The Fat Pipe - All Packet Pushers Pods

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 »