--- title: NAN075: Mastering Networking in the Age of AI: Advice... description: Ivan Pepelnjak, CCIE#1354 and 30-year networking veteran, joins the Network Automation Nerds podcast to discuss his decision to wind down content creation at... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/nan075-mastering-networking-in-the-age-of-ai-advice-for-aspiring-engineers-dl9tulbxu twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: NAN075: Mastering Networking in the Age of AI: Advice for Aspiring Engineers | daily.dev og:description: Ivan Pepelnjak, CCIE#1354 and 30-year networking veteran, joins the Network Automation Nerds podcast to discuss his decision to wind down content creation at... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/nan075-mastering-networking-in-the-age-of-ai-advice-for-aspiring-engineers-dl9tulbxu og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/DL9TUlbxU.png og:image:alt: NAN075: Mastering Networking in the Age of AI: Advice for Aspiring Engineers og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # NAN075: Mastering Networking in the Age of AI: Advice for Aspiring Engineers **[ipSpace.net Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace)** · 59 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Ivan Pepelnjak, CCIE#1354 and 30-year networking veteran, joins the Network Automation Nerds podcast to discuss his decision to wind down content creation at ipSpace.net, advice for aspiring network engineers, and his open-source netlab project. Key advice includes mastering Linux (as ~90% of network OS platforms now run on it), obtaining certifications as an HR filter, building professional visibility by owning your content (using static site generators like Hugo with Git), and mastering the command line. Ivan also discusses AI in networking, arguing that LLMs are a small subset of a much broader AI landscape that includes clustering, decision trees, and neural networks. The netlab project automates lab topology setup, IP addressing, and protocol configuration across 20+ platforms, with BGP labs runnable for free in GitHub Codespaces (60 free CPU hours/month). Future labs covering IS-IS and VXLAN are in progress. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How many free CPU hours does GitHub Codespaces give per month for running network labs? GitHub Codespaces provides 60 free CPU hours per month. On a 2-core VM, that translates to roughly 30 hours of lab time per month — enough to work through BGP labs without incurring charges, making it a practical free environment for learning networking concepts with tools like netlab. _Network engineers exploring lab setups without hardware costs track options like this on daily.dev._ ### What platforms does the netlab open-source project support for network lab automation? Netlab supports over 20 platforms including Cisco IOS-V, IOS-XE, IOS-XR, Catalyst 8000V, Nexus OS, Arista EOS, Juniper (multiple devices), Dell OS10, Cumulus Linux 4 and 5, FRRouting, Nokia SRLinux and SROS, Aruba, and Fortinet. It automates topology setup, IP addressing, and protocol configuration (OSPF, EIGRP, IS-IS, BGP) from a simple topology definition. _Engineers evaluating network lab automation tools find community comparisons and project updates on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Worth Reading: LLM Prompts for Network Engineers « ipSpace.net blog](https://daily.dev/posts/worth-reading-llm-prompts-for-network-engineers-ipspace-net-blog-8hoxhzd3u) · ipSpace.net Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Find Yourself in the Future: AI Is the New Baseline—Here’s How to Build Your Skills](https://daily.dev/posts/find-yourself-in-the-future-ai-is-the-new-baseline-here-s-how-to-build-your-skills-em9aaputq) · Cisco · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How to turn your 1000x engineer into a 10x everyone \| LinkedIn’s Karthik Ramgopal](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-turn-your-1000x-engineer-into-a-10x-everyone-linkedin-s-karthik-ramgopal-frrracaoz) · Dev Interrupted · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#git](https://daily.dev/tags/git), [#networking](https://daily.dev/tags/networking), [#bgp](https://daily.dev/tags/bgp) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/nan075-mastering-networking-in-the-age-of-ai-advice-for-aspiring-engineers-dl9tulbxu) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"NAN075: Mastering Networking in the Age of AI: Advice for Aspiring Engineers","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/nan075-mastering-networking-in-the-age-of-ai-advice-for-aspiring-engineers-dl9tulbxu","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/nan075-mastering-networking-in-the-age-of-ai-advice-for-aspiring-engineers-dl9tulbxu"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T08:52:03.409Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T08:55:28.274Z","description":"Ivan Pepelnjak, CCIE#1354 and 30-year networking veteran, joins the Network Automation Nerds podcast to discuss his decision to wind down content creation at...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/40874de7e89aa5be5a8250b4499b6904?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/40874de7e89aa5be5a8250b4499b6904?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"ipSpace.net Blog","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"ipSpace.net Blog","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--xS7E82MT--/f_auto,q_auto/v1786438303/logos/ipspace?_a=BAMAMicg0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/nan075-mastering-networking-in-the-age-of-ai-advice-for-aspiring-engineers-dl9tulbxu","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"linux,git,networking,bgp","timeRequired":"PT59M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ipSpace.net Blog","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"NAN075: Mastering Networking in the Age of AI: Advice for Aspiring Engineers"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/nan075-mastering-networking-in-the-age-of-ai-advice-for-aspiring-engineers-dl9tulbxu#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How many free CPU hours does GitHub Codespaces give per month for running network labs?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"GitHub Codespaces provides 60 free CPU hours per month. 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