The Fat Pipe - Most Popular Packet Pushers Pods

This week on Heavy Networking we've assembled a roundtable of network engineers to talk about...stuff. Each guest has brought a topic to discuss with the table, so we've got lots of subjects and lots of experiences and opinions. In particular we explore SPB, career advice, getting network automation off the ground, and the joys and perils of self-hosting.

Red teams attack a customer's security systems. The idea of a red team, whether consultants or in-house, is to approach the target like an attacker would. A red team includes technical and human-based exploit and attempts to test defenses, probe for weaknesses, and identify vulnerable systems and processes. On today's episode we look at how to get the most out of a red team engagement--it's much more than just an attack and a report.

Take a Network Break! This week we discuss new charges for IPv4 addresses being levied by AWS, Cisco's acquisition of a BGP monitoring service, and financial results for a host of tech companies. We also speak with J Metz, the Steering Committee Chair of the Ultra Ethernet Consortium to learn more about the organization's goals; and examine the efforts to investigate claims of a breakthrough in superconducting research.

On today's sponsored Heavy Networking we dig into cloud-delivered Secure Web Gateways (SWGs), which help guard end users against Web-based threats and enforce corporate Web access policies. As employees split time between home, office, and who knows where else, and as more applications move online, cloud-based SWGs help connect and protect workers. Our sponsor is Palo Alto Networks.

Today's Day Two Cloud peers inside the box of quantum computing. We explore how it works, what qbits are and why they matter, the current state of quantum computing hardware, what problems could be solved with quantum computing, and how you can get involved with it via the Qiskit open-source project. Our guest is Abby Mitchell, Quantum Developer Advocate at IBM.

On this week's Network Break we discuss a new Broadcom ASIC, a request from US Senator Ron Wyden to three US agencies to investigate Microsoft for sloppy security practices, an Intel pledge to add AI to all its platforms, Juniper financial results, and more IT news.

If you’ve been staring down the barrel of network automation and wonder what the proper approach might be, today’s episode is for you. The Packet Pushers chat with Tony Bourke about what network automation tools and techniques have become the default standard, how to prepare your network and team for automation, and how to get started.

On today's Day Two Cloud we get inside Cisco Secure Access, a new set of cloud-delivered security services from Cisco. We discuss the security capabilities on offer, the service's architecture and components, how Cisco addresses concerns around user experience and performance, and more. This is a sponsored episode.

This week on Network Break we discuss the launch of the Ultra Ethernet Consortium and its intention to revamp Ethernet to support AI and HPC workloads. We also cover NOS startup Arrcus pulling in a $65 million series D round, Fortinet launching big-iron firewalls, Huawei flexing its patent muscles in 5G and wireless, and more tech news.

On today’s Heavy Networking podcast, we look at how sponsor ZPE Systems is rethinking Out-Of-Band management for automated, NetOps-driven infrastructure. This includes tasks like device staging, deployments, upgrades, and more. And you don’t just have to take ZPE’s word for it; we also talk to a customer who’s using the products to run a retail business with a lean networking team that supports more than fifty sites.