Software Gone Wild by ipSpace.net
Episodes
IETF v6ops Working Group with Nick Buraglio
11 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The first IPv6 specs were published in 1995, and yet 30 years later, we still have a pretty active IETF working group focused on “developing gui...
Using netlab for Classroom Training with Sander Steffann
14 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In March 2024, I received my first PR from an airplane: Sander Steffann was flying to South Africa to deliver an Ansible training and fixed a minor an...
Working for a Vendor with David Gee
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When I first met David Gee, he worked for a large system integrator. A few years later, he moved to a networking vendor, worked for a few of them, the...
Labbing Network Technology Details with netlab
10 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been over four years since I published the last Software Gone Wild episode. In the meantime, I spent most of my time developing an open-sou...
Bringing New Engineers into Networking on Software Gone Wild
09 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As I started Software Gone Wild podcast in June 2014, I wanted to help networking engineers grow beyond the traditional networking technologies. It&rs...
FreeRTR Deep Dive on Software Gone Wild
29 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This podcast introduction was written by Nick Buraglio, the host of today’s podcast. In today’s evolving landscape of whitebox, brightbox...
Streaming Telemetry with Avi Freedman on Software Gone Wild
18 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Remember my rant how “fail fast, fail often sounds great in a VC pitch deck, and sucks when you have to deal with its results”? Streaming ...
Faucet Deep Dive on Software Gone Wild
09 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This podcast introduction was written by Nick Buraglio, the host of today’s podcast. In the original days of this podcast, there were heavy, dee...
BGP Navel Gazing on Software Gone Wild
25 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This podcast introduction was written by Nick Buraglio, the host of today’s podcast. As we all know, BGP runs the networked world. It is a proto...
SuzieQ with Dinesh Dutt and Justin Pietsch on Software Gone Wild
12 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In early May 2020 I wrote a blog post introducing SuzieQ, a network observability platform Dinesh Dutt worked on for the last few years. If that blog ...
Smart NICs with Silvano Gai on Software Gone Wild
15 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A while ago we discussed a software-focused view of Network Interface Cards (NICs) with Luke Gorrie, and a hardware-focused view of them with Or Gerli...
Overlay Networking with Ouroboros on Software Gone Wild
24 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This podcast introduction was written by Nick Buraglio, the host of today’s podcast. As private overlays are becoming more and more prevalent a...
NetDev 0x13 on Software Gone Wild
10 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The last Software Gone Wild podcast recorded in 2019 focused on advances in Linux networking - in particular on interesting stuff presented at NetDev ...
IP Fabric with Gian-Paolo Boarina on Software Gone Wild
29 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
No, we were not talking about IP fabrics in general - IP Fabric is a network management software (oops, network assurance platform) Gian Paolo discove...
OpenBGPD with Claudio Jeker on Software Gone Wild
25 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone is talking about FRRouting suite these days, while hidden somewhere in the background OpenBGPD has been making continuous progress for years....
Net2Text: Natural-Language Interface to Network Operations
27 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sick-and-tired of intent-based GUIs that are barely better than CiscoWorks on steroids? How about asking Siri-like assistant queries about network sta...
Intent-Based Networking with Batfish on Software Gone Wild
06 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine you would have a system that would read network device configurations, figure out how those devices might be connected, reverse-engineer the n...
Device Configuration Synthesis with NetComplete on Software Gone Wild
21 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When I was still at university the fourth-generation programming languages were all the hype, prompting us to make jokes along the lines “fifth ...
Programmable Packet Forwarding Pipelines Using P4 on Software Gone Wild
17 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Every time a new simple programming language is invented, we go through the same predictable cycle: Tons of hype; Unbounded enthusiasm when people who...
Using Faucet to Build SC18 Network with OpenFlow
19 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Remember how Nick Buraglio tried to use OpenDaylight to build a small part of SuperComputing conference network… and ended up with a programmable pa...
Multipath TCP on Software Gone Wild
22 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
I mentioned Multipath TCP (MP-TCP) numerous times in the past but I never managed to get beyond “this is the thing that might solve some TCP mul...
Smart NICs and Related Linux Kernel Infrastructure
01 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A while ago we did a podcast with Luke Gorrie in which he explained why he’d love to have simple, dumb, and easy-to-work-with Ethernet NICs. What ab...
High-Speed IPsec on Snabb Switch on Software Gone Wild
22 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In previous Software Gone Wild episodes we covered Snabb Switch and numerous applications running on it, from L2VPN to 4over6 gateway and integration ...
Network Reliability Engineering on Software Gone Wild
22 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In summer 2018 Juniper started talking about another forward-looking concept: Network Reliability Engineering. We wanted to find out whether that&rsqu...
Using Math in Networking on Software Gone Wild
13 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We love to claim that we’re engineers and yet sometimes we have no clue how technology we use really works and what its limitations are… quite oft...
From Excel to Network Infrastructure as Code with Carl Buchmann
23 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
After a series of forward-looking podcast episodes we returned to real life and talked with Carl Buchmann about his network automation journey, from m...
netdev 0x12 Update on Software Gone Wild
26 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In recent years Linux networking started evolving at an amazing pace. You can hear about all the cool new stuff at netdev conference… or listen to E...
Smart or Dumb NICs on Software Gone Wild
21 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Hardware vendors are always making their silicon more complex and feature-rich. Is that a great idea or a disaster waiting to happen? We asked Luke Go...
Is BGP Good Enough with Dinesh Dutt on Software Gone Wild
31 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In recent Software Gone Wild episodes we explored emerging routing protocols trying to address the specific needs of highly-meshed data center fabrics...
Snabb Switch Update on Software Gone Wild
08 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In 2014, we did a series of podcasts on Snabb Switch (Snabb Switch and OpenStack, Deep Dive), a software-only switch delivering 10-20 Gbps of forwarde...
Network Automation with Nornir (formerly Brigade) on Software Gone Wild
04 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
David Barroso was sick-and-tired of using ZX Spectrum of Network Automation and decided to create an alternative with similar functionality but a prop...
OpenFabric with Russ White on Software Gone Wild
20 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Continuing the series of data center routing protocol podcasts, we sat down with Russ White (of the CCDE fame), author of another proposal: OpenFabric...
Data Center Routing with RIFT on Software Gone Wild
30 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Years ago Petr Lapukhov decided that it’s a waste of time to try to make OSPF or IS-IS work in large-scale data center leaf-and-spine fabrics an...
Linux Interfaces on Software Gone Wild
09 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Continuing the Linux networking discussion we had in Episode 86, we focused on Linux interfaces in Episode 87 of Software Gone Wild with Roopa Prabhu ...
Packet Forwarding on Linux on Software Gone Wild
19 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Linux operating system is used as the foundation for numerous network operating systems including Arista EOS and Cumulus Linux. It provides most netwo...
How Did NETCONF Start on Software Gone Wild
01 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A long while ago Marcel Wiget sent me an interesting email along the lines “I think you should do a Software Gone Wild podcast with Phil Shafer, the...
Ethernet History on Software Gone Wild
27 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
During Cisco Live Berlin 2017 Peter Jones (chair of several IEEE task forces) and myself went on a journey through 40 years of Ethernet history (and T...
Networking Trends Discussion with Andrew Lerner and Simon Richard: Part 2
06 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In June 2017, we concluded the Building Next Generation Data Center online course with a roundtable discussion with Andrew Lerner, Research Vice Pre...
Self-Driving Networks with Kireeti Kompella
22 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A while ago I got a kind email from Kireeti Kompella, CTO @ Juniper Networks, saying “A colleague sent me an email of yours regarding SDN, the troug...
Networking Trends Discussion with Andrew Lerner and Simon Richard
08 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In June 2017, we concluded the Building Next Generation Data Center online course with a roundtable discussion with Andrew Lerner, Research Vice Presi...
Packet Fabric on Software Gone Wild
09 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine a service provider that allows you to provision 100GE point-to-point circuit between any two of their POPs through a web site and delivers in ...
Start Using OpenConfig with NAPALM on Software Gone Wild
26 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
OpenConfig sounds like a great idea, but unfortunately only a few vendors support it, and it doesn’t run on all their platforms, and you need the la...
Network Testing on Software Gone Wild
12 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Network automation and orchestration is a great idea… but how do you verify that what your automation script wants to do won’t break the ...
Salt and SaltStack on Software Gone Wild
28 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Ansible, Puppet, Chef, Git, GitLab… the list of tools you can supposedly use to automate your network is endless, and there’s a new kid on the blo...
Programmable ASICs on Software Gone Wild
14 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
During Cisco Live Europe 2017 (where I got thanks to the Tech Field Day crew kindly inviting me) I had a nice chat with Peter Jones, principal enginee...
NETCONF on Cisco Campus Switches on Software Gone Wild
31 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
During Cisco Live Europe (huge thanks to Tech Field Day crew for bringing me there) I had a chat with Jeff McLaughlin about NETCONF support on Cisco I...
TCP in the Data Center and Beyond on Software Gone Wild
17 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In autumn 2016 I embarked on a quest to figure out how TCP really works and whether big buffers in data center switches make sense. One of the obvious...
CloudScale ASICs on Software Gone Wild
03 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Last year Cisco launched a new series of Nexus 9000 switches with table sizes that didn’t match any of the known merchant silicon ASICs. It was obvi...
OpenConfig: From Basics to Implementations
17 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In 2013, large-scale cloud providers and ISPs decided they had enough of the glacial IETF process of generating YANG models used to describe device co...
Linux Networking Update from NetDev Conference on Software Gone Wild
03 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
When I recorded the first podcast with Thomas Graf we both found it so much fun that we decided to do it again. Thomas had attended the NetDev 1.2 con...
To Drop or To Delay, That’s the Question on Software Gone Wild
27 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A while ago I decided it's time to figure out whether it's better to drop or to delay TCP packets, and quickly figured out you get 12 opinions (usuall...
VXLAN Ping and Traceroute
13 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
From the moment Cisco and VMware announced VXLAN some networking engineers complained that they'd lose visibility into the end-to-end path. It took a ...
Snabb Switch with vMX Control Plane on Software Gone Wild
09 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In Software Gone Wild Episode 52 Katerina Barone-Adesi explained how Igalia implemented 4-over-6 tunnel termination (lwAFTR) with Snabb Switch. Their ...
StackStorm 101 on Software Gone Wild
25 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
A few weeks ago Matt Oswalt wrote an interesting blog post on principles of automation, and we quickly agreed it’s a nice starting point for a podca...
Becoming a Programmer on Software Gone Wild
11 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
During our summer team-building podcast we agreed it would be fun to record a few episodes along the “how do I become a programmer” theme and figu...
NAPALM Update on Software Gone Wild
28 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
We did a podcast describing NAPALM, an open-source multi-vendor abstraction library, a while ago, and as the project made significant progress in the ...
Fast Linux Packet Forwarding with Thomas Graf on Software Gone Wild
14 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
We did several podcasts describing how one could get stellar packet forwarding performance on x86 servers reimplementing the whole forwarding stack ou...
Distributed On-Demand Network Testing (ToDD) with Matt Oswalt
30 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In March 2016 my friend Matt Oswalt announced a distributed network testing framework that he used for validation in his network automation / continuo...
Whitebox Switching at LinkedIn with Russ White on Software Gone Wild
16 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
When LinkedIn announced their Project Falco I knew exactly what one of my future Software Gone Wild podcasts would be: a chat with Russ White (Mr. CCD...
OpenStack on VMware NSX on Software Gone Wild
08 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Does it make sense to run OpenStack on top of VMware infrastructure? How well does NSX work as a Neutron plug-in? Marcos Hernandez answered these ques...
Software-Defined Navel Gazing
26 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Software Gone Wild podcast is well into its toddler years and it was time for a teambuilding exercise. Just kidding – we wanted to test new tools an...
Build Your Own Service Provider Gear on Software Gone Wild
24 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
A few days after I published a blog post arguing that most service providers cannot possibly copy Google’s ideas Giacomo Bernardi wrote a comment sa...
Big Chain Deep Dive on Software Gone Wild
17 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
A while ago Big Switch Networks engineers realized there’s a cool use case for their tap aggregation application (Big Tap Monitoring Fabric) – an ...
Using Macvlan and Ipvlan with Docker on Software Gone Wild
03 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
A few weeks after I published Docker Networking podcast, Brent Salisbury sent me an email saying “hey, we have experimental Macvlan and Ipvlan suppo...
Model-Driven Networking on Software Gone Wild
20 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The Model-driven Networking seems to be another buzzword riding on top of the SDN wave. What exactly is it, how is it supposed to work, will it be rea...
More Open-Source Network Management Tools on Software Gone Wild
29 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
After listening to Open-Source Network Engineer Toolbox Nick Buraglio sent me an email saying “we should do another podcast on open-source network m...
Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) and Avaya Fabric on Software Gone Wild
15 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
A few months ago I met a number of great engineers from Avaya and they explained to me how they creatively use Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) to create ...
Palo Alto Integration with Cisco ACI and OpenStack on Software Gone Wild
01 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
A while ago Christer Swartz explained how a Palo Alto firewall integrates with VMware NSX. In the meantime, Palo Alto announced integration with Cisco...
x86-Based Switching at Ludicrous Speed on Software Gone Wild
20 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine you want to have an IPv6-only access network and transport residual IPv4 traffic tunneled across it. Sounds great, but you need to terminate t...
Troubleshoot Your Network with PacketDesign on Software Gone Wild
26 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine you get a routing outage in your network resulting in three minutes of traffic blackholing. After a few tense minutes it goes away and life is...
VMware NSX Update on Software Gone Wild
11 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
A few months ago VMware launched NSX version 6.2, and I asked my friend Anthony Burke to tell us more about the new features. Not surprisingly, we qui...
Docker Networking on Software Gone Wild
27 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
A year and a half ago, Docker networking couldn’t span multiple hosts and used NAT with port mapping to expose container-based services to the outsi...
OpenSwitch Deep Dive on Software Gone Wild
15 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
A while ago I watched a Networking Field Day Extra video in which Chris Young and Michael Zayats talked about HP’s open source initiative – they d...
Running Open Daylight in Production Network on Software Gone Wild
14 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Nick Buraglio used OpenDaylight and OpenFlow-enabled switches to build a part of the exhibition network of a large international supercomputing confer...
CPLANE Networks on Software Gone Wild
11 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
When I wrote a blog post explaining the difference between centralized control and centralized control plane, John Casey, CEO of CPLANE Networks wrote...
Fibbing: OSPF-Based Traffic Engineering with Laurent Vanbever
27 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
You might be familiar with the idea of using BGP as an SDN tool that pushes forwarding entries into routing and forwarding tables of individual device...
Test-Driven Network Development with Michael Kashin on Software Gone Wild
13 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine you’d design your network by documenting the desired traffic flow across the network under all failure conditions, and only then do a lo...
Optimizing Traffic Engineering with NorthStar Controller on Software Gone Wild
30 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Content providers were using centralized traffic flow optimization together with MPLS TE for at least 15 years (some of them immediately after Cisco l...
SDN Internet Router Is in Production on Software Gone Wild
16 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
You might remember the great idea David Barroso had last autumn – turn an Arista switch into an Internet edge router (SDN Internet Router – SIR). ...
Software-Defined IXP with Laurent Vanbever on Software Gone Wild
05 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
A while ago I started discussing the intricate technical details of fibbing (an ingenious way of implementing traffic engineering with traditional OSP...
DLSP – QoS-Aware Routing Protocol on Software Gone Wild
18 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
When I asked “Are there any truly QoS-aware routing protocols out there?” in one of my SD-WAN posts, Marcelo Spohn from ADARA Networks qui...
Use nProbe and ELK Stack to Build a Netflow Solution on Software Gone Wild
04 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
How do you capture all the flows entering or exiting a data center if your core Nexus 7000 switch cannot do it in hardware? You take an x86 server, lo...
Layer-3-Only Data Center Networks with Cumulus Linux on Software Gone Wild
21 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
With the advent of layer-3 leaf-and-spine data center fabrics, it became (almost) possible to build pure layer-3-only data center networks… if ...
Software-Defined Hardware Forwarding Pipeline on HP Switches
26 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Writing OpenFlow controllers that interact with physical hardware is harder than most people think. Apart from developing a distributed system (which ...
Open-Source Network Engineer Toolbox
19 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Elisa Jasinska, Bob McCouch and I were scheduled to record a NetOps podcast with a major vendor, but unfortunately their technical director cancelled ...
NAPALM: Integrating Ansible with Network Devices on Software Gone Wild
12 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when network engineers with strong programming background and focus on open source tools have to implement network automation in a multi-...
Network Monitoring in SDN Era on Software Gone Wild
29 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
A while ago Chris Young sent me a few questions about network management in the brave new SDN world. I never focused on network management, but I know...
Segment Routing 101 on Software Gone Wild
22 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
With all the hype around Segment Routing we said: “let’s chat about it, what could possibly go wrong”. The result: Episode 33 of Sof...
Build Your Development or Lab Environment with Ravello Systems
15 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
When preparing for my Simplifying Application Workload Migration workshop (coming in webinar format in autumn) I tried to find a solution that would a...
OpenFlow in HP Campus Solutions on Software Gone Wild
08 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
When I finished my SDN workshop @ Interop Las Vegas (including a chapter on OpenFlow limitations), some attendees started wondering whether they shoul...
PF_RING Deep Dive with Luca Deri on Software Gone Wild
30 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Whenever software switching nerds get together and start discussing the challenges of high-speed x86-based switching, someone inevitably mentions PF_R...
NSONE – Data-Driven DNS on Software Gone Wild
17 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
DNS is a crucial component in modern scale-out application architectures, so when Alex Vayl and Kris Beevers from NSONE contacted me just as I was sta...
ntopng Deep Dive with Luca Deri on Software Gone Wild
10 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
PF_RING is a great open-source project that enables extremely fast packet processing on x86 servers, so I was more than delighted when Paolo Lucente o...
Microsegmentation in VMware NSX on Software Gone Wild
27 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
VM NIC firewalls have been around for years (they’re also the reason I got my first invitation to the awesome Troopers conference), but it sounds so...
Networking Field Day 9 Wrap-up on Software Gone Wild
20 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
A few days after the Networking Field Day 9 event Nick Buraglio organized a virtual meetup with Brandon Carroll, Brandon Mangold, Bob McCouch and myse...
TCP Optimization with Juho Snellman on Software Gone Wild
13 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Achieving 40 Gbps of forwarding performance on an Intel server is no longer a big deal - Juniper got to 160 Gbps with finely tuned architecture - but ...
Scalable Load Balancing with Avi Networks on Software Gone Wild
06 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
How many times have you received exact specifications of the traffic the e-commerce platform you have to deploy will generate? How do you buy a load b...
Hands-On Tail-F Experience – Part 2
17 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Want to know even more about Tail-F NCS after listening to Episode 22 of Software Gone Wild? Boštjan Šuštar and Marko Tišler from NIL Data Communi...
Hands-On Tail-F Experience on Software Gone Wild
13 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Tail-F NCS implements one of the most realistic approaches to service abstraction (the cornerstone of SDN – at least in my humble opinion) – an or...
Whiteboarding Cisco ACI on Software Gone Wild
06 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Late last year David Gee and I wanted to test another interesting gizmo: an online virtual whiteboard. David was pondering some interesting aspect of ...