Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

Most people think great network engineers are defined by technical expertise. This episode challenges that idea. Because what Troy McDonald shows is that the real differentiator isn’t just technical skill—it’s the ability to translate complexity into clarity. From military operations to enterprise networks, one lesson keeps showing up.

What does it take to succeed in networking when complexity is constantly increasing, and change never slows down? In this episode of Next-Gen Network Heroes, host Bob Slevin sits down with Troy (David) MacDonald, a network engineer at Blue Origin and former U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer, to explore a career that spans from infantry beginnings to designing and managing large-scale, mission-critical networks.

What does it take to reinvent network visibility from the ground up? In this episode of Next-Gen Network Heroes, Bob sits down with Liang Chen, Senior Network Architect at Texas Children’s Hospital and creator of a next-generation network traffic analyzer built for real-time, packet-level visibility. Liang shares how he built a platform capable of analyzing traffic at up to 200Gbps with zero packet loss—unlocking deeper network forensics and faster troubleshooting in mission-critical environments.

What happens when deep networking expertise meets low-level programming and a passion for invention? In this episode of Next-Gen Network Heroes, host Bob Slevin sits down with Liang Chen, Senior Network Architect at Texas Children's Hospital and a true innovator in network performance and visibility. With more than 25 years of experience in networking, plus advanced expertise in programming languages like C and Assembly, Liang has built his own next-generation traffic analysis platform from the ground up—designed to provide real-time, packet-level visibility at massive scale.

AI is changing network operations faster than ever. In the latest episode of Next-Gen Network Heroes, Bob sits down with Greg Freeman of Lumen Technologies to talk about what it takes to innovate across one of the world’s largest telecommunications networks. From deterministic workflows to agentic AI, Greg shares how his team is using automation, analytics, and AI to improve network reliability, customer experience, and operational efficiency at scale.

What does it take to lead innovation across one of the world’s largest telecommunications networks? In this episode of Next-Gen Network Heroes, host Bob Slevin sits down with Greg Freeman, Vice President of Network and Customer Transformation at Lumen Technologies, to explore how AI, automation, and curiosity are reshaping the future of network operations.