PODCAST · technology
Heavy Networking
by 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 Greg Ferro, Ethan Banks and 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
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HN845: Real Life Use Cases for BGP Monitoring Protocol (BMP)
Bart Dorlandt discusses the practical applications and architecture of the BGP Monitoring Protocol (BMP) for service providers. Bart has developed a BMP application to help his customers monitor BGP. He talks about how he handles data collection, why it’s important to capture pre- and post-policy...
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HN844: Multipath Reliable Connection (MRC)
Today’s show puts the “heavy” in Heavy Networking with a discussion about Multipath Reliable Connection (MRC). MRC is about getting an even distribution of RDMA traffic across equal cost multipath links in massive data centers, and doing so over plain old lossy Ethernet. Ethan, Drew, and guests...
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HN843: From Network Engineer to Network Architect with Kevin Nanns
Drew and Ethan talk with Kevin Nanns about his journey from network engineer to network architect. Kevin shares his experience grappling with the shift in responsibilities, increased pressure, and communication and management challenges associated with his new role. They also discuss his content...
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HN842: How Network Engineers Can Prepare for a Post-Quantum World
Q-Day signals the public emergence of a cryptographically relevant quantum computer that can break public key encryption. The date of Q-Day is unknown but the tech industry is making preparations now. Bill Dockery joins Drew and guest host Scott Robohn to dig into Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC),...
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HN841: HPE Melds Apstra and Mist for Self-Driving Data Center Networks (Sponsored)
In this sponsored episode, Kyle Baxter and Sridhar Katere from HPE join Drew to talk about automating enterprise data center networks. They discuss how HPE integrates its Apstra and Mist products to bring AI ops and self-driving capabilities into data center operations. They also break down how…
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HN840: How to Make a Technology Buying Decision
When engineers look to buy new technology they tend to focus on features and functionality, but there’s more to it than that. Sian Morgan joins Drew and Ethan to discuss the best practices involved in making a good technology buying decision. Sian shares how engineers can align their technical...
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HN839: Why Flows, Packets, and DDI are All Critical for Operational Effectiveness (Sponsored)
If you think of BlueCat as just an IPAM or DDI company, think again. BlueCat acquired LiveAction in 2024, and since then, they’ve been working to integrate LiveAction’s network observability capabilities with the DDI portfolio. In this sponsored episode, Ryan Grande, Field CTO at BlueCat, is here...
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HN838: Meet Mr. Packets – Building Your Own Agentic AI Team Member
What does it take to build your own AI agent that could help with day-to-day network tasks? Hank Preston, a Distinguished Architect at Cisco, asked himself that question. He developed a presentation that walks through all the elements one might need to build such an agent, as well as the risks to...
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HN837: Agentic AI to Reduce MTTR
Ethan Banks sits down with Eduard Dulharu live at AutoCon 5 to explore how agentic AI can be used to reduce Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR) for complex network environments. Eduard breaks down how these AI agents leverage deterministic workflows and custom fine-tuned models to analyze telemetry and...
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HN836: Optimize AI Traffic on the WAN with Ciena’s Integrated IP Networking (Sponsored)
As more applications and services rely on AI inferencing, that means more traffic on the WAN. Yes, bandwidth can solve a lot of problems, it’s not unlimited and AI inference traffic still has to share pipes with other flows. That means things like WAN latency, determinism, security, and traffic...
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HN835: The Pros and Cons of Shortest Path Bridging (SPB)
Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) remains an intriguing and reliable fabric technology, offering a unique approach to Ethernet that differs from more widely deployed fabrics such as EVPN/VXLAN. Jeff Wilson joins Ethan and Drew to share his experience designing and managing SPB-based fabrics. Together...
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HN834: HPE Self-Driving Networks: The Next Evolution of Network Automation (Sponsored)
In this sponsored episode, HPE’s Sunalini Sankhavaram and Jose Tellado discuss the architectural evolution toward self-driving networks. Together with Ethan and Drew, they break down how integrating agentic AI enables an autonomous architecture capable of being proactive and not just reactive.…
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HN833: The State of Packet Pushers 2026
Ethan and Drew gather the rest of the Packet Pushers team to discuss the State of the Packet Pushers Network. Together they provide a behind the scenes look into current initiatives like adding video and raising the standards of our audio. They also share the details of the workflows behind all...
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HN832: AI Agents Are Just Another Tool: How to Integrate With Your Network Automation Strategy (Sponsored)
AI has complicated network automation. It has created questions: If AI generates code for me, do I need to learn Python? Should I be writing a script to gather network information if I can dispatch an AI agent to gather that information for me instead? What new skills can I skip obtaining if AI...
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HN831: The Sum, Not Just the Parts: How and Why to Think Holistically About Your Network
Your network is an interconnected system. A change you make on one device has consequences beyond that device. Therefore, to do your job well, you must think about the network as a whole. That’s the big idea behind a blog post written by guest Jason Gintert. He joins Ethan and Drew to talk about...
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HN830: Tailscale CEO on WireGuard, Zero Trust, and Securing AI (Sponsored)
If you think Tailscale is just a VPN for the home lab, think again. On today’s sponsored episode Ethan and Drew are joined by Tailscale CEO Avery Pennarun. Avery explains how the company has evolved into an enterprise-grade connectivity and security platform. He also dives into Tailscale…
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HN829: EVPN/VXLAN Vs. TradCore
Drew and Ethan sit down with Tony Bourke to determine whether TradCore or EVPN VXLAN is right for your network. Tony is a seasoned instructor in automation, network design, and more. They explore the key factors for choosing a design, including scale and redundancy, operational complexity, and...
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HN828: How Selector Unifies Cloud and On-Prem Network Observability (Sponsored)
Selector is extending its AI-driven network observability capabilities into public clouds. On today’s sponsored episode, we dig into how Selector gathers and analyzes public cloud network telemetry, how it integrates cloud and on-prem network data to provide end-to-end visibility, how it…
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HN827: When Buffers Attack: Understanding Buffers to Better Diagnose Network Weirdness
Today’s episode covers buffers, the space between ingress and egress where a packet might have to live for a fraction of a second if the egress port is tied up transmitting other packets. This topic came courtesy of John Howard who joins Drew and Ethan as a co-host to discuss buffers with guest…
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HN826: An Inside Look at Palo Alto Networks Prisma Browser for Business (Sponsored)
A Mastercard survey reveals that 46% of small and medium businesses have experienced a cyberattack, and nearly 20% of those that suffered an attack were then forced to file for bankruptcy or close their business. Ethan and Drew along with guest Shivam Srivastava discuss a new offering from…
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HN825: Faster Than Dijkstra? Exploring a New Shortest-Path Algorithm with Bruce Davie
Dijkstra’s algorithm is the foundation of shortest path calculations for link state routing protocols. But researchers have developed a new algorithm that improves on this decades-old approach. Today’s Heavy Networking welcomes Dr. Bruce Davie to discuss the potential of this new algorithm to...
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HN824: That’s Not a Job for an LLM: The Right Way to Apply AI to Network Operations (Sponsored)
On today’s sponsored Heavy Networking, we get off the AI hype train to talk about how different artificial intelligence techniques usefully impact network operations—and where they aren’t a fit. The various forms of AI represent a set of tools that, like any tool, have use cases, capabilities…
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HN823: Defining A Modern Network Service
On today’s episode Ethan is joined by Mark Prosser, a self-described Network Operator Advocate and Network Automation Dreamer, to embark on a thought exercise about network services. Together they grapple with questions such as: What is a network service, exactly? How is it defined? Is it even...
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HN822: Now I Understand. You Mean an AI-Safe Zero-Trust Network Automation Approach (Sponsored)
On today’s sponsored episode we talk with David Gee, CEO at Curvium, a systems integrator and VAR. David holds thoughtful opinions about network automation and orchestration, how such platforms are to be built, and the impact AI is having on network automation. We dig into how AI fundamentally...
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HN821: Boring Network Design Is Good
Ethan Banks sits down with Ryan Hamel at the 96th North American Network Operators’ Group (NANOG96). Ryan, a network automation developer for the Zayo Group, talks about why boring network design is actually a good thing. He and Ethan explore why simplicity and standardization are key to…
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HN820: Cyber Week 2026 Wrap Up with Palo Alto Networks: Agents, Prisma AIRS and NGTS (Sponsored)
Palo Alto Networks released a slew of product news at the 2026 RSA conference around AI security, SASE, and a new certificate lifecycle management offering. On today’s Heavy Networking, sponsored by Palo Alto Networks, Ethan and Drew dig into these announcements to get details about how they…
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HN819: Recipes for Automation – A Look Inside Eric Chou’s AI Networking Cookbook
Eric Chou, author of the AI Networking Cookbook and host of Network Automation Nerds, joins Ethan and Drew to discuss adding artificial intelligence to your network automation toolbox. The AI Networking Cookbook is aimed at network engineers and provides a systematic approach to learning AI for...
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HN817: Is There a Better Way to Do Software Defined Networking?
Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a centralized architecture in which a controller, or a hierarchy of controllers, runs software that computes network-engineered paths and pushes that forwarding scheme into the network. It’s also very complex, which can lead to network failures. What if there...
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HN816: Inside the Case: A Hardware Deep Dive with Meter (Sponsored)
Our topic today is the designing and building of high-performance networking hardware. If you assume the hardware details don’t matter, you’re missing the intentional engineering required to build truly reliable and quiet infrastructure. In this sponsored episode, we discuss Meter’s hardware...
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HN815: All About PCE
Traditional routing protocols like OSPF simply choose the “shortest” path. If the shortest path is full of traffic and there are alternate paths carrying nothing, OSPF can’t help you. Path Computation Element (PCE) along with Path Computation Element Protocol (PCEP) is a way to construct…
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HN814: Automating Your Network with Cisco Crosswork Workflow Manager (Sponsored)
Our topic today is building and running network workflows. If your network workflows live in a spreadsheet, a SharePoint document, or in your head, you really need a workflow manager. A workflow manager brings scalability, repeatability, and consistency to your network operations team. In this...
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HN813: What Should Networkers Know About Software Development (and Vice Versa)?
What should network engineers know about software development? What should software developers know about networking? Ethan and Drew sit down with Chris Rapier and Nick Buraglio to discuss why crossing these silos can improve outcomes for everyone. They break down why being a little curious about...
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HN812: Nokia EDA: AI Ops You Can Trust (Sponsored)
AI is everywhere in networking right now, but most of it feels like hype. In this sponsored episode, we go deeper than buzzwords with Steven Butler from Nokia to explore what it takes to make AI Ops real, reliable, and trustworthy in production environments. If you want AI to deliver value, you...
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HN811: What AI Startups Get Wrong
What is the real-world impact of AI on network operations? Drew and Ethan have a chat with Carlos Pignataro, Founder & Principal at Blue Fern Consulting, to cut through the AI hype machine. Carlos offers a thoughtful, balanced take on where the industry is headed, and where it’s missing the mark....
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HN810: AI in Network Operations: Pragmatism Over Hype (Sponsored)
Are you an AI skeptic or an enthusiast? Ethan and Drew sit down with Igor Tarasenko, Senior Director of Product Software Architecture and Engineering at Equinix, to break down the reality of AI in the network. In this sponsored episode, Tarasenko discusses why APIs are the new CLI, the critical...
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HN809: EVPN All the Things!
It’s been over a decade since the first Packet Pushers podcast on EVPN. Now, guest Jeff McAdams can legitimately suggest that we “EVPN all the things.” Hosts Ethan Banks and Drew Conry-Murray dig into Jeff’s stance on EVPN/VXLAN. They look at how VXLAN and EVPN work; talk about use cases in the...
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HN808: Is IT a Young Person’s Game?
Is the ideal IT employee just leaving college or a veteran with years of experience? Russ White joins Ethan Banks and Drew Conry-Murray to discuss the complexities of this question. Younger professionals just out of college are more willing to work longer hours or unpopular shifts, learn new…
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HN807: A ‘CLI Lifer’ No More
Andy Lapteff once considered himself a ‘CLI lifer.’ As a network engineer he wasn’t interested in Python. He didn’t want to learn to code. He had no desire to embrace any of the developer-like processes and tools creeping into the profession, particularly around network automation. That’s…
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HN806: Let’s Get NUTS!
Unit testing is a software development practice for checking that an individual component of code works before integrating that unit with other components in a larger program. A new open source project called Network Unit Testing System, or NUTS, brings the same concept to network automation. The...
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HN805: The Past, Present, and Future of NANOG
NANOG, or the North American Network Operation Group, is an organization committed to the continuing advancement of an open, secure, and robust Internet. At the NANOG Conference 95 in late October 2025, Ethan Banks chatted with Steve Feldman, a member of NANOG’s Board of Directors. Steve has been...
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HN804: How Prisma SASE Builds on Public Clouds for Scale, Resiliency (Sponsored)
How do you architect a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) to provide critical security services to millions of endpoints distributed across the planet? How do you build such a service for scale, performance, and resiliency? One option is to build your own PoPs or use colocation facilities, run…
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HN803: How to Start a Networking Meetup
On today’s episode, we take a break from one’s and zero’s for a discussion about starting a networking meetup. Our guest is Steinn “Steinzi” Örvar, who recently founded the ISNOG, a network operators’ group in Iceland. We quiz Steinzi about what worked and what didn’t. We also pick his brain for...
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HN802: Unifying Networking and Security with Fortinet SASE: Architecture, Reality, and Lessons Learned (Sponsored)
The architecture and tech stack of a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution will influence how the service performs, the robustness of its security controls, and the complexity of its operations. Sponsor Fortinet joins Heavy Networking to make the case that a unified offering, which…
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HN801: Will a Natural Language Interface (NLI) Replace Your CLI?
Could an LLM or some kind of an AI-driven language model, such as a natural language interface, someday replace our beloved CLI? That is, instead of needing to understand the syntax of a specific vendor’s CLI, could a language model allow network operators to use plain language to get the...
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HN800: Root Cause Analysis for the Entire Stack (Sponsored)
Today’s show is one of those “We’re living in the future” episodes, where we talk about using AI to perform root cause analysis of a performance issue. But not root cause analysis for just the networking part of the stack. The full stack. Why? Because it’s not good enough to say “it’s not the...
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HN799: Multi-Homing IPv6 to Your Home Lab
If you’ve got an Autonomous System Number (ASN) and an IPv6 block, you too can multi-home IPv6 to your home lab! Sounds easy, right? Well, maybe…but today we’re going to discuss why you’d want to and how you can do that with guest Anton Lönnerbro. Anton is a solutions architect at a managed…
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HN798: Fortinet Offers a SOC Every Org Can Grow Into (Sponsored)
On today’s Heavy Networking: the Security Operations Center, or SOC. When I think of a SOC, I picture a miniature version of NASA’s mission control: lots of computers, lots of people, some big boards with lines and arrows and telemetry scrolling across the screens. I also think of SOCs as…
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HN797: 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 even trying to accomplish with an AI...
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HN796: The Why and How of Making Your Infrastructure Quantum-Safe (Sponsored)
Your production IT operations are almost certainly using cryptography libraries that are not quantum-safe, and the time to begin planning a cryptography overhaul is now. But this is likely to be a daunting project because it touches everything: clients, servers, apps, network devices…
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HN795: Adventures In Latency
Monitoring and troubleshooting latency can be tricky. If it’s in the network, was it the IP stack? A NIC? A switch buffer? A middlebox somewhere on the WAN? If it’s the application, can you, the network engineer, bring receipts to the app team? And what if you need to build and operate a network...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
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 Greg Ferro, Ethan Banks and 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.
HOSTED BY
Packet Pushers
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Heavy Networking have?
Heavy Networking currently has 250 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Heavy Networking about?
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....
How often does Heavy Networking release new episodes?
Heavy Networking publishes regularly with 250 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Heavy Networking?
You can listen to Heavy Networking on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Heavy Networking?
Heavy Networking is created and hosted by Packet Pushers.
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