A Quick Forward Networks NQE Fix to a Severe F5 Vulnerability
A Quick Forward Networks NQE Fix to a Severe F5 Vulnerability by Gary Kinghorn Last week, on June 30, 2020, F5 revealed a serious vulnerability in its BIG-IP product line that allowed attackers to completely compromise systems, intercept traffic and even steal encryption keys used to secure web…
Who needs a dashboard?
Who needs a dashboard? by Fabrizio Maccioni The idea of building the Forward Dashboard has been floating around for a while now, but we kept postponing it to give priority to other features, like In-App Network Query Engine Checks, that built on the functionality and the customization of the…
Can all of these customers be wrong?
Can all of these customers be wrong? by Lisa Garvey “As a customer of Forward Networks I can tell you that I wouldn’t want to ever be without their software. Even the simplest task of finding a mac address or IP address on your network is done instantaneously on Forward Enterprise. The…
In-App NQE Checks examples now available on GitHub
In-App NQE Checks examples now available on GitHub by Fabrizio Maccioni Network Query Engine (NQE) is my favorite Forward Enterprise feature and is one of the reasons why I decided to join Forward Networks. After working on Network Programmability and Automation for years, the idea of a single…
Closing the Loop on Automation: Forward Networks + Ansible
Closing the Loop on Automation: Forward Networks + Ansible by Fabrizio Maccioni In my previous blog post Query Your Network like a Database, I talked about how companies are embracing Network Automation in order to become more agile. I described how Network Automation can be very powerful but…
Query Your Network like a Database
Query Your Network like a Database by Fabrizio Maccioni As companies are trying to become more agile to provide new services to their customers at a faster pace, more and more of them are embracing Network Automation in some shape or form. Network Automation can be very powerful, but it comes with…
What Do Boba Tea and Network Verification Have in Common?
What Do Boba Tea and Network Verification Have in Common? by Lisa Garvey Last week, Forward Networks presented at Networking Field Day 21. For two hours on a beautiful Thursday afternoon in Palo Alto, we hosted an esteemed group of network industry influencers, bloggers, and all-around experts. We…
Network Query Engine (NQE) with Postman
Network Query Engine (NQE) with Postman [VIDEO] by Fabrizio Maccioni If you are already a Network Query Engine (NQE) ninja, feel free to jump to the “NQE with Postman” section, otherwise, keep on reading. Network Query Engine (NQE) If you are familiar with the Forward Platform, you might already…
Introducing Partial Collection
Introducing Partial Collection [VIDEO] by Fabrizio Maccioni Every time I explain the Forward platform and what a Snapshot is, I know the next question I will be asked. I would start with something like "A Snapshot is a collection of the network devices’ running configuration and state at a specific…
Live from Citrix Synergy 2019
UPDATE: We won!! The Best of Citrix Synergy 2019 Award for Storage, Networking and Infrastructure goes to Forward Networks! DAY ONE AT CITRIX SYNERGY was off the charts. We have broken all previous records on the number of visitors to our booth (409) with lines of people longer than we’ve…
Network Query Engine: Automate Network Health Checks in Minutes
Last month we introduced our Network Query Engine (NQE) at Cisco Live Europe and to a very impressive technical audience as part of Tech Field Day 2019. If you didn’t have the chance to read through our introduction blog, NQE leverages the internal network data model that Forward Networks builds…
Query Your Network Like a Database to Gain Knowledge and Simplify Operations
There is a wealth of untapped information in your network. Learn to query and extract it! Even before packets start flowing, enterprise networks are complex, data-intensive repositories of topology, configuration and state information. This information is often required to solve operational…
Why should data centers have all the fun?
Network verification now available for AWS
What’s been the biggest change to networking in the past decade? While there have been tremendous improvements in automation, capacity and mobility, nothing has had a greater impact on IT organizations than cloud migration. We all know the business drivers behind this evolution, from cost…
Vulnerable to Cisco ASA and Firepower SIP DoS attacks? Find out how to fix in only a few minutes.
On October 31, 2018, Cisco released a security advisory for its ASA and Firepower threat defense software regarding a Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerability. The full security advisory can be found here. The summary (below) notes that the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) inspection engine could…
You Can Now Diff Your Entire Network in One Intuitive Platform
In tech terms, a diff is a listing of changes or differences between documents, files, source code, etc. As a Unix command, it became a common method of distributing patches and source updates, or just comparing versions of text files. Diffs became so easy to do and use, and common to so many use…
Forward Enterprise and Cisco NSO deliver Verification + Automation
The great panacea for network IT the last several years has been more and more automation. Automation through orchestration. Simplifying and accelerating network administration tasks at the scale of large enterprise and cloud networks. Automation to keep up with the accelerated deployment of…
Separate Policy Analysis Between Network and Security Teams with Forward Networks Permit-All Mode
A new feature in Forward Enterprise now allows customers to simplify the analysis of network access issues between the network and security teams. We call this feature ACL-less analysis, or permit-all mode. First some context why multiple customers asked us to develop this feature, and the use case…
Automate Policy Verification to Accelerate NetOps and Change Windows
In agile network operations, network configurations need to be updated to reflect new application or policy requirements, or to implement a change in network behavior. As business and application requirements change, we have to translate new policies into specific network configuration changes in…
A Better Way to Document Your Network Topology than Visio
Yesterday, Brandon Heller and I recorded a podcast with Ethan Banks and Greg Ferro of Packet Pushers fame. If you are not a fan of Packet Pusher Podcasts, you should be. They have a large following of highly technical network nerds and their podcasts are always engaging and educational. When they…
Verification in Forward Enterprise: Become “Absolutely Sure” of Your Network Intent
In Part 1 of this blog, I discussed the power of network verification compared to traditional network testing. Verification is the mathematical and logical analysis of your current network configurations and state to detect and highlight violations of your policies and intent. Verification can take…