An insight into CCIE certification

The Networkers Guru training center explains the importance of CCIE certification and tells that it is an expert level certification which carries great career prospects for all the professionals pursuing this certification. The Networkers Guru also says that it is a certification for skilled, experienced and people with a technically sound networking background. The CCIE is the final destination and all Cisco certifications taking any path would eventually lead you to the CCIE certification. The CCIE certified professionals are highly qualified individuals and they have a great professional career waiting ahead for them. They are approached by many reputable organizations and they can then evaluate their worth based on market value. The best thing about this qualification is that they have done the hard work already in their life and now comes the time to enjoy their work. The CCIE qualified professionals enjoys an executive post where most of the time they are responsible for taking executive decisions. Further, they have to play their practical part in most of the complex networks and internetworks which might not be handled by any less experienced network professional. The Networkers Guru further explains the importance of the said certification and encourages experienced network professionals to go for it and make an impact in your professional career.

CCIE certification specializations:

The CCIE certification has very diverse areas of specialization and you have to prove your expertise in one specialization by working for it in order to earn the certification. As explained by Networkers Guru, the CCIE certification has 7 different specializations which correspond to all different CCIE certification paths. The 7 different certification paths are as follows:

• Security
• Service Provider
• Service Providers Operation
• Routing and Switching
• Storage Networking
• Voice
• Wireless

All the above are different certification paths and the candidates need to pursue one in order to accomplish their certification successfully. Other than a thorough written exam for the certification, the candidates are also required to pass a laborious lab examination. Labs test the candidates thoroughly of all their technical and practical skills that they possess and also to prove their ability to find solutions for complex network issues under tremendous pressure. Both the written and the lab exams are mandatory for the attainment of the certification. The written exam in the certification remains valid for 18 months from the date it is given. The candidates are required to take their mandatory lab exam within the 18 months time period. If they fail to do so, then your passed written exam would also become null and void. Further, the candidate cannot apply to sit for a lab exam if his written exam is not cleared.

CCIE as a career goal:

The attainment of CCIEcertification is a time consuming marathon effort. It requires you to be committed and fully dedicated towards the attainment of your career goal. This certification is extremely useful and it is a long term career goal for networking professionals.

A brief history about CCIE certification

CCIE stands for Cisco Certified Internetworks Expert and it is a program of Cisco Systems and it was inaugurated by the company in September 1993. The course was designed to give the internetwork industry some expert professionals who can efficiently handle all sorts of complex networks and the Cisco products as well. The program inculcates in the CCIE professionals all the technical skills and the in-depth knowledge of networks which might not be possessed by anyone else. Moreover, another reason behind this program was to develop a special relation between the CCIE professional and the Cisco support team.

The first CCIE certified professional:

The Networkers Guru always strived hard to motivate all the potential candidates by giving them examples of successful candidates who achieved the certification with flying colors. In this regard, the Networkers Guru tells about Terrance Slattery, who was the first ever person to obtain the CCIE certification in the history of Cisco Systems. He was actually the Cisco consultant in the year 1993 when he heard about the new CCIE certification inaugurated by the Cisco systems. Mr. Slattery approached Mr. Brad Wright, who was his senior in the same company and inquired about participating in order to attain the certification. Mr. Wright was the program manager of the CCIE certification and helped Mr. Slattery extensively about the testing. Mr. Slattery just took 2 weeks for preparation and cleared the first part of the certification which was the written exam. After the written examination, Mr. Slattery attended the Cisco troubleshooting workshop of two days and the next day he took the practical lab exam of the certification and also cleared it comfortably. For his outstanding efforts, Mr. Slattery was awarded #1026.

This shows that if you prepare well with a plan, the CCIE certification can be attained within a few days. Mr. Slattery was once interviewed in 2009 and was asked about the type of trainings that he took and what will he advise to the candidates seeking the CCIE certification. Mr. Slattery replied that I never referenced any single source. Rather, he advised that the potential candidates seeking the certification should research well on the topics and choose an approach that works for you. He also advised that the candidates should refer to several online forums and study groups relevant to the certification that you are seeking. The online blogs can be a great source as the people over there share their experience and also what they have learned.

The CCIE Exam:

The written exam of CCIE consists of 100 questions which must be answered within the 2 hours allotted time. After passing the written exam, the students have 18 months to take and clear their practical lab exam in CCIEcertification. The lab exam is a bit tough and laborious which spans 8 hours. The candidates in the practical lab exam are required to demonstrate their skills and expertise with all the Cisco products under intense pressure and complex networks.

5 hot topics to prepare for the CCNP Route Exam

In order to prepare for the CCNP certification exam, the candidates should be familiar with a lot of networking technologies. You will be thoroughly tested on a number of these networking technologies when you sit for the CCNP examination. The Networkers Guru training center professionals give a detailed overview of all the required technologies which are needed for clearing the said certification exam. A lot of candidates face many problems in their preparation for the exam primarily because of the too long and complicated CCNP course. It is true that they have to prepare all but still there are some hot topics which can never be ignored under any circumstances. Following is a list of those 5 topics in brief detail which can be extremely useful for all prospective candidates seeking CCNP certification:

1.      1.  EIGRP Advertised Distance and Feasible Distance – It is one of the hot topics that you can ever come across in your CCNP certification exam preparation. A lot of candidates and students of networking have a lot of confusion between the advertised distance and feasible distance concepts. Feasible distance in networking terms is the best route while advertised distance is known as the reported distance. For additional clarification and preparation of the topic, the candidates are advised to refer the course book or consult with some reputable training center such as the Networkers Guru.

2.      2.  OSPF LSAs – Another important but difficult topic in the CCNP exam is the OSPF LSAs which stands for Open Shortest Path First Link-State Advertisements.  The topic is not only useful to prepare for the certification exam, but it is also crucial to understand the working of the devices in the stub areas and its related concepts. There are about 5 types of Link State Advertisements which are worth preparing for your CCNA exam.

3.       3. OSPF Stub Areas – The topics of OSPF LSAs and OSPF stub areas are interrelated to each other. The OSPF LSAs is a prerequisite to OSPF stub areas in order to get the better understanding of both the topics. There are 3 types of OSPF stub areas which are the Stu b Areas, Totally Stubby Areas and Not So Stubby Areas. All these three types are very important and the candidate should clearly distinguish between all these types. The candidates should refer to their course books in order to get a deep understanding of all these concepts.

4.       4. Redistribution – Redistribution is a critical topic but the good thing is that it is not too difficult. Redistribution concepts just tell that how to move one protocol existing in one network to the other protocol, or in other words from one OSPF network to the other OSPF network.

5.       5. BGP Best Path Selection – BGP stands for Border Gateway Protocol, which requires a single and the most optimum path to be chosen for inserting it into the routing table. The candidates should extensively prepare this topic by referring to their course book and other preparation material.