Forward Enterprise Reviews & Product Details

The most powerful aspect of Forward Enterprise is the mathematical certainty it provides. Instead of relying on outdated Visio diagrams, we have a live, vendor-agnostic digital twin that shows exactly how traffic flows across our on-prem and multi-cloud infrastructure (AWS/Azure).

I specifically value the AI Assist feature. Being able to use natural language to query the network like asking "Which firewalls are allowing traffic from our dev segment to the production database?" and having it translated into a precise NQE (Network Query Engine) query is a massive time-saver. It allows junior engineers to troubleshoot complex routing issues that would normally require a senior architect. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The learning curve for NQE (Network Query Engine) can be quite steep if you want to build custom, complex checks from scratch. While the pre-built library is extensive, mastering the proprietary syntax takes time. I’ve also noticed that in exceptionally large environments with 10k+ devices, the initial data collection and state analysis can take a bit of time to refresh, though the depth of data provided is worth the wait. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The Application Team's self service capability through the API is incredibly useful for the our Application Team. One example of this is the Slackbot we developed that lets application owners ask, can my new application communicate with the database? and in response to that question, the API will provide an immediate validated path analysis.

By providing this level of visibility into the network, it reduces the amount of time spent on lower level connectivity allowing my core network team to spend more time on designing the overall structure. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The way NQE is setup is a major bump in the road due to its proprietary syntax, it is an amazing piece of technology, no doubt, but forcing our dev team that develops only in Go and Python to learn a new query language just to interact with this feature increases our workload and causes additional work for us. To further compound the problem, we have to spend developer time writing wrapper libraries to make the NQE usable by the rest of the engineering team. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The only difficulty solved well by this solution is our old documentation. Every time we modified the network, the Visio drawings became instantly outdated, and we would constantly be trying to troubleshoot using drawings that were four years old. Forward Enterprise provides advantage with a live, constantly updated, up-to-date topology map for the network, providing a single verifiable view of the physical connectivity as well as inventory of devices that auditors appreciate. Forward Enterprise has essentially provided a mechanism that allows the documentation of the network to be handled by a machine. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

This map is very costly, and I don't like how often the hype around Automation falls flat when it comes to actual engineering.

The platform is designed to find a problem However, it doesn't actually provide you with anything to help you fix that problem. The platform is designed as a passive tool. When I have a device that doesn't comply with my policies, Forward will show me where it is however, I have to go into my Automation tool and manually resolve the issue myself.

This leaves a gap in operations. Forward has access to all of this data but has not implemented a solution to use the information.

We need one place for verification and orchestration, not just for verification but also with an easy way to orchestrate an automated response without needing a complex pipeline to simplify this process. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The focus is on an API first approach with integration potential. A stunning REST API exists for all our digital twin functions. Opens a lot of abilities for us to incorporate the entire network into someting more undestanble for the team members, also since there is an API connection ability, now our team is working on integrating forward ent with our AI tools, it's still beeing build, but it will definetely reduce the high entrance level, and less tech people will be able to use it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I spend too much time defending the decision to use NQE insted of focusing on what it enable, it's easier to have thing done on python or yaml. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There is one pure gold feature, which is zone to zone connectivity, for a security architect it's a must have. This tool clearly indecates the type of traffic allowed, partially allowed or denied between any two zones on the overall hybrid cloud build. With one click, I can confirm whether the cloud VPC created has provided any type of backdoor into the system. Helps to verifty our security settings, which is paramount for suporting authentic approach to security Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

When we have some security events happening,and I need some network exposure data integrated from our database,so I try to use the feature Forward Enterprise has, but the tool they have - blast radius indentification, doesn't work they way it should, so I am supposed to import everything manually Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I look through a very specific lens - M&A integration and msp scalability. when we acquire a company, I ingerit their thechnical debt, ususally it is a spaghetti mess of undocumented VLANs and shadow IT. Forward Enterprise solved this nightmare by mapping that chaos. It benefits me during that 90 day integration window where we need to merge networks without blowing up the P&L. It's the only tool that really works, and not just a marketing. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It has a serious market fit problem for the channel. I spent years in this business field and wile this tech is good, the price and complexity make it a non starter for anyone manaing smbs. It's a Ferrari engine when most of the mid market just needs a reliable Toyota. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I do appreciate, purely from a strategic risk management angle, is the continuous compliance checking. The is the only part that immediately translates into a universal business win. The platform can continuosly verify that network configurations meet our internal or external requirements like HIPPA or GDPR depending on the client. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I'll be blunt - I hate the way information is presented. This product is clearly built for high tech people. We talk about Digital Transformation and User Experience all day long, but this is a classic example of a tool with massive organizational value that fails at the final mile. If i ask my team for a compliance report to sahre with the HR audit comittee, the underlying data is too technical. I speaks entirely in NetOps language , not business risk or organization strategy.Also we have to create our own translation layer to integrate technical insights into our business dashboards. Which feels like unnecessary friction. It's definetly a great tech, but poor UX/EX Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The compliance and vulnerability assurance. Period. It's the easiest upsell narrative we have. The platform doesn't just show the customer where their risk it. It shows the exact config line causing the security hole whether it's a CVE on a router or a policy misconfiguration

This turns a scary conversation about security into a clean, actionable statement of work. I can walk into QBR and say "You have 40 high priority security risks that Forward identified and verified in the last snapshot. We can fix those today". It's an easy line item for the client and guaranteed expansion for my team. Their capabillity is priceless for hitting quarterly quotas Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

To be honest the ROI story is often too deep in the weeds of NetOps. We're talking about a product that recudes mean time to resolution by half, but the marketing materials sometimes spend too much time explaining how the underlying mathematical model works. My buyers the CIOs and CISOs don't care about the physics, they care abou the cost of failure Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like how they provide a clear and undestandable view of the entire network. Path analysus and topological views help me quickly see what is connected and where, while the intent checks make it easy to confirm that setups are working as they should. It turns millions of files that are used into sturctured and well organised group that someone can actually manage Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

At first, the interface may seem a little confusing. But It is well designed once you get used to it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Power and accuracy of the digital twin and the NQE search features provide. It really gives us a good software copy of the entire internet build.

The ability to track all possible paths for a given type of traffic is fantastic for hard troubleshooting, especially in unusual, complex networks, the API integration is great too!

Allows us to easily export data to other platform for further invsetigations. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

My main criticism is that, although the Network Query Engine is a great, the language is proprietary. It takes a lot of time to learn, and nowadays when engineers are relying on AI to write scripts in more common languages, the NQEs situation is a drawback.

In addition, I would love to see more built in, ready to use reports for things Iike equipment lifecycle and inventory management. I had to spend time developing my own reports to extract supplier data, which is quite labor intensive. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.