Packet Pushers - Fat Pipe

Where there are containers, there is networking. Today we dig into the networking that underlies Kubernetes, the open source orchestration platform for container-based applications. Our guest Karim El Jamali takes us through the essential concepts: Nodes, pods, clusters, CNIs, virtual ethernet pairs, ingress controller, eBPF, and service meshes. As container-based applications grow in popularity, it’s... Read more »

Is WebAssembly (Wasm) here to replace containers? Not really, says guest Matt Butcher. Instead, Wasm is here for a specific kind of workload: One that needs to start super fast (under a millisecond), handle something, and then shutdown. Containers are still best for running very long, I/O intensive multithreaded workloads. Matt, Michael, and Kristina discuss... Read more »

Life isn’t easy for someone looking for a job in tech. There are lots of content mills pushing the idea that if you just pass this one six-month course, you’ll have a six-figure career in no time. There are lots of hiring companies who make job applicants jump through a ton of hoops, but often... Read more »

You’re already running IPv6, even if you don’t know it yet. Your remote users are using it at their homes, your printers come with it built into the kernel, your generals are using it on their mobile phones (check out our news headlines section). So let’s stop trying to disable it whack-a-mole style, and start... Read more »

On today’s Tech Bytes, we explore SR Linux, the network operating system developed by today’s sponsor Nokia. Why should you care about the network OS running in your data center? Nokia designed SR Linux to support automation, orchestration, and customization. We’ll dig into SR Linux’s support for YANG and gNMI and how that ties into... Read more »

Take a Network Break! Nvidia announces new 800G switches, one for Ethernet and one for InfiniBand, for building AI fabrics. Nvidia also announces an “AI supercomputer,” a rack-scale pre-built bundle of Nvidia GPUs and CPUs connected via InfiniBand switches. The NaaS startup Meter announces new campus switches and what it calls a “digital twin” capability,... Read more »

Fiserv is one of the largest payment processors in the world, In 2023 it handled more than 35 billion transactions worth $2.03 trillion US dollars. Its network is critical to the business. The organization knew it needed network automation, but early attempts got some things wrong. On today’s Heavy Networking we talk about how Fiserv... Read more »

In this episode of the Kubernetes Unpacked Podcast, Kristina and Michael catch up with Mark from Yellowbrick to talk about all things underlying architecture. Very rarely do we get a vendor to chat about what’s going on underneath the hood and how a particular application stack/tool is running, so this was an awesome episode! Mark... Read more »

In this podcast episode, Randy Horton from Orthogonal and Ian Sutcliffe from AWS discuss the complexities of supporting regulated medical devices in the cloud. They explore the challenges of adhering to regulations, the importance of security, and the need for robust frameworks. The conversation highlights the non-prescriptive nature of regulations, encouraging best practices rather than... Read more »

Welcome back for Part 2 of Eric’s interview with Roman Dodin, co-creator of containerlab. Roman describes containerlab as a “lab as code” tool that quickly and easily creates virtual networking topologies. With increased automation and containerization in network engineering, the tool’s popularity has exploded. We talk about how folks contribute to containerlab’s development and what... Read more »

What does having a tech strategy actually do for an organization? In today’s episode, Greg and Johna highlight how a good tech strategy benefits a company: creates a foundation of first principles, reduces bias in vendor decisions, better allocates human resources, kills bad ideas, sunsets projects, and makes meetings a little more enjoyable and harmonious.... Read more »

This episode is for IT professionals who work in small- to medium-sized businesses and are expected to handle cybersecurity on top of issues like “my camera isn’t working on Zoom.” Guest Joe Stern has been filling this role for an 80-person company for almost 30 years. We talk about how he prioritizes risks, security tools... Read more »

Medical devices are an essential element of patient care. They’re also network-connected devices that need resilient connectivity and security. On today’s Tech Bytes we examine the challenges of supporting and securing connected medical devices, including threats, vulnerabilities, and regulatory frameworks. We’ll also discuss strategies and best practices to manage medical device risks and ensure the... Read more »

This week on Network Break we discuss a new on-prem version of NetBox Labs’ source-of-truth software with enterprise support, why Selector AI is adding an LLM to its operations and observability product, and whether a new Web application firewall from Cloudflare can protect LLMs against malicious prompts. Viavi Solutions consolidates the network testing space with... Read more »

Matt Horn built a data center network through automation, remotely. This is the future of network engineering. Matt shares how his team did it technically: Terraform, a little Ansible, leveraging pipelines, etc. But he also shares the processes and culture that made it happen: Management and peer buy-in, tight enforcement based on user access, and... Read more »

CI/CD is not a villain. GitOps is not some kind of Kubernetes way of sneaking around it. In fact, GitOps falls under the CI/CD umbrella. Marcus Noble joins the show today to talk about how he uses a Kubernetes-native, open-source CI/CD framework called Tekton to test Kubernetes cluster creation, configuration, and deletion based on changes... Read more »

What if you could eliminate the burdens of networking without losing your control and visibility of the network? That’s the idea behind Nile. With Nile co-managing the network, you don’t have to spend all your time chasing down tickets, running patches, and dealing with CLI syntax. Instead you get to focus on higher level tasks... Read more »

According to Bryson Bort, you can build higher metaphorical fences, electrify them, and have sharks with laser beams prowling the moat, but attackers are still going to get through the security perimeter. That’s why the priority of any IT team should be to identify anomalies and anticipate attack logic. To do this, organizations need to... Read more »

SecOps, NetOps, and help desks need integrated data, increased context, and the ability to quickly understand interdependencies in order to take on the complex tasks facing them. That’s why ThousandEyes is now integrated with Cisco Secure Access, Cisco’s SSE solution. Tune in to learn about ThousandEyes’ deeper visibility, system process metrics, streamlined test setup, and... Read more »

This week we discuss a new network observability offering from Arista that integrates network telemetry with application data, why startups such as Groq and Taalas think they can break Nvidia’s grip on the AI chip market, and how Microsoft is hedging its LLM bets. Amazon goes nuclear with the purchase of a reactor-powered data center... Read more »