Heavy Networking

Today's Heavy Networking podcast explores two new offerings from sponsor Palo Alto Networks. First is Okyo Garde, a home wireless mesh appliance to connect and secure remote workers while reducing the management burden from IT. We also discuss a new licensing program to make provisioning bandwidth for branch and remote offices for Prisma SD-WAN simpler and more flexible.

Today's Heavy Networking dives into data center fabrics with guest Russ White. We discuss just what makes a data center fabric, why the industry relies too much on BGP, fabric alternatives and options, the future of data center fabrics, and more. Russ is a network architect, author, and instructor.

On today's sponsored Heavy Networking podcast we talk to Pluribus Networks. Pluribus can extend networking and security services directly to smartNICs/DPUs via its Unified Cloud Fabric to improve performance, visibility, and security. We talk with Mike Capuano and Alessandro Barbieri from Pluribus on how it all works.

The business benefits of network automation are sometimes lost in discussion about technology and tools. Guest Tim Fiola joins this episode of Heavy Networking to discuss how to engage the business at a cultural level so that network automation is properly embraced and supported by management.

Today's Heavy Networking, sponsored by Juniper, dives into the custom vs. merchant silicon debate. Juniper makes the case for its Trio 6 ASIC in MX routers. We get into the specifics of Trio 6 capabilities, examine the needs of the multi-service edge, and discuss the technology and business cases for custom hardware.

Today's Heavy Networking dives into home IoT at scale. We’re going to get into the weeds with two network engineers who’ve gone way beyond lighting and a few smart plugs in their home automation setup. We'll talk devices, protocols, security, and more.

On today's sponsored Heavy Networking we speak with Opmantek, a FirstWave company. Opmantek's NMIS is a suite of network monitoring applications for managing fault, performance, configuration, compliance and automation. It supports multi-vendor, multi-tenant and multi-server solutions. We discuss the latest features and real-world use cases.

Today's Heavy Networking is a roundtable conversation about career growth. Maybe your title is junior engineer, but you want to be a senior engineer. Be careful what you wish for! Maybe your title is junior but you feel you’re doing the job of a senior. Are you really? How would you justify this to your manager? We address these and other questions and issues including certs vs. experience, paying dues, the importance of communication skills, and more.

In today’s sponsored Heavy Networking show with Intel, we dive into recent Intel silicon announcements that are impacting how networking services will be delivered in the years to come. The edge of the network is set to change thanks to modern CPUs that accelerate network functions including packet processing and security. Joining us is Intel's Jeni Panhorst, Vice President & General Manager, Network & Edge Platforms Division to talk about recent Intel announcements at Mobile World Congress and what it means for networking at the edge.

On today's Heavy Networking, sponsor Itential joins us to discuss how you can deliver a scalable and sustainable network automation system for your enterprise. Our guest is Peter Sprygada, VP of Product Management at Itential.

Network design for high frequency trading and big data networks is the topic of today’s Heavy Networking. If you’re interested in what it’s like to carefully manage data center latency and maintain your sanity in a zero downtime environment, this is your show. Our guests are are Jeremy Filliben and Marc Washco of Jump Trading.

Today's sponsored Heavy Networking dives into the latest features from Pluribus Networks, including Pluribus KubeTracker, which correlates containers with applications, maps hosts to the network fabric, and more. We also cover FlowTracker and a virtualized packet broker service. Our guest is Alessandro Barbieri, VP Product Management at Pluribus.

On today’s Heavy Networking episode we talk with sponsor Console Connect, which provides software-defined interconnections for enterprises and service providers. Guests Paul Gampe and Jay Turner dig into the Console Connect catalog, including Internet On-Demand, CloudRouter, and some of the interesting partner integrations that provide unique connectivity options.

Today's Heavy Networking makes the case for why network engineers should consider using the Go language instead for their automation needs. Guest Darren Parkinson makes a strong argument for adding Go to your tool kit.

The SMTP protocol isn't broken, but email kinda is. Spam, phishing, and other unwanted messages are easy to deliver and harder to stop. On today's Heavy Networking we discuss TMTP and mnm, a proposed new protocol and client that aim to preserve the benefits of email while eliminating vulnerabilities and offering a better experience. Our guest is Liam Breck, creator of TMTP and mnm.

How do you know your remote workers are having good performance--a good experience--using the applications they need to get their work done? Today we drill into Autonomous Digital Experience Management (ADEM) with sponsor Palo Alto Networks, including how ADEM works, the benefits of real-time and synthetic monitoring, how ADEM integrates with SASE, and more.

Today's Heavy Networking gets deep in the guts of what’s going on with all the modern trends in networking: cloud-native, containers, eBPF, Kubernetes, DPUs, and so on. Guests Brent Salisbury and Dave Tucker give their insider’s view of developments in cutting-edge networking tech. You’ll walk away with a better idea of what to pay attention to in the months and years to come.

This Heavy Networking episode focuses on building a data center fabric. Pluribus Networks is our sponsor. Pluribus brought along a customer to talk about their active/active DC deployment. We’ll get into stretching layer 2 safely, Pluribus's L3 capabilities, operational concerns of active/active when the DCs are many hundreds of miles apart, and the pressure of delivering customer-facing services that drove the selection of the Pluribus architecture.

Heavy Networking explores big ideas around service provider and cloud provider network services in 2022, both how they collide and are complementary. Our sponsor is Juniper Networks. We also get an update on Juniper’s Contrail product, a software-defined networking platform that now includes native integration with Kubernetes.

As we approach the end of 2021, it's informative to look back at how much change has gone on in the industry. One of the biggest transitions we've seen in enterprise networking has taken place in the data center. Software-defined approaches that emerged over the past decade have matured and are being deployed in production. On today's Heavy Networking, we talk with Juniper Networks in a sponsored episode about its Apstra Intent-Based Networking (IBN) platform and how Apstra is transforming the enterprise data center.

On today's Heavy Networking we discuss a Nautobot, an open-source software tool that can serve as a source of truth for network automation. We explore how Nautobot works, what it's used for, how it ties in with Python and Ansible, major features, and more.

Today's Heavy Networking considers the current state of networking technologies and the networking market. We debate whether we've seen any significant innovations over the past year, if the industry has stagnated, or if we're simply trying to stay on top of disruptions caused by cloud, Covid, and the erosion of traditional network boundaries. We also discuss how network engineers and the industry are dealing with complexity, if organizations can "cloud" their way out of legacy problems, and more.

Today's Heavy Networking goes deep on Network Access Control (NAC) for wired and wireless networks. Our guest is Arne Bier, a Senior Consulting Engineer and CCIE. We hit a bunch of topics including MAC authentication bypass, client certificates, EAP methods, and more. We also discuss reasons why NAC is worth deploying despite the effort.

In today's sponsored Heavy Networking show with VMware, we take a fresh look at VMware's SASE and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) solution. VMware has a breadth of products that allow for a differentiated overall solution. Joining us today is Craig Connors, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Service Provider and Edge at VMware.

The DNS Abuse Institute is a community effort to develop solutions to DNS-related problems including malware, botnets, phishing, pharming, and spam. On today's show we speak with its Director, Graeme Bunton, about the institute and its work, and the challenges of dealing with malicious actors that exploit DNS and domain names.

Today on Heavy Networking, we consider a newly announced platform for artificial intelligence workloads, the cnvrg.io Meta Cloud. Our sponsor is Intel, and our guest is Yochay Ettun, Co-founder and CEO at cnvrg.io.

Today's Heavy Networking discusses the notion of looking at, and learning about, networking via a systems approach. Our guest is Dr. Bruce Davie who's had a long career in networking, has written numerous IETF RFCs, and is the author of a new set of free books on networking and computer systems.

What would you build if you could treat your network infrastructure programmatically? That’s what we’re going to consider in today’s sponsored Heavy Networking episode with Nokia. Nokia’s SR-Linux is infrastructure-as-code friendly, and their NetOps Development Kit allows you to think of the network as data models and build all kinds of useful tools. Our guest is Bruce Wallis, Senior Director of Product Management in Data Center Switching at Nokia.

Today on Heavy Networking, all about improving email security with SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance), and DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail). Our guest is Alex Blackie. He wrote an article on Email Authenticity 101 that I thought explained these topics really well. If you're a domain manager, you should listen to this one, even if you don't route mail through your domain. You can keep the bad guys from spamming in your name!

Cisco ThousandEyes is a long-time Packet Pushers sponsor, and we're going to probe deeply to discuss the latest feature additions that will bring you the data you need. And, since it’s been just about a year since ThousandEyes was acquired by Cisco, we’ll also discuss how ThousandEyes is being integrated into the gargantuan Cisco product portfolio.

Internet exchange points are networks you can use to connect to some other exchange participant. Sounds like maybe that’s a service provider thing, and it can be. But IXPs are useful for businesses, too. In this episode of Heavy Networking, we’re going to learn about IXPs, and non-profit IXPs in particular.

On today's sponsored Heavy Networking we talk with DriveNets about why it’s time to take the disaggregated model--where you buy whitebox hardware and put a network operating system of your choice on it--seriously. Along the way, we’re going to hit DriveNets network architectures and operating models, and get you thinking about why disaggregated networking might make sense for you.

Today's Heavy Networking gets entangled in a discussion about quantum communications or quantum networking. We discuss qubits, the challenges of moving them across a network, use cases such as key distribution, and more. Our guest is Dr. Joshua Slater.

Today's Heavy Networking podcast discusses the pros and cons of building a private 5G network in the enterprise. We examine use cases, contrast 5G with Wi-Fi, unpack the hardware and software required, and more. Intel is our sponsor for this episode.

Today's Heavy Networking podcast dives into academic research on DDoS attack techniques. Our guests have published a paper about how the TCP protocol and middleboxes such as firewalls can be weaponized by bad actors and used in reflective amplification attacks. We discuss technical details, how they performed this research, potential countermeasures, and more.

In today's sponsored Heavy Networking show, we talk to Opmantek about NMIS, an intelligent network management platform that spans monitoring, visibility, automation, and configuration management. Our guest is Opmantek CTO Keith Sinclair.

Like anything in the world of IT, TLS has gone through various versions. TLS 1.1 and 1.2 are still commonly used, but TLS 1.3 is really where it’s at. Our guest is Ed Harmoush. Ed’s a professional instructor who’s researched TLS 1.3 and more as he’s prepped for his latest course offering, Practical TLS, which you can find at http://pracnet.net/tls. Use coupon PacketPushers100 to get $100 off this deep dive course from Ed.

On today’s Heavy Networking, we drill into VMware’s vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) to learn how it provides end-to-end monitoring, how it uses flow records and other data sources, and its architecture. We’ll also discuss modeling/digital twin capabilities, and applying vRNI to security, troubleshooting, and other use cases. VMware is our sponsor.

Today on Heavy Networking, we talk with Remington Loose, Solutions Architect at a mid-sized VAR, to get a sense of what technology is in demand; what problems customers are trying to solve; and how cloud, DIY, and other forces affect the competitive landscape. It's a #VARlife episode.

On today's Heavy Networking podcast we discuss network compliance. The big idea is to rethink how you do compliance so that the process is automation friendly and accommodates all the network device types you have to manage. We're sponsored by Itential and our guest is Chris Wade, CTO.

There's a huge amount that goes into building an ISP, from getting access to poles to run fiber, operating a cable plant, setting up customer support and billing, getting network gear in place---not to mention developing a viable business model and funding the whole thing. On today's Heavy Networking podcast we talk with Jim Troutman of Tilson Technology Management about building a local ISP in New England.

Today's Heavy Networking examines how some of the unpleasant bits of cloud networking can be improved, particularly in the areas of troubleshooting, visibility, security, and automation. Our sponsor is Aviatrix, and they’ve sent us three architects to nerd out about cloud network design and how Aviatrix might fit into the picture. Our guests are Brad Hedlund and James Devine from Aviatrix, and customer Chris Oliver with NI.

Subsea communications cables are an essential part of the global Internet. On today's Heavy Networking, sponsored by Telstra, we dive into the realms of undersea cables to learn how they are laid, signalling methods, POPs and landing stations, how they can be damaged (and repaired), and more. Our Telstra guests are Andy Lumsden, Head of Network Engineering and Operations; and Jeff McHardy, General Manager, Network Development and Commercial Management.

Today on Heavy Networking, the icanhazip story. On the surface, icanhazip.com is simple enough: You hit the URL, and get back your external, public IP address. There are no ads, no blinky lights, just an IP. This free, simple utility has become widely popular, with billions of requests per day. We talk with creator Major Hayden about why and how he built icanhazip, the time and money he's invested, and the insane amount of personal effort it's taken to keep it going.

Today's Heavy Networking, sponsored by Intel, dives into 5G, virtualization, and AI. Intel's 3rd Gen Xeon processors can support a variety of use cases, including running virtualized network functions in the data center, at the edge, and in the cloud. They also have built-in acceleration for AI and cryptography, giving organizations a flexible platform for a variety of workloads, including service providers building out 5G networks. Our guest is Cristina Rodriguez, Vice President Data Center Group General Manager Wireless Access Network Division at Intel.

Curt Norris started his career as an IT support specialist. Five years later he's an automation engineer. On today's Heavy Networking we discuss his career journey including milestones, ongoing learning, the pros and cons of mentorship, whether a degree makes a difference, and more.

Today's Heavy Networking explores Crosswork Cloud Traffic Analysis from episode sponsor Cisco. This tool is designed to make you deeply knowledgeable about your BGP peering relationships and traffic flows throughout your infrastructure. It will also recommend the routing tweaks in your IGPs, BGP, RSVP-TE, and segment routing to eliminate those pesky congestion points. We also discuss the pros and cons of putting network management capabilities in the cloud.

On today's Heavy Networking, sponsored by Palo Alto Networks, we hear from Salesforce about the evolution of its branch network to SD-WAN. Salesforce was able to trade MPLS for Internet broadband, get more bandwidth for less money, employ application-based steering and policy enforcement, and more. Our guests are Georgi Stoev, Sr. Network Architect at Salesforce; and Kumar Ramachandran, Senior Vice President at Palo Alto Networks.

Nick McKeown, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford University, stops by the Heavy Networking podcast to speculate on the future of networking. Professor McKeown has been a force behind the Software Defined Networking (SDN) movement and has co-founded successful startups including Nicira and Barefoot Networks.

On today's Heavy Networking, we get practical with infrastructure-as-code, talking with sponsor Gluware about how their users have integrated network automation into their IT practices, bringing DevOps to NetOps. We also explore Gluware Lab, an IDE for network engineers can develop network features and workflows. Our guests are Olivier Huynh Van, Chief Science Officer and Co-Founder; and Michael Haugh, VP of Product Marketing.