N4N005: The Sort-of-Useful OSI Model

Network engineers should be familiar with the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, a framework for understanding network communications. On today’s show, Ethan and Holly delve into each of the model’s seven layers to discuss their functions, associated protocols, and practical implications for modern networking. They also talk about how the OSI model is, in fact,... Read more »

NAN080: Elevating Your Network Automation Skills and the DevNet Expert Track

Ongoing education and training is a constant in a networking career, especially if you want to advance. And certifications are a common path forward. On today’s episode, guest Andreas Baekdahl shares his journey from traditional networking to automation architect and certification instructor. Along the way, he’s had his share of challenges and failures, and he... Read more »

D2DO259: See Deep Inside Public Cloud for Greater Visibility and Troubleshooting with ThousandEyes Cloud Insights (Sponsored)

Public cloud networks can be a bit of a black box when it comes to monitoring and troubleshooting. Today on Day Two DevOps we talk with sponsor Cisco ThousandEyes about its Cloud Insights tool, which aims to open that box so you can see exactly what’s going on in your cloud networks, identify problems, help... Read more »

Is BGP PIC Edge an Oxymoron?

This blog post discusses an old arcane question that has been nagging me from the bottom of my Inbox for almost exactly four years. Please skip it if it sounds like Latin to you, but if you happen to be one of those readers who know what I’m talking about, I’d appreciate your comments.

Terminology first:

  • Prefix Independent Convergence allows entries in the forwarding table to point to shared next hops (or next-hop groups), reducing the FIB update bottleneck when changing the next hop for a large number of prefixes (for example, when dealing with a core link failure). More details in the initial blog post and PIC applicability to fast reroute.
  • PIC Edge (as defined by vendor marketing) is the ability to switch to a backup CE route advertised to a backup PE router before the network convergence is complete.

Here’s (in a nutshell) how PIC Edge is supposed to work:

From deals to DDoS: exploring Cyber Week 2024 Internet trends

In 2024, Thanksgiving (November 28), Black Friday (November 29), and Cyber Monday (December 2) significantly impacted Internet traffic, similar to trends seen in 2023 and previous years. This year, Thanksgiving in the US drove a 20% drop in daily traffic compared to the previous week, with a notable 33% dip at 15:45 ET. In contrast, Black Friday and Cyber Monday drove traffic spikes. But how global is this trend, and do attacks increase during Cyber Week?

At Cloudflare, we manage and protect a substantial amount of traffic for our customers, providing a unique vantage point to analyze traffic and attack patterns across the Internet. This perspective reveals insights like Cyber Monday being the busiest Internet traffic day of 2024 globally, followed by Black Friday, with patterns varying across countries. Notably, global HTTP request volume on Cyber Monday 2024 was 36% higher than 2023, with 5% of that traffic blocked as potential attacks.

For this analysis, we examined anonymized and aggregated HTTP requests and DNS queries across our network to uncover key patterns. Cyber Monday, December 2, was the day with peak traffic, and key findings for that day include:

PP042: CISO Liability Insurance, A Seriously Dangerous Menu Hack, and more Security News

Our monthly news roundup discusses liability insurance for CISOs (if you are one, you should get it), serious intrusions of US telecom companies by Chinese state actors (according to the FBI), and a novel attack that leapt across multiple Wi-Fi networks. We also discuss significant vulnerabilities affecting Palo Alto Networks’ Expedition migration product, how fake... Read more »

Bringing SWAG to Enterprise Campus Networking!

As client users, devices, and IoT continue to proliferate, the need for switching management and workload optimization across domains increases. Many sub-optimal and closed approaches have been designed in the past. Arista was founded to build the best software and hardware, equating to the highest performance and density in cloud/data centers, and now evolving to campus switches. In 2020, we introduced the smallest footprint of Arista CCS 750 and 720 series switches as a fitting example of the highest density and lowest footprint.

How AI Chatbots Improve Network Configuration Management

Templating and Data Representation: Aspect of Network Automation using a tailor made AI Chatbot just to handle this scenario

In today’s exploration, we’ll dive into the fascinating world of automation frameworks and how different data formats work together to create powerful, maintainable solutions. Drawing from extensive hands-on experience, I’ll share insights into how XML, JSON, and YAML complement each other in modern automation landscapes.

The Three Pillars of Automation Data Handling

  1. Expression Through XML XML has long served as the backbone of structured data expression. Its verbose yet precise nature makes it particularly valuable for scenarios requiring strict schema validation and complex hierarchical relationships. Think of XML as the detailed blueprints of your automation architecture.
  2. Serialisation with JSON JSON has revolutionised data interchange in modern applications. Its lightweight structure and native compatibility with JavaScript have made it the de facto standard for API communications. Consider JSON as your data’s travel format – efficient, universally understood, and easy to process.
  3. Presentation via YAML YAML brings human-readability to configuration management. Its clean syntax and support for complex data structures make it ideal for writing and maintaining configuration files. Think of YAML as your user interface to data representation – intuitive, clean, and Continue reading