Category Archives: CCIE Successes

CollabV2 Successes and Last Chance Saloon Bootcamp

It’s been a while since out last “success” post but the team at CollabCert would like to belatedly congratulate our most recent group of successful CCIE Collaboration engineers who passed on the version 2 lab exam. Best of luck in your careers.

If you want to join this list then we recommend you sign up with CollabCert. We have added two 3-day classes (online); one in Feb 2020 and one March 2020. You are ideally suited for this is if (a) you have a version 2 lab date in the diary between now and April 27 2020 and (b) you have already sat the lab exam and did not succeed. During these 3 days we will go over finer details of the configuration, troubleshooting and diagnostic sections of the exam and offer grading/assessment with necessary tweaks and adjustments.

  • Shachar Alon  – CCIE #63167 (Collaboration)
  • Alejandro Pérez-Palma Gonzales  – CCIE #63272 (Collaboration)
  • Amit Singh  – CCIE #63330 (Collaboration)
  • Cesar Avila – CCIE #63491 (Collaboration)
  • Freddy Gonzalez – CCIE #63558 (Collaboration)
  • Belem Garrido – CCIE #63632 (Collaboration)
  • Hector Luna – CCIE #64069 (Collaboration)
  • Shady Mahmoud – CCIE #64141 (Collaboration)
  • David Boston – CCIE #64318 (Collaboration)
  • Justin Priebe – CCIE #64354 (Collaboration)
  • Tim Grunwald – CCIE #64542(Collaboration)
  • Sean McQuade – CCIE #64721 (Collaboration)
  • Brian Peterson – CCIE #64808 (Collaboration)
  • Gabriel Hernandez  – CCIE #64906 (Collaboration)
  • Dalton Woolsey- CCIE #65061 (Collaboration)
  • Roopa Bharathan- CCIE #65063 (Collaboration)
  • Patrick Marseille- CCIE #65321 (Collaboration)
  • Eric Morris- CCIE #65329 (Collaboration)
  • Pier Ganseuer- CCIE #65334 (Collaboration)

CCIE Collab v2 Success!

The team at CollabCert would like to congratulate our most recent group of successful CCIE Collaboration engineers who passed on the version 2 lab exam.  Hard work pays off!

Andre Fernandes – CCIE #62465 (Collaboration)
Joe Martinez – CCIE #62440 (Collaboration)
Prashant Kapur – CCIE #62233 (Collaboration)
Diego Alejandro Rodriguez – CCIE #62228 (Collaboration)
Patryk Kosciuk – CCIE #62160 (Collaboration)
Carsten Holst Lassen – CCIE #62099 (Collaboration)
Sherry McGauvran – CCIE #62037 (Collaboration)

“I was almost losing hope to achieve the CCIE Collaboration status when I heard about CollabCert, and after watching a webinar I felt that I would be in good hands with Vik and CollabCert.
I couldn’t be more right about that, and with a few months of an almost daily basis dedication, I passed the lab exam on first try!

I started the journey with LMS which gave me a solid skillset, built my own lab at home and started practicing almost every day. The videos provided alongside with explained exercises is exactly what you need to gain confidence.

With the bootcamp you get to notice what are your weaknesses and how to pay attention to more specific details, that could make a difference in the lab exam. Vik was fundamental on this, with his deep knowledge of the Cisco UC world.

Once again, I would like to thank Vik for guiding me through the CCIE journey and would definitely recommend CollabCert for those seeking the CCIE Collaboration status.”

Andre Fernandes – CCIE #62465

If you want to pass the version 2 attend one of our bootcamps to maximize your chances of success.

Success! Congratulations Zack Stanek!

The CollabCert team would like to congratulate one of our students, Zack Stanek, in passing the CCIE V2 Collaboration lab exam.  Here’s what Zack had to say about his experience.

The knowledge, experience, and troubleshooting skill-set that Vik displays is exceptional. I utilized several resources in this extremely difficult cert process, but Vik’s assistance was vital to my success. Vik’s ability to teach the complicated material, and give you a thorough understanding of the content, is something that I believe separates him from others in the field. I have gained a lot from my journey to obtaining my CCIE; but the information, skill-set, and relationships built throughout the in person CollabCert Bootcamp was immeasurable.

I cannot say enough how much I appreciate the guidance, support, and time that Vik and the team invested in assisting me to fulfill this achievement. Thank you!

Zack Stanek – CCIE #61930 (Collaboration)

Zack – it was a pleasure to have you in class and we appreciate the kind words.  Hard work and lots of practice definitely paid off.  Now, relax and enjoy the success! -Vik

 

More CCIE Collaboration V2 Successful Students

Congratulations to the latest group of engineers to pass the daunting V2 CCIE Collaboration lab exam.  Joining Vik and Piotr in knocking out this beast are Karla and Dmytro, along with one more person who would like to remain anonymous.  Here are their stories…

Dmytro said:

Just wanted to express my gratitude to Vik and whole CollabCert team for this wonderful work and resources that they are providing.

The video lectures are great way to quickly grasp the technology concepts, build the lab and see some examples of troubleshooting. And the Workbook is an excellent way to prepare for the Lab itself, as there are some example tasks, with explanations, and steps to follow to do a proper configuration.

Honestly, CollabCert materials were the integral part of my success.

Thank you!

Dmytro Kravchenko – CCIE Collaboration #61654

Karla stated: 

Wooooow! I still can’t believe it, it was surreal when I received the news of passing my CCIE lab exam. Let me tell you something, you always hear that CCIE Collaboration lab exam is hard to pass and I really experienced it with two failures before in this new version 2.

So CollabCert training was vital in my training, Vik is truly a teacher very knowledgeable of UC technologies and the way he teaches with hand-on labs it makes it easier to deep dive on the concepts. Also Vik always helped with any questions after the boot camp and follow up, this really makes a difference and I don’t there is anything similar to CollabCert regarding quality and personalized attention.

I was practicing almost every night of the week, week after week, I never felt defeated when I received twice the bad news when I didn’t pass. Instead I felt more encouraged and I knew that I was capable of doing this. The journey is tiring but the result very satisfying!!!

Karla Reyes – CCIE Collaboration #61777

Again – We offer our congratulations on all your hard work and success.  It was our pleasure to be part of your journey!

CCIE Collab version 2 Pass!

CollabCert would like to congratulate Piotr Puchalski, freshly minted with CCIE #61324, for passing the CCIE Collaboration version 2 Lab exam. He is definitely the first person to pass in the Richardson testing center– we cannot be 100% sure but Piotr may well be only the second person to pass the version 2 lab (apologies if this is not accurate but he is definitely one of the first few).

We ran our first bootcamp in December 2018 (student picture below). Piotr was one of 6 students to attend and the class was a success although there were definitely a few hiccups along the way.

Hopefully all of these guys will clear the lab sooner rather than later.

We met up for a small celebration – two of the very few CCIE Collab version 2 passing students forming a very select group!

“For anyone determined to achieve CCIE Collaboration V2 lab, CollabCert should be the natural choice. He has worked with UC for decades and is very familiar with CCIE Collaboration track, formerly CCIE Voice. In his bootcamps he does not really teach the exam, he teaches the technology itself and makes it easy to understand. Even after the course ended he was still available to answer any questions and accommodated me for practice exam.

In my eyes, passing the exam takes two things – being efficient at working with products and knowing the technology completely. I knew I had to put in a lot of effort into time-efficiency and attention to detail which cannot be taught and must be practiced, I trusted Vik to help me with the first and he surpassed my expectations. I would say I was very well prepared for the lab, even though it took me two attempts; the first attempt simply revealed my shortcomings and areas of improvement. The second attempt I took with confidence and succeeded. Thanks to Vik!”

Piotr Puchalski – CCIE #61324

Webinar to get you started on CCIE Collab version 2

As mentioned in the previous blog post, the team at CollabCert will be hosting a webinar to discuss CollabCert and CCIE Collab v2. This event will take place on Thursday October 25 2018 at Noon San Jose time (PDT / UTC-7h). If you cannot make it then do not worry we will be posting the event on this blog within a few days.

To register for the webinar please click here to sign up.

Look forward to seeing you all.

Vik

The journey to become the first person (I think!) to pass CCIE Collaboration version 2

Walk the Walk

My journey started back in October 2016. I had just failed to clear the CCIE Collaboration Written exam in order to re-certify my Cisco credentials. This had been a biennial occurrence since 2004 when I had first passed the CCIE Voice lab exam.

In case you are unaware of what happens to an active CCIE after the recertification deadline has passed – Cisco doesn’t waste any time in telling you that your CCIE goes into the SUSPEND status. This is a snippet from the email I received a few hours after the deadline has passed:

“Our records show that your recertification deadline was October 4 2016 and your CCIE now has a Suspended status. If you have suspended status for more than one year, you will be required to take an the CCIE written exam and the corresponding CCIE lab/practical exam to restore active CCIE status.”

I found myself visiting the Person VUE website organizing the logistics of re-sitting the Written exam when it suddenly occurred to me- what happens if I don’t re-certify? Surely the CCIE Collab blueprint is due a massive upgrade. What if I accidentally on purpose forget to re-certify? Wouldn’t it be so beneficial to both me and my customers if I had the opportunity to go through the entire process myself?

My skills were out of date and surely this was a great way to give myself a refresher and also stay up to date with changes that were about to happen behind the scenes. Enough talk Vik- time to Walk the Walk.

Throwing Everything Away

I still had a year grace period remaining in case I wanted to reverse my decision should common sense prevail. I had a year to simply pass any Written exam and re-certify. Nothing lost nothing gained.

In the 365 days that followed I questioned myself- was this necessary? Was I being stupid? I talked it over with several previous customers with whom I had built up a friendship and opinion was divided.
Continue reading The journey to become the first person (I think!) to pass CCIE Collaboration version 2

CCIE Collaboration Success!

The team at CollabCert would like to congratulate our most recent group of successful CCIE Collaboration engineers.  Hard work pays off!

Bruno Takahashi da Silva – CCIE #58354 (Collaboration)
Josh Gross – CCIE #58338 (Collaboration)
Justin O’sullivan – CCIE #58285 (Collaboration)
Patrick Kinane – CCIE #58284 (Collaboration)
Markus Hein – CCIE #58219 (Collaboration)
Giordano Favaro – CCIE #58205 (Collaboration)
Ellroy Dale – CCIE #58137 (Collaboration)
Kyle Jones – CCIE #58072 (Collaboration)
David Cascante Zeledon – CCIE #58014 (Collaboration)
Jon Miranda – CCIE #57953 (Collaboration)
Ryan Blake – CCIE #57934 (Collaboration)
Pallavi Kahai – CCIE #57880 (Collaboration)
Ed Jankes – CCIE #57840 (Collaboration)
Viet Nguyen- CCIE #23904 (RS, Collaboration)

“Hello Vik, wanted to let you know that I passed the lab few weeks back. Wanted to say a big “Thank you” your motivation and strategy game gave me a fighting chance for success and it’s one of the key ingredients to be able to PASS!!!!! Hope to follow your teachings in the future as the methods of explaining are very clear and precise to the point.”

Ed Jankes – CCIE #57840

“I was at my final stage on preparation when I went to CollabCert Boot Camp feeling I just needed more practice to gain speed. Reality was, there were gaps that should had be filled up first.

Vik taught me that speed was not a goal but was a symptom instead. His excellent learning system and the extensive hands-on component in the training allowed me to learn not only the how-to but also the why and to know what was really happening behind the scenes. Besides that, his excellent strategy was crucial for completing the practice labs without error and have them fully tested in 8 hours.

When I went back home I used CollabCert rack rental services and it was exactly what I needed to complete my training. Very easy to set-up and no lag while practicing.

Vik is a great and very positive person that always encourages you and makes you feel confident about taking the test. Thanks to him, I was ready to take my collaboration lab exam and passed on my first attempt.

I strongly recommend CollabCert if are you truly serious and commited about getting your CCIE.”

Giordano Favaro – CCIE #58205

“I would like to thank Mike and Vik on the training. I just passed the CCIE Collaboration lab. The training that CollabCert provided was essential to my passing the test. I got Vik’s training back in 2015 and after months of studying, I was able to go and pass the lab.”

Ryan Blake – CCIE #57934

“I sat the CollabCert ILT boot camp week 1, during 2015 but with real life going on I fell into that real-life struggle and couldn’t come back for the second week, so it took me almost 1 year to come back to Vik and CollabCert and re-sit the ILT week and then do the Lab Workshop week 2 boot camp, which provided the gaps and errors I was performing on my daily lab rotations and though I failed my first attempt on the lab, Vik stayed involved throughout the entire process and guided me to completing the journey and helping me reach my goals of becoming a CCIE.

If you are pursuing your dreams of CCIE Collaboration I highly recommend Vik, and the CollabCert team as they are fully vested in assisting you to become the next certified expert. I believe they strive to assist each and every student with all the knowledge they can offer to prepare for the lab. Thank you!”

Jon Miranda – CCIE #57953

CCIE Numbers nearing 58xxx

As the slightly annoying cyber November draws to a close we would like to offer our congratulations to our recent passing students who are proud owners of a brand new CCIE Number. Our recent bootcamps students did really well and this reflects in the number of folks in the late 57xxx CCIE Number range. We are hoping for great things for the 58xxx series of CCIE Numbers, fingers crossed! Don’t wait too long, the world is going to change in 2018 when it comes to CCIE Collaboration. Get your name on our list of successes by signing up for a class.

  • Jonathan Unger – CCIE #57829 (Collaboration)
  • Joel Murphy – CCIE #57723 (Collaboration)
  • Will Nelson – CCIE #57722 (Collaboration)
  • Brad Hacker – CCIE #57659 (Collaboration)
  • Dan Writz – CCIE #57612 (Collaboration)
  • Samuel Baxter- CCIE #57573 (Collaboration)
  • Daniel Chaves – CCIE #57565 (Collaboration)
  • Davide Marazza – CCIE# #57550 (Collaboration)
  • Ivan Alexander Alves – CCIE #57485 (Collaboration)

Thanks to Joel for the following:

My CCIE journey truly began five years ago when I joined my current employer. I was incentivized to pass the CCIE Voice written. Continue reading CCIE Numbers nearing 58xxx

Student Testimonial- Daniel Chaves CCIE# 57565

Thanks to Daniel for the following testimonial. Some very good advice for any CCE wannabes out there. We believe the follow-up after class, assessment & grading, ongoing feedback and mentorship to our students is what sets us apart and is the reason why CollabCert students do so well.

I am going to start by saying that I was hesitating about taking the class with Vik, all of the folks that I know who have passed the test and have taken the class were strongly recommending it but there was a financial aspect to it as well. In the end I decided to give it a try hoping that it would give me the final touches I needed to pass.

I got real serious about studying about 4 or 5 months prior to the class, Continue reading Student Testimonial- Daniel Chaves CCIE# 57565