Packet Pushers - Full Podcast Feed

Today’s show puts the “heavy” in Heavy Networking with a discussion about Multipath Reliable Connection (MRC). MRC is about getting an even distribution of RDMA traffic across equal cost multipath links in massive data centers, and doing so over plain old lossy Ethernet. Ethan, Drew, and guests discuss how packet spraying, resilience to link and... Read more »

What will network operations look like in 2030, and how can teams embrace agentic AI without losing operational control? In this sponsored episode, Rekha Shenoy and Irfahn Khimji of BackBox speak with Scott Robohn about the shift toward agentic NetOps, balancing automation with backup and rollback strategies, and the evolving role of network engineers. Episode... Read more »

Thank you for sending in even more follow ups! On today's show, Holly and Ethan respond to listener comments and corrections on Multicast, MPLS, NAC, Twisted Pair Cabling, and more. A big thank you to everyone who sent in responses. If you'd like to leave a comment about this comments episode, you can do so... Read more »

Ed and Nick explore why developers and SREs often become the bottleneck when transitioning to IPv6-only environments. They share practical strategies for bridging the communication gap between network and application teams, including early collaboration, data-driven monitoring, and fostering open dialogue. Episode Links: Watch this episode on YouTube

Garrett Masters talks with Eric Chou about the concept of the AI-Augmented Engineer. Together they discuss how IT professionals can use Python and NetMiko to automate tasks and even connect AI directly to lab environments. Garrett also shares practical advice on prompt engineering, the importance of context management, and how engineers can safely adopt AI... Read more »

William Collins and guest Drew Meli explore the realities of buying enterprise SaaS and infrastructure. They cover the common engineering misconceptions about enterprise sales, navigating rigorous security reviews, establishing clear proof of value criteria, and how AI is reshaping buying behaviors. AdSpot Sponsor: Gartner AI is rewriting your cloud architecture, your operating model, and your... Read more »

In-house data centers are a hot topic again! Companies of all sorts are repatriating cloud workloads. Many want to ramp up in-house AI development, training, and production deployment. However much (or little) you know about building a data center, the rules have all changed in the last few years. From political/regulatory concerns to economics to... Read more »

AI models have proven very effective at finding software vulnerabilities. This has dramatically increased the number of people (and agents) who can find bugs. But the number of experts who can verify and validate those bugs, and write fixes, has stayed exactly the same. On today’s Packet Protector we talk with Trey Ford, Chief Strategy... Read more »

The early exuberance of AI adoption has run up against hard-nosed business requirements around managing costs, protecting sensitive data, and matching the right model with the right job at the right price. On today's show, sponsor Broadcom is here to make a case that private cloud is the place for AI inferencing workloads. We talk... Read more »

Take a Network Break! We sound a red alert for active exploits against Check Point’s Secure Gateway. On the news front, a Cisco survey says 51% of organizations run agentic AI in production, Selector announces agentic AI additions to its AI network observability platform, and NetBrain rolls out new AI agents to evaluate changes and... Read more »

“My goal in life is to say it's not the network!” says Ben Shapiro, senior network engineer at Eugene (OR) School District 4J, the 6th largest school district in Oregon. He joins host Scott Robohn to discuss how to balance complexity, resiliency, legacy devices, security and more in an educational setting. He's also a MistFit with... Read more »

Drew and Ethan talk with Kevin Nanns about his journey from network engineer to network architect. Kevin shares his experience grappling with the shift in responsibilities, increased pressure, and communication and management challenges associated with his new role. They also discuss his content creation work on TikTok and his strategies for translating complex technical concepts... Read more »

Renowned Cisco Press author Wendell Odom shares how he began writing the definitive guide for the CCNA exam. Alexis, Kevin, and Wendell discuss the balance between practical, on-the-job experience and certification study habits. Wendell also reflects on his career as well as the creation of his YouTube channel, Network Upskill. Episode Links: Watch this episode... Read more »

Ned and Kyler talk with Jim Jones about data protection, backups, and security in the age of hybrid cloud and AI. They explore the operational challenges of integrating automated AI agents into enterprise workflows, the need for proper permission scoping, immutable backups, and data security posture management (DSPM). AdSpot Sponsor: Gartner The Gartner IT Infrastructure... Read more »

Keith sits down with Kjetil Hansen to explore spectrum analysis and vibe coding for wireless networking tools. They also discuss building custom tools, using AI for 3D network modeling, and how Kjetil uses OpenIntent in his projects. Episode Links: Kjetil Hansen's Website Kjetil Hansen on YouTube

Everyone is talking about autonomous AI for network operations. But in critical infrastructure, is removing the human really the right goal? In this sponsored episode, Johna and John welcome BackBox CEO Rekha Shenoy and VP of Products and Engineering Richard Phillips to discuss the risks of blind autonomy, where AI can go wrong, why human... Read more »

Today’s Packet Protector is a sponsored show that sits very nicely at the networking/security intersection. Our sponsor is NetCore, which makes the Unimus network configuration management software. Unimus supports network automation, configuration management and backup, change management, and auditing and compliance. We dive into how Unimus provides visibility into both the running config and the... Read more »

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast we talk VPNs. Our sponsor is Firezone, which offers a secure remote access solution built on Wireguard. But instead of just hearing from Firezone, we talk with a customer. Our guest is Daniel Caruso, IT Network and Systems Administrator at Beaver Excavating, a construction firm headquartered in Canton, OH.... Read more »

Take a Network Break! We start with listener follow-up on Arista’s vulnerability reporting, and Cisco ISE takes center stage for our Red Alert. Then we dive into EVA Networks, a startup touting ephemeral network connectivity to minimize risks of persistent network access, why AWS is recommending customers relocate workloads away from its data centers in... Read more »

Q-Day signals the public emergence of a cryptographically relevant quantum computer that can break public key encryption. The date of Q-Day is unknown but the tech industry is making preparations now. Bill Dockery joins Drew and guest host Scott Robohn to dig into Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC), what network engineers need to know to test... Read more »

In this crossover episode, Scott invites William Collins and Eric Chou to do the hosting so he and Network Automation Forum (NAF) cofounder Chris Grundemann can discuss how their community emerged from a simple question: Why haven’t we seen full adoption of network automation? They discuss the growth of AutoCon and how its practitioner-focused, vendor-neutral... Read more »

Traditional IPAM and DDI tools struggle to handle IPv6 at scale because they were originally designed around IPv4. Today Ed and Tom examine the visibility challenges posed by SLAAC  addresses, broken DNS integrations, and massive prefix allocations. They also share potential solutions and strategies for enterprise IPv6 deployment. AdSpot Sponsor: Megaport If you're supporting cloud... Read more »

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), the routing protocol of the global internet, is finding uses in all sorts of places in 2026 beyond internet routing.  It's a huge topic. Large books have been written about BGP and its related technologies, so Ethan and Holly are here with a gentle introduction to BGP. They break down what... Read more »

In this sponsored episode, Paul Delory of Gartner joins Kyler and Ned to discuss the reconciler pattern for operations and the shift toward continuous operations. Together they discuss how immutable infrastructure, policy as code, and platform engineering help bridge the gap between traditional IT and modern automation. They also highlight Gartner’s upcoming Infrastructure, Operations &... Read more »

Is AI going to kill us all? Frontier systems are producing real security failures, but extinction forecasts are being used to support policies that could consolidate control over AI. Eyvonne and William discuss Jacob Coxon’s high-profile resignation from Anthropic, the gap between real technical risks and speculative extinction narratives, and the commercial incentives driving calls... Read more »

Eric is joined by Sid Mathur, founder of Fastah Inc., to unpack the real-world implications of Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) internet. Sid has built a career obsessing over data networks, system performance, and the operational challenges facing ISPs and satellite operators. Together they dive into the complexities of in-motion geolocation and explore the traffic routing implications... Read more »

Today we talk about trying and failing. More specifically, guest Keith Tokash wrote a pair of blogs on Packet Pushers about taking, but not passing, the CCIE Security written exam. Failure's a hard thing to talk about, particularly in this age where every public utterance on LinkedIn feels like it has to document one's ever-upward... Read more »

In this sponsored episode, Keith is joined by Matt Starling and Troy Martin of Ekahau to announce their new Software as a Service (SaaS) licensing model. Together they explain the different flexible subscription options and how they complement traditional perpetual licenses. They also breakdown the hardware capabilities of the Sidekick 2 and the Speedtest Pulse.... Read more »

In this sponsored episode, Ronny Wolf of BlueCat Networks joins Johna and John to explore the importance of API-first architecture. They also discuss how BlueCat expanded beyond core DDI into intelligent network operations, the key differences between having APIs versus being built API-first, and how guardrails such as rate limiting and human in the loop... Read more »

Take a Network Break! Ivanti takes center stage with a red alert on four critical CVEs in its Neuron platform, and MikroTik also gets a mention for an actively exploited flaw in its OS. On the news front, BackBox announces new AI capabilities for its OS backup and config management platform, Amazon selects from Qualcomm’s... Read more »

Jason Gintert, Co-Founder of the US Networking User Association, returns to the show to discuss his key elements and events in his professional career. Jason shares valuable lessons learned from his early days in the 90's ISP boom, the challenges of failing at scale, and his dedication to creating regional networking communities that foster genuine... Read more »

In this sponsored episode, Kyle Baxter and Sridhar Katere from HPE join Drew to talk about automating enterprise data center networks. They discuss how HPE integrates its Apstra and Mist products to bring AI ops and self-driving capabilities into data center operations. They also break down how HPE leverages the different strengths of each platform,... Read more »

Chris Grundemann joins Alexis and Kevin to discuss his career evolution from pulling cable to co-founding the Network Automation Forum. Chris shares insights on the challenges of adopting network automation, the impact of AI on the industry, the importance of professional networking, and strategies for maintaining a healthy work-life balance. AdSpot Sponsor: Meter Most IT... Read more »

How can network architects successfully manage 95,000 hosts while navigating the complexities of large-scale cloud migrations? Devender Singh, a Principal Cloud Architect, joins Ned and Kyler to discuss the practical realities of managing network chaos, the migration from Transit Gateways to AWS Cloud WAN, and strategies for addressing the technical debt often encountered during enterprise... Read more »

If it feels like everything is on fire, today’s News Roundup will not dispel that feeling. We discuss consumer routers that ship with factory-installed backdoors, US law enforcement agencies shutting down hacking domains, and how a threat actor tied to China is targeting Cisco IOS-XR routers. Android-based auto infotainment systems are susceptible to malware, OpenAI... Read more »

Keith welcomes David Coleman to examine the technical advantages and practical challenges of implementing standard power 6Ghz Wi-Fi in indoor environments. They also discuss automated frequency coordination (AFC), geolocation mechanisms for indoor APs, and LPI fallback strategy. AdSpot Sponsor: Meter Most IT teams are managing networks stitched together from years of acquisitions and vendor contracts... Read more »

Take a Network Break! We begin with follow-up on the Cisco/Teleport deal and Chinese models on US public clouds. Our Red Alert warns of two critical vulnerabilities in HPE's Aruba Networking Fabric Composer, and we offer a quick heads-up on OpenAI and Anthropic outages and forthcoming security disclosures from Arista. On the news front, Broadcom... Read more »

Last year, 49,000 CVEs were published, more than 130 new vulnerabilities every day. So what actually happens with all of those CVEs in your network infrastructure? In this sponsored episode, Rekha Shenoy and Irfahn Khimji of BackBox join Scott Robohn to discuss why the math of manual network operations no longer works, where traditional tools... Read more »

When engineers look to buy new technology they tend to focus on features and functionality, but there's more to it than that. Sian Morgan joins Drew and Ethan to discuss the best practices involved in making a good technology buying decision. Sian shares how engineers can align their technical focus with broader business objectives, calculate... Read more »

Is your current network monitoring infrastructure capable of seeing IPv6 traffic or are you flying blind in a dual-stack environment? Today Ed, Nick, and Tom explore the critical challenges surrounding IPv6 visibility such as the limitations of vendor tools and the complexities of maintaining observability as networks evolve.

Ethan and Holly tackle the Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP). They explain how this protocol helps network engineers map network topologies and validate wiring. They also discuss how LLDP devices use frames to send information, mandatory and optional type length values (TLVs), and why security on edge ports remains critical. Episode Links: Watch this episode... Read more »

Mark Zuckerberg argues that broadly distributed personal AI, or a “superintelligence” in his parlance, can increase prosperity and counter the risks of AI being controlled by a handful of government and corporate entities. Drew Conry-Murray joins Eyvonne and William to engage in a lively roundtable where they examine whether distributing access meaningfully distributes power when... Read more »

Eric Chou welcomes guest co-host William Collins as well as Network Automation Forum founders Scott Robohn and Chris Grundemann to discuss how their community emerged from a simple question: Why haven’t we seen full adoption of network automation? They discuss the growth of AutoCon and how its practitioner-focused, vendor-neutral approach has fostered a unique environment... Read more »

What does Enterprise Architecture (EA) mean when AI is everywhere in the stack? Enterprise Architecture is about nailing down relationships and functions while AI pushes back with dynamic processes and probabilistic results. Join Johna and John as they discuss the possibilities for EA: does it prevail, adapt, or die? Episode Links: Watch this episode on... Read more »

Coruna and DarkSword are exploit frameworks that have successfully targeted Apple iPhones to steal cryptocurrency and harvest data including messages, email, location data, and browsing history. On today’s show we trace the provenance of these exploits (Coruna was originally developed by a contractor for the US government), their rapid evolution in the cyber underworld, and... Read more »

Take a Network Break! We start with listener followup about how Device Bound Session Credentials could thwart session cookie theft, and then highlight a string of critical vulnerabilities in IBM’s AIX. On the news front, Nvidia has reportedly bought Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, Nvidia and AWS team up on GPUs and physical AI, and... Read more »

NetOps engineer Lasse Haugen sits down with Scott Robohn at AutoCon 5 to explore the power of Spec Driven Design (SDD) for transforming network engineering workflows from chaotic experimentation to structured, reliable automation. Together they define what SDD is, use cases for NetOps and NetEng, how it has changed NetOps, and more. AdSpot Sponsor: NANOG,... Read more »

If you think of BlueCat as just an IPAM or DDI company, think again. BlueCat acquired LiveAction in 2024, and since then, they've been working to integrate LiveAction's network observability capabilities with the DDI portfolio. In this sponsored episode, Ryan Grande, Field CTO at BlueCat, is here to dig into how network observability and DDI... Read more »

Kevin and Alexis welcome Justin Ryburn, VP of Global Solution Engineering and Field CTO at Kentik, to discuss the realities of traveling for technical work. Justin explains the nuances of his role, which balances executive engagement, public speaking, and team leadership with the challenge of a heavy travel schedule. They also touch on the importance... Read more »

Traditional peer review processes are breaking down in the new AI era. Dylan Ratcliffe, founder and CEO of Overmind Technology, joins Ned and Kyler to discuss the importance of treating AI as a machine to be audited rather than a peer. Together they share practical advice on how to adapt peer review processes and culture... Read more »

If you’ve been spinning up AI tools — Claude Desktop, Cursor, Copilot, and so on — there’s a decent chance that API keys, credentials, and access tokens are sitting in plaintext on your laptop. With MCP, every quickstart guide tells you to paste your credentials right into a config file. That was a bad habit... Read more »