HN821: Boring Network Design Is Good
Ethan Banks sits down with Ryan Hamel at the 96th North American Network Operators’ Group (NANOG96). Ryan, a network automation developer for the Zayo Group, talks about why boring network design is actually a good thing. He and Ethan explore why simplicity and standardization are key to long-term success. They also emphasize the importance of... Read more »IPB197: SLAAC and the End of DHCP?
Today our hosts discuss the essential role of Stateless Address Autoconfiguration (SLAAC) in successfully deploying an IPv6-mostly network. SLAAC is required to assign a unique IPv6 address to the Customer-side Translator (CLAT), which allows devices to operate on IPv6. However, enterprise operators might prefer using DHCPv6 for network tracking and accountability, potentially trapping them in... Read more »N4N052: Multicast Part 2
Lenny Giuliano, Sr. Distinguished Systems Engineer at HPE Juniper Networks, joins Holly and Ethan for another round of multicast. Part two helps fill in details not covered in episode 50. They cover how multicast traffic also affects Ethernet frame addressing, and the key differences between IPv4 and IPv6 multicast. They also explain new hybrid multicast... Read more »D2DO299: The State of Platform Engineering and DevEx
Ned and Kyler discuss the state of platform engineering, DevEx, and how AI is affecting choices in those domains with guest Annem Shah. They discuss how AI can help bridge the gap between initial setup and continuous operations by providing feedback and interpreting complex error messages. They also break down how AI can assist in... Read more »NAN118: The Importance of the Data Behind AI in Networks (Sponsored)
When applying AI to network operations and automation, a strong data foundation is essential. In this sponsored episode, Eric Chou and Scott Robohn are joined by Surya Nimmagadda, Chief Data Scientist; and Joby Rudolph, Senior Distinguished Engineer, both from Selector. They discuss the importance of transparency in their data and how it can instill confidence... Read more »HW074: Build Your Own Access Point with Bradley Wegner
Keith Parsons is joined by Bradley Wegner, the creator of the Build Your Own AP deep dive at WLPC. Brad discusses his class, which focuses on hands-on hardware experience of constructing an AP. He talks about balancing hardware costs with capabilities, sourcing the components, and the software and firmware involved. He also shares his vision... Read more »PP103: FireMon Brings Clarity to Firewall Rule Chaos (Sponsored)
Firewall policies are the heart of network security, but over time they can become a tangled mess. Rules might be outdated, or conflicting, or fail to address new applications, services, and risks. Add in remote locations and public cloud deployments, and you’ve got a serious headache for security and network teams. On today’s sponsored show... Read more »NB568: Arm Reaches for More AI Revenue with In-House CPU; Debating the FCC Router Ban
Take a Network Break! Mozilla is our Red Alert topic, with critical vulnerabilities in Firefox and Thunderbird. On the news front, we cover a string of security announcements from Palo Alto Networks, including a new certificate management service to help organizations keep up with shrinking cert lifetimes. Cisco announces new protections for AI agents and... Read more »Tech Bytes: Build Your Automation Foundation on Infrahub’s Data Management Platform (Sponsored)
Today on the Tech Bytes podcast we talk network automation. More specifically, we dig into the need for proper data management to support your network automation initiatives. Automation relies on accurate, up-to-date information about your infrastructure, but that information can be scattered across innumerable repositories, systems, and spreadsheets. And it may, or may not, be... Read more »TNO059: Design for Operations: Getting Vendor Support in the Ops Ecosystem
Scott Robohn and networking expert Russ White dive into the concept of design for operations. That is, they look at how to connect the design of a protocol or solution to how people are actually going to use it. They examine how protocol designers often overlook the teams that must operate them, creating some “inoperable”... Read more »HN820: Cyber Week 2026 Wrap Up with Palo Alto Networks: Agents, Prisma AIRS and NGTS (Sponsored)
Palo Alto Networks released a slew of product news at the 2026 RSA conference around AI security, SASE, and a new certificate lifecycle management offering. On today’s Heavy Networking, sponsored by Palo Alto Networks, Ethan and Drew dig into these announcements to get details about how they work. They also talk about the risks of... Read more »LIU011: Inside the Digital Nomad Life: The Good, The Hard, and the Wi-Fi
Alexis Bertholf and Kevin Nanns sit down for a conversation with Andrei Istrate, Senior Mobile Developer at Toptal. Andrei has taken the “mobile” part of his job literally: he’s built a life around travel and experiences rather than settling in one location. Andrei talks about the travel opportunities that remote work has presented, how he... Read more »TCG072: AI and the Automation Engineer – When Your Scripts Start Writing Themselves
William Collins and Eyvonne Sharp invite Skylar Sands, Senior Automation Engineer at World Wide Technology, to discuss what it means to integrate AI into the daily workflow in a meaningful way. Together they break down the shift in the automation engineer’s role now that AI can instantly generate the “toolkit” of Python, Ansible, and Bash,... Read more »NAN117: What You May Have Missed from AutoCon 4
Eric Chou is joined by returning guest, Danny Wade a.k.a. Devnet Dan, to unpack everything you missed from AutoCon 4. AutoCon 4 had a heavy focus on AI’s role in network automation and Danny was there in person, has already blogged about his insights, and is here to break down the trends, takeaways, and key... Read more »D2DO298: Spacelift Intelligence: Infrastructure Keeping Pace with AI-Enhanced Development (Sponsored)
On today’s sponsored episode, Ned Bellavance and Kyler Middleton welcome guest Marcin Wyszynski, Head of R&D at Spacelift to guide them through the potential future of IaC and how AI is changing the landscape of developer productivity, especially around infrastructure. They discuss two of Spacelift’s products, Spacelift Intent and Spacelift Intelligence. Spacelift Intent is an... Read more »PP102: What’s Driving SASE Adoption?
Spending on SASE, which combines SD-WAN and cloud-delivered security, is forecast to nearly triple over the next few years, according to Dell’Oro Group. Today on Packet Protector we talk with that forecast’s author about what’s driving that spending. We also explore how SASE vendors are differentiating, architectural considerations for SASE deployments, pros and cons of... Read more »HS128: Planning for an AI Bubble Burst
How should you shape your IT strategy around the possibility–or is it probability–that the AI economy is a true bubble and will burst soon? John Burke and Johna Johnson revisit the signs indicating that an AI bubble is in full swing and pointing to the potential for collapse in the near term. Doomsaying having been... Read more »