Original Broadcast Date: 6/14/2026
Sponsored by Forward Network and Carasoft
Federal agencies are facing growing pressure to modernize their technology environments while simultaneously defending against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. According to David Erickson, co-founder and CEO of Forward Networks, the challenge is becoming more difficult because the complexity of modern networks continues to increase at an unprecedented pace.
Speaking on FedGov Today, Erickson argues that organizations can no longer rely on the same networking approaches they have used for decades. The combination of digital transformation, constant infrastructure changes, and the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence is creating new operational and security challenges that require a fundamentally different way of thinking.
"If you are doing the same things that you've been doing for the last 10, 20, maybe even 30 or 40 years, then that's not the way America is going to win in this competitive environment," Erickson says.
At the center of his message is the growing importance of networks. Erickson notes that networks support nearly every aspect of modern government operations. Federal agencies, military organizations, communications systems, and countless public services all depend on reliable network performance.
The challenge, he explains, is that today's networks are extraordinarily complex.
To illustrate the scale of the problem, Erickson compares modern network environments to massive spreadsheets with thousands of rows, numerous formulas, and countless interconnected elements. Then he expands that comparison dramatically, suggesting that network operators are effectively managing systems that are exponentially more complicated.
Even a single configuration mistake can trigger significant consequences.
A small error can lead to outages, service disruptions, or cybersecurity incidents. At the same time, networks are constantly changing, with thousands of modifications occurring each month as organizations deploy new applications, services, and capabilities.
Artificial intelligence is accelerating that pace even further.
According to Erickson, AI is driving increased demand for new technologies and applications, which in turn requires more network changes. Every change introduces additional risk and complexity, creating what he describes as a challenging cycle for network operators.
The risks are not limited to internal operations.
Erickson says advances in AI are also empowering adversaries. New frontier AI models are helping threat actors identify vulnerabilities, probe networks, and search for weaknesses more quickly than ever before.
As a result, organizations must find ways to keep pace with both technological innovation and emerging threats.
To address these challenges, Forward Networks has developed what Erickson calls a mathematical network digital twin.
The technology creates a mathematical representation of a network, allowing organizations to understand precisely how it behaves and verify critical operational characteristics. According to Erickson, the approach enables agencies to mathematically prove properties such as connectivity, cybersecurity posture, resilience, and compliance.
That level of visibility becomes increasingly important as modernization efforts expand.
Historically, Erickson says organizations have focused on understanding the current state of their networks and documenting how they behaved in the past. What has remained difficult is predicting how future changes will affect network performance.
For many network teams, that uncertainty creates a significant operational challenge.
Because building a full physical replica of a production network is often impractical and prohibitively expensive, organizations frequently test changes directly in operational environments. While engineers may review configurations and conduct limited testing on individual devices, Erickson says many agencies are effectively using production networks as their primary testing platform.
That approach introduces substantial risk.
To address the problem, Forward Networks recently introduced a capability called Forward Predict. Erickson describes it as a way to test proposed network changes on a virtual copy of the production environment before deploying them live.
Instead of guessing how a modification will behave, organizations can evaluate its impact in advance and identify potential problems before implementation.
Erickson believes this represents a major shift in how networks can be managed.
By exhaustively testing changes before they reach production systems, agencies can reduce the likelihood of outages, security incidents, and operational disruptions. The ability to anticipate consequences before deployment also supports modernization efforts by allowing organizations to move more confidently and efficiently.
Ultimately, Erickson argues that modernization success depends on gaining a deeper understanding of increasingly complex network environments. As AI continues to accelerate change across government and industry, agencies will need tools that provide greater visibility, predictability, and confidence.
For organizations responsible for mission-critical systems, Erickson's message is clear: understanding network behavior before making changes is no longer a luxury. It is becoming a necessity for maintaining security, resilience, and operational continuity in a rapidly evolving technology landscape.