The Hedge

A wide ranging network engineering podcast. The Hedge covers technology to life as a network engineer, Internet wide issues to small scale networks.

Hedge 251: Regulating Local Data Centers

What impact do local regulations have on our ability to build and operate new data centers in the United States? What impact do these regulations have on local economies? Juan Londoño, from the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, joins Ned Bellavance and Russ White to discuss yet another part of the network engineering world.

11-22
31:39

Hedge 250: Reacting to the Hype

It's roundtable time! Tom, Eyvonne, and Russ discuss several different topics, including the broader market implications for the changes going on at Broadcom and VMWare, balancing the cloud (they float!), reacting to the hype, and whether IP addresses will even be important in ten years.

11-15
36:36

Hedge 249: FR Routing Update

Alistair Woodman joins Tom and Russ to talk about the current state of the FR Routing open source routing stack project. Like all software projects, FR Routing has entered a bit of a "middle phase," with a focus on maintenance and stability rather than new features and protocols.

11-01
40:52

Hedge 248: Procrastination

Do you procrastinate too much? I know I do. Why do we procrastinate, and what strategies can we use to stop it? Terry Kim joins Eyvonne Sharp and Russ White to consider procrastination.

10-25
33:31

Hedge 247: SONiC and other NOSs

SONiC has been around for a while--is there a solid commercial play for this open-source operating system? If so, what is it? What is the future for open-source and other network operating systems? Mike Bushong joins Tom Ammon, Eyvonne Sharp, and Russ White to discuss SONiC and open source network operating systems.

10-18
45:37

Hedge 246: Complexity and Deployment

In this roundtable episode of the Hedge, Tom, Eyvonne, and Russ discuss complexity and deployment. Why do some protocols fail to deploy, or require decades, while others deploy quickly?

10-11
37:19

Hedge 245: RADIUS and Authentication

RADIUS is one of those protocols we tend to forget about because it is ubiquitous--but authentication protocols are very large attack surfaces network engineers should pay more attention to. Alan DeKok joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss the RADIUS protocol.

10-03
37:32

Hedge 244: Networks for AI

What are the requirements for running AI workloads over a data center fabric? Why is InfiniBand so popular for building AI networks? What about Ethernet for AI? Jeff Tantsura joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss networks for AI workloads.

09-20
55:34

Hedge 243: The Open Radio Area Network (RAN)

The cellular network world is similar enough to the IP networking world to feel familiar, but different enough to require learning new terms and ideas. Tom Nadeau joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss one element of this networking world, the RAN network, and the current move towards open source and white box disaggregated solutions.

09-12
42:14

Hedge 242: The Myth of the Coder

In the early days of computer programming, some thought there was a difference between a coder and a programmer. Did this division ever really exist, and are there similar divisions in network engineering?

09-05
42:40

The Hedge 241: Starlink Performance w/Geoff Huston

When Starlink first went into service we heard a lot of stories about how its Internet service was slow and unreliable. We're a few years into Starlink launching satellites—how is Starlink holding up? Is service improving? Geoff Huston joins Tom, Eyvonne, and Russ to look into Starlink's performance today.

08-29
53:35

Hedge 240: Build or Buy?

Many network operators think the idea of building rather than buying is something that's out of reach--but is it? Join Steve Dodd, Eyvonne, Tom, and Russ as we discuss the positive and negative aspects of build versus buy, what operators get wrong, and what operators don't often expect.

08-23
41:20

Hedge 239: AI for Network Operations

There are (at least) three different aspects of AI in network engineering: network design to support AI, AI for development, and AI for operations. J.P. Vassuer joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss AI for understanding and operating networks. What are the possibilities? What are the pitfalls? What can we expect to see?

08-15
42:04

Hedge 238: What Went Wrong? (Crowdstrike)

  The massive failure resulting from a failed update to 8.5 million Windows hosts by Crowdstrike will live in Internet history for years to come. The failure will be studied by engineering teams and college classes to understand what went wrong and how we can stop this from happening in the future. Derick Winkworth (@cloudtoad), Eyvonne Sharp, Tom Ammon, and Russ White hang out at the hedge to talk about what happened and lessons learned from a network engineering perspective.

08-08
47:56

The Hedge 237: What’s Wrong with Vendors?

Looking at changes in the market in the last ten years, it certainly seems like vendors work less toward innovation and more towards locking customers in to revenue streams. Chris Emerick, Dave Taht, and Russ White decided it's time to talk about. What's wrong with vendors? And since everything can't be wrong with vendors, where are they doing the right thing?

08-01
50:33

Hedge 236: Permissionless with Greg Ferro

Eyvonne and Russ catch up with Greg Ferro one last time to talk about the permissionless Internet--a thing of the past--vendor lock in, and many other random topics on this episode of the Hedge. Greg--here's to a grand time in the future. We'll miss you.

07-26
57:07

The Hedge 235: Copyrights and Centralization

Join us as Tom, Eyvonne, and Russ hang out for another roundtable. We start the show talking about Tom's plant (is it real or ... ??). What does copyright have to do with Internet Service Providers? Should the two topics be related at all? What can the IETF do about Internet centralization?

07-19
40:26

Hedge 234: We’re Looking in the Wrong Places to Solve the Cyber Workforce Shortage

We often hear about how there simply aren't enough tech people out there--especially in cybersecurity. Rex Booth, CISO at Sailpoint, joins Tom and Russ to discuss the problem, and why we should be looking in unconventional places to find the right people.

07-12
47:39

Hedge 233: Making Heat Productive

Data centers turn large amounts of electricity into heat. Is it possible to recover even some part of this heat rather than throwing it off into the local environment? David Krebs of masterresource.org brings his vast experience with using heat from engines to bear on the problem to propose solutions.

07-07
32:04

Hedge 232: Writing and Publishing with Aninda Chatterjee

If you've ever wondered what the process of creating and publishing a book is like, listen in as Aninda joins Tom and Russ to discuss the trials and rewards of publishing his first book, Deploying Juniper Data Centers with EVPN VXLAN.

06-28
41:28

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