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•Ep 86•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Ep 85•Transcript available on Metacast Are you ready to go from zero to hero in GitNops? On today’s podcast, we talk with Tom McGonagle, who shares and explains git, CI/CD and DevOps and how that all fits into network engineering. The conversation also covers the evolution of containerization and Kubernetes, highlighting their roles in modern network automation. Tom also encourages ... Read more »...
Jan 29, 2025•45 min•Ep 84•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s Network Automation Nerds episode discusses Cox Communications’ journey to getting network automation right. We also talk about how they used network automation to support operating the network at the DEF CON hacker convention. Our guests are David Ezell, Joshua Watkins and Eric Hansen from Cox Communications. We dive into initial steps and challenges in ... Read more »...
Jan 22, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep 83•Transcript available on Metacast How do you master Python? One bite at a time. On today’s show we talk with Bob Belderbos, co-founder of PyBites, a community and learning platform for Python. Bob shares his philosophy for learning Python in small bites with practical exercises, hands-on learning, and daily coding for improvement. We discuss the importance of small wins, ... Read more »...
Jan 15, 2025•40 min•Ep 82•Transcript available on Metacast On today’s episode, we’re going to talk Python. Host Eric Chou is joined by Michael Kennedy, the founder of Talk Python Training and host of the Talk Python To Me podcast. The discussion covers the evolution of Michael’s podcast and training business, the impact of platforms like TikTok on learning, and the importance of community ... Read more »...
Dec 19, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep 81•Transcript available on Metacast Ongoing education and training is a constant in a networking career, especially if you want to advance. And certifications are a common path forward. On today’s episode, guest Andreas Baekdahl shares his journey from traditional networking to automation architect and certification instructor. Along the way, he’s had his share of challenges and failures, and he ... Read more »...
Dec 04, 2024•39 min•Ep 80•Transcript available on Metacast Traditional network monitoring was built around SNMP and logs. And while there’s still a role for these sources, network observability aims to incorporate more data to help you build a holistic picture of the network and its behavior and performance. These sources can include flows, streaming telemetry, APIs, NETCONF, the CLI, deep packet inspection, synthetic ... Read more »...
Nov 20, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep 79•Transcript available on Metacast Ostinato is a network traffic generator aimed at network engineers who need test traffic, whether in a lab or production, to do things such as test circuit bandwidth, determine if SD-WAN or load balancing rules are working as intended, investigate packet drops, and more. Originally released as an open-source project, Ostinato is now offered as ... Read more »...
Nov 06, 2024•45 min•Ep 78•Transcript available on Metacast Network optimization starts with observing, but how are networks observed and what tools are used? Joining the podcast today are the authors behind the book “Modern Network Observability.” Eric Chou welcomes David Flores, Christian Adell, and Josh VanDeraa to help uncover practical strategies and real-world case studies for network observability. Episode Guests: David Flores, Christian ... Read more »...
Oct 23, 2024•48 min•Ep 77•Transcript available on Metacast Uzair Khan from RUSH University Medical Center is today’s guest on the Network Automation Nerds podcast. Uzair discusses the complexities of healthcare technology and the critical role of automation in enhancing operational efficiency and patient safety. He provides examples of how Itential’s automation and orchestration products have given his teams the tools they need to ... Read more »...
Oct 16, 2024•42 min•Ep 76•Transcript available on Metacast Ivan Pepelnjak joins host Eric Chou to reflect on his extensive career, his decision to reduce his content creation, and offer advice for young engineers. They discuss the evolution of networking technologies, emphasizing the importance of mastering Linux and obtaining relevant certifications. Ivan highlights the significance of creating professional visibility and owning one’s content. The ... Read more »...
Oct 09, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep 75•Transcript available on Metacast GitHub Codespaces aims to simplify spinning up a developer environment in the cloud. Containerlab, which provides virtual lab environments for network engineers, is now integrated with Codespaces to make it easy to set up and share network labs. On today’s Network Automation Nerds show, we delve into this innovative use of GitHub Codespaces and containerlab ... Read more »...
Sep 25, 2024•42 min•Ep 74•Transcript available on Metacast This episode was recorded with Greg Ferro, co-founder of Packet Pushers, just days before his retirement in July 2024. Greg and Eric reflect on Greg’s influential career in network engineering and the evolution of the industry. Greg discusses the challenges of maintaining open-source projects amid increasing commercialization and corporate exploitation. He emphasizes the importance of ... Read more »...
Sep 11, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Ep 73•Transcript available on Metacast On today’s episode we delve into Internet2’s mission to advance research and education through high-speed connectivity. University and research networks may have more complicated designs, requirements, and restrictions than you’d expect. We talk about these challenges, along with innovative network automation solutions. The discussion emphasizes the collaborative, member-driven approach of Internet2 and its commitment to ... Read more »...
Aug 28, 2024•50 min•Ep 72•Transcript available on Metacast On today’s Network Automation Nerds, we get into the infrastructure required to support AI workloads. We discuss key considerations including bandwidth, the substantial power and cooling requirements of AI infrastructure, and GPUs. We also talk about InfiniBand and Ethernet as network fabrics for AI workloads, cabling considerations, and more. This is a sponsored episode. Our ... Read more »...
Aug 21, 2024•32 min•Ep 71•Transcript available on Metacast Today we spotlight an open-source project called FakeNOS. Whether you’re a network engineer looking to experiment in a controlled environment, or a DevOps engineer wanting to run a network testbed for your processes, you can use FakeNOS for your projects. My guests are FakeNOS creator Denis Mulyalin and the maintainer of this project, Enric Pitarch. ... Read more »...
Aug 14, 2024•46 min•Ep 70•Transcript available on Metacast Today, Lexie Cooper shares her journey from a NOC environment to networking engineering in the aerospace industry. Along the way, the discussion makes stops at the importance of medium skills, and the role of humor and relatability in attracting and educating younger professionals in networking. Finally, Lexie relates her challenges when working on the New ... Read more »...
Jul 31, 2024•56 min•Ep 69•Transcript available on Metacast On today’s episode, host Eric Chou and guest Kyler Middleton discuss the transition from on-prem network engineering to cloud networking; the importance of adapting to new platforms such as AWS, Azure, and Terraform; and the future of cloud versus on-premises solutions. We also discuss Kyler’s background, navigating the journey from a farm upbringing to a ... Read more »...
Jul 10, 2024•40 min•Ep 68•Transcript available on Metacast This is the final episode of a series of interviews with Scott Robohn (for now). We discuss AI in networking operations and how it’s still too early to tell exactly how much, if any, value will be created. We also dig into Scott’s Total Network Operations framework, what it consists of and how he wants ... Read more »...
Jun 26, 2024•31 min•Ep 67•Transcript available on Metacast When you’re trying to share your cool new network automation with your co-workers, the last thing you want to do is deal with other systems’ different libraries and dependencies gumming it up. That’s where our episode sponsor torero comes into play. As an “automation gateway,” torero dynamically creates an execution environment based on what has ... Read more »...
Jun 19, 2024•29 min•Ep 66•Transcript available on Metacast In part two of Scott Robohn’s interview, Scott tells us about his experience starting his own business and co-founding the Network Automation Forum and the AutoCon conference series. He describes the strong desire among many engineers to drive network automation forward, and how AutoCon creates a community to help make that happen. He and Eric ... Read more »...
Jun 12, 2024•26 min•Ep 65•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to a crossover episode with the Day Two Cloud podcast! Eric Chou was there for the birth of the public cloud. Before DevOps or SREs were a thing, before Azure was Azure, Eric was a network engineer for Amazon, helping them build out their retail technology platform. Of course, that platform evolved into the ... Read more »...
Jun 05, 2024•45 min•Ep 244•Transcript available on Metacast Scott Robohn is responsible for so much of the current buzz and awareness of network automation. Today, we sit down with the co-founder of Network Automation Forum to learn about his own journey. We chat about his education and the question of if college degrees are necessary. We also talk about his experience at big ... Read more »...
May 30, 2024•26 min•Ep 64•Transcript available on Metacast Curious about what it takes to write a technical book as a network engineer? You’re in luck. The team behind Nautobot is also the team behind the book “Network Automation with Nautobot: Adopt a network source of truth and a data-driven approach to networking.” Jason, Ken, and John tell us about their writing process, timeline, ... Read more »...
May 15, 2024•27 min•Ep 63•Transcript available on Metacast Today we chat with the maintainers of Nautobot, the open source network source of truth and network automation platform. Jason Edelman, Ken Celenza, John Anderson explain how their day jobs at professional services company, Network to Code, informs their work on Nautobot. They walk us through Nautobot’s core, out-of-the-box capabilities as well as the extensibility ... Read more »...
May 01, 2024•29 min•Ep 62•Transcript available on Metacast The expectations for application delivery are higher than ever before, the networks that support those applications are increasingly distributed, and visibility is essential for network operations and troubleshooting. On today’s sponsored episode, Kentik’s Phil Gervasi joins us to discuss how Kentik collects essential performance data to help you monitor and manage all the networks your ... Read more »...
Apr 24, 2024•45 min•Ep 61•Transcript available on Metacast This is Part 2 of Kirk Byers’ interview. We discuss the Git course he’s developing and the need to build bridges between networking and testing so we can move automation forward. This of course leads us to geek out about AutoCon and the talks we’re most excited about. Plus, Kirk shares his wisdom about creating ... Read more »...
Apr 17, 2024•37 min•Ep 60•Transcript available on Metacast The intersection of Python and network engineering is Kirk Byers’ sweet spot. Today, the creator of the Netmiko library and core maintainer of NAPALM joins the show to tell us about his network automation journey. We also discuss Kirk’s experience on the business side of things, both the ups and downs. This is Part 1 ... Read more »...
Apr 04, 2024•38 min•Ep 59•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome back for Part 2 of Eric’s interview with Roman Dodin, co-creator of containerlab. Roman describes containerlab as a “lab as code” tool that quickly and easily creates virtual networking topologies. With increased automation and containerization in network engineering, the tool’s popularity has exploded. We talk about how folks contribute to containerlab’s development and what ... Read more »...
Mar 20, 2024•34 min•Ep 58•Transcript available on Metacast