Forward Predict is Now Generally Available, Advancing Safer Agentic NetOps and Autonomous Networking

Early customers across financial services, media, and technology are already reducing network change risk and accelerating delivery with Forward Predict

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Forward today announced that Forward Predict, a first-of-its-kind capability and critical enabler of safe Agentic NetOps, is now generally available. Forward Predict deterministically shows the impact of proposed network changes before they touch production. Built on Forward Enterprise's mathematically accurate digital twin, Forward Predict gives AI agents and human teams proof of how a change will affect network connectivity, security, and compliance at design time, providing the verification and guardrails Agentic NetOps requires. Since its beta launch in May, organizations across financial services, media, and technology have used Forward Predict to reduce change risk and accelerate delivery.

"Know before you act is more than a tagline, it's the operating model Agentic NetOps requires," said Nikhil Handigol, Chief AI Officer and co-founder of Forward. "AI agents can propose change at machine speed, but speed without proof of correctness just accelerates risk. Forward Predict verifies the impact of every proposed change with Forward's mathematically accurate digital twin before execution. That gives agents the evidence they need to operate safely, and gives engineers the confidence to move faster."

The Proof Layer for Safer Agentic NetOps

Safe Agentic NetOps depends on knowing what a proposed change will do before AI acts. Network change has always carried three specific, definable risks: security exposure, connectivity failure, and compliance violation. Without a mathematically accurate model of the production network to test against, those risks remain hidden until they surface as a breach, an outage, or an audit finding. Forward Predict makes them visible at design time, before a change reaches production.

• Predict network behavior before production. Model BGP, routing, path, ACL, and NAT changes against the digital twin to understand their impact on connectivity before deployment.
• Verify security and compliance impact. Test proposed changes against segmentation, reachability, and compliance requirements to surface risk at design time.
• Predict firewall behavior. Model proposed firewall-rule changes through the same prediction pipeline, including end-to-end reachability and isolation checks.
• Regression-test every change. Test proposed changes against required network behavior and vendor-specific configuration logic before they reach production. Unit testing for your network.

Proven in Beta

Since May, Forward Predict has been deployed in beta across financial services, media, and technology companies, including IG Group.

"We've been using Forward Predict for a few months now and continue to find new use cases," said Steve Bamford, Senior Network Engineer at IG Group. "We extended it from validating our BGP and routing changes to our firewall rule workflow, where automated path checks now catch requests for rules that aren't even necessary before they're implemented. That's cut our firewall change delivery time by roughly 95 percent and is saving our engineers more than 30 hours of manual work every month."

Across the beta program, customers reduced change risk, accelerated delivery, and created measurable business value. One global company expects Forward Predict to deliver more than $3 million in annual benefits by reducing manual effort and improving change execution.

Forward Enterprise Continues to Expand

Forward continues to deepen the capabilities of Forward Enterprise, adding new integrations, security intelligence, and ways to access verified network knowledge across the same mathematically accurate digital twin.

• Broader hybrid and multi-cloud coverage: Zscaler ZPA and IBM Cloud are now generally available, modeled in the same digital twin as the rest of the network.
• Deeper multi-vendor support: Nine new devices across six vendors, including Cisco FMC and FTD, Check Point Maestro, and F5 Velos.
• Expanded security and compliance: New CIS-certified benchmarks, updated DISA STIG support, and vulnerability intelligence enriched with KEV and CWE classifications.
• More accessible network intelligence: Forward AI, Network Maps, and enhancements to NQE make verified network knowledge easier to access and use.

From Safer Agentic NetOps to Autonomous Networking

AI agents can generate and propose network changes at machine speed. However, if they are acting on stale data, assumptions, or without proper context, they cannot act safely. Forward Predict provides the proof layer between AI intent and production. Proposed changes can be tested end to end against the actual state of the network, exposing connectivity, security, and compliance impact before execution. When a change fails validation, specific evidence shows why, giving people and agents the information needed to revise the change before it reaches production.

That ability to know before AI acts is a critical step from safer Agentic NetOps toward trusted autonomous networking.

Availability

Forward Predict is generally available today. Interested organizations can request a free trial.

About Forward

Forward makes safe autonomous networking possible. The company's mathematically accurate network digital twin delivers deterministic proof of how any change will affect the production network before it is made, giving organizations the behavioral insight they need to move fast, operate securely, and scale with confidence across multi-vendor environments and every major cloud, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and IBM.

Global leaders, including Goldman Sachs, PayPal, S&P Global, IBM, and Dell, alongside other Fortune 500 enterprises, fast-growing companies, and government agencies, rely on Forward to ensure network behavior matches intent. According to a recent IDC report, the average Forward customer experiences $14.2M in annual benefits through improved efficiency and security.

Backed by A. Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs, MSD Partners, Omega Venture Partners, Section 32, and Threshold Ventures, Forward is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. For more information, visit www.forwardnetworks.com.

Media Contacts:

Dustin Rausa
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Dawn Slusher
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