Network Break
Packet Pushers
Network Break keeps you informed with fast, focused analysis of IT news, products, tech trends, and business outcomes. Blending sharp commentary with a touch of humor, hosts Drew Conry-Murray & Johna Till Johnson sift through the weekly landslide of press announcements, product launches, financial reports, and marketing decks to find the stories worth talking about. You come away with the information and context to make smart decisions in your organization and career … all in the span of a (longish) coffee break.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jul 21, 2025 • 52min
NB535: Tomahawk Ultra Chops Congestion; Denmark Invests for Quantum Advantages
Take a Network Break! We begin with a listener question about a paper critiquing Shor’s Algorithm and quantum computing, and touch on a remote code execution vulnerability in Riverbed SteelCentral NetProfiler / NetExpress 10.8.7. We discuss a Cloudflare BGP misconfiguration that caused the Internet to hiccup, Broadcom’s new Tomahawk Ultra ASIC aimed for–you guessed it–AI... Read more »
Jul 14, 2025 • 51min
NB534: Arista Late to SD-WAN Party but Ready to Dance; CoreWeave Acquires GPUs, Gigawatts for $9 Billion
Take a Network Break! We start with listener follow-up on Arista market share in the enterprise, and then sound the alarm about a remote code execution vulnerability in Adobe Experience Manager. On the news front, Arista buys VeloCloud to charge into the SD-WAN market, CoreWeave acquires a cryptominer to get access to GPUs and electricity... Read more »
Jun 30, 2025 • 47min
NB533: HPE Settles With DoJ to Buy Juniper; Juniper Must Auction Mist Source Code
Take a Network Break! HPE and Juniper have settled with the US Department of Justice, allowing HPE’s $14 billion purchase to move forward. However, as part of the deal, Juniper must grant a full license to its AI Ops for Mist source code to one, or perhaps two, companies via an auction to be overseen... Read more »
Jun 24, 2025 • 52min
NB532: HPE Deploys AI Agents Into GreenLake; Wi-Fi 7 Drives Q1 Switch Sales
Take a Network Break! Our Red Alert is a remote code execution vulnerability in Roundcube. On the news front, HPE announces GreenLake Intelligence, which will bring agentic AI capabilities to the HPE portfolio, Pure Storage brings cloud-like operations for on-prem storage, and Juniper Networks adds predictive analytics to its data center ops platform. Weka rolls... Read more »
Jun 16, 2025 • 22min
NB531: Cisco Spotlights AI, Unified Management at CLUS; Ultra Ethernet 1.0 Unveiled
This week, there's a critical look at a remote code execution vulnerability in the open-source Wazuh platform. Exciting announcements from Cisco Live include a unified management platform for Meraki and Catalyst gear, featuring AI tools and security advancements. The integration of quantum key distribution with data protection methods is explored, alongside investment trends in networking highlighting the push for simplified solutions. Lastly, new SASE offerings aim to bolster security for service providers in the evolving landscape.
Jun 9, 2025 • 23min
NB530: Broadcom Hits 102.4 Tbps With Tomahawk 6; Wireshark Debuts Certificate Program
Take a Network Break! We start with two critical vulnerabilities: one affecting cloud versions of Cisco ISE, and the other for HPE StoreOnce. In the news, Broadcom announces the Tomahawk 6 ASIC with 102.4Tbits of bandwidth, SentinelOne suffers a self-imposed network outage, and the Wireshark Foundation announces its first-ever professional certification for Wireshark. Cisco rebrands... Read more »
Jun 2, 2025 • 43min
NB529: HPE Debuts 8Tbps Switch with Onboard DPUs; NVIDIA Revenues Run Wild
Take a Network Break! We start with a Red Alert for the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Tool, which has an unpatched (as of recording time) vulnerability that could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code. On the news front, Salesforce ponies up $8 billion for Informatica to improve data governance capabilities, Google researchers revise estimates of... Read more »
May 27, 2025 • 28min
NB528: IP Fabric Adds Firewall Rule Simulation; Extreme Networks Debuts Agentic AI in Platform ONE
Take a Network Break! We begin with a Red Alert for critical vulnerabilities Kubernetes Gardener. Up next, a threat actor has been squatting on unused CNAME records to distribute malware and spam, and IP Fabric rolls out a new firewall rule simulation capability to let administrators test the effect of firewall rules on traffic patterns.... Read more »
May 19, 2025 • 43min
NB527: AWS Releases AI Agent for VMware Migration; Cisco Bullish On Customer AI Spending
Take a Network Break! Guest co-host Tom Hollingsworth steps in for Johna Johnson. We start with Google patching a significant Chrome vulnerability and de-elevating Chrome running with admin rights when it launches on Windows. On the news front, we discuss a report, unconfirmed as of recording time, that Arista is acquiring VeloCloud, then discuss Broadcom... Read more »
May 12, 2025 • 39min
NB526: Cisco Unveils Quantum Networking Prototype; Arista Earns Record Revenues
Take a Network Break! We start with follow-up from a listener on the best way to listen to our podcast that helps the most. The answer? Any listen on any platform helps. Even better is to tell a friend! We discuss two critical security issues. First, CISA adds active exploits against known SonicWall vulnerabilities to... Read more »
