Intent-based networking startup Forward Networks raised $35 million in Series C funding that was led by Goldman Sachs, which is one of the company's most prolific customers. The company plans to invest these funds into research and development and to expand its sales and marketing programs as it focused on new SDN opportunities targeted at network operations.

Forward Networks was co-founded by SDN guru David Erickson in 2016. Its goal was to eliminate manual tasks that required a significant amount of manpower and were particularly error-prone. Since then, the company's mission has remained unchanged, while its product line has seen numerous changes over the last three years.

Today, the company's' core product is Forward Enterprise. The software platform allows users to generate a mathematically accurate digital replica of the network. This model allows customers to quickly search the network for relevant data, verify it is configured correctly and functioning as intended, and predict the effect configuration changes will have in order to prevent errors that could take down the network.

According to Erickson in an email to SDxCentral, Forward Enterprise now supports hundreds of routers, switches, load balancers, and firewalls. The company is expanding support to virtualized network infrastructure and public and hybrid cloud environments.

Erickson says the next phase of SDN will be focused on network operations, something he says Forward Networks has been focused on for years. This is due in part to the growing size and complexity of networks.

According to analyst Mike Feibus of FeibusTech, who was cited in Forward Network's announcement, many networks have grown so large and complex they have become unmanageable by traditional means.

Erickson explains that with SDN, traditional network hardware was replicated in software allowing network operators to quickly spin up and down resources as they're needed. However, he claims this flexibility puts even greater pressure on the IT staff.

"Managing thousands of network devices with millions of lines of configuration and state, while ensuring five-nines of uptime and perfect security, requires new approaches and software capabilities," he said.

Erickson says that with this third round of funding out of the way the company is well positioned for continued growth. "Based on current demand, we believe that the opportunity exists to introduce Forward Enterprise to a broader national and international customer base," he wrote.

Despite lauding the successful funding round, Erickson declined to comment on any plans for an initial public offering (IPO).