EP 543 | SEPTEMBER 15, 2025

Splunk, ServiceNow Announce AI Agents; Data Center Spending Runs Amok

It's AI and data centers all the way down on this week's Network Break. We discuss agentic AI announcements from Splunk and ServiceNow, F5's $180 million purchase of an AI security company, record data center construction spending in the US, Oracle upping its infrastructure spending ante, and more tech news analysis. | LISTEN NOW

EP 112 | SEPTEMBER 16, 2025

Standardizing NaaS Service Definitions

Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) promises enterprises the ability to set up and configure connectivity and network security with a couple of clicks. But for NaaS to truly transform enterprise networking, one thing has been missing: standards. Enter Mplify (formerly the Metropolitan Ethernet Forum), a non-profit focused on standardizing NaaS service definitions. Mplify's CTO, Pascal Menezes, joins Johna Johnson and John Burke on this episode of Heavy Strategy to explain how enterprises, service providers, and vendors are working within the organization to develop meaningful schemas, service bundles, and APIs for NaaS. | LISTEN NOW

EP 078 | SEPTEMBER 16, 2025

Using Free Tools for Detection Engineering

You can build effective, scalable detection pipelines using free and open-source tools like  Zeek, Suricata, YARA, and Security Onion. Today on Packet Protector we welcome Matt Gracie; he has more than 15 years of experience on the Blue Team side of security and is active in the community through projects on GitHub and local security events like BSides Buffalo. We tap into Matt's experience to find out how to make these tools work for you, get free training resources and tips for getting started, and learn why understanding adversary behavior, rather than chasing indicators, is what really matters. | LISTEN NOW

EP 100 | SEPTEMBER 17, 2025

A Retrospective On 100 Episodes of Network Automation Nerds

Network Automation Nerds has reached a special milestone: episode 100! Eric Chou looks back on 5 years of conversations with network automation pioneers, practitioners, and visionaries. Drew Conry-Murray from the Packet Pushers joins Eric, along with online guest Ioannis Theodoridis, to find out why Eric started the podcast, his goals for all these conversations, a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into creating and sustaining a show, his move to the Packet Pushers network, what the future holds, and more.| LISTEN NOW

EP 058 | SEPTEMBER 17, 2025

Creating the Internet Layer That Should Have Been With Avery Pennarun

In this deep dive episode, we explore the evolution of networking with Avery Pennarun, Co-Founder and CEO of Tailscale. Avery shares his extensive journey through VPN technologies, from writing his first mesh VPN protocol in 1997 called "Tunnel Vision" to building Tailscale, a zero-trust networking solution. We discuss how Tailscale reimagines the OSI stack by adding a new internetwork layer that solves IPv4's limitations, the philosophy behind full-mesh peer-to-peer networking versus traditional hub-and-spoke VPNs, and why simplicity wins in enterprise adoption. Avery also dives into how AI is creating new cybersecurity challenges and how Tailscale's MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration helps companies securely connect AI agents to private data. | LISTEN NOW

EP 000 | SEPTEMBER 18, 2025

Announcing Life In Uptime, a New Podcast to Get You Started on Your IT Journey

Life In Uptime is a brand-new podcast that explores the real journeys of the people who build and run enterprise IT. Each episode dives into the personal and professional paths that got each guest to where they are today—because the road to a career in technology isn’t one-size-fits-all. This show is for anyone wondering how to break into tech, where it can take you, and what’s possible when you expand your mindset.

Ethan Banks joins Life In Uptime hosts Alexis Bertholf and Kevin Nanns to talk about their backgrounds in technology and content creation, and to preview what listeners can expect from the new podcast. The first episode drops October 2, 2025. | LISTEN NOW

EP 042 | SEPTEMBER 19, 2025

Building a Network Digital Twin for Automation and AI (Sponsored)

The digital twin is an evolving technology in the networking space. On today's sponsored episode of Total Network Operations, we dig into details and definitions of the digital twin, how it ties into network automation and autonomy, and the power of abstraction layers. We'll also talk about how the concepts in today's show might influence your career as a network engineer. Our sponsor is IP Fabric, and our guest is Daren Fulwell, Field CTO at IP Fabric. | LISTEN NOW

EP 797 | SEPTEMBER 19, 2025

What To Do When The Business Asks for "AI"

When someone from the executive suite starts an AI initiative, what does that mean to you, the network engineer? The executive suite probably doesn't know what their AI idea might mean for infrastructure. They might only have a vague idea of what they're trying to accomplish. Regardless, that initiative puts the burden on you to know the engineering implications. You need to be able to translate whatever vision they've got into a network architecture that can deliver. Guest Phil Gervasi is here to offer some guidance for what to do when the business says it wants "AI." | LISTEN NOW