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Andy sits down with longtime friend William Collins to unpack three big themes shaping modern NetOps.

First: the AWS US-East-1 outage and the myth that “cloud = resiliency by default.” They explore blast radius, hidden regional dependencies, cost trade-offs (active/active vs. DR), and why resiliency is engineered, not purchased.

Next: how public speaking accelerates a technical career (without live-demo heartbreak). William shares practical tactics to craft a memorable talk, lean on story, and handle Q&A.

Finally: a plain-English walkthrough of Model Context Protocol (MCP), why it exists, how it standardizes tool access for LLMs, and what that means for real NetOps workflows.

If you design for failure, want to level up your communication skills, or keep hearing “MCP” and wonder what it actually does, this one’s for you.

This episode has been sponsored by Meter.

Go to meter.com/aone to book a demo now!

You can support the show at the link below.

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Find everything AONE right here: https://linktr.ee/artofneteng

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Network engineers don’t tune into corporate all-hands because they’re “lazy,” they tune out because the message often isn’t for them. In this episode of The Art of Network Engineering, Andy Lapteff sits down with longtime industry leaders Scott Robohn and Mike Bushong to unpack the disconnect between engineering teams and executive communications, and how to fix it.

They talk about:

• Why engineers roll their eyes at town halls, earnings calls, and “four pillars of excellence”
• How leadership actually thinks about growth, stock price, cost centers, and enablement
• The two jobs every company really has: build stuff or sell stuff, and where networking fits
• How to pitch your ideas in business terms so they get funded
• Why AI networking and data center infrastructure are the next durable growth areas for network pros
• The difference between being part of the product vs. enabling the product, and why it matters for your career

If you’ve ever thought, “Just let me do my job,” this one’s for you. You’ll walk away knowing how to connect your automation, operations, or data center work to the outcomes your company actually cares about: revenue, speed, customer experience, and risk.

Listen in, take notes, and then go advocate for your work like it matters, because it does.

This episode has been sponsored by Meter.

Go to meter.com/aone to book a demo now!

You can support the show at the link below.

Support the show

Find everything AONE right here: https://linktr.ee/artofneteng

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Blue Origin’s Lexie Cooper is back! We riff on New Glenn’s first launch and what “vehicle #2” means for launch cadence, where to watch from Florida without getting arrested, and why streaming your learning, even when it’s awkward, is a cheat code for growth.

Andy shares his live Python study saga (and a friendly dust-up with Jeff about “just code it”), while Lexie takes us down to Layer 1: PHYs, link pulses, why “turning off auto-negotiation” isn’t always what you think, and why messy home labs beat pretty cable porn.

We also get real about authenticity at vendors, the pressure to be “polished,” and whether networking is still a great career in an automation-heavy market.

If you need a nudge to build, break, and learn in public, this one’s it.

In this episode:
New Glenn’s growing fleet & why multiple boosters matter
How/where to catch a Florida launch (scrubs happen)
Learning in public: textbooks on stream, tension on mic, real takeaways
PHY vs. ASIC, MAC sublayers, and auto-neg gotchas (with an oscilloscope!)
Home labs: why “spaghetti” > showroom racks for actual learning
Careers: automation pressure, Git for config history, staying authentic
Streaming nuts & bolts: TikTok vs. Twitch vs. YouTube, OBS scenes 101
Women in networking and inviting more people into the field

This episode has been sponsored by Meter.

Go to meter.com/aone to book a demo now!

You can support the show at the link below.

Support the show

Find everything AONE right here: https://linktr.ee/artofneteng