Forward Networks
Forward Networks provides a digital twin platform that models your entire network infrastructure to prevent outages, verify security policies, and automate complex change management tasks effectively.
Infoblox
Infoblox provides a unified networking and security platform that uses DNS-layer data to protect your organization from cyber threats while simplifying cloud-managed network connectivity and visibility.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Forward Networks | Infoblox |
|---|---|---|
| Website | forwardnetworks.com | infoblox.com |
| Pricing Model | Custom | Custom |
| Starting Price | Custom Pricing | Custom Pricing |
| FREE Trial | ✘ No free trial | ✓ 30 days free trial |
| Free Plan | ✘ No free plan | ✘ No free plan |
| Product Demo | ✓ Request demo here | ✓ Request demo here |
| Deployment | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Target Users | ||
| Target Industries | ||
| Customer Count | 0 | 0 |
| Founded Year | 2013 | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Santa Clara, USA | Santa Clara, USA |
Overview
Forward Networks
Forward Networks provides a mathematical model of your entire network, creating a functional digital twin that spans on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. You can visualize every possible traffic path and verify that your network is behaving exactly as intended. By analyzing your network's state against your specific business policies, the platform identifies misconfigurations and security gaps before they cause outages or breaches.
You can use the platform to perform 'what-if' analysis, allowing you to test changes in the digital twin before deploying them to production. This proactive approach eliminates manual troubleshooting and reduces the risk of human error. Whether you are managing complex data centers or sprawling multi-cloud deployments, you gain a single source of truth that simplifies audits and accelerates digital transformation initiatives.
Infoblox
Infoblox provides a centralized platform to manage your critical network services—DNS, DHCP, and IP address management (collectively known as DDI). By moving these services to a unified cloud-managed interface, you eliminate the manual effort of tracking IP addresses in spreadsheets and reduce the risk of network downtime. You can gain full visibility into every device connecting to your network, whether they are in your main office, a remote branch, or a cloud environment.
Beyond connectivity, you can use the platform to turn your DNS into a security asset. It automatically blocks connections to known malicious domains and detects data exfiltration attempts that traditional firewalls often miss. This proactive approach helps you stop threats earlier in the kill chain. The software is designed for mid-to-large organizations that need to maintain high availability and consistent security policies across complex, distributed global infrastructures.
Overview
Forward Networks Features
- Network Digital Twin Create a vendor-agnostic mathematical model of your entire network to visualize paths across all devices and cloud instances.
- Path Analysis Search for any traffic path between two points to see exactly how packets are handled by every hop.
- Intent Verification Define your network policies and receive instant alerts if a configuration change violates your security or connectivity rules.
- Change Modeling Predict the impact of planned changes by testing them against the digital twin before touching your production environment.
- Security Posture Blast Visualize the potential reach of a compromised host to identify and close security holes in your segmentation strategy.
- Automated Documentation Generate up-to-date network diagrams and configuration state reports automatically for simplified compliance audits and troubleshooting.
Infoblox Features
- Unified DDI Management. Manage DNS, DHCP, and IP addresses from one console to ensure consistent connectivity across your entire enterprise.
- BloxOne Threat Defense. Protect your devices everywhere by using DNS-level intelligence to block malicious lookups and prevent data theft.
- Automated IPAM. Eliminate manual errors by automatically discovering and tracking every IP address across your physical and cloud networks.
- Lookalike Domain Detection. Identify and block fraudulent domains that mimic your brand to protect your employees from sophisticated phishing attacks.
- Ecosystem Integration. Share real-time security data with your existing tools like SIEMs and SOARs to speed up incident response.
- Cloud-Native Deployment. Deploy network services as microservices in the cloud to scale your infrastructure instantly without adding hardware.
Pricing Comparison
Forward Networks Pricing
Infoblox Pricing
Pros & Cons
Forward Networks
Pros
- Unmatched visibility into complex multi-vendor network environments
- Drastically reduces time spent on manual troubleshooting
- Simplifies complex compliance audits with automated verification
- Prevents costly outages by catching errors before deployment
Cons
- Initial data collection setup requires significant time
- High price point targets large enterprise budgets
- Requires consistent data snapshots for maximum accuracy
Infoblox
Pros
- Extremely reliable DNS and DHCP services for high-uptime environments
- Centralized visibility across hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures
- Powerful automation reduces manual IP management tasks significantly
- Effective at blocking threats before they reach the network
- Detailed reporting helps with compliance and audit requirements
Cons
- Significant learning curve for new administrators
- Premium pricing makes it expensive for smaller organizations
- User interface can feel complex and overwhelming initially