Packet Pushers - Fat Pipe

The variety and number of OT devices continue to grow at such a pace that network engineers really need to think through how to manage them as part of their broader network. Dan Massameno joins the show to talk about how he’s collaborating with his facilities department and using SD-Access to manage the OT virtual... Read more »

Kubernetes turns ten years old this summer. We take the opportunity to look at where it’s been and where it’s going. While many other open source projects folded over time, Kubernetes took the world by storm with the support of diverse entities including CNCF, Microsoft, AWS, Google, RedHat, and individual contributors. Moving forward, we predict... Read more »

There are about 1.4 million Kubernetes clusters just sitting out there on the public internet as we speak. That is 1.4 million lateral-movement rich, highly privileged environments. The bearer of this anxiety-provoking news is today’s guest, Lee Briggs. Lee explains why major cloud providers make this the default option– ease of use. The good news... Read more »

Zero trust is a buzzword, but what does it actually mean and how will it impact network engineers? Jennifer is here to get us up to speed. First, she gives a general description: It’s a security architectural strategy that’s progressing toward increased observability and trust inferences. Then she breaks it down for the three main... Read more »

Don’t call it remote work. Today Johna and Greg dive into distributed work– the future where there is no office vs. remote, there are just asynchronistic workers and their computer screens. Leaders have to move beyond “management by walking around” or “onboarding by shadowing.” They need to carefully select their ecosystem of tools (and tools... Read more »

Take a Network Break! This week we discuss what IBM and Palo Alto Networks get out of a deal for Palo Alto Networks to buy the SaaS version of the QRadar SIEM from IBM, why LogRhythm is merging with Exabeam, and how Google is positioning its latest AI chip to take on the Nvidia juggernaut.... Read more »

Welcome to the second part of our interview with friend of the podcast, Russ White. We start our conversation with a listener question about VXLAN/EVPN which acts as a springboard for what Russ really thinks about network engineering these days. He defends network snowflakes, championing their power in business use cases. He questions the merit... Read more »

Alexandra Huides didn’t like IPv6 on her first encounter with it. Today she is globally renowned for spreading the IPv6 gospel and helping AWS customers adopt it. Alexandra joins the show today to share what changed her mind about IPv6 and what she sees change the minds of network engineers every day: Greater client traffic... Read more »

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 »

Have you ever noticed “threat hunting” in vendor products and wondered exactly what it means? James Williams is here to explain: Threat hunting is the R&D of detection engineering. A threat hunter imagines what an attacker might try and, critically, how that behavior would show up in the logs of a particular environment. Then the... Read more »

Evaluating wireless use cases at a nuclear power plant is a little bit different than your average industrial job, starting with the stripdown to put on plant-provided clothing. Ferney Munoz joins us today to talk about his experience working as a wireless consultant at nuclear power plants. Obviously, radiation interference is a heightened issue, as... Read more »

Take a Network Break! We begin the episode with some follow-up on edge AI chips, whether Packet Pushers should start a dedicated AI channel, and a clarification on AWS and VMware. On the news front, we discuss the soft launches of AI assistant from Extreme Networks and Gluware, and a new virtual appliance for Cisco’s... Read more »

We turn the nerd meter up to eleven on today’s episode with longtime friend of the show, Russ White. First we dive into how an Ethernet adapter knows when a link is lost, where Russ teaches us all about loss of carrier and OAM. He also gives us a tutorial on how the rest of... Read more »

Kristina attended KubeCon EU in March and she’s still trying to process it all. In today’s episode, Michael interviews her about what stood out most to her. They dive into the conference’s heavy emphasis on AI, particularly how Kubernetes can help with more efficient GPU utilization. Kristina also reports back on the United Nations hackathon... Read more »

Keith Gregory teaches us about data engineering in a way DevOps folks (and hydrologists) can understand. He explains that the role of a data engineer is to create pipelines to transport data from metaphorical rivers and make it usable for data analysts. Keith walks us through the testing process; the difference between streaming pipelines and... Read more »

What’s the difference between cybersecurity “as a service” vs. “managed” vs. “hosted”? And what’s the difference between an MSP and an MSSP? In this episode, JJ helps untangle the terms and concepts in cybersecurity offerings. She explains what questions you should ask vendors to make sure you’re picking the right one for your needs; negotiating... Read more »

Why are some executives still insisting on Return to Office policies? Does it improve culture and productivity like they swear? Or is it more about the devaluing of a massive asset on their books: Commercial real estate. If the value of commercial real estate drops, companies have less to leverage for loans and– perhaps more... Read more »

Take a Network Break! This week we cover a new microsegmentation offering from Arista, new GenAI assistants from Fortinet, and a GenAI firewall from Versa Networks to monitor and report on how organizations are using generative AI tools and applications. AWS will stop selling VMware Cloud on AWS (but you can still get it through... Read more »

Network monitoring is growing increasingly complicated. Companies are facing more distributed applications and more remote employees. NetBeez, our sponsor today, is here to talk about how they monitor network performance in real time for the campus, WAN, and more. From proactively testing networks after configuration changes to identifying how well a worker’s laptop is connecting... Read more »

The future has arrived: 800 gig Ethernet is here. Amit Bhardwaj and Dmitry Shokarev from today’s sponsor, Juniper Networks, join the show to tell us all about Juniper’s 800 gig Ethernet and what we need to know as engineers: use cases, transition plans, fiber and power needs (a lot less than you’d think). We also... Read more »