Real-world context for network design.
Zigbits Network Design Podcast is a network engineering and design show built around real-world context. Its recent conversations move from CCDE changes and VXLAN choices to global network design, automation culture, leadership transitions, and infrastructure.
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Zigbits Network Design Podcast is a technical show centered on network engineering, network design, and network architecture. It is practical first. Recent episodes place certification paths, design methods, enterprise infrastructure, automation, and leadership in the same working frame. The Cisco Certified Design Expert gets attention as both a credential and a design discipline, with discussion of written and practical exam structure. VXLAN gets treated as a design problem, not just a protocol name. Global scale network design brings in cloud, SaaS access, ISPs, data centers, VPNs, SD-WAN, and direct-connect style decisions. Automation episodes separate abstraction, orchestration, and true automation, then connect them to source of truth and organizational culture. The show also steps outside pure technology when the work demands it. Conversations about moving from architect roles into people leadership focus on prioritization, team problems, and the limits of trying to stay the sole technical contributor. Goal setting appears through after-action review language and the recurring push to adjust course while making progress. That mix gives the show its shape: technical enough for engineers, but attentive to how network work actually happens around teams, customers, and careers. Zig Zigga's delivery is informal, energetic, and direct. The show speaks in the language of nerds, geeks, ziglets, protocols, and design choices. It can be dense, especially when guests compare encapsulation approaches, certification formats, or connectivity tradeoffs. It is also grounded by a repeated promise of real-world context around technology. Episodes with guests such as Damon Abruzzere, Malcolm Booden, Lukas Krattiger, Tim Faiola, John Capobianco, and Jason Gooley show a range that runs from Cisco certifications to parliament network transition. The strongest appeal is not novelty for its own sake. It is the habit of tying network design decisions to consequences: time management, adoption, maintainability, and career direction.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants network engineering and architecture discussed through practical design choices, certifications, automation, and career movement. It fits people who prefer technical detail with an informal, progress-oriented delivery.
What sets it apart: The show connects protocol-level and architecture-level choices with the human side of network work: leadership, prioritization, culture, and professional development. Its voice is energetic and community-minded while staying anchored in concrete network design problems.
Join Host Zig Zsiga and his cast of Industry Experts as they help you with Network Engineering, Network Design, and Network Architecture. If you are just starting out your career in Networking or if you are a 30 year seasoned Networking Professional, this is the place for you! Our topics range from Network Engineering Technical concepts like complex routing and switching, to Network Design Use Cases, to industry certifications like CCNA, CCNP, CCIE, and CCDE, to Evolving Technologies like Cloud, 5G, Automation, Programmability, DevOps, and DevNet. You should love and be passionate about what you do in life! That’s why part of this show is to help you find the perfect role within Network Engi…
A SaaS vendor says 'cloud'; Zig Zsiga's guest sends you looking for the application's actual location.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear, practical look at CCDE version 2 and the move toward version 3.
Zig Zigga presents the Cisco Certified Design Expert as a credential in motion, with version 3 set for November 2nd and bringing a revised exam format, technology list, and blueprint.
A candid look at why an architect's prioritization habits need to change when the problems belong to a team.
The move from security architect to people leader gives this episode its useful tension. Damon Abruzzere is not talking about a change in job title so much as a change in where the work happens: the problems remain, but the expected response has to mature.
A grounded technical discussion of VXLAN design choices and the protocols around it.
VXLAN is treated here less as a protocol acronym and more as an architecture decision, with Lucas Krediger and the host staying focused on the choices that shape how it gets used.
A practical network automation discussion about source of truth, CLI culture, and the organizational climb toward true automation.
ZigBits Network Design Podcast uses Tim Faiola's automation lens to trace a practical career path from abstraction to orchestration to something closer to true automation.
IPv6 operations, from RFCs to real networks.
Network reality, from packets upward.
Enterprise tech made operationally clear.
Packet-level detail across modern infrastructure.
Infrastructure talk across the Packet Pushers network.
Patient tech fixes, one setting at a time.
["ZigBits Network Design Podcast episode 94 is a CCDE version 3 primer that treats the certification as a \"license to design\" rather than a command set.", "Zig Zigga says his own career moved from CLI and \"best practice\" documents to a why-first design mindset, and he calls that shift life-changing.", "He compares CCDE version 2 and version 3, naming written exam 400-007, the November 2, 2021 launch, the move to Cisco lab locations, and the new two-hour-per-scenario structure.", "He closes by tying design choices to business terms like TCO, OPEX, CAPEX, and ROI, plus technical tradeoffs around OSPF, EIGRP, ISIS, and BGP."]
ZigBits Network Design Podcast episode 93, From an Architect to a People Leader with Damon Abruzzere, follows Damon Abruzzere's move from security architect to Cisco delivery leader.
Malcolm Boodin argues that global-scale network design is mostly about repeating the same architecture across Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, Canada, and Latin America while handling local exceptions.
ZigBits Network Design Podcast episode 91 has Zig Ziggy and Lucas Krediger breaking down VXLAN design decisions for network engineers.
["ZigBits Network Design Podcast episode 90 asks when scripts become true automation and whether that shift can make a network engineer more effective.", "Zig Zigga says he is writing the Cisco Press official CCDE 400-007 certification guide and is moving the show to bi-weekly publishing because of workload.", "Tim Faiola returns as Zig's guest from episodes 83 and 89, and Zig says episode 83, \"how to differentiate yourself as a network engineer,\" is the show's number one episode over the last four years.", "Tim describes abstraction as replacing repeated manual work with scripts, orchestration as multi-device workflow control, and closed-loop automation as event-driven remediation tied to a source of truth."]
Tim Fiola says blue agave takes eight-plus years to mature, giving tequila flavor before it reaches a barrel.
Host Zig Zsiga and guest John Capobianco discuss the design and transition of a Canadian parliament precinct network from legacy Nortel to modern infrastructure.
Zig Zsiga discusses goal setting and the after-action review process for network professionals in the new year.
Host Zig Zsiga interviews Jason Gouldy about leadership, mentorship, Cisco certifications, and network programmability.
Host Zig Zsiga interviews Jason Gouley about leadership, mentorship, certifications, and network engineering topics.