The Fat Pipe - Most Popular Packet Pushers Pods

On today's sponsored Heavy Networking we talk with Fortinet about how it converges network and security across the breadth of its portfolio. Fortinet is best known for its firewalls, but the company also offers campus and branch switches, has a wireless portfolio, offers SD-WAN and SASE, provides AI-supported operations, and more. We also talk about Fortinet's approach to the branch office that rethinks networking, security, and performance.

This week on Network Break we dig into Microsoft's post-mortem of an attack that led to the theft of emails from multiple US government agencies, discuss Huawei rolling out a new 7nm chip despite US trade restrictions meant to thwart advanced chipmaking, examine a Cisco and Nutanix team-up, and more tech news.

Virtual Application Networks, or VANs, are today’s Heavy Networking topic. Our guest is Ted Ross, motive force behind the Skupper.io project. Skupper builds VANs in Kubernetes clusters that are conceptually like a VLAN or VPN, except that all the magic happens at layer 7. Skupper is based on the Advanced Message Queueing Protocol (AMQP), making it effectively a message bus used to interconnect application messages inside of mTLS tunnels running on top of whatever L3 network is available. If you're confused, don't be. We talk it all out, and explain why it's relevant to today's networking pros.

Today's Day Two Cloud kicks off an occasional series on cloud essentials. For the first episode we discuss the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). A VPC is an fundamental construct of a public cloud. It's essentially your slice of the shared cloud infrastructure, and you can launch and run other elements within a VPC to support your workload. Ned Bellavance walks through key VPC components including regions and AZs, networking and IP addressing, paid add-ons, data egress and associated charges, monitoring and troubleshooting, and basic security controls.

Today on Network Break we discuss Juniper integrating ChatGPT with its AI digital assistant, Microsoft's plan to unbundle Teams in the EU to fend off regulators, financial results from soon-to-be-paired Broadcom and VMware, a 5G follow-up, and more.

In today's sponsored Heavy Networking we explore new features in Cisco Thousand Eyes, an operational tool based on visibility and observability of public and private network. Thousand Eyes has continued to grow into complex operational areas such AWS Network Path, Webex performance, and integrations with Meraki to help you identify and fix network and application performance problems.

Today on Day Two Cloud we dive into the implications of licensing changes that HashiCorp has made to its popular Terraform software. In short, the company has switched from an open source to a business source license. HashiCorp says it felt compelled to make the change to ensure that some other business entity doesn't take the open-source software and turn it into a competing product (looking at you, AWS). Will the licensing change have a significant impact? For 99% of users probably not, but there are caveats and concerns to discuss. Today's show is a crossover with Chaos Lever, a weekly podcast co-hosted by Ned Bellavance and Chris Hayner that covers IT news.

Take a Network Break! On today's episode we discuss two announcements from VMware Explore 2023: a private AI offering, and a revamped NSX for public and private cloud networking. We also discuss recent rule changes at the SEC that require public companies to disclose material security incidents in a timely manner, NVIDIA's huge revenue results, SUSE going private, and more tech news.

EVPN/VXLAN is our topic on today's Heavy Networking. What is it? What’s it for? Should you deploy it? Since you’ve probably already got a network, how do you add EVPN to it? Do you need special hardware? How does EVPN impact your security design? And what are the fundamentals? Our guest with the answers is IT instructor Tony Bourke.

We’ve got more durm and strang in open source license debate, cars that don't work wihtout a network, something mumble something Fibrechannel, a security acquisition by Check Point, cheesy microchips and more.

On today's Heavy Networking we explore network and firewall automation with sponsor BackBox. BackBox has developed a platform that aims to deliver practical automation out of the box. We get under the hood to understand how it works, what it delivers, and how it addresses the challenges of network and security operations.

On today's Day Two Cloud we examine the similarities and differences among SSE and SASE, which provide cloud-delivered security; and SD-WAN, which can provide connections to these services. We also discuss the drivers for cloud-delivered security, the role of networking, where and how zero trust can come into play, some of the big players in these spaces, and more.

Today on Network Break we discuss big moves in open source, including HashiCorp switching from an open source license to "business source" and Red Hat competitors banding together to offer an alternative to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). We also discuss Google's odd attempt to get employees back to the office by charging them to stay at an on-campus hotel.

This week on Heavy Networking we've assembled a roundtable of network engineers to talk about...stuff. Each guest has brought a topic to discuss with the table, so we've got lots of subjects and lots of experiences and opinions. In particular we explore SPB, career advice, getting network automation off the ground, and the joys and perils of self-hosting.

Red teams attack a customer's security systems. The idea of a red team, whether consultants or in-house, is to approach the target like an attacker would. A red team includes technical and human-based exploit and attempts to test defenses, probe for weaknesses, and identify vulnerable systems and processes. On today's episode we look at how to get the most out of a red team engagement--it's much more than just an attack and a report.

Take a Network Break! This week we discuss new charges for IPv4 addresses being levied by AWS, Cisco's acquisition of a BGP monitoring service, and financial results for a host of tech companies. We also speak with J Metz, the Steering Committee Chair of the Ultra Ethernet Consortium to learn more about the organization's goals; and examine the efforts to investigate claims of a breakthrough in superconducting research.

On today's sponsored Heavy Networking we dig into cloud-delivered Secure Web Gateways (SWGs), which help guard end users against Web-based threats and enforce corporate Web access policies. As employees split time between home, office, and who knows where else, and as more applications move online, cloud-based SWGs help connect and protect workers. Our sponsor is Palo Alto Networks.

Today's Day Two Cloud peers inside the box of quantum computing. We explore how it works, what qbits are and why they matter, the current state of quantum computing hardware, what problems could be solved with quantum computing, and how you can get involved with it via the Qiskit open-source project. Our guest is Abby Mitchell, Quantum Developer Advocate at IBM.

On this week's Network Break we discuss a new Broadcom ASIC, a request from US Senator Ron Wyden to three US agencies to investigate Microsoft for sloppy security practices, an Intel pledge to add AI to all its platforms, Juniper financial results, and more IT news.

If you’ve been staring down the barrel of network automation and wonder what the proper approach might be, today’s episode is for you. The Packet Pushers chat with Tony Bourke about what network automation tools and techniques have become the default standard, how to prepare your network and team for automation, and how to get started.

On today's Day Two Cloud we get inside Cisco Secure Access, a new set of cloud-delivered security services from Cisco. We discuss the security capabilities on offer, the service's architecture and components, how Cisco addresses concerns around user experience and performance, and more. This is a sponsored episode.

This week on Network Break we discuss the launch of the Ultra Ethernet Consortium and its intention to revamp Ethernet to support AI and HPC workloads. We also cover NOS startup Arrcus pulling in a $65 million series D round, Fortinet launching big-iron firewalls, Huawei flexing its patent muscles in 5G and wireless, and more tech news.

On today’s Heavy Networking podcast, we look at how sponsor ZPE Systems is rethinking Out-Of-Band management for automated, NetOps-driven infrastructure. This includes tasks like device staging, deployments, upgrades, and more. And you don’t just have to take ZPE’s word for it; we also talk to a customer who’s using the products to run a retail business with a lean networking team that supports more than fifty sites.

If you want to be a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) you need strong software skills. You also have to be versed in observability, incident response, capacity planning, change management, performance, even security. But wait, there's more! Our guest on today's Day Two Cloud argues you need strong communication skills, emotional intelligence, personal resilience, and the ability to work with a team. Our guest is Amin Astaneh.

Take a Network Break! This week we discuss Intel walking away from the NUC PC, Microsoft rebranding Azure AD and launching an SSE offering, and Microsoft Exchange Online getting hacked. We also cover the EU's conditional approval of Broadcom's VMware acquisition, why Wireshark needs your help, and more IT news.

On today’s Heavy Networking we talk LACP and link aggregation. While bonding two or more links together to act as a single virtual link has been done for decades, LACP and link aggregation aren't the same thing, and the distinction matters. Our guest to get into the differences is network instructor Tony Bourke.

On today's Day Two Cloud, we talk with Microsoft about how it's embracing Terraform to make it Azure-friendly, including the Terraform Export Tool, the AzAPI Provider, and a Terraform on Azure community. This is not a sponsored episode.

On today's Network Break, Greg Ferro wishes Ethernet an unhappy birthday, HPE and BT want to manage your LAN, TSMC brings in Taiwanese workers to build new fabs in Arizona, Nokia touts new Fixed Wireless Access milestones, and more IT news.

Certifications are a part of life in IT. On today's Heavy Networking we explore preparation strategies with guest Mary Fasang. Her certs run the gamut from CompTIA to MCSE to the CCNP, as well as the PMP and ITIL certs. How should you prepare for a cert in 2023 when there’s so much content, so many training options, as well as home labbing available? How do you handle failure? Which certs have been the hardest? What study materials have proved helpful? Mary shares her strategies.

Today we talk about Large Language Models (LLMs) and writing products and applications that use LLMs. Our guest is Phillip Carter, Principal PM at Honeycomb.io. Honeycomb makes an observability tool for site reliability engineers, and Carter worked on a project called Query Assistant that helps Honeycomb users get answers to questions about how to use the product and get insights from it. We discuss taking natural language input and turning it into outputs to help SREs do their jobs.

This bonus episode of Network Break discusses a new free tier of Prosimo's multi-cloud networking offering, the latest ThousandEyes acquisition, new SEC problems for SolarWinds, and a million-dollar refrigerator.

Packet-level fundamentals are essential for network engineers to be able to diagnose and solve network and application problems. On today's Heavy Networking, we dive into the transport layer and packets with packet analysis expert and instructor Chris Greer.

Going from a tech role to manager is more than just a new gig---it's a full-blown career change. On today's Day Two Cloud we talk with management coach Steve Dwire about a manager's primary responsibilities, what new managers usually get wrong, management education vs. experience, and how to get better at the job. This episode goes places we didn't expect, so come along for the ride.

Its about reducing the cost and complexity of DWDM coherent optical networks. Connecting the DWDM network directly to your router removes the DWDM edge equipment which simplifies operation, reduce cost,space & power while improving provisioning time. How is Juniper entering this market and what do you need to know ?

Cisco announces AI Networking versions of SIlicon One ASICs and buys another DEM business. HPE Greenlake adds AI LLM. FTC talks bandwidth caps. Google accusing Microsoft of monopolistic behaviour. We laughed.

FU, vendors co-operating ? Google ditches something, Quantum computing, the state of AMD DPUs. Finally liquid cooling is toxic due to PFAS are 'forever chemicals'.

Today we’re going deep on software-defined networking for containers and OpenStack with sponsor Juniper Networks. Juniper has revamped its approach to secure networking for telcos and telco cloud-delivered services with Juniper’s Cloud-Native Contrail Networking or CN2 software. CN2 lets you automate the creation of network connections for containers and for virtual machines while also providing routing, security, segmentation and isolation of workloads. Our guest and guide into the guts of Cloud-Native Contrail Networking, hereafter referred to as CN2, is Nick Davey. Nick is Director of Product Management for SDN and Telco Cloud technologies.

Welcome to this episode of Day Two Cloud! Today, we'll be diving into the world of platform engineering and internal developer portals. Our special guest, Suzanne Daniels, Developer Relations Lead at Port, will be sharing her insights on how platform engineering can take your DevOps journey to the next level. With platform engineering, you can treat technology as a product and developers as customers, resulting in a more efficient and effective workflow.

Remote operation of infrastructure has renewed importance in the era of remote working. Opengear offers secure, zero trust and segmented methods to reach serial & LAN ports plus GUI interfaces. You can add observability agents like Thousand Eyes into containers so that your worst day becomes just another day.

Take a Network Break: Drew is on holiday (again) and Ethan shows up. Who knew he was still around ? We start with FU, Cisco Live was underwhelming announcing a new focus simplicity and that customers hate their licensing, Bluecat spends again, Hashicorp gets a financial slapping, Itential ships a new version and Quantum Space Networking.

By some estimates, 50 to 70 million tons of e-waste is generated every year, and that number is growing. When sent to landfills to be buried or burned, e-waste can leach toxic chemicals into soil and air. On today’s Heavy Networking, we’ll look at options for responsible disposal of IT gear, including repurposing it on site, reselling or donating it, and working with e-cycling companies.

Today's Day Two Cloud explores some design themes that emerged from the Cloud Field Day event. These themes include platform engineering, data protection and recovery, and how to deal with the fact that old technology never dies. Guest Michael Levan joins Ned Bellavance and Ethan Banks to discuss these themes and their implications for cloud application builders and operators.

On today’s Heavy Networking we have a conversation about monitoring, visibility, and observability with sponsor Palo Alto Networks. More specifically we’ll dig into Palo Alto Networks’ Autonomous Digital Experience Management, or ADEM product, and how Palo Alto Networks is integrating ADEM with AIOps.

This week's Network Break discusses a new Google offering to interconnect public clouds, NVIDIA's platform for AI networking fabrics using Ethernet switches and DPUs, and Cisco's latest security acquisition. We also cover Riverbed getting a new private equity owner, Amazon paying a pittance to the FTC to settle allegations of customer privacy violations, and more tech news.

If you’ve shied away from network automation because you’re a network engineer not a coder, fear not. There are network automation approaches that can help you get needful work done and don’t require a computer science degree. On today's Heavy Networking we talk with sponsor BackBox about its practical approach to network automation and dive into use cases including network OS backups and compliance.

On today's Day Two Cloud we dive into Decentralized Identity, or DID. This W3C standard is a unique identifier, authenticated by cryptographic proofs, that individuals and organizations can generate themselves using systems they trust. A DID can be a person, an object, an organization, a data model, or other subject. We explore DIDs, how they work, and what they can be used for with Dr. Joanne Friedman.

This week we discuss a new offering from DriveNets that aims to make Ethernet more suitable as a network fabric for AI workloads, why the EU slapped Meta with a $1.3 billion fine, and a new offering from Extreme Networks that lets you manage Extreme gear in the cloud or from on-prem, China banning Micron, and more IT news.

Modern F1 racing is bathed in data. Real-time vehicle telemetry. In-car video feeds. More video from camera crews and drones. Live streaming. All of this and more needs a network. On today's Heavy Networking we speak with Formula 1's David Ramsden, Senior Network Engineer; and Lee Wright, Head of IT Operations, to get the inside track on building the networks that support F1 races.

Today's show gets behind the curtain of a cloud service called Podsqueeze. Podsqueeze is an application that ingests audio and video files and then produces text-based output including a show description, an episode transcript, suggested headlines, segment timestamps, suggested social media posts, and more. The Packet Pushers are experimenting with Podsqueeze as part of our own production. Being curious nerds, we thought this was a good opportunity to see how the service really works. Our guest is Tiago Ferreira, one of the entrepreneurs and developers of Podsqueeze.

This week's Network Break looks at a new Network Access Control (NAC) offering from Juniper, plus a ChatGPT integration with Juniper's Marvis. Google debuts new Top-Level Domains that have security experts worried, Cisco reports a robust Q3, Broadcom tries to assuage EU regulators about its VMware acquisition, and more tech news.