Packet Pushers - Briefings In Brief

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast we talk network automation. More specifically, we dig into the need for proper data management to support your network automation initiatives. Automation relies on accurate, up-to-date information about your infrastructure, but that information can be scattered across innumerable repositories, systems, and spreadsheets. And it may, or may not, be... Read more »

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast we hear from Statseeker, a network monitoring company that collects high-fidelity network data to help engineers and administrators get visibility into physical, virtual, and logical interfaces to find problems faster, understand root causes, and spot behaviors and anomalies so you can prevent problems instead of just reacting to them.... Read more »

OT networks used to be air-gapped. These days, more and more OT networks are being bridged by IT networks, which exposes critical industrial controls and other systems to serious risk. On today’s Tech Bytes, sponsored by Palo Alto Networks, we dig into how organizations can detect “precursor signals” that may indicate a broader attack chain,... Read more »

Where are all the network engineers? OK, obviously, there are network engineers out there, like the thousands of you listening to this podcast. But there’s an impression that the current generation is aging out of the profession while fewer young people are taking on network engineering as a career. At the same time, networks are... Read more »

Today on the podcast, data protection. There’s always been a tension between the need for companies to share data, whether among coworkers, partners, or customers; and the need to protect data, whether it’s for security, privacy, compliance, and so on. That tension existed before AI, but the rise of third-party and external AI tools has... Read more »

RG Nets builds gateways and centralized-authentication appliances to help manage and automate revenue-generating networks. On today’s Tech Bytes, we talk with RG Nets founder Simon Lok. But instead of talking about RG Nets, we delve into DPUs. This specialized hardware, which provides additional compute for network devices, has the potential to move from a niche... Read more »

Itential has announced FlowAI, a new offering that brings agentic AI to Itential’s network automation platform. On today’s Tech Bytes podcast Ethan Banks talks with Peter Sprygada, Chief Architect at Itential, about how FlowAI works, its components, and how Itential uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP). They also dig into how FlowAI supports AI-driven orchestration... Read more »

A lot of network monitoring tools allow you to say, “It’s not the network,” but a more useful tool would not only tell you that it’s not the network, but also what the problem actually is. Today our guest is Brandon Hale, CTO at IBM SevOne. He is here to give us an overview of... Read more »

If you’re building, testing, or using AI agents and services, how can you get network visibility into, and ensure performance of, these tools? On today’s Tech Bytes podcast, we talk with sponsor Cisco ThousandEyes  about how to monitor and measure performance of AI agents, AI models and services, and Model Context Protocol servers. We’ll get... Read more »

AI infrastructure conversations tend to be dominated by GPUs, data center buildouts, and power and water consumption. But networks also play a crucial role, whether to support huge file transfers to a compute cluster, stream telemetry from edge locations to feed AI pipelines, or provide high-speed, low latency connectivity for AI agents. On today’s Tech... Read more »

The network plays a key role in AI model and inference training. On today’s Tech Bytes podcast, sponsored by Nokia, we talk about why you need a high-performance network for AI training workloads, essential technologies such as RoCE v2 and others that make Ethernet suitable for scale-out networking, the role of the Ultra Ethernet Consortium... Read more »

DNS security is our topic on today’s Tech Bytes podcast, sponsored by Palo Alto Networks. Specifically, Palo Alto Networks is here to talk about its Advanced DNS Resolver, or ADNSR, which provides a security-centric, cloud-delivered DNS resolution service. We talk about how ADNSR works, its features and capabilities, and how it differs from other DNS... Read more »

Telecom and ISP lifecycle management can be tedious and opaque. On today’s Tech Bytes, we talk with sponsor Lightyear about its SaaS-based platform that handles telecom and ISP procurement, tracks installations and inventory, manages billing, and more. We talk about the pain points that Lightyear can solve, the components of the platform, and how Lightyear... Read more »

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast, sponsored by Palo Alto Networks, we examine how SASE is being adopted and deployed by enterprise customers. What does this integration of networking and security mean for the teams that need to operate this solution? We talk with Palo Alto Networks about SASE as a transformative technology for networking... Read more »

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast we explore NVDs, or Nokia Validated Designs, for enterprise data center networks. NVDs are developed to address a broad set of customer requirements and undergo extensive testing of hardware, software, and traffic. We talk with sponsor Nokia about its validation process, customer benefits, NVD use cases, technical details, and... Read more »

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast, sponsored by HPE, we get a preview of HPE Discover. We talk about networking, security, and agentic AI announcements coming out of the event. We’ll also talk about how HPE is converging network and security in its product portfolio, and HPE’s approach to AI both as a tool being... Read more »

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast, we talk about how to get more out of your NetFlow records with sponsor NetFlow Logic. NetFlow’s been around for a long time, and if you’re already including flow records as part of your monitoring and management arsenal, you may think you’re extracting all the value you can from... Read more »

AI is no longer on the horizon. It’s part of how people and products work today. And as AI finds its way into more business applications and processes, it can create new risks. On today’s Tech Bytes, sponsored by Palo Alto Networks, we talk about how Palo Alto Networks is addressing those risks so that... Read more »

SharkFest is the twice-yearly conference where Wireshark users and trainers gather to learn, share, and improve their packet and protocol analysis skills. The US version of SharkFest’25 is June 14 -19 in Richmond, VA. Gerald Combs of the Wireshark Foundation is here to tell us about why this live event needs to be on your... Read more »

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast we’re talking AI readiness with sponsor Broadcom. More specifically, getting your network observability ready to support AI operations. This isn’t just a hardware or software issue. It’s also a data issue. We’ll get some tips with our guest Jeremy Rossbach. Jeremy is Chief Technical Evangelist and Lead Product Marketing... Read more »