Veriflow Systems

Veriflow Systems provided network security and resilience through formal verification, a mathematical approach to predict and prevent network outages and vulnerabilities before they could be exploited. The company was founded in 2013 by a team of computer science professors and a Ph.D. student from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Matthew Caesar, Brighten Godfrey, and Ahmed Khurshid. Their work originated from academic research applying formal verification, a method used in industries like semiconductor design, to the complexities of computer networks.

The company's software platform was designed to give IT teams confidence in making network changes by modeling the entire network to eliminate risks. The system worked by collecting data plane and configuration information from network devices like routers, switches, firewalls, and load balancers to build a predictive model. This model allowed operators to test changes, ensure policy correctness, and receive alerts about any modifications that could impact network performance or security. Veriflow's solution was multi-vendor and could be deployed on-premises or in the cloud. The business served clients across various sectors, including Fortune 500 companies and government entities.

Veriflow secured funding from investors such as New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Menlo Ventures, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Defense. In August 2019, VMware acquired Veriflow to enhance its network monitoring, troubleshooting, and verification capabilities.

Keywords: network verification, formal verification, network security, outage prevention, vulnerability prediction, network modeling, intent-based networking, data plane verification, network resilience, VMware, Matthew Caesar, Brighten Godfrey, network infrastructure, compliance, configuration management, risk management, network monitoring, network troubleshooting, security policy, access control