Starting an investigation—be it for troubleshooting, problem diagnosis, threat hunting, incident response, and so on—is fairly straightforward. There’s a question or thesis you’re pursuing, you have logs and data sources to check, and you have tools to deploy. But if you don’t find anything, does that mean there was nothing to find? Are you sure ... Read more »
Take a Network Break! We start with listener followup and a red alert affecting ScadaBR, an open source SCADA controller. On the news front, Forward adds predictive testing to its network digital twin software, Qumulo and Cisco team up to offer cloud-bursting for file storage, and NetBrain adds new skills and other updates to its ... Read more »...
Drew and Ethan sit down with Tony Bourke to determine whether TradCore or EVPN VXLAN is right for your network. Tony is a seasoned instructor in automation, network design, and more. They explore the key factors for choosing a design, including scale and redundancy, operational complexity, and workload mobility. AdSpot Sponsor: Auvik Sponsor Auvik Network ... Read more »
In the previous episode of N is for Networking, Jennifer “JJ” Jabbusch gave us a thorough overview of Network Access Control (NAC) for wired networks. This week we’re going wireless! JJ walks us through the major differences between wired and wireless NAC, how 802.1X is more seamless in Wi-Fi deployments, the unpredictability of web portals, ... Read more »
Hosts Ned and Kyler compare notes on everything they’ve been doing with AI, including the successes they’ve enjoyed and headaches they’ve suffered building and implementing AI agents. They talk about how AI has sped up their workflows, how managing multiple AI agents is akin to raising toddlers, the necessity of using deterministic scripts for increased ... Read more »
HPE has announced new features in its Juniper Mist portfolio. On today’s sponsored Packet Protector, we dig into those features, including a dry run option that lets organizations test and refine Network Access Control (NAC) policies before pushing them out, a policy validation feature that can identify shadow NAC rules, and a microsegmentation capability aimed ... Read more »...
Take a Network Break! We sound the alarm about a critical vulnerability in an on-prem Azure stack. On the news side, AI NetOps startup Selector adds public cloud observability to its portfolio, Versa Networks adds zero trust capabilities to its AI assistant, and IBM gets a billion-dollar investment to build a foundry to fabricate quantum ... Read more »...
Scott sits down with Avi Freedman, CEO and co-founder of Kentik, to discuss if AI has advanced enough to automate human-centric NetOps. Together they caution against vendor hype regarding closed-loop network automation despite the progress AI has made. Avi also shares his personal experiences in the industry and the hard won lessons he learned along ... Read more »...
Selector is extending its AI-driven network observability capabilities into public clouds. On today’s sponsored episode, we dig into how Selector gathers and analyzes public cloud network telemetry, how it integrates cloud and on-prem network data to provide end-to-end visibility, how it integrates with third-party Application Performance Monitoring (APM) systems to correlate network and application performance, ... Read more »...
Today’s guest is Eyvonne Sharp, a Google Cloud technical leader, Network Collective co-founder, co-host of The Cloud Gambit podcast, and former network architect at a Fortune 100. Eyvonne shares stories from her impressive career, offers advice to her younger self, and how to appreciate those “magic” moments in your career when a project fires on ... Read more »
Eric Chou and guest host Drew Conry-Murray sit down with deep space networking specialist Scott Spicer. Following the Artemis 2 mission, they discuss the challenges of long-delay space communications and the essential technologies making it possible such as the Interplanetary Overlay Network (ION), Delay-Tolerant Networking (DTN), and Contact Graph Routing (CGR). AdSpot Sponsor: Meter Meter ... Read more »...
JJ and Drew unpack an overstuffed suitcase of infosec stories in today’s News Roundup. Microsoft’s Edge password manager stores credentials in plaintext and Microsoft says “Yup”, the Linux kernel takes a one-two punch from Dirty Frag and Fragnesia, and a new industry coalition takes critical infrastructure protection private. A Taiwanese radio enthusiast allegedly brings high-speed ... Read more »...
Take a Network Break! In this week’s Red Alert we suggest an audit of your Azure environment after Microsoft says it patched four critical vulnerabilities. On the news front, Nvidia has brought the Multipath Reliable Connection (MCR) protocol to the Open Compute Project, AT&T rolls out quantum-resistant SD-WAN services, and HPE introduces new Wi-Fi automation ... Read more »...
Today’s episode covers buffers, the space between ingress and egress where a packet might have to live for a fraction of a second if the egress port is tied up transmitting other packets. This topic came courtesy of John Howard who joins Drew and Ethan as a co-host to discuss buffers with guest Rob Sherwood. How ... Read more »
Today’s topic is Network Access Control (NAC) for a wired network. To help walk us through it all is Jennifer “JJ” Jabbusch, a network security architect, public speaker, book author, and co-host of the Packet Protector podcast. JJ and our hosts break down the terms and protocols behind NAC, and explain why the architecture was ... Read more »
Ned and Kyler are joined by Dr. Cat Hicks to discuss her new book “The Psychology of Software Teams.” They talk about software development from a psychological perspective, including how negative stereotypes of developers can lead to them being treated simply as “brains in jars” in toxic environments. They also point out the pitfalls of ... Read more »
Network teams are being asked to move faster than ever as automation and AI-driven workflows increase the volume and frequency of network changes. In this episode, sponsored by Cisco, we explore how modern network operating systems make zero-downtime, zero-stress updates possible, even at machine speed. We’ll break down three key capabilities: Atomic Config Replace (ACR), ... Read more »...
ThreatLocker takes an opinionated approach to Zero Trust. The company, our sponsor for today’s episode, starts with application control. It uses endpoint software that runs on PCs and servers to allow or deny applications to run. It can also monitor and control the behavior of allowed applications. ThreatLocker has extended its platform to include network ... Read more »...
Take a Network Break! There’s a Red Alert for Apache Polaris with four CVEs that could enable unauthorized read/write access. On the news front, Lumen is spending $475 million in cash for Alkira to extend its NaaS offering across public clouds. Extreme Networks announces Wi-Fi 7 APs and new features in its Platform ONE management ... Read more »
Scott Robohn is joined by networking legend Jeff Doyle to help us understand SONiC: Software for Open Networking in the Cloud. SONiC is an open-source network operating system and has been adopted by hyperscalers to run some of the world’s largest data centers. But SONiC can also be used by enterprises and service providers. Jeff ... Read more »
A Mastercard survey reveals that 46% of small and medium businesses have experienced a cyberattack, and nearly 20% of those that suffered an attack were then forced to file for bankruptcy or close their business. Ethan and Drew along with guest Shivam Srivastava discuss a new offering from today’s sponsor, Palo Alto Networks: Prisma Browser ... Read more »...
Alexis and Kevin sit down with Linda Haviv, an AI/ML Engineer and founder of Coding Crystals. Linda is known for making AI infrastructure accessible, and for a career path that went from philosophy student to professional singer to self-taught developer to AI engineer. Together they discuss the difference between AI infrastructure and AI engineering, the ... Read more »
Eric Chou talks with Adrian Iliesiu aka NetGru, a seasoned CCIE veteran and community leader known for his work to simplify network automation and make it accessible to network engineers. He focuses on helping network teams navigate the transition into AI and vibe coding while maintaining their core technical skills. Adrian shares insights and practical ... Read more »
In theory, a zero trust initiative seems straightforward: you just need the right tools and maybe some whiteboard sessions to work out the architecture. In practice, our guests note that zero trust “unfolds inside organizations filled with legacy systems, political friction, budget constraints, and competing priorities.” Without accounting for those complications, a zero trust project ... Read more »...
Take a Network Break! It’s a busy show this week. We start with follow-up on Anthropic’s Project Glasswing, router bans, and end-of-engineering/end-of-support date changes for Fortinet’s FortiOSv7.4. Our Red Alert warns of 13 critical CVEs in the Linux kernel (all of which can be addressed by updating to version 7). On the news front, Cisco ... Read more »...
Dijkstra’s algorithm is the foundation of shortest path calculations for link state routing protocols. But researchers have developed a new algorithm that improves on this decades-old approach. Today’s Heavy Networking welcomes Dr. Bruce Davie to discuss the potential of this new algorithm to unseat Dijkstra. After thoughtful consideration, and consultation with others, his opinion is ... Read more »...
Today’s episode is part one of a three part series to break down Network Access Control (NAC). Ethan and Holly start simple by explaining what NAC is at a high level and all of the jargon and acronyms that come with it. They also cover where and when network access control is applied, whether NAC ... Read more »
Kyler and Ned are joined by Enrico Teotti, an independent consultant with over 25 years of experience. Enrico has worked with clients on real-world AI implementations, and he’s here talk about what he’s learned, including using AI to query databases, and for debugging and performance analysis. They also touch on the importance of using AI ... Read more »
A cryptographically relevant quantum computer is, at some point, going to emerge that can crack modern encryption. But we don’t know when, so it’s tempting to set this problem aside. On today’s sponsored episode, we talk about why ignoring Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) isn’t an effective strategy. Sponsor Cisco is here to make the case for ... Read more »
Take a Network Break! We start with follow up on Anthropic’s Project Glasswing and Linux 7.0. On the news side, Cisco announces a prototype quantum switch that promises to support multiple quantum encoding modalities, Cato Networks adds an enterprise browser to its security offerings, and Mozilla validates the bug-finding powers of Anthropic’s Mythos model. Anthropic ... Read more »
