In my last two articles, I used a local AI agent (pi) to inspect a router configuration and to port a network utility to a different programming language. Those are impressive actions for systems engineering, but they still operate on small, bounded files. What happens when we point an agent at a pile of unstructured
Data science via agentic exploration: Parsing the NOC inbox Read More »
In my last post, we set up pi, a terminal-native AI agent, and pointed it at a locally hosted open-weight model to investigate a network configuration. Today, we’re going to give that same agent a substantially harder task: read an existing network utility and produce a working implementation in another programming language. Code is another
Porting ping with an agent Read More »
In the last few posts, we talked about the theory behind agentic AI: what agents are, the hardware required to run them, and why National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) should care about data sovereignty and open-weight models. Theory is great, but let’s see some examples in action. In this post, we’re going to look
Using an AI Agent for Network and Systems Operations Read More »
If you’ve followed this series so far, we’ve established that AI is moving beyond simple chat interfaces toward agents that can pursue goals and use tools. We’ve also looked under the hood at the inference services and physical infrastructure required to run them. In this section, we examine who controls that underlying infrastructure. Much of
Vendor lock-in, open models, and architectural choice Read More »
In the previous post, we talked about how AI is evolving from simple chat interfaces into agents that can pursue goals, use tools, and act on the information they encounter. We also discussed context: the instructions, conversations, files, and tool results that an agent provides to a model while it works. But as anyone who
Inference Services Read More »
Having spent the last year playing around with a variety of AI tools, I have come to realize their potential — particularly for those of us in the non-profit sectors — to drastically improve how we work and our organizations operate. In this blog series, I will explain what agentic AI is, how it processes
A primer on agentic AI for network administrators Read More »
Over the last school year, Cybera has connected a large number of K-12 and post-secondary institutions to our research, peering, and transit networks. With the 2024-25 school year finished, it’s a great opportunity to look at our traffic patterns and statistics. SuperNet The majority of our members connect to us through the Alberta SuperNet. Cybera
School’s out, data’s in: Reviewing the last year of network traffic Read More »
The SuperNet is an important resource in Alberta. This high-speed fibre-optic and microwave network, built by the Government of Alberta in 2005, connects over 400 communities across the province. Its purpose is to serve as a digital highway, and is often the only link between some urban and rural areas, thus acting as a vital
Expanding our SuperNet Connectivity Read More »
Cybera had been using a network management system called CMDB for over a decade. This is where we keep track of the network connection details for each of our members and upstream providers. CMDB originated at BCNET, our National Research and Education Network (NREN) partner next door. Cybera’s NREN architecture was based on BCNET’s architecture,
Cybera’s new portal to the future Read More »
This summer, Cybera’s network team replaced our Calgary router (which had tirelessly served us and our members for over a decade) with a new one, effectively doubling our network capacity, increasing throughput, and creating a more orderly network system. But getting to this moment has been a looooong time coming. Our Calgary router has been
Long awaited router change doubles Cybera’s network capacity Read More »
It’s hard to believe, but students are now in their third year of schooling while dealing with COVID-19. During each year – and each interruption – Cybera has seen wildly different network traffic patterns. While I do plan to write about our experience as a whole, I’ll save that for the post-new normal. For now,
Network use jumps in 2021-22 school year Read More »
Picture this scenario: It’s a few days before Christmas. You awaken in a panic and rush to the airport. While running through the terminals, you unknowingly take a wrong turn, and instead of boarding a plane to Miami, you instead board a plane to New York City. Is this the plot to Home Alone 2:
Global validation (on the networking scale) Read More »
Public clouds, such as Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure, are increasingly becoming a popular choice for hosting an organization’s IT infrastructure and services. They can often provide managed and semi-managed services more efficiently than an average in-house IT department. With more Cybera members leveraging public cloud services such as these, we are looking at ways
Piloting a Canadian route to Microsoft Azure: lessons learned Read More »