Packet Pushers

NetOps engineer Lasse Haugen sits down with Scott Robohn at AutoCon 5 to explore the power of Spec Driven Design (SDD) for transforming network engineering workflows from chaotic experimentation to structured, reliable automation. Together they define what SDD is, use cases for NetOps and NetEng, how it has changed NetOps, and more. AdSpot Sponsor: NANOG, the North American Network Operators Group, meets three times a year, and the next meeting is NANOG 98 in Miami, FL October 19-21, 2026.

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 to dig into how network observability and DDI can work together to help you get a faster mean time to resolution, or better yet, mean time to innocence.

Kevin and Alexis welcome Justin Ryburn, VP of Global Solution Engineering and Field CTO at Kentik, to discuss the realities of traveling for technical work. Justin explains the nuances of his role, which balances executive engagement, public speaking, and team leadership with the challenge of a heavy travel schedule. They also touch on the importance of finding the right work-life balance within a demanding tech career.

Traditional peer review processes are breaking down in the new AI era. Dylan Ratcliffe, founder and CEO of Overmind Technology, joins Ned and Kyler to discuss the importance of treating AI as a machine to be audited rather than a peer. Together they share practical advice on how to adapt peer review processes and culture to maintain quality as automated code generation becomes the new standard. Episode Links: Watch this episode on YouTube Not Your Peer

If you’ve been spinning up AI tools — Claude Desktop, Cursor, Copilot, and so on — there’s a decent chance that API keys, credentials, and access tokens are sitting in plaintext on your laptop. With MCP, every quickstart guide tells you to paste your credentials right into a config file. That was a bad habit before. Now it’s worse because we’re handing keys to agents.

//php get_template_part('parts/custom/_custom-colors'); ?> Listen, Watch, Subscribe & Follow: By popular demand, Keith is joined once again by Ferney Muñoz and Tom Hildebrand to answer listener questions and to dive deeper into designing high-density Wi-Fi for large-scale events. Together they share practical insights on managing DHCP scopes, the realities of client isolation, and more.

Take a Network Break! It’s a Red Alert double feature for Oracle’s Internet Directory LDAP server and Cisco’s Secure Workload Software. In tech news, US law enforcement and intelligence agencies release a joint advisory warning of active threats against Siemens PLCs, Marvell wins a deal to make chips for Google that could bring billions in revenue, and Google Cloud gives customers more control over Google staff’s access to customer data.

Two days ago I wrote about my pending CCIE/CCNP exam (350-701 SCOR). I described my trepidation and preparation in equal measure. Despite six months of hitting the books I still felt shaky on most topics, but because the last day to take the test I’d been studying for was a week out, I figured I’d let ‘er rip. Somewhere around question 30 of 100 I knew I was guessing too much. Cisco’s question writers are a devious lot.

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 consider. On today’s Heavy Networking, Hank joins Ethan Banks to dig into the why and how of building a AI agent that would behave like a junior network engineer.

Network to Code’s Jason Edelman, Founder and CTO; and Jeff Bradbury, VP of Marketing of Network, join host Scott Robohn for this sponsored episode to discuss open-core done right — community first, and creating a path to scalable automation results for enterprise success.