Human Infrastructure 455: Token Apocalypse, Passing DCCOR, and More

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Drew Conry-Murray & Ethan Banks
July 16, 2026

THIS WEEK’S MUST-READ BLOGS 🤓

Ali digs into how Nile, a NaaS vendor, provides NAC capabilities in its Trust Engine. The post covers options and features in Trust Engine and walks step by step on how to configure NAC policies. - Drew  

Michael Spencer digs into how enterprises are pulling back on their AI spending as they try to balance business value vs. cost, what that means for the adoption of open-source and open-weight models (including Chinese models), and how feuding billionaires are trying to get the Trump administration to pick AI winners and losers and why that’s bad for US interests. This piece has more questions than answers, but they’re good questions. - Drew

This piece explores the phenomenon of output-competence decoupling, among other things. A prime example of this decoupling is using AI to generate a product in which the human user of the AI has no expertise. AI can generate a result, but the person prompting the AI for this result has little idea of how the product actually works. But if we got a result with improved efficiency, does the AI user’s competence really matter? Yes.

The current generation of agentic systems is built around the premise that the human is the bottleneck — that the loop runs faster and cleaner without the awkward delay of someone reading what is about to happen and deciding whether it should. This is, in a great many cases, exactly backwards.

That is, a model is limited by its training and lack of comprehension of an outside world. A human with no domain expertise doesn’t know if the AI is producing a good or bad product. A true expert does. - Ethan

Mini racks are cool for housing tiny PCs you might have several of for lab projects. While you can buy pre-made mini racks, this piece shows you how to build your own complete with helpful links and parts list. - Ethan

Taha Yusuf took a somewhat different approach to Cisco’s Implementing and Operating Cisco Data Center Core Technologies exam. He didn’t want to merely pass the exam. He wanted to hold onto everything he learned even after the exam was passed. For him, a significant component was hands-on study. He writes:

“The biggest reason I was able to retain the DCCOR topics was the lab. I used the lab to turn the blueprint into real technology. … This is the difference between passing and understanding. You can read about a technology and recognise the correct answer. However when you configure it, troubleshoot it and explain it, the knowledge becomes much stronger. The lab exposes the gaps that theory hides.“

If you’re working on DCCOR yourself, Taha explains in much more detail how he studied for each major blueprint area of study. - Ethan

Doug pragmatically lays out why data centers in space aren’t going to be a thing. TL;DR? Thermodynamics. This is a short read well worth your time. I’ve read other takedowns of orbiting data centers that say much the same thing. - Ethan

MORE BLOGS

AI bots are driving more requests, more telemetry, and new challenges across enterprise networks. But the biggest challenge is not just detection. It is understanding what bots are doing, which ones can be trusted, and how they affect performance, security, and customer experience.

Based on a survey of 300 enterprise IT and security leaders, this report examines why organizations are investing in better visibility and real-time analytics at scale to manage AI-driven traffic.

TECH NEWS 📣

Om Malik passed on June 24, 2026. Anyone who follows technology goings-on would have inevitably found themselves reading some of his work. His presence will be missed. - Ethan

The startup in question is MeetingTV. The startup’s founder and CEO, longtime entrepreneur Michael Robertson, told us the blocks [of MeetingTV by cybersecurity providers] are the only way he found out about the Koi report in the first place. According to Robertson, Koi did not reach out to MeetingTV prior to publishing its threat report.

“They admit to using AI for their analysis,” Robertson said. “Maybe a human made it all up? Maybe it was AI? What's clear is that if the software doesn't exist, then even the most rudimentary analysis is impossible to do, yet they labeled our urls, services, and software as criminals.” Ouch. - Ethan

MORE NEWS

FOR THE LULZ 🤣

RESEARCH & RESOURCES 📒

I’m not a huge fan of TED talks, but I’m highlighting this one because it runs counter to the narrative that social media is ruining teens’ lives. The speaker, Candice Odgers, is a developmental psychologist at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Odgers is conducting years-long longitudinal studies that track teen phone use, sleep data, and school records. Based on her research, the data don’t support the claim that social media is destroying the mental health of teenagers. And social media bans, which are being enacted and proposed in many countries, may be counterproductive for teens’ well-being. 

Obviously, the impacts of social media on teenagers (and adults) is a complex topic. Social media giants are not trustworthy actors, and it does feel like they are conducting a massive social science experiment on all of us while raking in huge fortunes and denying any responsibility for anything. But young people are often more savvy about social media than we give them credit for, and it can be a lifeline for young people, particularly marginalized people, who use it to find positive connections and communities.

That’s why it’s important to hear from folks like Dr. Odgers, who are conducting data-driven research and analysis to understand that complexity, rather than devolving into knee-jerk panic and/or running a grift. - Drew 

Josh VanDeraa has released an updated version of his book “Open Source Network Management.” As you may have surmised from the title, the book offers 13 chapters on how to run your network using open-source tools. It also includes companion lab files to help you set up and run the tools. Updates include the latest versions of relevant software, a new chapter on configuration management, and the inclusion of a new tool for metrics storage. See the link above to read a sample chapter, see everything the book includes, and pricing for the digital and print editions. - Drew 

Nothing radical in this release, but lots and lots of bug fixes and protocol dissector updates. Check out the release notes here. - Ethan

OpenAI has open-sourced Multipath Reliable Connection (MRC). Why do you care? Frontier model training depends on reliable supercomputer networks that can quickly move data between GPUs. To make this faster and more efficient, OpenAI has partnered with AMD, Broadcom, Intel, Microsoft, and NVIDIA to develop MRC (Multipath Reliable Connection): a novel protocol that improves GPU networking performance and resilience in large training clusters.

We are chatting with one of the key developers of MRC and plan to publish a Heavy Networking podcast on it in October. In the meantime, you can read the MRC 1.0 spec here (PDF), published as part of the Open Compute Project. Compared to the first Ultra Ethernet spec, MRC 1.0 is mercifully short at only 76 pages long. - Ethan

Nicolas reports that the CKNE is still in development, with the first alpha testing having been completed. Beta testing is coming soon. He also says, It's going to be a hard exam... but a fair one (if you're a network engineer, I'd place the difficulty level between CCNP and CCIE). We'll be looking for beta testers soon. Feel free to leave a comment below to indicate your interest!

So head up on to the post and add your name to the 300+ folks that have already left a comment if you’re keen. - Ethan

MORE RESOURCES

UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS 🍕🍻

A curated list of near-future meatspace events of interest to network engineers. Sometimes a Packet Pusher or two will be there.

Subscribe to events.packetpushers.net in your calendar software.

JULY 2026

SharkFest’26 | WireShark User Conference
18 - 23 July | Nashville, Tennessee

IETF 126 | Internet Engineering Task Force
18 - 24 July | Vienna, Austria

(PA)NUG | Pennsylvania Networking User Group (USNUA)
23 July | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

AUGUST 2026

SEPTEMBER 2026

NLNAM Meetup 3 | NL Network Automation Meetup
9 September | Utrecht, Netherlands

Wi-Co Manchester
9 - 10 September | Manchester, UK

Zeek Workshop
10 - 11 September | Berkeley, California

CybrSecCon
14 - 15 September | Houston, TX (Drew and JJ will be there!)

(MO)NUG | Missouri Networking User Group (USNUA)
23 September | St. Louis, Missouri

Wi-Co Cleveland
24 September | Cleveland, OH

Higher Education NETCOMM Workshop 2026
29 September | Denver, CO

INDUSTRY BLOGS & VENDOR ANNOUNCEMENTS 💬 

Open source Python project Nornir, much used by network automators, has a new caretaker--the folks at OpsMill. Why has OpsMill stepped into this role? A couple of reasons. One--many on their team have contributed to Nornir. Two--open source is part of OpsMill’s culture, as attested to by the Infrahub project.

More to come from OpsMill regarding their plans for Nornir. Note that Nornir’s creator, David Barroso, remains connected to the project in his role as a Technical Advisor to OpsMill. - Ethan

For about $8B, Rocket Lab now owns the Iridium satellite constellation and related assets. The acquisition will be one of the most transformative deals in the space industry, joining together two innovative American companies to play a leading role in the U.S. space economy. It merges Rocket Lab's leading launch capabilities and satellite manufacturing with Iridium's global satellite communications network, spectrum, and 500-plus strong partner ecosystem to create a competitive, vertically-integrated space company that designs, builds, launches, and operates its own constellations, delivering critical communications capability to millions of users worldwide.

SpaceX/Starlink competitors keep popping up. It will be interesting to see if meaningful differentiation emerges over the next decade or so as these other companies bring services online. - Ethan

Avi is Kentik’s CEO. He reports as follows:

“Joining Infoblox is the natural next step in that journey. We serve many of the same customers, share similar values, and bring together highly complementary technologies. Together, we'll combine Infoblox's authoritative identity, asset intelligence, and DNS infrastructure with Kentik's deep operational intelligence to create an even stronger foundation for the future of networking and security.”

Read more about this acquisition in Kentik’s blog post. - Ethan 

Sif Baksh is running a hands-on workshop with Packet Coders on July 28 about how to design, build, and safely deploy AI agents for network operations through practical, guided labs. If you’re interested, you can save a little money using the discount code PACKETPUSHERS20. - Drew 

MORE INDUSTRY NOISES

DYSTOPIA IRL 🐙

TOO MANY LINKS WOULD NEVER BE ENOUGH 🐳

LAST LAUGH 😆

Shared on the Packet Pushers’ Community Slack by Derek Martin