---
title: "3 Ways to Improve Network Visibility in Hybrid Multi Cloud Environments"
id: "25613"
type: "post"
slug: "ip-fabric-hybrid-multi-cloud-network-visibility"
published_at: "2026-01-14T13:52:55+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-10-26T21:46:46+00:00"
url: "https://ipfabric.io/blog/ip-fabric-hybrid-multi-cloud-network-visibility/"
markdown_url: "https://ipfabric.io/blog/ip-fabric-hybrid-multi-cloud-network-visibility.md"
excerpt: "As your cloud footprint grows, it can be difficult to scale network visibility. Digital twin platforms like IP Fabric can unify insights across hybrid multi cloud environments, serving as a single source of truth."
taxonomy_category:
  - "Discovery"
taxonomy_post_tag:
  - "Cloud migrations"
  - "Cloud visibility"
  - "Network visibility"
---

# 3 Ways to Improve Network Visibility in Hybrid Multi Cloud Environments

As your cloud footprint grows, it can be difficult to scale network visibility. Digital twin platforms like IP Fabric can unify insights across hybrid multi cloud environments, serving as a single source of truth.

[https://ipfabric.io/author/madeline/](https://ipfabric.io/author/madeline/)
[Madeline Day](https://ipfabric.io/author/madeline/)
Content Marketing Manager

Published

14 Jan 2026

Updated

26 Oct 2026

Let’s say you manage the network for a manufacturing company with sites around the globe. You’ve got thousands of devices, hundreds of vendors, and dozens of different technologies to manage, including platforms like:

- [Amazon Web Services](https://docs.ipfabric.io/7.8/IP_Fabric_Settings/Discovery_and_Snapshots/Discovery_Settings/Vendors_API/AWS_Amazon_Web_Services/) (AWS)
- [Azure](https://docs.ipfabric.io/7.8/IP_Fabric_Settings/Discovery_and_Snapshots/Discovery_Settings/Vendors_API/azure/)
- [Google Cloud Platform](https://docs.ipfabric.io/7.8/IP_Fabric_Settings/Discovery_and_Snapshots/Discovery_Settings/Vendors_API/GCP_Google_Cloud_Platform/) (GCP)
- [Cisco Meraki](https://docs.ipfabric.io/7.8/IP_Fabric_Settings/Discovery_and_Snapshots/Discovery_Settings/Vendors_API/Cisco_Meraki/)

As your cloud footprint grows, it becomes harder to keep all these platforms up to date, leading to a “source of truth” that isn’t as reliable as you’d hoped. This fragmented visibility not only impacts day-to-day network operations—like change management and compliance validation—but also throws a wrench in large-scale IT projects like [mergers and acquisitions](https://ipfabric.io/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/SB_Network_Agility_2024.pdf)
 (M&As), [SD-WAN](https://ipfabric.io/blog/how-does-sd-wan-work-with-ip-fabric-network-digital-twin/)
 rollouts, [cloud migrations](https://ipfabric.io/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/SB_Cloud_2024.pdf)
, and more.

In this blog post, we’ll dive a little deeper into all the reasons *why* hybrid multi-cloud visibility is so important. From there, we’ll cover a few ways you can use a [network digital twin](https://ipfabric.io/blog/maximizing-network-digital-twins-with-assurance/)
 to achieve end-to-end visibility and control.

Transcript Hello everyone, Chris here, solutions  
 architect at IP Fabric and today we’re  
 going to be talking about observability.  
 Most organizations are investing heavily  
 in the term observability today. Whether  
 it’s logs, random metrics, net flow  
 information all being collected into a  
 singular place and they’re trying to get  
 insights about their infrastructure.  
 There is a critical piece that I think  
 is missing today and it is some of the  
 feature sets that IP Fabric offers.  
 Today we’re going to talk about how an  
 end toend flow inside of IP Fabric can  
 help out with observability and how IP  
 Fabric has a unique way to think about  
 observing the network. Most modern-day  
 observability platforms, they stop at  
 the edge of the network. Your  
 application performance monitoring  
 system might say your application is  
 having issues. Your log system, your  
 your SIM might say the backend is  
 healthy. Net flow is showing you you  
 might have some traffic issues, but  
 there’s no actual concrete evidence of  
 what the issue is. So come in with that  
 endtoend flow from IP Fabric and you’ll  
 be able to quickly see where in the  
 network you might be having issues. How  
 does IP Fabric do this? We’re going to  
 take snapshots of your network and  
 you’re going to be able to reference  
 different moments in time and gain the  
 context as to why the network might be  
 having an issue. What we’re looking at  
 here given a source and destination IP  
 address, IP fabric can map the entire  
 flow that this source and destination IP  
 address is taking. You can see every  
 element in the network. Here I can zoom  
 in. We can move these elements around.  
 Here we can see light blue represents  
 layer 2 connections. Pink represents  
 layer 3.  
 yellow or orange might represent MLS or  
 IPSec.  
 And we come back down layer three to  
 layer two to the end. Now you’ll notice  
 there are some red firewalls here in the  
 middle.  
 This is indicating that a traffic is  
 being that traffic is being blocked by a  
 zone firewall policy or an ACL or some  
 type of security mechanism. We’ll also  
 notice there’s a green router here and  
 this indicates that there might be like  
 a PBR issue or maybe an ACL on a router  
 that’s blocking traffic. I can  
 rightclick anywhere along this path and  
 press explore. You’ll get taken to this  
 inspector that I have here down at the  
 bottom. What we call the path inspector.  
 You can actually see the packets headers  
 and how they would have looked as  
 information is traversing these firewall  
 interfaces.  
 And here in the middle I can see all the  
 security decisions that need to be made  
 for this packet in order to move on to  
 the next hop. So if there was an adding  
 applied we would have seen it here.  
 We can see there was a route table match  
 on this firewall. But more importantly  
 we see there’s a zone firewall policy  
 blocking traffic. I can click on the  
 name of that zone firewall policy and  
 actually see this is a default deny  
 that’s denying traffic. And on the left  
 side of my screen here, we can see the  
 actual settings that I’m using for this  
 path lookup. So, we’re test we’re  
 testing out TCP port 5432  
 and traffic’s being denied by the  
 default deny. Now, if 5432 the port used  
 in this path lookup is a critical port  
 for a critical application, meaning uh  
 maybe Postgress database runs on port  
5432. So this could represent a critical  
 application path that is now being  
 blocked somewhere in the network. This  
 level of observability that you get  
 hasn’t really been available using  
 modern network monitoring systems.  
 Right? These network monitoring systems  
 don’t necessarily have the ability to  
 tell you why a packet is making its  
 decision to move to the next hop.  
 Because you have this information  
 available to you, you can now make a  
 decision intuitively whether to add a  
 new zone firewall policy rule to this  
 firewall to allow traffic or if you  
 should modify an existing policy. Moving  
 on to the next part of the path, we  
 actually see there’s another firewall  
 blocking traffic. Just another increase  
 amount of observability you gain by  
 utilizing IP fabric to see that there is  
 indeed two firewalls, not just one, that  
 could be blocking traffic here. Another  
 core piece of observability when it  
 comes to IP fabric is the ability to see  
 that these paths indeed change over  
 time. Traditional observability tools  
 are generally lacking, right? That  
 ability to see any type of flow that you  
 see on the screen here. IP fabric is a  
 snapshot based solution. So being able  
 to move back in time as we collect new  
 snapshot information gives you the  
 ability to see how these paths may have  
 changed over time. Right? Right. So here  
 we can see this path indeed change  
 between two days. Uh I have two  
 snapshots here. One that represents  
 pre-change, one that represents  
 postchange. And we can see the path  
 completely changes between these two  
 snapshot days. Right? We can see there  
 might have been suboptimal path  
 selection. Maybe this green router over  
 here was performed in PBR or policy  
 based routing and we don’t want it to.  
 So pre-change the path looks like this.  
 Post change the path looks like this. We  
 can actually compare that right in the  
 UI and show the delta between two  
 moments in time. When people are  
 complaining that the network might be an  
 issue, actually having the documentation  
 and proof that the network is changing  
 and paths are selecting the appropriate  
 ways to go across the network, you know,  
 really does help expedite that  
 troubleshooting process, that proof  
 process, that meanantime to resolution.  
 It decreases those metrics by just  
 giving you the access to network  
 information that traditionally has been  
 non-existent. Right? Those network  
 monitoring systems do not give you the  
 clarity that IP fabric gives you uh in  
 this simple view.  
 To quickly touch on  
 more how IP fabric relates to  
 observability, just taking a quick look  
 at our dashboard here. IP Fabra collects  
 thousands of data points, hundreds of  
 columns, you know, hundreds of tables,  
 and we’re able to organize the results  
 of this data and give you advanced  
 insights into it. I don’t want to spend  
 too much time on what these data points  
 represent. The point that I want to make  
 is you have the ability to organize them  
 into specific elements that prove the  
 certain posture of your network  
 infrastructure. So if you have um PCI  
 compliance maybe as an example here, you  
 know, we we know on the IP fabric side,  
 what elements we want to check in the  
 network that relate to PCI. So PCI  
 requires to have specific logging  
 enabled, AAA settings, SNMP configured  
 correctly. So what you see down here is  
 this health assessment of how your PCI  
 environment is properly configured to  
 prove compliancy. Right? So your  
 security posture matches the compliance  
 you’re telling your customers. You know,  
 if you’re processing payments, you have  
 to have these settings enabled. If you  
 don’t, you could be in violation of  
 certain compliancy metrics and that  
 that’s going to be a problem for  
 whatever organization, you know, we’re  
 talking about here. When it comes to  
 observability in IP Fabric, another  
 critical part of that is access to  
 information in general. What makes IP  
 fabric unique is this ability to be  
 vendor agnostic and capture critical  
 data points about your network  
 infrastructure and give you a simplified  
 view into those data points. If I go  
 over here to the addressing managed IPv4  
 table here, we can see every single  
 interface that is configured in my  
 network. Which IP address is assigned to  
 it, which network it’s a part of. It  
 doesn’t matter if this is a Cisco,  
 Arista, a Juniper, a Forigate, uh an HP  
 device. Doesn’t matter what vendor or  
 what platform that operating system is  
 running. We’re able to normalize this  
 data into a single view and give you  
 insights into how your entire network is  
 configured. Now, as organizations scale,  
 complexity grows. So, most organizations  
 are moving away from a single vendor  
 solution in their network. And this  
 requires them to have tools in their  
 environment that are vendor agnostic.  
 So, IP Fabric supports a lot of  
 different vendors here. You can actually  
 see on this table here all the different  
 vendors that IP Fabric supports plus the  
 operating systems that are supported as  
 well. And again, we give you that  
 normalized view into that information.  
 So whether you’re looking for again all  
 the IP addresses and what interface they  
 belong to, you could be thinking here  
 how do I update my IPAM records  
 from data from the network? you know  
 this is exactly the table that you would  
 use in that scenario or it could be what  
 VLANs are configured in my network and  
 where they are configured. It also be  
 you know a unified route table so I can  
 see all the routes in my environment  
 regardless of vendor and query them the  
 same way a network engineer would query  
 a route table traditionally on a router  
 CLI.  
 So this allows again moving back into  
 that observability conversation. This  
 allows you to gain insight and access  
 into a normalized data structure that  
 traditionally most network monitoring  
 systems do not give. If you want to hear  
 more, please contact your IP Fabric  
 representative, whether it’s your  
 solutions architect or your account  
 manager, and we’ll be happy to inform  
 you.

## Why Does Network Visibility Matter?

As the saying goes, you can’t control what you can’t see. Whether you’re making a small change or kicking off a huge migration project, you need to be able to predict how your network behavior will react. If you’re not in control, the consequences can ripple across your organization—putting operations, compliance, and your budget at risk.

### How Does Network Visibility Impact Operations?

If you’re like most organizations, you’re probably implementing network automation, or planning a major migration (or two). But unless you’re 100% confident in your network visibility, any change can be a double-edged sword.

Let’s consider a network automation project as an example. On one hand, if your automation isn’t informed by the most accurate and up-to-date information, it can result in a ripple effect of errors that delays critical workflows. On the other, if you choose not to implement automation because of these risks, it’s impossible to keep up with the pace of change that’s required to govern enterprise environments.

Transcript AI does not magically fix bad data. So often times in our modern environments, we’re dealing with multiple vendors, whether those are on prim in the cloud, different vendors for routing, switching, wireless, uh, firewall. So what we end up with is with a hodgepodge of tools oftent times with different gooies for management, different operating systems, and even different APIs, logs only show a small portion of the picture. Whereas with IP Fabric or network snapshots, you’re getting a complete view of how that network is architectured, configured, and operating. Our mission at IP Fabric is to democratize your network data. We try to empower everyone in the organization, whether they’re admin, engineer, automation engineer, AI developer. We try to democratize that data so they all can have that power to do that automation and make those consistent decisions and understand their network infrastructure.

### How Does Network Visibility Impact Compliance?

When it comes to compliance audits, ignorance most certainly is not bliss. No one wants an auditor to uncover a risk they didn’t know about themselves. But if we look past the looming threat of noncompliance fines and reputational damage, you’ll see that a lack of network visibility can impact your day-to-day workflows as well.

For most enterprise-scale organizations, it can take a month or more to gather evidence for security and regulatory audits. Your senior engineers are stuck documenting the network, only for it to be out of date by the time they’re done. This cycle repeats once, or sometimes twice a year, slowing your progress towards more meaningful and revenue-generating NetOps initiatives.

Transcript Hello, I’m Christian Giebner, solution  
 architect here at IP Fabric and today we  
 are going to show you how we present and  
 talk about compliance.  
 One of the most common initiatives we  
 encounter with our prospects is  
 compliance. As it’s been mandated to  
 enterprises, they are required to solve  
 that task which creates a strong need  
 and as it also carries a lot of  
 penalties when it’s not done right. Um  
 it is a very challenging thing to get it  
 right in practice.  
 So what’s the deal when talking about uh  
 compliance? Usually an auditor comes  
 into an uh company to a prospect and  
 needs to verify do they match the  
 requirements for let’s say NIS 2 or DORA  
 HIPPA or CITS. So basically any  
 compliance requirements can be supported  
 with IP fabric. And the first thing they  
 want to see or get a report on is how is  
 your network infrastructure set up?  
 What’s the state? What is your inventory  
 and stuff like that? And if you bring  
 this data manually, this covers a lot of  
 risk by introducing the possibility of  
 human error into the process. So did you  
 collect the right information from the  
 right devices? If not, you have to  
 repeat that process again. And it’s very  
 time consuming to prepare such audits  
 which usually also hinders the network  
 team to focus on the ongoing projects.  
 So they really need to shift their focus  
 to provide the data to support the  
 audit. IP fabric gathers network  
 infrastructure device data automatically  
 on a daily basis as often as you like.  
 basically running at least once a day a  
 full audit of your network  
 infrastructure, providing you with a  
 full inventory of all your devices, but  
 not just the devices themselves, but  
 really going into the weeds. also  
 showing you which modules exist in which  
 device they are and also showing are  
 there any issues in regards to um end of  
 life information and IP fabric provides  
 this information out of the box. So  
 really supporting you to have a proper  
 inventory of all your assets  
 and also understanding  
 are there any devices which would  
 definitely  
 cause a penalty because you can’t secure  
 a device which is end of life at least  
 not in a conventional way. So you have  
 to prove then how did you mitigate the  
 risks of having a device which is end of  
 life and again IP fabric can support you  
 on that one also matters a lot is policy  
 enforcement. So how can you make sure  
 that uh the requirements of the policy  
 are met? An IP fabric offers with its  
 intent checks abilities to validate the  
 current state of your network, your  
 configurations  
 against the policy uh requirements and  
 shows you where are deviations. This is  
 now an overview of our out ofthe-box  
 intent checks which can be modified or  
 you can even create new ones. But the  
 real power of IP fabric when it comes to  
 compliance is  
 you can create your own dashboards. You  
 can really enter all the intent checks  
 you need to meet the requirements. So  
 you have one dashboard. You can see in a  
 single glance um where am I not  
 compliant and you can then quite quickly  
 and easily also drill down which devices  
 are affected where do we have some weak  
 authentication methods or none at all  
 which is even worse. Um so giving you  
 really a very quick and easy way to  
 understand where are misconfigurations,  
 which devices are affected and pro uh  
 offering you therefore also the  
 capability to mitigate these risks. As  
 we are a snapshot based solution, you  
 will always have historical data at your  
 disposure. So you can quickly and easily  
 uh switch a snapshot and then see what  
 has changed, did I improve over time,  
 where did I improve, where do I still  
 have gaps and all of these informations  
 which are crucial for you to prove I am  
 compliant and not just today or for this  
 audit, but really I approved my my  
 compliance posture. my requirements are  
 u met every day a bit better um and you  
 have all the data at hand and can create  
 quickly and easily reports uh out of  
 data going back to the dashboard this  
 tackles also various fields so it’s not  
 just oh do I have some some nice  
 security features but you can also  
 enabled or disabled but you can also  
 then validate  
 Do I have maybe some issues in my  
 network segmentation which should so are  
 there communications allowed or working  
 which should not be working or yeah am I  
 fine uh on that page and as we are  
 gathering that data constantly you have  
 a continuous monitoring of your posture  
 uh when it comes to compliance and can  
 quickly and easily prove proof that  
 you’re really uh um on the right track  
 and also um as you see with after a  
 snapshot after the calculations of our  
 intent checks are done where are  
 deviations. So did I maybe instead of  
 improve in a specific field did I maybe  
 well not perform as well as I should and  
 created new issues when it comes to  
 compliance requirements.  
 So at the end of the day, having an  
 automated way of gathering all the  
 information from your network  
 infrastructure devices,  
 matching them against the intended state  
 of the results, having the capability of  
 creating an alerting using our web hooks  
 and also feeding that data into other  
 solutions like your CMDB or your seam by  
 leveraging our  
 APIs. And as our approach is API first,  
 all the data I’ve shown you is available  
 and can be fed into thirdparty  
 solution.  
 So at the end of the day and to  
 conclude, IP fabric is not a nice to  
 have solution but it is a must-h have  
 solution when it comes to compliance and  
 in case you hear oh we already have some  
 compliance checks or tools which support  
 us on that one. IP fabric will augment  
 these solutions as the data collection  
 of ours is 100% accurate and the data is  
 not shown just as raw data but put into  
 context so even non-technical users can  
 use it to provide information to the  
 audit.  
 Thank you for your attention.

### How Does Network Visibility Impact Cost?

Every error has a [price tag](https://ipfabric.io/blog/is-bad-cmdb-data-driving-up-network-costs/)
, and this is especially true when it comes to your CMDB. As much as [20-40%](https://ipfabric.io/blog/is-bad-cmdb-data-driving-up-network-costs/)
 of CMDB data is incorrect or outdated, leading to needless spend on:

- Operational expenses (OpEx), like [maintenance and renewal fees](https://ipfabric.io/blog/is-bad-cmdb-data-driving-up-network-costs/#bad-cmdb-data-can-drive-up-operational-expenses-op-ex) .
- Capital expenditures (CapEx), like [underutilized devices](https://ipfabric.io/blog/is-bad-cmdb-data-driving-up-network-costs/#bad-cmdb-data-can-drive-up-capital-expenditures-cap-ex) and [more expensive gear](https://ipfabric.io/blog/6-ways-to-reduce-it-spend-with-a-network-digital-twin/#negotiate-a-better-cost-for-network-gear) .
- Downtime, which ranges from $39,000 to $2 million per hour in industries like [manufacturing](https://ipfabric.io/blog/network-downtime-impact-on-manufacturing/) .
- Security and regulatory penalties, which can easily reach into the [millions](https://ipfabric.io/blog/is-bad-cmdb-data-driving-up-network-costs/#bad-cmdb-data-can-lead-to-noncompliance) .

In other words, network visibility is the key to pinpointing and avoiding unnecessary costs at virtually every level of your business.

*Learn more about IP Fabric’s support for*[ServiceNow CMDB](https://ipfabric.io/blog/ip-fabric-extension-improves-servicenow-automation-cmdb-accuracy/)
*.*

## What Is a Network Digital Twin, and How Does It Improve Network Visibility?

So, how do you get a reliable view of network paths across on-prem and multi-cloud environments?

The short answer: A network digital twin. IP Fabric’s [category-leading platform](https://ipfabric.io/blog/gartner-network-digital-twin-infrastructure-assurance/)
 can pull an end-to-end [snapshot](https://docs.ipfabric.io/7.8/IP_Fabric_GUI/discovery_snapshot/?h=discovery)
, or digital copy, of the network in a matter of minutes. This speedy discovery gives customers the flexibility to run several snapshots per day, ensuring that they always have complete and accurate view of their network’s state and behavior.

### What Does a Network Digital Twin Look Like?

IP Fabric discovers the network from core to cloud to edge using a combination of automated CLI and API calls. The resulting snapshot shows the following data in a vendor-neutral format:

- All service logs and commands issued to every network device.
- All connections and configurations, comprising the network’s overall state.
- All results of IP Fabric’s automated [intent checks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN3izpnkpUk) , which can be used to monitor regulatory compliance policies, security policies, automated workflows, and custom business requirements.

Together, these components give customers a complete picture of how their network is behaving at a given moment in time. It either proves that your network is acting as you inteded, or helps you to pinpoint exactly where it’s not.

Transcript Hello everyone. My name is Zach Brown  
 and I’m a solutions architect here at IP  
 Fabric and I’m here to talk to you today  
 about IP Fabric’s digital twin  
 capabilities.  
 In today’s hybrid multi- vendor network  
 environments, even the smallest change  
 can trigger massive outages, compliance  
 violations, or worse, downtime.  
 That’s why leading enterprises trust IP  
 fabric, the automated network assurance  
 platform  
 to build a digital twin of their entire  
 network, providing deep visibility, safe  
 planning, continuous validation, all at  
 scale.  
 In this video, we’ll show you how our  
 digital twin simulation capabilities  
 solve five critical challenges faced by  
 modern enterprises and operations teams  
 and how you can move from a reactive to  
 a proactive approach with confidence.  
 So, first we’re going to talk about our  
 first area which is multi- vendor  
 integration. So here IP fabric IP fabric  
 discovers and builds topologies for  
 heterogeneous network environments all  
 map to our interface making switching  
 between tools and different uh user  
 interfaces unnecessary  
 and it all starts with IP fabric’s  
 discovery process. So here on the screen  
 I have pulled up a snippet of our  
 discovery process and here is a quick  
 glimpse of that discovery process. So we  
 have a list of devices that IP fabric  
 discovered and if you take a peek here  
 all different kinds Juniper, Arista,  
 AWS, Cisco. So very diverse  
 heterogeneous environments. Also, we  
 have the device count as well as how  
 long IP fabric took to discover in my  
 case these 93 devices.  
 So, very robust snapshotting and  
 discovery process. Now, one of the  
 residuals of this discovery process is  
 IP Fabric’s full device inventory.  
 So with IP Fabric’s digital twin  
 capabilities, IP Fabric automatically  
 discovers and normalizes inventory data  
 so that it’s easily digestible in our  
 tables. So you can simulate your entire  
 network regardless of vendor and have  
 the intelligence of exactly what is in  
 your infrastructure.  
 So as I scroll over here, you can see I  
 have my full device inventory as well as  
 which platform operating systems and  
 versions I’m using. So very robust and  
 IP fabric is once again meant to  
 integrate into multi- vendor  
 environments.  
 Next we’re going to talk about network  
 state modeling, network migration  
 planning, and change impact analysis.  
 So, IP Fabric takes snapshots of your  
 live network, allowing you to model,  
 visualize, and analyze the state of your  
 infrastructure at any point in time.  
 Need to validate your routing behavior  
 from last month or simulate a new  
 routing protocol? Done. This is your  
 live network frozen in time available on  
 demand. So once that discovery snapshot  
 has has completed which we talked about  
 earlier, we have the network devices  
 discovered and full device inventory  
 compiled. IP fabric then visualizes this  
 with our dynamic diagrams. With these  
 diagrams you can run end toend path  
 simulation to get a device by device  
 analysis of the packet logic and exactly  
 how it’s moving from source to  
 destination. So here as I’m pulling up  
 my path simulation feature, you may  
 notice I have a host in one of my sites  
 and I am simulating the traffic flow to  
 remote site here in Prague. So as I  
 click through my platform and I click my  
 first device, I have my full packet of  
 logic as well as my decision making  
 table showing how I’m moving from source  
 to destination. Now, if you take a look  
 at this path, I have my first layers  
 three switch here. And now you can see  
 IP fabric is now taking a look at the  
 routing and ARP tables since we’re  
 moving on up that network stack. Also,  
 as I click on my firewall, you notice  
 it’s illuminated in red, showing me that  
 something is blocking my traffic. So I  
 have my access control policy here and  
 if I click I can see the exact access  
 control entry that’s blocking that  
 traffic as well as further down the path  
 I have a firewall here in green. If I  
 right click and click explore I’m able  
 to see that that access control policy  
 is allowing my traffic. Also to further  
 analyze our network model, IP fabric  
 allows you to compare changes in the  
 network, spotting when anything changes  
 instantly. So as I go and switch to my  
 next snapshot here, I’m able to see  
 exactly how my infrastructure has  
 changed between two snapshots. So what’s  
 red is what was previously in the  
 infrastructure and green is how my  
 infrastructure has changed over time. So  
 IP fabric really helps you visualizes  
 those changes really cutting down on  
 that meantime to remediation if you have  
 any problems with your network. So with  
 IP fabric engineers can compare those  
 snapshots before and after events or  
 changes to the network to be able to  
 spot changes instantly.  
 So, planning a migration, moving to  
 SDWAN or the cloud? IP Fabric’s digital  
 twin simulation simulates those traffic  
 paths, validate segments, and ensures  
 nothing breaks before ever touching one  
 single cable. So, you’re able to test  
 your migration logic safely, accurately,  
 and have a consistent approach to  
 managing your network. With IP fabric,  
 you can do comprehensive dependency  
 analysis to accelerate that migration  
 process and reduce project timeline and  
 risk even in hybrid networks.  
 So in our path simulation feature, we  
 even have the opportunity to get more  
 granular with what we test, even  
 controlling what ports as well as what  
 IP addresses we can test. really giving  
 us the peace of mind that when we make  
 changes to a access control list that  
 nothing breaks when we go to production.  
 A healthc care provider that IP fabrics  
 work with firewalls team needed to  
 expand the subnet and open ports for a  
 new application. using IP fabric. They  
 simulated the change and were and  
 discovered that it exposed internal  
 services to the internet which would  
 have been a huge hippo violation and  
 opened them up to additional fines.  
 Now as I move into our next point uh  
 configuration compliance and validation  
 here is our overview dashboard with a  
 mix of IP fabric custom wizage and  
 outofbox intent checks built for  
 inventory security posture compliance as  
 well as configuration management. So at  
 IP Fabric, a telecommunications provider  
 used IP Fabric to enforce PCI DSS  
 compliance across hundreds of routers  
 within minutes. With IP Fabric, they  
 were able to discover 30 plus devices  
 with TNET and legacy SNMP and were able  
 to close the gap all before their eyes.  
 Here with IP Fabric’s intent checks, we  
 have the ability to see, do I in my  
 environment have any devices with TA  
 enabled? So, we’re able to close those  
 gaps and further fortify our network  
 with IP Fabric’s digital twin  
 capabilities. So IP fabric doesn’t just  
 simulate behavior. It also continually  
 audits every device config against best  
 practices, regulatory compliance  
 policies, and your own intent.  
 You’ll know when compliance is broken  
 automatically with IP Fabric. Also from  
 the IP Fabric interface at your  
 fingertips, you have all your network  
 devices running configurations. So you  
 can compare these over time. As soon as  
 changes happen, outages occur or traffic  
 is flowing from a different path, you  
 can see what changed from a  
 configuration standpoint in addition to  
 those architectural changes as we  
 discussed earlier. So as a demonstration  
 of that, I am just clicking two host  
 names in my environment and comparing  
 the configurations from two different  
 points in times. So in green you can see  
 what has changed. In red you can see  
 what’s removed between those two  
 configurations. So easily you’re able to  
 validate your configurations and get  
 ahead of any potential configuration  
 drift.  
 So with IP Fabric’s digital twin  
 simulation, your team can stop  
 firefighting and start proactively  
 managing network health risk and  
 performance. Whether you’re planning  
 migrations, validating changes, or  
 ensuring compliance, you’ll always know  
 before it breaks. And for enterprise  
 leaders, it means faster project  
 delivery, fewer hour, fewer outages,  
 stronger compliance, and complete  
 network transparently without the  
 guesswork.  
 You’re ready to see it in your  
 environment? Book a demo or start a free  
 trial at ipfabric.io.  
 Thank you for your time.

### What Cloud Platforms Does IP Fabric Support?

IP Fabric supports [all major cloud vendors](https://docs.ipfabric.io/main/IP_Fabric_GUI/technology_tables/cloud/vendors/)
, including Cisco Meraki, GCP Interconnect, Azure Firewall, Private Link, Private Service Connect, and VNet, as well as unified public IPs. No matter the platform, IP Fabric incorporates the following data into every snapshot:

- Firewalls
- Private link services
- Public IPs
- Cloud subnets
- Private endpoints
- Endpoint groups
- Vendor-specific tables

All network snapshots are normalized, so that you have a source of truth that anyone in your IT organization can access and understand.

IP Fabric also makes it easy to import or export data, like device attribute data for CMDB syncs, or proof of compliance for security and regulatory audits. This level of visibility can remove the roadblocks that many organizations face, especially when it comes to ambitious digital transformation projects.

*IP Fabric offers accurate path and dependency mapping for seamless hybrid connectivity in*[GCP Interconnect](https://docs.ipfabric.io/7.8/IP_Fabric_Settings/Discovery_and_Snapshots/Discovery_Settings/Vendors_API/GCP_Google_Cloud_Platform/)
*.*

### What are End-to-End Path Lookups?

IP Fabric’s [end-to-end path lookup](https://docs.ipfabric.io/7.8/IP_Fabric_GUI/diagrams/how_to_use_path-lookup/?h=path+lookup)
 feature traces the complete route a packet takes from source to destination across your hybrid multi-cloud infrastructure. This can be used to simulate the effect a change might have on your network before you actually make it, so you can avoid any unwanted surprises down the line. The result? You can effectively de-risk day-to-day change management as well as large-scale IT projects like M&As, SD-WAN rollouts, network automation, and more.

After changes are pushed to production, IP Fabric runs a series of custom and built-in intent checks across millions of infrastructure data points to ensure that your network is behaving as intended. If your network deviates in any way, IP Fabric surfaces violations in an actionable and highly contextualized report.

*IP Fabric delivers visibility into network security for platforms like*[Azure Firewall](https://docs.ipfabric.io/7.8/IP_Fabric_Settings/Discovery_and_Snapshots/Discovery_Settings/Vendors_API/azure/)
*.*

## Multi Cloud Visibility Is a Must

Network visibility drives every decision you make, from routine changes to enterprise-wide transformations.

In this blog post, we talked about three ways to improve network visibility with a network digital twin:

1. Run multiple snapshots per day to maintain an accurate, real-time source of truth across your entire infrastructure.
2. Use end-to-end path simulations to test changes before you push them to production, so you can avoid costly errors.
3. Automate intent verification across millions of data points to catch deviations and remediate them before they have the chance to interrupt critical operations.

When you can see your entire network in a single, normalized view, you can finally shirk off the guesswork and free your team to focus on the strategic initiatives that move your business forward.

*Have questions? Try our*[self-guided demo](https://link.ipfabric.io/4klnPyE)
*or*[book a meeting](https://link.ipfabric.io/44yBA7W)
*with one of our experts today!*

## FAQs

### What Are the Most Common Challenges That Enterprises Face with Hybrid Multi Cloud Visibility?

When teams rely on siloed tools and platform-specific views, multi-cloud visibility breaks down. Each cloud provider exposes data differently, and traditional network tools struggle to correlate that information with on-prem infrastructure.

As environments grow, documentation falls out of date and engineers lose confidence in their data. These gaps slow down change management, complicate compliance reporting, and increase operational risk. A network digital twin like IP Fabric can solve these problems by offering a unified, normalized view of how everything connects and behaves across platforms.

### How Is a Network Digital Twin Different From Traditional Network Monitoring Tools?

Traditional monitoring tools focus on vendor-specific metrics and alerts, while digital twin platforms like IP Fabric provide a normalized, centralized, and contextualized view of the network. IP Fabric’s digital twin platform also measures your intended network against your actual network, so you can quickly pinpoint any places where the two diverge.

Network digital twins also offer abilities that traditional monitoring tools do not, like the ability to simulate network behavior before deploying changes. This shift moves network teams from reactive troubleshooting to proactive decision-making and network assurance.

### How Do Network Digital Twins Help with Change Management?

IT and network teams can reduce the risk of change management by running end-to-end path lookups in IP Fabric. These path lookups show how traffic flows across devices, firewalls, cloud services, and interconnects. This visibility allows teams to test proposed changes against the digital twin before pushing them to production.

After deployment, IP Fabric’s automated intent checks confirm whether the network is behaving as expected. If something breaks, engineers can quickly pinpoint the exact configuration or dependency causing the issue. This workflow empowers teams to move faster, without sacrificing stability or control.

## Related Resources

Discovery

### [Network Labels 101: How to Enrich Your Network Discovery Data](https://ipfabric.io/blog/network-labels-101-how-to-enrich-network-discovery-data/)

Learn how to create and use labels to filter network discovery data, run intent checks, enforce RBAC policies, and more.

Discovery

### [Network Discovery 101: How to Build a Reliable Network Source of Truth](https://ipfabric.io/blog/network-discovery-build-network-source-of-truth/)

Embarking on an M&A? Building for AIOps? You need a reliable network source of truth—and that starts with network discovery.

Discovery

### [5 Ways to Improve Your Observability Tool with a Network Digital Twin](https://ipfabric.io/blog/observability-tool-with-infrastructure-assurance/)

Observability tools are great for troubleshooting at the app level. Pair them with IP Fabric's network digital twin solution for end-to-end network visibility and unparalleled control.