For a while now there has been a hole in the CCIE certification playing field. Routing and Switching, Security, Voice, Wireless, Storage, and Service Provider made the current and active CCIE exams. Each fitted their role nicely. The problem is with cloud infrastructure leveraging the best Data Centers in the world – best is the operative word – no one offered an expert level certification in the area.
As other colleagues (such as @tbourke) who work in the DC area of network pointed out, for them, 20 percent of the CCIE RS is relevant and then a handful of CCIE SAN topics. That being said that leaves the rest of the exam as information that will be forgotten after certification. I tend to agree. The SP exam is there for ISP size networks whilst RS is there for large enterprise networks so the DC exam will address DC style networks.
The rumour mill has been in overdrive. Some people have inside goss. Others are guesstimating based on evidence. A very good article on this is Tom Hollingsworth (@networkingnerd) back in Jan.
Well let it be known that we need wait only a little longer. What we have wanted will be coming to our shores in minimal time. What better place to announce is than at Cisco Live MELBOURNE! Yeah, that’s right. My own home turf will be the place that the twitterverse goes into meltdown and I get to redefine my goals.
My doppelgänger @tbourke posted a great article this morning outlining his delight of the CCIE DC exam. The spongebob picture sums it up perfectly for people like himself. In his blog he points out the Virtual session on offer and it’s outline
- Cisco Nexus 7000, 5000, 2000, 1000v
- Cisco ACE 4710
- Cisco MDS
- UCS
- Catalyst 3750
Looking good there. The gear that I will be working on soon falls into this category and really nothing has addressed it until now.
Anthony’s View
By the time I am ready to look at seriously sitting the CCIE DC it could be version 2.0. That for me doesn’t matter as much as the fact Cisco have finally addressed the hole in their certification track. I beleive the Cisco CCIE Certification holds weight even in the day and age of multi-vendors. Why? The CCIE holds respect for being a tough nut to crack. You cannot easily pass it. You cannot dump it. You must commit and sacrifice.
In a short time there will be some highly dependable, committed and talented CCIE DC’s out there.
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