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CCIE Collaboration Overview, CCIE Successes

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

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My skills were out of date and surely this was a great way to give myself a refresher and also stay up to date with changes that were about to happen behind the scenes.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

CCIE Collaboration Success!

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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 Collaboration Overview

CCIE Collab v2 Announced

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Finally the day is here- CCIE Collab v2. The new blueprint goes live on July 23 2018.

As expected it seems like the lab will not have any physical devices with everything being virtualized. The clients are remote control of 8845 devices, Spark, Jabber and Cisco Meeting App (old Acano client).

We have the Expressway make its way into the lab along with an Active Directory. Cisco Meeting Server (formerly Acano) is being tested (ouch!) and the traditional UC products are using version 12 (UCM/IMP/Unity Connection and 11.6 in the case of CCX.

For more details take a look here

More details to come! If you are mid-studies on CCIE Collab version 1 don’t get caught in the middle. Get yourself to a workshop and get it done asap.

CCIE Collaboration Overview, Strategy

CCIE Collab- Test Day experience

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If you are sitting the CCIE Collab v1 lab for the first time, take a look at this video to familiarize yourself with the live testing environment.

CCIE Successes

CCIE Numbers nearing 58xxx

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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 →

Featured

Why Do People Fail the CCIE Lab Exam?

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Having failed a CCIE Lab exam on two occasions, I can tell you that being informed that you are indeed a failure is a humbling experience, always difficult to hear and something nobody ever appreciates.

My kids spend their weekends during summer at swim meets in the Bay Area. You know what the kid who finishes a race in last position receives? A “participation ribbon” (that might just be in California by the way). But when it comes to the harsh world of CCIE Lab score reports, there are only two possible outcomes – “Pass” and “Fail”. I sometimes wish Cisco would re-phrase this as “Pass” and “Participated”. I just can’t get over the fact that somebody can score 79% in an exam and being told by a Bot that you failed. There is something very un-Californian about that. But that is what we all sign up for when we sit a CCIE Lab exam and I fully expect my complaints to fall upon deaf ears.
Continue reading Why Do People Fail the CCIE Lab Exam? →

CCIE Successes

Student Testimonial- Daniel Chaves CCIE# 57565

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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 →

CCIE Successes

CCIE Collab- Fall 2017 Passes

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It’s been a great few weeks for our CCIE Collab students sitting the Lab. Here are some of our passing students from recent classes. Huge congrats!

Please see our latest testimonials here.

  • Daniel Chaves- CCIE #57565 (Collaboration)
  • Ivan Alexander Alves- CCIE #57485 (Collaboration)
  • Davide Marazza CCIE# #57550 (Collaboration)
  • Aaron Dailey – CCIE #56797 (Collaboration)

Thanks to Aaron for the following testimonial:

As you can read from the many testimonials, Vik is the real deal. Continue reading CCIE Collab- Fall 2017 Passes →

UCM

Understanding the 5 uses of Calling Party Transformation Pattern in UCM

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Full Disclosure: this is not for the faint of heart! And unless you are trying to wrap up your CCIE Collaboration then you are probably not going to be overly interested in this article.

This method of transforming the Calling Number within UCM has rarely been fully understood by candidates pursuing the CCIE Collab certification. The aim of this somewhat lengthy blog is to provide a use case for every possible scenario where the Calling Party Transformation Pattern provides some value. In total there are 5 completely different situations where Calling Party Transformation Pattern comes into play, although I doubt one would ever encounter a real-world situation whereby all the different scenario’s would be in used at the same time.

Before we begin, let me stress two things. Continue reading Understanding the 5 uses of Calling Party Transformation Pattern in UCM →

CCIE Collaboration Written

CCIE Recertification changes

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Prior to June 6 2017 a person with a CCIE certification had been required to pass any CCIE Written exam every two years in order to re-certify and keep their CCIE active (excluding Emeritus). Cisco have announced an alternative method to re-certify which allows for an existing CCIE to avoid sitting another Written exam for the purpose of re-certification.

In a nutshell there are Cisco-approved training courses that can be taken that count for credits and if you get enough credits by the time you are due to re-certify, then you are good to go and don’t need to pass a Written exam. There is an administration fee of $300 in order to do this.

For full details of the “Cisco Continuing Education Program” click here.

What does this mean? Continue reading CCIE Recertification changes →