EP 539 | AUGUST 18, 2025

Boom Times for Arista; SonicWall Offers $200K Firewall Warranty

Lots of financial results in this week's Network Break, including a stellar quarter for Arista, Cisco doubling its AI infrastructure order goals, and a decent Q4 for Extreme Networks. SonicWall offers a $200K firewall warranty (with caveats), a startup gets funding to put AI GPUs in orbit, critical vulnerabilities uncovered in Cisco and Fortinet gear, and even more IT news analysis. | LISTEN NOW

EP 110 | AUGUST 19, 2025

Cryptocalypse Soon! The CRQCs Are Due Sooner Than We Thought

Google now estimates that the specs for a Cryptographically Relevant Quantum Computer (CRQC), which can break conventional public key encryption in a useful amount of time, are lower than they had previously estimated…by 95%. Given the breadth and pace of advancement in quantum computing, this makes the advent of the CRQC likely to happen years sooner than previously expected. Should you be factoring them into your planning now? If so, how? | LISTEN NOW

EP 075 | AUGUST 19, 2025

Kernel Vs. User Mode In Endpoint Security Software

Microsoft is rethinking allowing endpoint security software to run in the Windows kernel. While there are benefits to running security software in the kernel, there are also serious downsides (i.e. the CrowdStrike outage). Dan Massameno joins JJ and Drew on Packet Protector to talk about the role of the kernel in an OS, real and virtual memory, and tradeoffs of running endpoint security in the kernel and in user land. We also discuss how APIs might replace kernel access, why buyers must insist their vendors provide more resilient software, and more. | LISTEN NOW

EP 056 | AUGUST 20, 2025

Network Automation Reality Check with Ivan Pepelnjak

In this unplanned and unfiltered conversation, we dive deep into network automation realities with Ivan Pepelnjak, networking's long standing and independent voice from ipSpace.net. We explore why automation projects fail, dissect the tooling landscape (Ansible vs. Terraform vs. Python), and discuss the cultural barriers preventing enterprises from modernizing their networks. Ivan delivers hard truths about vendor promises, the importance of good network design before automation, and why networking still isn't treated as a proper engineering discipline. This candid discussion offers invaluable insights for anyone navigating the complex world of network automation. | LISTEN NOW

EP 098 | AUGUST 20, 2025

Democratizing the Learning Environment for Network Engineers

Democratizing the learning environment is a passion for Deepak Ahuja.  So much so, he founded CloudMyLab, a company that provides hands-on, cloud-based labs and networking environments. His goal is to offer an affordable lab-as-a-service for two groups of people: network engineers seeking certifications, and network engineers and automators that need a place to safely test network changes and automation routines outside of production. We talk about Deepak’s experiences as a founder and CTO, his certification journeys, the challenges of starting and running a business, the labbing and automation landscape, and a sneak peek at the future of CloudMyLab. | LISTEN NOW

EP 039 | AUGUST 22, 2025

Demystifying AI Adoption for Networkers (Sponsored)

AI is making its way into network operations. On today's show we talk about this adoption with John Capobianco, Head of DevRel at Selector. Selector is sponsoring today's episode. John provides an overview of the rise of AI and new protocols such as MCP and A2A (agent to agent). We dig into the concept of digital coworkers, and discuss new AI-relevant certifications and skill sets. Lastly, John talks about some of the new tools and innovations that Selector has developed to improve AIOps and network observability. | LISTEN NOW

EP 793 | AUGUST 22, 2025

A Deep Dive Into High-Performance Switch Memory

Today's episode is all about high-performance memory in switches. We dig into the differences among TCAM, SRAM, DRAM, and HBM, and all the complex tradeoffs that go into allocating memory resources to networking functions. If you’ve ever had to select a Switching Database Manager template or done similar operations on a switch, this is your episode. | LISTEN NOW