do you
specifically help VMware users? Where do you play in a VMware environment?
Garvey: Our software,
Forward Enterprise, delivers a single analytics and troubleshooting platform
for both physical and virtual networks.
In a nutshell, we solve the overlay/underlay correlation problem that
many NSX customers face.
We empower IT teams to easily analyze
and diagnose configuration and policy issues across virtual and physical
networks by applying common network assurance and verification methodology,
integrating policy and path-based views of both into a single network view.
VMblog: Is your software
targeted at certain types of network environments?
Garvey: We're actually quite
happy to be completely vendor-agnostic, and our product supports hundreds of
different network devices from all of the major vendors. We also support
on-prem, cloud, and hybrid cloud deployments.
What we've found
with many of our largest customers is that complex, multi-vendor networks can
be as fragile as a house of cards, and that's where our product really makes a
huge impact on network visibility and reliability.
VMblog: What would you say are two key features of your solution?
Garvey: First,
it's truly vendor-agnostic, so it's perfect for managing complex multi-vendor
networks. Second, it scales exceptionally well. We've put significant
engineering work into making the product very robust, and we have customers
today running Forward Enterprise on networks with tens of thousands of devices.
Last week one of our customers, a network operator for a huge corporation, told
us that his company's purchasing manager asked him, "How much do you want
this software?" His reply: "More than a 10-year-old wants a
candy bar." That sort of feedback is really positive for the product and
engineering teams who have put so much energy into building this
platform.
VMblog: Any chance you'll be at
VMworld this year?
Garvey: We won't have a
booth, but we definitely wanted to experience it and meet up with attendees, so
we're throwing a fun event on Monday at the Coin-Op game room in San Francisco.
We invite your readers attending the show to register and enjoy some food,
drinks, and tons of great arcade games, all set on free play. No quarters
required! RSVP for a limited time at http://forwardnetworks.com/happy
VMblog: The technology sounds great, but is there a way for people to trial it for
themselves before they purchase?
Garvey: Absolutely. We currently have a 90-day free trial offer for
potential customers who want to try Forward Enterprise on networks of at least
100 devices. They can sign up for the free trial here: https://www.forwardnetworks.com/free-trial/
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