The Everything Feed - All Packet Pushers Pods

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast we talk with Managed Service Provider (MSP) and VMware partner of the year Softchoice on how Softchoice helps customers navigate multi-cloud and hybrid cloud deployments using VMware. We cover details about two real-world Softchoice/VMware customer use cases: a Major League Baseball team and a financial services firm.

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast we talk with sponsor Palo Alto Networks about two new approaches for supporting remote and hybrid workers. First is Okyo Garde, a new wireless mesh product to support remote work. And second, a new bandwidth-on-demand option for Palo Alto’s Prisma SD-WAN.

On today's Heavy Networking we talk about why it's important to say "No" when someone tries to put more work on you than you can handle. Guest Tom Hollingsworth wrote a controversial blog post entitled “No Is A Complete Sentence” about how to say "No," to even when it's hard to do. We talk about the nuances of this stance, the risks you take when you do, time management, balancing workloads, and more.

In this episode of IPv6 Buzz, Ed, Scott, and Tom talk about innovation using IPv6. The limitless supply of addresses creates new opportunities for network engineers and application developers, including flat networks with many more nodes, robust segmentation options, supporting overlays, and more.

Today's sponsored Tech Bytes dives into HashiCorp's Consul product to learn how it’s evolved from its humble beginnings to become a service networking platform with features including a service mesh, service discovery, network infrastructure automation, an API gateway, and more.

Today on Day Two Cloud we peel back the curtains on Google Cloud with a GCP insider to find out how Google Cloud differentiates itself, its embrace of a multi-cloud approach, and more. Our guest is Richard Seroter, Director of Outbound Product Management at Google Cloud. This is not a sponsored episode.

What about changing the work we do ? Perhaps with orchestration / automation and even AI ? So many questions, not many answers.

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast we’re talking WAN architectures and how to simplify and secure them with sponsor Cloudflare. Cloudflare's Magic WAN is a network-as-a-service offering. Customers can connect data centers, branches, and users to Cloudflare's private network; add security services; and integrate with third-party SD-WANs.

This week's Network Break podcast discuss Intel's roadmap for its Infrastructure Processing Units (IPUs). We get more insight into Nokia's deal to provide hardware for Azure, and examine why Juniper has extended its Contrail SDN platform to Kubernetes (hint: because of the cloud). Plus Cisco releases new Wi-Fi capabilities.

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 Day Two Cloud digs into an Infrastructure as Code (IaC) platform called Pulumi. Pulumi can be used to build, deploy, and manage cloud applications using familiar languages such as .Net and Java, as well as well-known tools and practices.

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast we dive into sponsor Nokia's Digital Sandbox, which creates a real-time model of a data center network by extracting state and configuration from leaf and spine switches. Network engineers can use this model to test and validate changes. We discuss how the sandbox works and how it ties into Nokia's approach to intent-based networking.

Take a Network Break! This week we cover a vulnerable implementation of a TLS module that affects switches from HPE Aruba and Extreme Networks' Avaya brand, Cisco teases a forthcoming technology called Predictive Networks that promises analytics and automated problem-solving, Fortinet announces new firewalls, and more IT news.

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.

In this episode of IPv6 Buzz Ed, Scott, and Tom celebrate 100 episodes of this podcast with two special guests: the Packet Pushers' very own Ethan Banks and Greg Ferro.

Welcome to the Tech Bytes podcast. VMware is our sponsor, and we’re discussing vRealize Network Insight Universal, the SaaS version of vRealize Network Insight. We look at how it can help with your cloud migration project.

Today's Day Two Cloud explores the Open Policy Agent (OPA), an open-source project that serves as a policy engine for cloud-native environments. According to the OPA Web site, you can use OPA to "enforce policies in microservices, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, API gateways, and more." Guest Anders Eknert walks through how it works, use cases, and more.

Contracts are caveat emptor but the client often knows little about the what they are buying and why.

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast, sponsored by Fortinet, we’re going to dig into Fortinet’s campus and branch switching and wireless LAN portfolio. You might think of Fortinet primarily as a firewall company, but they do much more.

This week's Network Break discusses quantum key distribution, a startup getting millions to develop an enterprise SONiC distribution, Juniper expanding free cert training, quarterly financial results, and more tech news.

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.

Today's Day Two Cloud explores the vastness of IPv6 and public cloud. IPv6 provides so much address space that you can use an address once for one connection and never use it again, and it isn't wasteful. The abundance of IPv6 may influence how you approach cloud applications and networks.

This week's Network Break podcast discusses Nokia deal to sell switch hardware to Microsoft running the SONiC network OS. We also cover Dell's 4.0 release of its Enterprise SONiC distribution, a test of hollowcore fiber optics by Comcast, the British government making rules about watching TV in self-driving cars, and more tech news.

Today’s Tech Bytes podcast gets into networking and security. More specifically, despite what you might hear about cloud taking over, the network still matters, and is essential to an organization’s security strategy, especially as cloud adoption and remote work drive the need for hybrid IT. We’re going to address this topic with sponsor Fortinet.

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.

In this episode of IPv6 Buzz we talk about what a Proof of Concept (PoC) lab is and why you probably need one as part of your IPv6 initiative. We discuss technical challenges and considerations, how much of your production network you need to model, learning opportunities that come with a lab, and more.

Today's Day Two Cloud gets into application security and working with developers to make sure code is sanitized and tested. Writing secure code at the outset can dramatically reduce risk and help simplify operations and security. Our guest is Tanya Janca, founder of We Hack Purple. We Hack Purple offers free training courses for people who want to get into security.

Take a Network Break! This week we cover several acquisitions including Barracuda Networks being bought by KKR, SailPoint being picked up by Thoma Bravo, Perforce buying Puppet, and Intel snapping up Ananki to get into the private 5G market. Plus more tech news.

Today on Tech Bytes podcast we talk with Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, about the evolution of Wi-Fi standards, why Aruba is seeing the fast take-up of Wi-Fi 6E, practical enhancements in 6E, and what to expect with Wi-Fi 7.

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.

We start debating the nature of technical debt. What is it, how is it created before moving into solutions. Then we take an unexpected turn into operational debt, why its more important and how software defined has delivered solutions here. Also, we dunk on digital transformation.

Today's Day Two Cloud episode bites into OpenZiti, an open-source project that brings zero trust principles to networks and applications. OpenZiti builds an overlay network to enforce zero trust. It has several moving parts including edge routers, a controller, and SDKs. OpenZiti was created by NetFoundry, our sponsor for this episode. Guest Clint Dovholuk takes us through the nitty-gritty of how it works.

Headlines about ‘great resignation’ tend to ignore that people are moving jobs not quitting work. We believe many people are making choices about what work they want in their lives. We discuss four reasons: 1) toxic workplaces 2) lifestyle and remote work 3) downstepping and 4) early retirement. We note that recruiters are toxic arms... Read more »

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast we talk with sponsor Nokia about its Edge Network Controller, a Kubernetes-based application that lets you configure switch hardware in edge cloud locations and support a NetOps environment for edge deployments.

This week's Network Break discusses AMD's $1.9 billion bid for Pensando, why Juniper is partnering with Synopsys on silicon photonics, a new application access control feature from Cato Networks, and a new mainframe from IBM and a new lawsuit against it. Plus more tech news!

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.

In this episode of IPv6 Buzz Ed, Scott, and Tom talk about some of the challenges and best-practices when troubleshooting IPv6, including tools that work for IPv4 and v6, online test sites, and more.

On today's Tech Bytes podcast, we discuss the importance of getting the underlay network architecture correct with sponsor Singtel. And we don’t mean just the circuits. We mean the management of the underlay as well.

Today's Day Two Cloud is a discussion about how to build your multicloud fluency. That is, having knowledge of, and competence in, more than one cloud. The short answer? Learn to code. That's the position of our guest Forrest Brazeal, and he brings his justifications.

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast we’re talking about disaggregated optical networks and what they mean for both customers and carriers when it comes to issues such as service delivery and cost. Our sponsor is Arelion.

Today's Network Break examines new network fabric automation capabilities from Aruba, new network and security gear from Arista that opens up brand new markets for the company, a cloud-native firewall for AWS from Palo Alto Networks, an update on an attack against a satellite network, and more tech news.

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.

On today’s sponsored Day Two Cloud episode with Cisco ThousandEyes, we discuss how to monitor what’s broken in public cloud services. With the right information, you can offer a nuanced, knowledgeable answer when executives want to know when the company’s crucial customer-facing app hosted on a bunch of cloud services is coming back online.

What makes a technology strategy ? Where do you start ? Are you business or solution centric ? Being a leader means risk and funding, being a follower is simpler and faster. What questions should you be asking when establishing an IT strategy ? Heavy Strategy is where the questions are more important than the... Read more »

Johna believes that API management is part of IT operations. Greg doesn't understand the question and so we set off in search of answers.

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast we’re sponsored by Palo Alto Networks, which is expanding its cloud partnership by integrating with Azure to help customers achieve a multicloud strategy.

Today's Network Break discusses Aruba Networks moving closer to HPE GreenLake with a new reseller-focused way to sell network gear, how data center design hampered fire fighting at an OVHcloud facility, Okta's response to a January security incident, Intel's request for US government dollars, and more IT news.

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.

Today's IPv6 Buzz discusses how to sell IPv6 as a project. That is, doing the advocacy work in your organization to drive IPv6 adoption. We examine the business and technical arguments you can make, including tying IPv6 to initiatives around cloud, containers, and zero trust.

On today's Tech Bytes with sponsor Singtel, we look at SD-WAN as a critical network feature for cloud access, including the use of overlays to simplify operations. We also discuss why organizations might consider a service provider for SD-WAN and dig into Singtel's SD-WAN offering.