PP093: Security Priorities for 2026 – A Roundtable Discussion
The start of a new year is a good time to assess what’s important. We’ve gathered some Packet Protector listeners to talk about their security priorities for 2026 in a roundtable discussion with hosts JJ and Drew. We talk about key risks for 2026, whether those risks have changed since last year, use cases for... Read more »NB558: Microsoft Buys Indulgences for Carbon Sins; Starlink Cleared for 7,500 More Satellites
Take a Network Break! This week we start with follow-up from a perhaps not-so-red Red Alert, and then cover two very-red Red Alerts. On the news front, Ruckus Wireless gets a new parent company, and sources say Extreme Networks may be interested in bringing Ruckus into its fold. AT&T rolls out an IoT management offering,... Read more »TNO053: Ethernet Is Everywhere
Ethernet is everywhere. Today we talk with one of the people responsible for this protocol’s ubiquity. Doug Boom is a veteran of the Ethernet development world. His code has helped landers reach Mars, submarines sail the deep seas, airplanes get to their gates, cars drive around town, and more. Doug walks us through the origins... Read more »HN810: AI in Network Operations: Pragmatism Over Hype (Sponsored)
Are you an AI skeptic or an enthusiast? Ethan and Drew sit down with Igor Tarasenko, Senior Director of Product Software Architecture and Engineering at Equinix, to break down the reality of AI in the network. In this sponsored episode, Tarasenko discusses why APIs are the new CLI, the critical need for observability in AI,... Read more »LIU006: Stay Technical While Expanding Your Influence
Is it possible for IT professionals to remain technical when moving into roles that expand influence, scale, and reach? Matt Starling, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Ekahau and co-founder of the WiFi Ninjas podcast, joins Alexis and Kevin to share how your career can evolve beyond on-call operations without losing the technical core. His... Read more »NAN110: Bridging Industry, Academia, and the Future of Network Automation with Dr. Levi Perigo
Eric Chou is joined by Dr. Levi Perigo, Scholar in Residence and Professor of Network Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. They discuss Levi’s non-traditional career path from being in the network automation industry for 20 years before shifting to academia and co-founding QuivAR. Levi also dives into the success of the CU Boulder... Read more »TCG066: How Infrastructure Teams Can Scale Reasoning Without Losing Control with Chris Wade
The industry has pivoted from scripting to automation to orchestration – and now to systems that can reason. Today we explore what AI agents mean for infrastructure with Chris Wade, Co-Founder and CTO of Itential. We also dive into the brownfield reality, the potential for vendor-specific LLMs trained on proprietary knowledge, and advice for the... Read more »PP092: News Roundup–Old Gear Faces New Attacks, Cyber Trust Mark’s Trust Issues, Alarms Howl for Kimwolf Botnet
Everything old is new again in this Packet Protector news roundup, from end-of-life D-Link routers facing active exploits (and no patch coming) to a five-year-old Fortinet vulnerability being freshly targeted by threat actors (despite a patch having been available for five years). We also dig into a clever, multi-stage attack against hotel operators that could... Read more »HS122: Insider Threats in the Age of AI
Leaders may shy away from thinking about insider threats because it means assuming the worst about colleagues and friends. But technology executives do need to confront this problem because insider attacks are prevalent—a recent study claims that in 2024, 83% of organizations experienced at least one—and on the rise. Moreover, AI and deepfakes vastly enhance... Read more »
NB557: Meta Goes Nuclear; Arista Taps EVPN VXLAN for Massive Mobility Domains
Take a Network Break! The virtual donut factory is back from hiatus, and we’ve got a fresh batch to pass around as we discuss the week’s tech news. We start with an emergency patch for Cisco ISE, then dig into a set of new product announcements from Arista including a new ability to deploy wireless... Read more »HN809: EVPN All the Things!
It’s been over a decade since the first Packet Pushers podcast on EVPN. Now, guest Jeff McAdams can legitimately suggest that we “EVPN all the things.” Hosts Ethan Banks and Drew Conry-Murray dig into Jeff’s stance on EVPN/VXLAN. They look at how VXLAN and EVPN work; talk about use cases in the data center, the... Read more »N4N046: In-Band vs. Out-of-Band Management
Ethan and Holly discuss the major differences between In-band and Out-of-band (OOB) management and the pros and cons of both. They explore how to implement a proper OOB network and critical use cases where OOB is required. They also explain the differences and roles of the data plane, the control plane, and the management plane.... Read more »IPB191: IPv6 Predictions for 2026
Will Microsoft’s CLAT bring widespread adoption rates for IPv6? Will there be significant advancements in corporate and cloud adoption as well? Will this finally be the year we see the fix for the RFC 6724? Ed Horley, Tom Coffeen, and Nick Buraglio make their predictions for the new year in the first IPv6 Buzz of... Read more »D2DO291: From Politics to Machine Learning and AI Engineering
Marina Wyss, Senior Applied Scientist at Twitch, joins Kyler and Ned to discuss her unique path from political science to AI Engineering. Wyss clarifies the difference between AI Engineering and Machine Learning Engineering and offers practical advice for aspiring engineers who want to incorporate data science, AI, and machine learning into their work. She digs... Read more »IPB190: IPv6 in Kubernetes Deployments
Kubernetes is a popular container orchestration platform. Today’s IPv6 Buzz episode explores the benefits of using IPv6 in Kubernetes, and how Kubernetes uses IP addresses in both the control plane and data plane.We also address why the adoption rate is estimated to be so low, from default configurations to issues with non-IPv6-aware applications inside containers.... Read more »N4N045: Audience Follow Up & 2026 Preview
If you’re curious as to what Ethan and Holly have in store for 2026, they give you a sneak peak on today’s episode. Hint: Some of these topics might include letters like B, G, P, Q, o, S, A and I. They also take time in this episode to answer listener questions, ranging from how... Read more »D2DO290: AI’s Impact on Developer Productivity Vs. Development Productivity
Ned Bellavance and Kyler Middleton are joined by Rachel Stephens, Research Director at RedMonk, to discuss the state of DevOps and the impact of AI. They explore the distinction between developer productivity and development productivity, underlined by a DORA report finding that while AI dramatically boosts individual developer productivity, it often fails to improve overall... Read more »NAN109: Simplify Your Network Operations with Extreme (Sponsored)
Today Eric Chou dives deep into network automation and operational simplicity with guest Hardik Ajmera, VP of Product Management at Extreme Networks. In this sponsored episode, they talk about the ‘network fabric’, Extreme Platform ONE, and, of course, what’s next with AI in the world of enterprise networking. Hardik also shares how customers in complex... Read more »PP091: News Roundup–Securing MCP, Hunting Backdoors, and Getting the Creeps From AI Kids’ Toys
Our final news roundup for 2025 is a holiday sampler of tasty, chewy (and a few yucky) confections. We look at a years-long exploit campaign that used browser extensions to steal credentials, inject malicious content, and track behavior; tracks ongoing exploits using the React2Shell vulnerability; and debates whether a surveillance camera maker’s pledge to follow... Read more »HS121: Digital Security Teammates: From Fantasy to Operational Reality (Sponsored)
Your next security teammate might not be a traditional hire — it could be a Digital Security Teammate (DST),” says Secure.com CEO Uzair Gadit. In this sponsored episode, Uzair explains the concept of a DST and how it differs from an AI SOC. He highlights the operational and business benefits of deploying DST, including improved... Read more »