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
Oct 19, 2026 • 38min
NB596: Cisco, NVIDIA Plug New Optical Form Factor; TSMC Etches Another Record Quarter
Matt Heim, Head of Partner Enablement at Meter, discusses building the next generation of network engineers. Topics include Cisco and NVIDIA’s denser optical pluggables, photonic quantum computing with GPUs, New York’s quantum fabrication plans, and major telecom and chip-industry deals. Plus, a curious tale of internet packets delivered by pigeon.
Oct 13, 2026 • 49min
NB595: Arista Racks Up New AI Infrastructure Options; Arelion Expands Existing Fiber Optics Capacity
Taylor Edema, vice president of product management at Palo Alto Networks, joins a fast-moving discussion on critical Dell and SonicWall vulnerabilities. The conversation explores Cisco’s quantum networking controller, Arista’s open rack-scale AI fabrics, Cloudflare’s push toward certificate authority status, hijacked country domains, expanded Amsterdam–London fiber capacity, and satellite networks reshaping connectivity.
Oct 5, 2026 • 43min
NB594: Visa Offers AI Security Software Free of Charge; Meta’s 1Pb Subsea Cable Puts Petal to the Metal
Giovanni Richard Piazzentine, an enterprise technology practitioner and Velocity Room advocate, joins a wide-ranging discussion on Citrix NetScaler vulnerabilities, Visa’s open-source AI security harness, and an Azure networking outage. They explore medical-device patching, carrier collaboration, Meta’s petabit subsea cable, European cloud and satellite sovereignty, optical interconnects for AI, and new quantum research facilities.
15 snips
Sep 28, 2026 • 44min
NB593: AI Agents Come for Your Network; Google to Send TPUs Into Orbit
Sabina Anja, Broadcom’s chief technologist and executive advisor for VMware Cloud Foundation, explores private cloud, enterprise infrastructure, and AI platforms. They discuss agentic AI in network operations, customizable safeguards, China’s Broadcom review, quantum computing, Bluetooth tracking from orbit, and Google’s space-based TPU experiments. Anja also unpacks VMware AI Factory architecture, model catalogs, multitenancy, telemetry, and networking for AI workloads.
14 snips
Sep 21, 2026 • 47min
NB592: AWS Recommends UAE Migration; FCC Wants More Spectrum for Satellite Broadband
Daniel Caruso, IT network and systems administrator at Ohio-based Beaver Excavating, joins a wide-ranging discussion. Topics include critical Cisco ISE vulnerabilities, temporary zero-trust connectivity, AWS urging workload moves from UAE data centers, and Nokia’s AI-powered edge operations. They also explore risky AI behavior, high-altitude communications, quantum computing, quantum-safe encryption, and expanded satellite broadband spectrum.
9 snips
Sep 14, 2026 • 37min
NB591: Altera Adds PQC to FPGAs; Europe Spend Billions to Boost Satellite Broadband
Scott Robohn, a network operations professional, consultant, and technology writer, joins the conversation on urgent Ivanti and MikroTik vulnerabilities, AI-assisted security workflows, and Qualcomm’s efficient AI silicon. They explore Cisco’s quantum sensing research, Altera’s updatable post-quantum FPGA protection, and the intensifying satellite broadband race, including major European investments and AT&T’s enterprise plans.
8 snips
Sep 8, 2026 • 28min
NB590: Blue Origin Wins NASA Bid for Mars Telecoms; Fortinet Offers High School Hackers Curriculum
Mars is getting a telecom network as NASA awards Blue Origin up to $700 million for an orbiting communications system. The discussion also covers critical Aruba vulnerabilities, simultaneous AI service outages, VMware’s private-cloud AI strategy, AWS-Azure connectivity, and Tailscale’s just-in-time access controls. Plus, Fortinet launches a free cybersecurity curriculum for high school students.
10 snips
Aug 31, 2026 • 31min
NB589: OpenAI Makes Cyber Mess, Wants World to Clean It Up; Cisco Strategizes Infrastructure Identity
AI and cybersecurity collide as OpenAI calls for global cyber defense while Nvidia expands its grip on models, GPUs, cloud infrastructure, and physical AI. The discussion covers critical IBM AIX flaws, Chrome’s defense against stolen session cookies, Cisco and Teleport’s push for infrastructure identity, and major cloud, networking, and chip-industry moves.
7 snips
Aug 24, 2026 • 31min
NB588: Active Threats Target Siemens PLCs; IBM Chills Qubits With Modular Cryogenics
A Red Alert on active threats targeting Siemens PLCs and the risks from scanning and AI-assisted exploits. A rundown of multiple critical vulnerabilities in Oracle LDAP and Cisco Secure Workload urging urgent patching. Big silicon news as Marvell inks a major deal with Google. IBM unveils modular cryogenics to cool and scale superconducting quantum processors.
16 snips
Aug 17, 2026 • 36min
NB587: US Calls for CyberSec Privateers; Oracle To Rent Out Quantum Computers
They unpack a cluster of critical LXD container vulnerabilities and urge urgent patching. Palo Alto's new AI-powered security evaluation service and SonicWall's SMB endpoint agent get a close look. The White House plan to authorize private cyber operations sparks debate on legal risks and practical hurdles. Oracle hosting a quantum system and LoRaWAN relay and provisioning updates round out the tech news.
