HS115: Cyber-Risk Assessment and Cybersecurity Budgeting: You’re (Probably) Doing It Wrong
To understand how much to spend on cybersecurity, you have to accurately assess or quantify your risks. Too many people still peg their cybersecurity spend to their IT budget; that is, they’ll look at what they’re spending on IT, and then allocate a percentage of that to cybersecurity. That may have made some sense when... Read more »
NB549: Startups Take on Switch, ASIC Incumbents; Google Claims Quantum Advantage
Take a Network Break! Companies spying on…I mean, monitoring…their employees via software called WorkExaminer should be aware of a login bypass that needs to be locked down. On the news front, we opine on whether it’s worth trying to design your way around AWS outages, and speculate on the prospects of a new Ethernet switch... Read more »Tech Bytes: Why Equinix Should Be Part of Your AI Network Strategy (Sponsored)
AI infrastructure conversations tend to be dominated by GPUs, data center buildouts, and power and water consumption. But networks also play a crucial role, whether to support huge file transfers to a compute cluster, stream telemetry from edge locations to feed AI pipelines, or provide high-speed, low latency connectivity for AI agents. On today’s Tech... Read more »HN802: Unifying Networking and Security with Fortinet SASE: Architecture, Reality, and Lessons Learned (Sponsored)
The architecture and tech stack of a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution will influence how the service performs, the robustness of its security controls, and the complexity of its operations. Sponsor Fortinet joins Heavy Networking to make the case that a unified offering, which integrates SD-WAN and SSE from a single vendor, provides a... Read more »TNO047: Advice From Both Sides of the Network Aisle
Senad Palislamovic has held many roles in his time, from engineer to network operator to sales engineer and back again. He’s been around long enough to see trends come and go. Senad visits Total Network Operations to share some of his observations on network automation, AI for NetOps, and the quality of network data. Senad... Read more »IPB186: An Inside Look at RFC 9872 for Discovering v6 Prefixes
RFC 9872 makes recommendations for NAT64 prefix discovery for hosts supporting v4-to-v6 translation. Co-host Nick Buralgio is a co-author of this RFC, so we’re taking the opportunity to talk about it in detail. We discuss the problems RFC 9872 is addressing and why a new RFC was needed for operational guidance, not necessarily defining a... Read more »N4N041: Switched Virtual Interface (SVI) and Integrated Routing and Bridging (IRB)
If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between a Switched Virtual Interface (SVI) and Integrated Routing and Bridging (IRB), today’s show is for you! Ethan Banks and Holly Metlitzky start with some history and the basics of communication between layer 2 and layer 3 and then explain how the concepts of SVI and IRB... Read more »D2DO285: The Death of IaC Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
While declaring the death of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) or Terraform may get you clicks on LinkedIn, IaC is alive and kicking. On today’s Day Two DevOps we talk about why IaC still matters. Guest Malcolm Matalka argues that IaC provides the tools and a model for managing infrastructure across its lifecycle in a structured... Read more »PP083: A CISO’s Perspective on Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open-source protocol that enables AI agents to connect to data, tools, workflows, and other agents both within and outside of enterprise borders. As organizations dive head-first into AI projects, MCP and other agentic protocols are being quickly adopted. And that means security and network teams need to understand how... Read more »HW063: Designing a Wireless-First Office
A wireless-first office is a sensible goal these days when most laptops don’t have an Ethernet port and lots of devices use Wi-Fi. Wireless and network architect Phil Sosaya led the transition to wireless-first offices at sites across the globe. He details his design approach, including why he doesn’t bother with site survey software. He... Read more »NB548: Broadcom Brings Chips to Wi-Fi 8 Party; Attorneys General Scrutinize HPE/Juniper Settlement
Take a Network Break! On today’s coverage, F5 releases an emergency security update after state-backed threat actors breach internal systems, and North Korean attackers use the blockchain to host and hide malware. Broadcom is shipping an 800G NIC aimed at AI workloads, and Broadcom joins the Wi-Fi 8 party early with a sampling of pre-standard... Read more »HN801: Will a Natural Language Interface (NLI) Replace Your CLI?
Could an LLM or some kind of an AI-driven language model, such as a natural language interface, someday replace our beloved CLI? That is, instead of needing to understand the syntax of a specific vendor’s CLI, could a language model allow network operators to use plain language to get the information they need or the... Read more »TNO046: Prisma AIRS: Securing the Multi-Cloud and AI Runtime (Sponsored)
Multi-cloud, automation, and AI are changing how modern networks operate and how firewalls and security policies are administered. In today’s sponsored episode with Palo Alto Networks, we dig into offerings such as CLARA (Cloud and AI Risk Assessment) that help ops teams gain more visibility into the structure and workflows of their multi-cloud networks. We... Read more »LIU002: Do You Need a College Degree to Succeed in IT?
A college degree can be a useful stepping stone into a tech career, and it certainly doesn’t hurt to have it on your resume. But do you really need that college degree to succeed in IT? Maybe, maybe not. Today’s guest is Wes Noonan, whose non-traditional path into and through a career in IT has... Read more »TCG060: Rockets, Networks, and Markets With Michael Reid
Michael Reid went from studying aerospace engineering to becoming CEO at Megaport, a global network-as-a-service platform. How did he get there, and what can we learn from his journey? We walk his career path, including a pivotal role scaling ThousandEyes from 74 million to over 2.4x ARR post-acquisition, and how those experiences shaped his approach to... Read more »NAN103: The Evolution of Multi-Cloud Networking
We’re thrilled to welcome Tim McConnaughy back to the podcast. Tim is a hybrid cloud network architect, author, and co-host of the Cables to Cloud podcast. He recently wrote a 5-part blog series titled ‘Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road’ that reflects on his career path, including his decision to leave a startup. We discuss the impetus... Read more »PP082: Building a Workable Mobile Security Strategy In a World of Risky Apps
Today we’re bringing back one of our favorite guests — Akili Akridge. He’s a former Baltimore cop who transitioned to building and leading mobile offense and defense teams for federal agencies and Fortune 100s. These days he’s a straight-talking expert on all things mobile security. We’re digging into mobile threats, why they keep CISOs up... Read more »HS114: In or Out? Deciding Which IT Functions to Bring In or Push Out
In times of major change–whether in IT or the economy–organizations should take a fresh look at their sourcing strategy. Companies outsourcing key functions need to re-examine the reasoning and scrutinize the results. The same goes for in-house functions. IT leaders need to ask: is our sourcing strategy in line with our current corporate and IT... Read more »