The Fat Pipe - All Packet Pushers Pods

The Priority Queue dives into the applicability of machine learning to networking. Our guest is David Meyer, Chief Scientist and Fellow at Brocade.

Machine learning (ML) implies that some magic software algorithm learns about your network and can then make smarter decisions, but the reality is more complicated. We define what ML is, contrast it to traditional programming, and explore where we are in the ML hype cycle.

David also outlines areas in networking where ML can be applied, and introduces some of the math that underpins the science of this discipline. He also offers some tips to spot weasely marketing around machine learning when applied to networking products.

Links:

Machine Intelligence and Networking – David Meyer presentation (PDF)

Coursera Machine Learning Course – Andrew Ng

Datanauts 059: The Machine Learning Hype Cycle – Packet Pushers

Today’s Datanauts episode is all about data and data models, and why they matter. Deciding how to model your data ahead of time can pay off down the road. It helps ensure that the people who are using the data get what they need from it, and can reduce technical debt.

Our guest is data expert Karen Lopez, senior project manager and architect at InfoAdvisors. She and the Datanauts discuss various definitions of data models, CAP Theorem and the pros and cons of various database types, and database architectures.

She also discusses her role in the NASA Datanauts program, a community of data scientists and advocates who work with NASA’s open data and promote data science education.

Sponsor: ITProTV

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Show Notes

The Big Data Modeling Question…

What Are Conceptual, Logical and Physical Data Models?

7 Databases in 70 Minutes

Big Data, NoSQL & Data Modeling – 10 Tips for Data Modeling Success on Modern Data Projects

InfoAdvisors

Follow Karen Lopez on Twitter

NASA Datanauts

Greg Ferro and Drew Conry-Murray were delegates at Networking Field Day 14 this January in Silicon Valley. On today’s Priority Queue episode, we’re joined by two other delegates, Eyvonne Sharp and Kevin Myers, to talk about the technologies and products that were presented at the three-day event

We also discuss the impact that emerging technologies such as whitebox and automation will have on the enterprise.

Eyvonne is a consulting networking engineer in the healthcare sector. She blogs at ESharp.net. Kevin is a network architect who currently focuses on WISP/wireline service providers and large enterprise data centers. You can read his blog at StubArea51.net.

Four Categories

We shaped our discussion around four technology categories that were represented at the event: SD-WAN, whitebox switching, analytics, and automation/orchestration. Within these categories we examine the business needs driving the technology; talk about use cases and what kinds of organizations might benefit from the technology; and share opinions on the vendors, their products, and their messaging.

SD-WAN

* Riverbed

* Silver Peak

Whitebox

* Barefoot Networks

* Big Switch Networks

Analytics

* Kentik

* Nyansa

Automation/Orchestration

* Anuta Networks

* Juniper Networks

Thanks to the team at Tech Field Day for inviting us to participate! You can watch all the vendor presentations from the event here.

Today on the Priority Queue, 5G, the much lauded successor to the 4G wireless mobile specification. A variety of spectrum is proposed to address many use cases, so 5G isn’t just any one thing. 5G is in testing now and will see production rollouts over the next several years.

Which brings us to our question today. Is 5G going to help with the rural broadband problem? To help us understand the role that 5G will play in rural broadband Internet access is Alex Marcham. Alex is a network engineer, and shares his writing and research on wireless networking at NetworkArchitecture2020.com.

The Packet Pushers and Alex discuss all the technologies that come under the 5G umbrella, licensed and unlicensed spectrum, how radio waves translate into bandwidth, and some of the physical issues (line of sight, obstructions, weather) can affect wireless networking–among other topics.

 

The latest entry in our Design & Build series digs deeper into DMVPN. Today’s focus is on using certificates for endpoint authentication.

Our guest for this conversation is Nick Moody, a network and security engineer with experience in the enterprise, the public and financial sectors, and service providers.

We discuss the use of pre-shared keys to authenticate endpoints, which is one deployment method, and examine the security drawbacks of this option.

We explore the advantages of certificate authentication (security and scalability), address the challenges of working with a public-key infrastructure (PKI), and get into details on certificate management.

Nick Moody blogs at NetAssured.

For more on DMVPN and to find the other podcasts in this series, check out our Design & Build page.

The Packet Pushers Design & Build series continues with DMVPN. DMVPN is a proprietary technology from Cisco for hub-and-spoke connectivity using multipoint VPNs.

Our guest is Eugene Khabarov, a network engineer and CCIE. We talk with Eugene about the basics of DMVPN, including GRE and the Next Hop Resolution Protocol (NHRP), and explore features for dynamic routing and IPSec encryption.

We also drill into deployments and use cases, and examine routing considerations and the pros and cons of using various routing protocols with DMVPN. Eugene also gets into scalability issues, shares experiences (failures and successes) from a real-world project, and discusses alternatives.

Eugene also joined us for our inaugural Design & Build show, episode 234 on network mergers.

Show Links:

suiCCIEde –  Eugene Khabarov’s Blog

BRKSEC-3052 – Advanced DMVPN Designs (2013 London) – Cisco Live

DMVPN Explained – INE

DMVPN Phase 3 – INE

Cisco FlexVPN DMVPN, Part 1 – Overview and Design – Michael Kashin

FlexVPN QoS – Michael Kashin

FlexVPN Configuration – Michael Kashin

Designing A Multi-Region, Multi-Hub Phase 3 DMVPN With BGP – Matt Love

Show 234 – Design & Build #1 – Network Mergers – Packet Pushers

Today on Packet Pushers, a cloud migration you might not have considered before — your PBX.  PBX in the cloud? “Risky,” you think. “Complicated,” you think. “Voice quality,” you think. Those are reasonable thoughts popping into your head.

To help us talk through the risks and rewards of putting your PBX in the cloud is Richard DeFabritus, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sonus Networks, our sponsor for today’s show. In this discussion, we’ll focus on Microsoft’s Office 365 Cloud PBX.

We talk about the reasons companies are moving the PBX to the cloud, including quicker provisioning, lower capital expense, and ease of management. We also address risks such as poor call quality and users’ fear of change.

The discussion also drills into the critical elements of a cloud PBX plan, the pros and cons of hard cutovers vs. gradual migration, and how Session Border Controllers (SBCs) can help.

Our show today is with Avi Freedman, a Packet Pushers favorite and returning guest. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Kentik, which has sponsored today’s show. We’ve met Avi in meatspace a few times, and we can assure you he’s a fellow nerd.

Kentik collects and analyzes network data, including all major flow types, as well as BGP route data and SNMP information, to provide visibility into network performance and enable infrastructure optimization.

Avi joins us to talk about new capabilities in the Kentik platform, including network performance monitoring for the cloud, as well as DDoS and anomaly detection.

Kentik’s service is available for enterprises and service providers. You can try Kentik for free by signing up here.

As mentioned, we’ve had Avi on the show before on sponsored and unsponsored shows, so if want to hear more, here are the links:

PQ Show 75: Talking Network Analytics And Telemetry

PQ Show 71: Kentik & Real-Time Network Visibility (Sponsored)

Today’s Priority Queue is the second round of the Engineers At The Bar series, where networking pros gather for drinks and conversation about life in technology. (Listen to the first episode here.)

This episode was recorded live in Las Vegas during VMworld 2016. Greg Ferro hosts, and his guests are Tommy McNicholas, E.J. Spry, and Doug Youd.

The conversation starts with a debate about training and specialization, and whether there’s a lack of fundamental knowledge in the industry.

They also talk about what drew them to networking as a discipline, the prospects for open networking and disaggregation, the fear of not knowing things, vendor gripes, why 2017 will be the year of visibility and telemetry, and more.

Join us for a candid and casual discussion.

Today on the Packet Pushers Priority Queue, network automation tooling you can use today with the equipment you already have, and which costs you nothing.

Our guest today is Kirk Byers, creator of the Netmiko library for Python. Kirk works with the NAPALM (Network Automation and Programmability Abstraction Layer with Multivendor support) Python library as well. We’ll discuss both of these tools today.

Kirk is all about network automation and teaching it to others. I can recommend his Python for network engineers free and paid courses.

On today’s show we talk about what Netmiko is and why it was created, and what’s new in the latest version.

We also explore the Netmiko tool NAPALM, and what it does well.

Show Links:

Python for Network Engineers – Kirk Byers’ blog

Kirk Byers on LinkedIn

Email-list for free Learning Python course

Netmiko Library

Netmiko Tools

NAPALM Documentation

Network to Code Slack Channel sign up page

San Francisco Network Automation Meetup