Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) is all about understanding a user’s application experience, and pinpointing problems if the experience is bad. Under the DEM umbrella, you’ll find Internet Performance Monitoring, or IPM. That’s our topic in today’s episode with sponsor Catchpoint. With more and more applications hosted in the cloud and more employees working remotely, organizations ... Read more »...
Mar 14, 2025•48 min
On today’s N Is For Networking, we explore the fundamentals of routing, focusing on layer 3 of the OSI model. We explain the concepts of routers, routing tables, and routing protocols, and discuss why it’s important to have a firm grasp of these concepts before you tackle advanced topics such as VXLAN and EVPN. Today’s ... Read more »...
Mar 13, 2025•50 min
In this episode of the Network Automation Nerds podcast, we talk network management with Wim Gerrits and Pieter van Os, co-founders of Slurp’it and Netpicker. These tools aim to simplify network inventory and discovery, and ensure compliance and security. We talk about what drove them to build these tools, what problems they solve, and how ... Read more »...
Mar 12, 2025•48 min
On today’s Packet Protector episode we talk with sponsor Bowtie about its secure network access offering. If you think secure network access is just another way to say ‘VPN,’ you’ll want to think again. Bowtie’s approach aims to provide fast, resilient connectivity while also incorporating zero trust network access, a secure Web gateway, CASB, and ... Read more »...
Mar 11, 2025•49 min
Take a Network Break! This week we’re joined by guest analyst Tom Hollingsworth of The Futurum Group. We start with red alerts from Broadcom on multiple vulnerabilities and an emergency patch from Cisco for its Webex platform. In tech news we discuss SolarWinds’ acquisition of Squadcast and how it fits into the SolarWinds portfolio, Aviatrix’s ... Read more »...
Mar 10, 2025•47 min
The CCIE remains the gold standard for networking certifications. But these days there are lots of other avenues for developing your skills and advancing your networking career, including network automation, cloud networking, and yes, even AI. So is the CCIE still worth it? We chew on this topic with Eman Conde. Eman has been known ... Read more »...
Mar 07, 2025•56 min
Ever wonder what network operations are like inside a colocation facility? Today we talk with Scott Brookshire, CTO of OpenColo. Scott shares his journey into networking, how OpenColo was founded, and the evolution of the company from a few servers to a significant data center operation. We delve into what it means to run a ... Read more »...
Mar 07, 2025•44 min
The line between switches and routers can get a little blurry. On today’s N Is For Networking, we try to clear things up. We start by defining what a router and switch are, and then provide some historical and technical context to better understand the differences. Then we discuss how modern switches have evolved to ... Read more »...
Mar 06, 2025•52 min
Let’s talk about how AI affects the developer experience, particularly for open source tools such as Terraform. We’re joined by guests Welly Siauw and Tyler Lynch to examine a project that leverages AI to automate the generation of documentation and examples for AWS Terraform providers. We delve into the iterative development process with AI, the ... Read more »...
Mar 05, 2025•43 min
How big is the network security market? Is it growing? How is that growth measured? What effect is SASE having on security spending? Will security products or security operators get more effective thanks to AI? We put these and other questions to Mauricio Sanchez. He’s Sr. Director, Enterprise Security and Networking at the Dell’Oro Group, a ... Read more »...
Mar 04, 2025•41 min
Take a Network Break! This week we start with a couple of follow-ups and a Red Alert, and then jump into tech news. Cisco and Nvidia team up to put Cisco ASICs and the Nexus NOS into Nvidia Ethernet switches, the market reads tea leaves as Microsoft walks away from data center capacity, and Juniper ... Read more »...
Mar 03, 2025•25 min
In our conversation today with CTO Cameron Daniel of Megaport, we discuss their global WAN architecture, PoPs, use cases, the Megaport Cloud Router, and more. Megaport is our sponsor today. It’s accurate to describe Megaport as providing Network-as-a-Service. Megaport’s automated connectivity solutions enable rapid provisioning of circuits, contrasting sharply with traditional telcos. The discussion also ... Read more »...
Feb 28, 2025•36 min
We’re back with the third and last (for now) installment of our spanning tree series. Today’s episode includes an explanation of spanning tree versions, 802.1D, 802.1w, 802.1s, and their practical implications for network design. The discussion then turns to BPDU guard for preventing loops and ensuring rapid connectivity. Bonus material on why you should or ... Read more »...
Feb 27, 2025•42 min
What does it mean for a network engineer to develop a product mindset? And what does a product mindset have to do with network automation? Guest Peter Sprygada connects these concepts in today’s episode of Total Network Operations, sponsored by Itential. Peter says that as an organization advances its network automation capabilities, the impetus shifts ... Read more »...
Feb 27, 2025•49 min
On today’s episode, we get a reality check on all the hype surrounding AI with guest Phil Gervasi. Phil provides background on Large Language Models (LLMs) and their applications, as well as the current state of AI technology. We also delve into practical use cases for AI in network operations, from AI as an assistant ... Read more »...
Feb 26, 2025•53 min
Certifications are a fact of life in a technical career. They can also provide a pathway to help you earn new roles, sharpen your skills, and boost your salary. On today’s Packet Protector we look at security certifications for beginners, experienced professionals, and advanced practitioners. This episode was inspired by a LinkedIn post by Ethan ... Read more »...
Feb 25, 2025•37 min
Lots of good stuff in this week’s Network Break. Microsoft announces an 8-qubit quantum chip and declares that practical quantum computing is years, not decades, away. D-Wave says its quantum computers are now commercially available for research facilities, academic institutions, and governments. Apple rolls its own 5G modem into its iPhone 16e. Meta announces its ... Read more »...
Feb 24, 2025•28 min
Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) is a framework that developers use to help them manage and integrate frequent code changes. As network automation evolves, should network engineers adopt CI/CD? Guest Tony Bourke joins us to talk about CI/CD pipelines: what they are, how they’re used, and how they can support network automation efforts. We ... Read more »...
Feb 21, 2025•58 min
Lead people. Manage machines and processes. That’s the the advice from Bill Hunter, today’s guest on Total Network Operations. Bill shares lessons of resilience and adaptability he learned early in his career, including the power of good habits. Bill and Scott discuss how to identify processes that can be automated and when and where to ... Read more »...
Feb 21, 2025•44 min
Welcome to part 2 of our spanning tree series. We start with a quick review and then discuss root bridges, root ports, designated ports, and forwarding and blocked ports. We explain the impact of topology changes on spanning tree and network performance, and discuss how topology changes and convergence events are communicated. Last but not ... Read more »...
Feb 20, 2025•35 min
Developer experience is a hard metric to measure qualitatively. On today’s show, we talk with Kristen Foster-Marks about Developer Experience, or DevEx. We start with the controversial concept of “ghost engineering,” which claims many software engineers do not contribute meaningfully to their work. We delve into the validity of this claim, and discuss the scientific ... Read more »...
Feb 19, 2025•40 min
There’s a robust malware economy with an active market for exploits, brokered access to compromised systems, ransomware, bots-as-a-service, and more. And this malware economy is targeted at you. On today’s Packet Protector we talk with Jake Williams, a security researcher, consultant, and instructor, about the malware economy, how it operates, and the most effective strategies ... Read more »...
Feb 18, 2025•43 min
Take a Network Break! We start with some Red Alert vulnerabilities to get your blood pumping, and then dive into networking news. Cisco announces new data center switches with AMD Pensando DPUs that let you deploy security and other services directly on to the switch. Cisco ThousandEyes is previewing Traffic Insights, which correlates flow records ... Read more »...
Feb 18, 2025•38 min
Connecting your branch to your wide area network used to be simple enough. Call your carrier, get a circuit ordered, wait a long time, then turn it up. A little routing, and there you were. Cloud blew that model apart. Now when we connect branches to our corporate networks, we have to consider not only ... Read more »...
Feb 14, 2025•45 min
Collaboration among tech and business teams is crucial to advancing your business. Extreme Networks is introducing Extreme Platform ONE to support this collaboration. In this sponsored episode, we talk about how this product is designed to streamline workflows and enhance user experience through automation and AI integration. Extreme Networks Platform ONE is a centralized platform ... Read more »...
Feb 14, 2025•43 min
Spanning tree is a topic so mysterious and complicated that common advice is just to disable it. In today’s episode, we start a mini-series on spanning tree, hoping to better explain what it is and what it does. We begin with basic spanning tree terminology and its role in preventing loops in an Ethernet network. ... Read more »...
Feb 13, 2025•53 min
Embracing change is sometimes easier said than done. Today we talk with Monika Machado, who has held significant roles at companies like Microsoft and Oracle. She shares her story of learning and personal growth. Monika highlights the value of mentor-mentee relationships, continuous learning, understanding the difference between leadership and management, and the value of owning ... Read more »...
Feb 12, 2025•1 hr
The Cloud Security Maturity Model (CSMM) is a practical blueprint for improving the security of your public cloud deployments. Developed in partnership with the Cloud Security Alliance, IANS, and Securosis, the model covers 12 categories, such as network security and application security, across 3 domains. It describes 5 levels of security maturity, and includes process ... Read more »...
Feb 11, 2025•43 min
Take a Network Break! We start with some red alerts for Cisco ISE, Zyxel, Microsoft, and a Web manager suite called WeGIA. US senators and security experts sound the alarm about DOGE employees introducing security and stability risks in sensitive US government systems, security researchers demonstrate the effectiveness of supply chain attacks that start with ... Read more »...
Feb 10, 2025•39 min
Unless you’re building out AI infrastructure at a hyperscaler, you probably don’t have unlimited dollars. On today’s Heavy Networking we talk with guest Frank Seesink about how to build and operate networks effectively when money’s tight. We look at free and open source tools, talk about the trade-offs that come with free software, and how ... Read more »...
Feb 07, 2025•1 hr 10 min
