Heavy Networking
Packet Pushers
Heavy Networking is an unabashedly nerdy dive into all things networking. Described by one listener as "verbal white papers," the weekly episodes feature network engineers, industry experts, and vendors sharing useful information to keep your professional knowledge sharp and your career growing. Hosts Ethan Banks & Drew Conry-Murray cut through the marketing spin to explore what works—and what doesn't—in networking today, while keeping an eye on what's ahead for the industry. On air since 2010, Heavy Networking is the flagship show of the Packet Pushers podcast network.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Oct 14, 2024 • 1h 9min
HN753: Getting to Know Cisco’s Network Service Orchestrator (NSO)
On today’s episode, guest James Henderson joins the Packet Pushers to discuss Cisco’s Network Service Orchestrator (NSO). NSO’s role in network automation, its declarative management approach, and the challenges it presents are some of the things James shares with the hosts. They also cover operational requirements, deployment challenges, and performance considerations, in addition to discussing... Read more »
Oct 4, 2024 • 58min
HN752: How Digital Twins Enable Smarter Network Ops, Troubleshooting (Sponsored)
Our topic today is digital twins. Sponsor Forward Networks offers software that creates a “mathematically accurate” copy of your network, be it on prem or in the cloud. We talk about what “mathematically accurate” actually means, and how a digital twin can support network operations including change control, network automation, visibility, and troubleshooting. We also... Read more »
Sep 27, 2024 • 53min
HN751: Top Tips for Building A CCIE-EI Lab
Mason Reimert, a CCIE expert, shares his journey in preparing for the Cisco CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure lab exam. He offers practical strategies for hands-on lab work with emerging technologies like SD-WAN. Mason dives into the importance of API understanding, resource management, and virtualization tools. He emphasizes the transition from traditional CCIE to the Enterprise track, all while highlighting best practices for setting up a robust lab environment. Engaging with the CCIE community is also discussed as a valuable resource for aspiring candidates.
Sep 13, 2024 • 52min
HN749: Expand Your Network Labs With Containerlab and Clabernetes
On today’s episode, we cover open source Clabernetes, a tool that allows you to run Containerlab on Kubernetes. Containerlab provides a CLI for orchestrating and managing container-based networking labs. It starts the containers, builds a virtual wiring between them to create lab topologies of your choice and manages the lab’s lifecycle. We discuss the answer... Read more »
Sep 6, 2024 • 1h 8min
HN748: How AI and HPC Are Changing Data Center Networks
On today’s episode of Heavy Networking, Rob Sherwood joins us to discuss the impact that High Performance Computing (HPC)and artificial intelligence computing are having on data center network design. It’s not just a story about leaf/spine architecture. That’s the boring part. There’s also power and cooling issues, massive bandwidth requirements, and changes in how we... Read more »
Aug 30, 2024 • 58min
HN747: Automate The Easy Things
Our Heavy Networking guest today is Hans Driessens, and we sat down at AutoCon1 to talk through some of his network automation projects. Hans shares his journey from a service engineer to a consultant specializing in network automation. We discuss the evolution of programming languages, the importance of foundational programming skills, and the practicalities of... Read more »
Aug 26, 2024 • 48min
HN746: Going Deep on OSPF Route Filtering
On today’s episode we delve into OSPF filtering. That is, how to filter routes from a device’s routing table in an OSPF environment. This is a tricky business, because OSPF requires an identical database on every device in an OSPF area. That means you can’t stop announcing a route from one OSPF router because you... Read more »
Aug 16, 2024 • 59min
HN745: Using Abstractions in Automation
Today’s episode of Heavy Networking comes to you from AutoCon1 in Amsterdam, recorded live on premises. In today’s network automation discussion, we cover abstraction layers with guest Jaakko Rautanen. Practically speaking, what are abstractions, and how do they help make your network automation project successful? We’ll also discuss some of our guest’s automation projects, how... Read more »
Aug 9, 2024 • 44min
HN744: How BackBox Helps You Mitigate CVEs for Network Devices (Sponsored)
Rekha Shenoy, CEO of a network automation company, dives deep into the world of CVE mitigation. She discusses how automating configuration compliance can outpace attackers and manage vulnerabilities effectively. The conversation highlights BackBox's features, showcasing its ability to streamline network management and enhance security through proactive monitoring. Rekha also emphasizes the critical balance between automation and human oversight, and the importance of real-time feedback in tackling network vulnerabilities.
Aug 2, 2024 • 49min
HN743: Leveraging AI for Network Automation at Scale (Sponsored)
AI is making its way into network automation. Maybe the thought of a hallucinating ChatGPT getting its six-fingered hands on your network makes you want to run the other way. But the story of AI for IT operations is more nuanced than the hot takes we get about the confidently dumb results that Large Language... Read more »
