Packet Pushers - Fat Pipe

Scott Robohn sits down with guests Lenny Giuliano and Russ White to examine whether generative AI will affect internet traffic patterns. Together they explore the role of CDNs, the importance of latency, and the potential for a shift toward edge-based inference. They also discuss the impact of data sovereignty on infrastructure and the potential return... Read more »

As more applications and services rely on AI inferencing, that means more traffic on the WAN. Yes, bandwidth can solve a lot of problems, it’s not unlimited and AI inference traffic still has to share pipes with other flows. That means things like WAN latency, determinism, security, and traffic engineering are just as important as... Read more »

Jason Gooley is a longtime member of the Cisco community and author of the latest edition of the CCNA book. Jason joins the show to share his unconventional path from a challenging childhood to technical evangelist and author at Cisco. Together they discuss the importance of community, mental health, and resilience in navigating technical career... Read more »

Today, several members of our Packet Pushers podcast team assemble to discuss whether the grass is greener on the NetOps or DevOps side of the telemetry fence. William of The Cloud Gambit, Scott of Total Network Operations, and Ned and Kyler of Day Two DevOps discuss the difficulties and differences of getting telemetry and state... Read more »

There’s always been a gap between the discovery of a security issue and the time it takes to remediate. Now AI models can autonomously find weak points and chain together actions to exploit them. How does AI change the notion of “fast enough” for network defense? On today’s sponsored episode we dig into how FireMon... Read more »

Jake Snyder joins Keith Parsons to explain the mechanics of spatial reuse in Wi-Fi. They discuss practical implementation, the trade-offs involved in increasing signal detection thresholds, and why effective RF design remains the primary method for optimizing network performance. Episode Links: Jake Snyder’s Website

Take a Network Break! Scott Robohn steps in for Johna this week. We start with some followup on 3M and then tackle the news. Arista catches up to the rest of the market on a “branch in a box” approach with new security capabilities in its VeloCloud SD-WAN, Cisco announces the Antares family of Small... Read more »

Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) remains an intriguing and reliable fabric technology, offering a unique approach to Ethernet that differs from more widely deployed fabrics such as EVPN/VXLAN. Jeff Wilson joins Ethan and Drew to share his experience designing and managing SPB-based fabrics. Together they discuss how SPB simplifies multicast, essential hardware design considerations for scaling,... Read more »

Andrew Palardy joins the hosts to discuss how Tayga, the open-source NAT64 daemon for Linux, is being updated to ensure it is up to date with all the current RFCs. Andrew explains how recent RFC compliance and UDP checksum fixes help resolve connectivity issues and how the new eBPF CLAT support arriving in NetworkManager promises... Read more »

Have you ever wondered how data actually travels through a Wi-Fi network? Holly and Ethan break down the fundamentals of wireless networking, including radio frequencies and channel planning. They also address the complexities of roaming, how the Wi-Fi space has changed over the years, and share advice on how to design and maintain a home... Read more »

What if your MCP server shipped with its own manual? Angie Jones, VP of Developer Experience at the Agentic AI Foundation, joins William and Eyvonne to break down the Skills Over MCP working group effort, which delivers Agent Skills through MCP’s existing resources primitive (think voice over IP, not skills versus MCP). Angie shares her... Read more »

Eric Chou welcomes Florian Lohden, a NetDevOps engineer and co-founder of the NetAuto Group, to discuss his community-building efforts and his latest adventures in network automation. Together they explore how adopting software development practices can help with network automation, and the importance of sharing knowledge within networking communities. Florian also talks about how he balances... Read more »

In this sponsored episode, Jonah Kowall from Spacelift joins the show to unpack the findings of the 2026 Infrastructure Automation Report. The discussion covers the “governance paradox”, where organizations have confidence in their AI oversight despite a lack of formal policies. Ned and Jonah provide actionable insights on bridging the gap between automation and the... Read more »

Some enterprises are finding reasons to pull back from a cloud-first IT strategy and run workloads in on-premises data centers. John and Johna dig into why companies are making the change, including cost and AI security. They also discuss and the strategic implications for IT, and what organizations stand to gain—and lose—from repatriation.  Episode Links:... Read more »

Unless you’ve intentionally migrated to all-IPv6, you’re operating in a dual-stack environment. And if you haven’t accounted for v6 in your monitoring and security, you leave yourself open to risks. Today we dig into some of those risks, including VPN breakouts and how attackers can use unmanaged v6 to bypass security tools. Our guest is... Read more »

Take a Network Break! In this week’s episode our red alert highlights two critical vulnerabilities in RabbitMQ, and we dig into listener follow-up about data centers in space. This week’s news coverage considers Apple’s $30 billion spending pledge to Broadcom, TSCM promising another $100 billion to build even more chip fabs in the US, and... Read more »

In this sponsored episode, HPE’s Sunalini Sankhavaram and Jose Tellado discuss the architectural evolution toward self-driving networks. Together with Ethan and Drew, they break down how integrating agentic AI enables an autonomous architecture capable of being proactive and not just reactive. They also discuss the importance of maintaining human trust in autonomous systems and how... Read more »

Tom Hollingsworth joins Scott Robohn to share his professional journey from a hands-on network engineer and CCIE to his current role leading events at Tech Field Day. He talks about the cyclical nature of networking hype, and advocates for specialized, subject-specific tech models over broad AI solutions. They also discuss the delicate art of facilitating... Read more »

Alexis and Kevin talk about their experiences attending Cisco Live alongside return guest Melina Bertholf. They offer different perspectives about the event while highlighting the importance of building professional relationships and community through in-person gatherings. They also share personal anecdotes and advice for those looking to maximize their social and professional networking efforts at tech... Read more »

Ned and Kyler welcome Andrew Brown, co-founder of ExamPro, to discuss how AI is reshaping the IT education and training landscape. They discuss why foundational technical knowledge remains vital, how AI-generated answers can make mistakes at scale, and the importance of learning how to troubleshoot when automated tools hit their limits. Episode Links: Watch this... Read more »