| Forward Networks | |
| Industry: | Computer software |
| Founded: | July 23, 2013 |
| Founder: | David Erickson, Nikhil Handigol, Brandon Heller, Peyman Kazemian |
| Hq Location City: | Santa Clara, California |
| Website: | https://www.forwardnetworks.com/ |
Forward Networks, Inc. is an American company founded in Palo Alto, California and headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The company develops enterprise software for network management and software-defined networking.[1]
Forward Networks was founded by David Erickson, Nikhil Handigol, Brandon Heller, and Peyman Kazemian, who met as Ph.D researchers at Stanford University. While operating software-defined networking deployments running OpenFlow[2] at the university,[3] Erickson, Handigol, Heller, and Kazemian built a software platform based on Kazemian's research at Stanford for his electrical engineering dissertation.[4] Kazemian's research enabled the use of configuration data and operational state information from devices on a network to create a virtual copy of that network.[5]
Until November 2016, the company operated in stealth mode[6] and raised $16 million in funding by DFJ,[7] with participation from Andreesen Horowitz.[8]
In October 2019 the company raised $35 million in Series C funding led by Goldman Sachs, also a customer of the company.[9]
In January 2023, following 139% year-over-year growth, Forward Networks announced it closed $50M in Series D funding.[10] The round was led by MSD Partners with support from new investors, Section 32 and Omega Venture Partners.
Forward Networks' other customers include PayPal, Ubisoft, and Telstra.[11]
Intent-based networking (IBN), a term coined by Gartner in 2017 describes a system designed to automate a network lifecycle from design and implementation to deployment and validation.[12]
Forward Networks' technology focuses on verification with regards to intent-based networking. The platform generates a mathematical model of the network to perform functions such as composing timestamped collections of network configurations and state information of a network infrastructure.[13] The product is marketed as a network assurance platform[14] called Forward Enterprise.[15]