Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Your network is an interconnected system. A change you make on one device has consequences beyond that device. Therefore, to do your job well, you must think about the network as a whole.
That's the big idea behind a blog post written by guest Jason Gintert. He joins Ethan and Drew to talk about how to bring a more holistic mindset to network engineering, and makes the case that treating the network as a collection of discrete parts causes engineers a lot of pain.
He also talks about why it's important to deeply learn protocols (and how to do it), and how to think holistically when the complexity of modern networks borders on the incomprehensible.
Jason is co-founder and President of the US Networking User Association (USNUA) and an experienced engineer.
AdSpot Sponsor: Itential
Itential’s FlowAI delivers agentic operations for infrastructure - meaning easily build AI agents that actually work the way engineers need them to: governed, deterministic, and built for production. Add intelligent automation to your network operations without the usual AI chaos. Find out more at itential.com/flowai
Links:
The Network as a Whole - bitsinflight.com/the-network-as-a-whole
Bitsinflight.com
Jason Gintert on LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/jasongintert
USNUA - usnua.com
Heavy Networking is the flagship show of the Packet Pushers network. Visit our website to find more great networking and technology podcasts, along with tutorial videos, the Human Infrastructure newsletter, and loads more resources for building your IT career. packetpushers.net
Your network is an interconnected system. A change you make on one device has consequences beyond that device. Therefore, to do your job well, you must think about the network as a whole.
That's the big idea behind a blog post written by guest Jason Gintert. He joins Ethan and Drew to talk about how to bring a more holistic mindset to network engineering, and makes the case that treating the network as a collection of discrete parts causes engineers a lot of pain.
He also talks about why it's important to deeply learn protocols (and how to do it), and how to think holistically when the complexity of modern networks borders on the incomprehensible.
Jason is co-founder and President of the US Networking User Association (USNUA) and an experienced engineer.
AdSpot Sponsor: Itential
Itential’s FlowAI delivers agentic operations for infrastructure - meaning easily build AI agents that actually work the way engineers need them to: governed, deterministic, and built for production. Add intelligent automation to your network operations without the usual AI chaos. Find out more at itential.com/flowai
Links:
The Network as a Whole - bitsinflight.com/the-network-as-a-whole
Bitsinflight.com
Jason Gintert on LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/jasongintert
USNUA - usnua.com
Heavy Networking is the flagship show of the Packet Pushers network. Visit our website to find more great networking and technology podcasts, along with tutorial videos, the Human Infrastructure newsletter, and loads more resources for building your IT career. packetpushers.net
