Hedge 116: Schofield’s Laws of Computing
Jack Schofield, a prolific journalist covering computers and computing, developed three “laws” across his thirty years of reporting that have come to be known as Schofield’s Laws of Computing. What are these laws, and how do they apply to the modern computing landscape—especially for the network engineer? Join Tom Ammon and Russ White as they discuss Schofield’s Laws of Computing.
Hedge 115: Mat Duggan and DevOps
Devops is the new normal—but, far too often, operations folks (like network engineers) are expected to become full-on developers, and developers are expected to understand operations in ways they never had to before. Mat Duggan joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss why operations is not development IT
Hedge 114: Hardware Hacking 101 with Federico Lucifredi
Hardware hacking isn’t a topic most network engineers are familiar with—but we always used to say that if I can get access to the console of a router, I can eventually get into the box. The same is largely true of all kinds of computing hardware, including laptops, compute nodes connected to a data center fabric, and, again, routers and switches. In this episode of the Hedge, Federico Lucifredi joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss the many options hardware hackers have today.
Hedge 113: The PLM with Jeff Jakab
Over the last few episodes of the Hedge, we’ve been talking to folks involved in bringing network products to market. In this episode, Tom Ammon and Russ White talk to Jeff Jakab about the role of the Product Line Manager in helping bring new networking products to life. Join us to understand the roles various people play in the vendor side of the world—both so you can understand the range of roles network engineers can play at a vendor, and so you can better understand how products are designed, developed, and deployed.
Hedge 112: The TME with Pete Lumbis
The Technical Marketing role is often misunderstood—or simply forgotten—in the vendor world. What does the TME do, and why? What value does the TME bring to the development and release of new products? Pete Lumbis joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss the importance and value of the TME.
Hedge 111: Machine Learning and Security with Micah Mussler
Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are all the rage in the network engineering world. Where might these technologies be useful, as opposed to mere hype? The two most obvious areas where AI and ML would be useful are failure reaction and security. Micah Mussler joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss the possibilities of using AI and/or ML in the broader security market—and focusing in on the network.
Hedge 110: Andrew Alston and SRv6 Security
SRv6, a form of source routing, is the new and interesting method being created by the IETF to allow traffic engineering and traffic steering. This is not the first time the networking world has tried source routing, however—and in the spirit of rule 11, we should ask some questions. How and why did source routing fail last time? Have we learned those lessons and changed the way we’re doing things to overcome those limitations? Security seems to be one area where problems arise in the source routing paradigm.
Hedge 109: Edward Lewis and the DNS Core
What is the “core” of the DNS system, and how has it changed across the years? Edward Lewis joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss his research into what the “core” of the domain name system is and how it has changed—including the rise of the large cloud players to the core of the default free zone.
Hedge 108: In Defense of Boring Technology with Andrew Wertkin
Engineers (and marketing folks) love new technology. Watching an engineer learn or unwrap some new technology is like watching a dog chase a squirrel—the point is not to catch the squirrel, it’s just that the chase is really fun. Join Andrew Wertkin (from BlueCat Networks), Tom Ammon, and Russ White as we discuss the importance of simple, boring technologies, and moderating our love of the new.
Hedge 107: Career Advice with Terry Slattery
Whether you’re just starting in your technology career, or you’re an old hand who likes to go back to basics and understand how to move forward in your career, this episode of the Hedge is for you. Terry Slattery joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss the things you can do to build a successful career as in the world of network engineering.