On today’s Network Automation Nerds, industry veteran Michael Bushong talks about lessons learned from failure. As the network industry grapples with automation and network engineers confront yet another cycle of upskilling and grinding out new certs, he warns against executives and practice leads aiming for the biggest, shiniest project. His advice? Find something that matters... Read more »

This week we dive into security headlines including a botnet bonanza that includes TP-Link routers, Chinese attackers targeting Juniper and Fortinet, and a case study of nation-state actors penetrating the operator of a small US electric utility. We also discuss ransomware attacks targeting critical infrastructure, a backdoor in an Android variant used in streaming devices,... Read more »

Take a Network Break! This week we cover Google’s $32 billion acquisition of CNAPP provider Wiz, Cloudflare offerings for AI security and support for post-quantum encryption, and NVIDIA’s pledge to open a quantum research center in Boston. NVIDIA has also announced new switch platforms with co-packaged optics for greater efficiency, Cisco shares details on its... Read more »

The Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC) is an industry body that aims to optimize Ethernet for AI and HPC use cases. On today’s Heavy Networking we get an overview of the UEC and an update on its efforts. We’re joined by J Metz and Rip Sohan, both heavily involved with the UEC. We discuss the consortium’s... Read more »

What’s it like to move from a NOC role to an operations and automation role? On today’s show we get the perspective of guest Joseph Nicholson, a Network Operations Engineer at NTT Data.  He explains how he got started with automation, using tools like Python and Ansible, and the critical role of documentation in network... Read more »

Ready for more routing and routing protocols? Today we discuss the roles of the network operating system (NOS), routing protocols, the Routing Information Base (RIB), and the Forwarding Information Base (FIB). We also include the dynamics of routing protocols, the importance of hardware like TCAM for performance, and the concept of administrative distance or route... Read more »

The AI buildout is driving an infrastructure boom. On today’s show, we talk with Kendall Miller, an independent consultant in the DevOps and cloud-native space, about the boom’s potential impacts on DevOps. For instance, the rise of AI workloads will increase the amount of infrastructure to be supported. At the same time, AI tools are... Read more »

WireGuard and other overlay VPNs are the focus of today’s podcast with guest Tom Lawrence from Lawrence Systems. We dig into differences between WireGuard and traditional IPSec VPNs, how WireGuard’s opinionated approach to crypto suites helps improve its performance, and how WireGuard compares to OpenVPN. We also look at the broader category of overlay VPNs... Read more »

Take a Network Break! We start with warnings about an Apple Webkit zero day and ransonware exploits against known Fortinet vulnerabilites, and discuss attribution issues with the X DDoS attack. Intel names Lip-Bu Tan as Chief Resurrection Officer, but how long does he have before investors get antsy? HPE plans to lay off thousands of... Read more »

Mist AI is a key part of Juniper’s AI-Native Networking Platform to simplify operations and optimize user experiences across wired and wireless networks. On today’s sponsored show, we explore the evolution of network operations and talk about the integration of AI and automation in the Juniper Mist platform. We also look at how Juniper has... Read more »