The Fat Pipe - All of the Packet Pushers Podcasts

On this episode of the Next Level we talk about mindfulness and what it means to IT performance, and whether mindfulness benefits such as relaxation and focus can be separated from its spiritual context. The post The Next Level: Mindfulness And IT appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Ready to jump off the corporate treadmill? On The Next Level we discuss the joys and perils of life as an employee, freelancer, and entrepreneur. The post The Next Level: Employee, Freelancer, Entrepreneur appeared first on Packet Pushers.

The Infotrek podcast debuts with a discussion of infrastructure redundancy, including when it should and shouldn't be used, implementation challenges, redundancy testing, and more. The post Infotrek Podcast Episode 1: Redundancy appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Denise Donohue and Russ White stop by The Next Level podcast to share strategies to better align network design and technology choices with business requirements. The post The Next Level: Challenges Aligning IT And The Business appeared first on Packet Pushers.

In this episode of The Next Level we focus on a variety of options for training and skills to help us keep up with new technology and advance our careers. Joining us is Colleen Morrissey, Senior Network Engineer and Adjunct Lecturer. We talk certifications, labs, blogging, and more. The post The Next Level: Training And Skills appeared first on Packet Pushers.

On today's episode of The Next Level we talk about the ups and downs of consulting. If you work as a consultant you can compare your experiences. If you're considering the consulting life, this is your chance to get the inside scoop. The post The Next Level: The Consulting Life appeared first on Packet Pushers.

On today’s episode of The Next Level we talk about three essential ingredients for workplace performance, and a framework to measure that performance. The post The Next Level: Essential Ingredients For High Performance appeared first on Packet Pushers.

On today’s episode of The Next Level, we talk about IT management, what makes someone an effective leader, and strategies for improving your management skills. We delve into how communication preferences affect managers and their reports, how management style can affect employee motivation, and more. The post The Next Level 4: Good Manager, Bad Manager appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Today on the Packet Pushers Priority Queue, we step out of the data center, away from the hot aisle, take out our spectrum analyzers, shoo away the pigeons, and discuss outdoor wireless. Specifically, we’re going to go after point-to-point wireless and wireless backhaul with our sponsor, Cambium Networks. Cambium Networks specializes in fixed outdoor wireless broadband in the unlicensed 5GHz/2.4Ghz spectrum, handling challenging wireless interference from 2 meters to 245 kilometers. The company connects backhaul systems, WiFi networks, video cameras and other systems. Our guests from Cambium are Sakid Ahmed, Senior Director of Engineering; Dmitry Moiseev, Systems Engineer; and Alex Marcham, Systems Engineer. Greg and Ethan dive in with their guests to talk about Cambium’s product line, including the ePMP product, which is specifically designed for outdoor use. They discuss how Cambium handles outdoor interference, including other radio signals, and uses a deterministic system to adapt modulation levels to ensure a strong signal even in noisy environments. And because Cambium radios are designed for point-to-point links, deployment is fairly simple and doesn’t require an expert installer. Cambium includes AES 128-bit encryption support to ensure data is encrypted in transit. Cambium offers cnMaestro, a cloud-based management system that provides visibility to all APs and modules. Operators can configure and manage their entire Cambium network from one place. Use Cases The primary use case for Cambium is operators providing Internet and VoIP services to home users. For instance, in a rural location, an operator can put Cambium equipment on a water tower, grain elevator or building and within a 60 degree or 90 degree sector provide broadband for hundreds of houses. However, the company is also seeing growing adoption for connecting surveillance cameras for warehouses and other large commercial spaces, enterprise connectivity, WiFi hotspot backhaul, and organizations connecting multiple buildings on a campus. Links Cambium has a special offer for Packet Pushers listeners. The first 25 people to register at on cambiumnetworks.com/packetpushers will each get a pair of ePMP radios, while supplies last. Cambium Networks Cambium Networks Community Forum

Our guest today is Martin Casado, General Manager of the Network and Security Business Unit (NSBU) at VMware. He joins the Packet Pushers to get nerdy about where SDN and VMware’s NSX have been, and where they’re going in 2016. On the business side, VMware announced this past week it has grown the NSX business to a $600 million run rate and tripled the number of paying customers year over year to 1,200. The number of customers running NSX in production has grown 5X, to more than 250. In this wide-ranging conversation on the transformation of networking, we hit on four main subjects: * SDN Evolution: We talk about how SDN discussions have moved from trying to understand the concepts to exploring business cases that drive deployment. And as network virtualization has moved into the mainstream, we dive into the relationship between physical and virtual networking. * Open Source: We talk about the impact of standards bodies and open source software on networking, including projects such as Open vSwitch and the Congress project, which is an effort to translate business requirements into instructions and configurations that can be implemented automatically. * NSX And ACI: Martin disputes the portrayal of VMware NSX and Cisco ACI as competing products. He notes both products are seeing great adoption, with many customers buying both. We talk about how NSX provides the virtualization layer, and ACI provides a robust network fabric. As both products advance, Martin anticipates that areas of overlap will shrink. * Distributed Network Services: When you virtualize the network, you can run functions such as firewalls and load balancers out at the edges, and spread the load of those services across multiple CPUs. This enables fine-grained provisioning and resource accounting, and will enable new capabilities and enhance the operational value of network virtualization. Links: The Packet Pushers have had several discussions with VMware around NSX, network virtualization, security, and containers. Check out these other podcasts: PQ Show 67: VMware NSX Everywhere With Guido Appenzeller (Sponsored) PQ Show 56 – VMware NSX In Production – Sponsored Show 161 – VMware NSX – Real World SDN – Sponsored

On today’s Priority Queue, sponsored by Sonus Networks, we examine three use cases for VellOS, Sonus’s product that lets customers program a network to customize it for their environments. Joining us from Sonus for the discussion are Dan Malek, Software Engineering Fellow; and Karl May, VP, VellOS Business Unit. We’ll drill into the details of three VellOS use cases, and explore both the technology aspects of the product and the business problems you can solve. Use Cases * Enterprise SD-WAN. The first use case revolves around reducing costs for enterprise WAN connectivity while also ensuring high performance for applications and network resilience, using off-the-shelf, OpenFlow-compatible switches in conjunction with the VellOS controller. Customers can mix and match carriers and connectivity types, including MPLS, dark fiber, and broadband, and choose application paths based on criteria including performance and cost. * Service provider interconnects. The second use case is for international carriers that are building interconnects with other providers across geographic regions. VellOS allows carriers to enforce QoS and other customer policies on a peer’s network. * Multitenant interconnects for colocation providers. The third use case discusses how a data center/colocation operator can install high-bandwidth interconnects that can be shared with a large number of tenants. VellOS creates a shared infrastructure that lets the operator carve up bandwidth and provide network services and requirements on demand. VellOS flow control provides multitenancy separation. Links: If you want to learn more about Sonus and VellOS, you can check out the resource page Real-time Service Quality for Unified Communications. You can also get more details from the blog posts QoS Done Right and Leveraging SD-WAN For Skype For Business Enterprise Voice. And be sure to check out other podcasts from Sonus, including Packet Pushers Weekly Show 253 and PQ Show 69: Sonus VellOS And QoE For Unified Communications (Sponsored).

Getting IT projects funded and justifying IT spending can be complex and frustrating. We talk financial strategies with IT executives to give you ideas and insights you can bring to your organization. The post The Next Level: IT Financial Strategies appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Today’s podcast is sponsored by Kentik, a startup that’s just recently come out of stealth. Kentik offers real-time network visibility for service providers, Web companies, and enterprises. Kentik’s SaaS offering collects flows, including Netflow, sFlow, and IPFIX, as well as BGP and SNMP, and analyzes all this data to help operators determine if availability or performance problems are network-related. If they are, Kentik can drill into flow records to show when and where the problem started, whether it’s on an internal or external network, and other essential information to help resolve the issue. Customers can encrypt and upload flow records to Kentik’s service. Records are stored in a Big Data backend. A portal provides dashboards for immediate analysis of incoming data, and customers can also run SQL queries against the backend. Kentik also offers a premises version for customers uncomfortable with the SaaS option. Avi Freedman, CEO and co-founder of Kentik, joins the Packet Pushers to talk about how Kentik works, how the service extracts value from flow information, how Kentik compares to other visibility and monitoring products, and shares customer use cases. It’s a nerdy, detailed discussion on getting insight from flows and other data sources.

The inaugural "Non-Blocking" podcast for ForwardingPlane.net. We discuss sFlow with one if its creators, Peter Phaal of InMon.Discuss sFlow, the protocol, it's uses, similarities to other management frameworks, how it is dissimilar from netflow and why it is worth while to take some time to learn it. The post Non-Blocking 1: sFlow with Peter Phaal of InMon and sFlow.org appeared first on Packet Pushers.

On this episode of "The Next Level" we walk through 6 steps to help you design and assemble a technical team, set clear expectations, and manage this team for long-term success. The post Community Podcast: The Next Level – Building A Technical Team appeared first on Packet Pushers.