Professor Todd Millstein and his collaborators have received the prestigious 2025 ACM SIGCOMM Networking Systems Award for their work on Batfish, anopen-source software system that has transformed network operations.
In today’s digital world, the availability and security of Internet-based services are essential across all sectors of society. Batfish plays a vital role in ensuring this reliability because it doesn’t wait to identify issues after they occur. Instead, it analyzes network configuration files in advance, enabling proactive detection and prevention of potential errors—similar to how software is tested prior to release.
Originally launched as a research project, Batfish was later commercialized through the startup Intentionet, where Professor Millstein served as Chief Scientist. Today, Batfish is widelyadopted across the tech industry and serves as a foundational platform for further academic and industry research in network verification.
As noted in the award citation:
“Numerous organizations, from tech giants to small enterprises, rely on Batfish for day-to-day validation and as a driver of innovation in network design and operations. Batfish has also influenced research in formal verification for networking, sparking the development of additional tools that strive to deliver the same predictive and preventative benefits. By shifting network management from reactive troubleshooting to proactive verification, Batfish has dramatically improved reliability, security, and operational efficiency in modern, complex network environments.”
This award highlights the significant impact of Batfish in advancing both the practice and science of network management.