0520 HS104: How Long Should Your Planning Horizon Be?
How far ahead should you plan, and what things belong in your strategic plan? Conventional wisdom holds that a 3-year planning horizon is “about right”–but in a period of rapid technical and geopolitical change (such as we’re arguably in right now) does that go too far out, particularly when agile methodologies recommend shorter action plans... Read more »
NB527: AWS Releases AI Agent for VMware Migration; Cisco Bullish On Customer AI Spending
Take a Network Break! Guest co-host Tom Hollingsworth steps in for Johna Johnson. We start with Google patching a significant Chrome vulnerability and de-elevating Chrome running with admin rights when it launches on Windows. On the news front, we discuss a report, unconfirmed as of recording time, that Arista is acquiring VeloCloud, then discuss Broadcom... Read more »Tech Bytes: Nix AI Risks With Palo Alto Networks Prisma AIRS, Prisma Access Browser (Sponsored)
AI is no longer on the horizon. It’s part of how people and products work today. And as AI finds its way into more business applications and processes, it can create new risks. On today’s Tech Bytes, sponsored by Palo Alto Networks, we talk about how Palo Alto Networks is addressing those risks so that... Read more »HN781: CCIE Service Provider Free Workbook & Track Update
While studying for the CCIE Service Provider certification, Andrew Ohanian assembled a workbook to help him prepare. It’s packed with lab exercises, and Andrew has turned it into a free Web resource that anyone can access. On today’s Heavy Networking, we talk with Andrew about what’s in the guide, the state of the CCIE SP,... Read more »TNO029: The Power of Curiosity With Michael Costello
Michael Costello shares his career journey on today’s Total Network Operations. Currently on the Board of Directors at NANOG and a Distinguished Engineer at Saviynt, Michael talks about his early days learning the ropes as a junior network engineer, trying to start an ISP, his stint in graduate school, and a very interesting role at... Read more »IPB175: IPv6 Basics – Link-Local Addresses
Our IPv6 Basics series continues with link-local addresses. Link-local addresses are unicast addresses used for addressing on a single link. The intent of link-local addresses is to let devices that may not have a router or global unicast address allocation mechanism still be able to communicate on a network segment. On today’s show we dig... Read more »N4N026: What Is a Tunnel?
Let’s dig into tunnels. While some network engineers may want to quibble, a tunnel is when you put one packet inside of another packet to carry it across a network (frames also come into the picture, so hold off on your follow-ups for now). On today’s N Is For Networking, Ethan and Holly explore this... Read more »D2DO272: The Physics of DevOps
How do you measure developer performance and productivity? On today’s Day Two DevOps, we look at different methods with guest Laura Tacho, the CTO at DX. We explore industry benchmarks such as the DORA report, SPACE, and DevEx. Laura also introduces us to Core 4, a project she’s been working on that provides a new... Read more »PP062: Hunting for Host Security and Performance Issues with Stratoshark
Stratoshark is a new tool from the Wireshark Foundation that analyzes system calls on a host. Network, security, and application teams can use Stratoshark to diagnose performance issues and investigate behavior that may indicate malware or other compromises of the host. On today’s Packet Protector we talk with Gerald Combs of the Wireshark Foundation about... Read more »HW052: How Capable Is My Wi-Fi Client?
Today on Heavy Wireless we welcome Francois Verges, who designed a database tool to help Wi-Fi engineers easily find client device capabilities. It provides quick access to key specs like data rates, Wi-Fi versions, and vendor documentation. It’s designed to be a go-to option when looking for Wi-Fi client specifications. We discuss why he developed... Read more »NB526: Cisco Unveils Quantum Networking Prototype; Arista Earns Record Revenues
Take a Network Break! We start with follow-up from a listener on the best way to listen to our podcast that helps the most. The answer? Any listen on any platform helps. Even better is to tell a friend! We discuss two critical security issues. First, CISA adds active exploits against known SonicWall vulnerabilities to... Read more »Tech Bytes: Sharpen Your Wireshark Skills at SharkFest’25 US (Sponsored)
SharkFest is the twice-yearly conference where Wireshark users and trainers gather to learn, share, and improve their packet and protocol analysis skills. The US version of SharkFest’25 is June 14 -19 in Richmond, VA. Gerald Combs of the Wireshark Foundation is here to tell us about why this live event needs to be on your... Read more »HN780: The Whys and Hows of Automated Network Testing
On today’s Heavy Networking we talk with Dan Wade about testing the network, inspired by Dan’s talk at AutoCon 2: “Step 0: Test the Network.” We discuss why testing is a good idea, and then explore four types of network testing, including unit tests and integration tests. We dig into Yang, RESTCONF, NETCONF and gNMI... Read more »TNO028: Move From Monitoring to Full Internet Stack Observability: New Strategies for NetOps (Sponsored)
Network monitoring, Internet monitoring, and observability are all key components of NetOps. We speak with sponsor Catchpoint to understand how Catchpoint can help network operators proactively identify and resolve issues before they impact customers. We discuss past and current network monitoring strategies and the challenges that operators face with both on-prem and cloud monitoring, along... Read more »TL013: The Process Communication Model: An Algorithm for Effective Communication
On this episode of Technically Leadership, we’re joined by Aleksandra Lemańska to learn about the Process Communication Model (PCM), a framework for enhancing communication. Alex calls PCM an algorithm for people, and it can be useful for improving interactions with engineers and technical folks operating in high-stress environments. We talk about how PCM works, understanding... Read more »N4N025: DHCP – Someone Get Me an Address!
The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) assigns an IP address to a host that joins a network, along with other information necessary for the host to communicate. DHCP also has more to it, so this week’s episode is meant to be a solid introduction to this essential network protocol. We first discuss what it is... Read more »NAN091: The Future of Autonomous Networking With Jeff Doyle
Today’s guest is Jeff Doyle, an expert in the networking industry with over 30 years of experience as a consultant, instructor, architect, author, and speaker. Eric chats with Jeff about his background and how he got into networking (spoiler: it was not a computer science degree!). The conversation explores Jeff’s current work and delves into... Read more »PP061: Comparing Breach Reports, RSAC 2025 Highlights, and a Security Awareness Soapbox
New breach reports show threat actor dwell times are dropping significantly. It’s a positive development, but there is a caveat. We discuss this caveat and other findings from the 2025 editions of the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report and the Google M-Trends Report. We also get highlights from the 2025 RSA Conference, and JJ gets... Read more »HS103: Why IT Is Like Ultimate Frisbee
It’s all well and good to develop a technology strategy, articulate and document the strategy, and agree (supposedly) on that strategy. But what do you do when one or more of the tech teams act in apparent opposition to the strategy? John and Johna discuss why this happens and what questions you need to ask... Read more »