Episode 75: Understanding Network Traffic Flow — North-South vs. East-West

This episode explains the concepts of north–south and east–west traffic flow in networks. North–south traffic refers to communication between internal devices and external networks such as the Internet, while east–west traffic refers to communication between devices inside the same data center or enterprise environment. Recognizing these patterns is essential for the exam because they influence design, performance, and security decisions.

Examples include identifying how firewalls manage north–south traffic at the network perimeter and how spine-and-leaf architectures are optimized for high volumes of east–west traffic. Troubleshooting considerations include diagnosing bottlenecks caused by insufficient bandwidth for internal traffic or misconfigured perimeter devices blocking external connections. Understanding traffic flow patterns ensures you can analyze exam questions and apply the concepts to real-world environments with diverse workloads. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your certification path.