It has been almost 2 years since I became a CCNA. I took and passed the exam May 2007 and waited for more than 1 year to begin my CCNP quest. My reason of not being able to take the exams was not having enough money to pay them. My CCNA paved a way for me to get a job in a company that encourages its employees to go for certifications and paying for them. The opportunities of being a CCNA are huge, how much more now that I got the CCNP.
Now the question is, what's next? Is everything over now I got this certification? Certainly not! I have been readings posts to find out what is the best field to study in preparation for CCIE and I found out that getting a CCDP and other professional Cisco certs are good ways to prepare for CCIE R&S. My level of excitement did not go down when I got my CCNP but I am rather excited to pursue more and learn more. The more I learn, the more I know how much I don't know. Makes sense? :)
Now as promised, I will be posting some of the labs I have tried using dynamips and practical tips to be used in the enterprise environment. Even if nobody reads this blog, this will serve as my personal reference once I forget about something. Cheers!
Certifications
Blogs that I Read
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IPv6 radius accounting is still a mess - Since the beginning of putting IPv6 into production BRAS/BNG (almost 3 years ago), we were facing the following issue: radius accounting records were missi...10 years ago
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Internetwork Expert Volume IV (Troubleshooting) Workbook Review: Part 3 - Once you get the initial configurations loaded you’re ready to begin the lab. This is when the “fun” begins. Those of us who are used to starting labs wi...15 years ago
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Manchester United Antoine Griezmann performance Sanjung eyes - The Manchester United Star, Juan Mata, give compliments on Antoine Griezmann top performance last week. France players that’s often associated with rumors ...7 years ago
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Source of Truth - *"Imagine walking down the park with your wife, and suddenly seeing your ex. Wife talks automation, she agrees. Wife says intent, she does the same. Wife t...6 years ago
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Interested in Microsoft Azure? Tune into James Rudley’s Newest Course - Get ready to explore the different methods of automating technical and business challenges with Azure in James Rudley’s new course; Automation With Microso...6 years ago
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MUST READ: Meaningful Availability - Defining service availability using the famous X nines (and all the hacks like “planned downtime doesn’t count”) is pretty useless in a highly distribute...4 years ago
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Clearing the fog around open switching terminology - The networking industry is making a decisive move toward open switches. Much of the media's attention is on mega-scale operators' do-it-yourself switche...9 years ago
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Introducing Malcolm Booden! - I am excited to announce that Malcolm Booden, my friend and fellow networking instructor, has agreed to take over my CCDE training business. I first met...3 years ago
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Book Review: Model-Driven DevOps - Earlier this month at Cisco Live in Las Vegas, I attended a presentation by Steven Carter and Jason King titled *Model-Driven DevOps: The Enterprise Auto...1 year ago
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Data Center Study - Notes 01 - - reverse proxy caching - the user of loadbalancers for server health monitoring - the need for jumbo frames - the need for NIC features such as interrupt co...11 years ago
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I’m Back - Well hello blog world. Yes it’s been a while since I last posted an update. I meant to update sooner but because I haven’t logged on to WordPress in such a...11 years ago
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Integrating the Nexus 1000v VSM with vCenter - This is a follow-up to my previous post regarding the Nexus 1000v. Now that I help set the stage for what the Nexus 1000v really is, we can start looking a...15 years ago
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Comments
Kudos to you, what you have done is extreme and I applaud you. You have committed yourself and set realistic goals and worked hard to accomplish them You should be very proud of yourself. I am sure you are. As I was when I finally after 3 attempts completed just my CCNA then passed after 2 attempts my CCDA. Although I have 18 years in the network industry not all was on cisco routers, actually only while working in a Sprint NOC 10 years ago was I on routers. So, I studied and spent about 6K for a dual cert program with the “Training Camp” the certs included the CCENT, CCNA and CCDA. This was a tough 1 week 7 day course. And although I failed the cert test they offered so I went home (depressed) and studied and failed a second time then nailed it at the 3rd time. When it was all said and done about 9 large/grand/K invested in my personal education. And I am glad I did. It was hard but I am now driven to complete after 2 years my CCNP and CCDP. Now I am in a data center environment with all the hardware I want to play on, so my next certification goal should be a little easier then my first.
My only recommendation to you would be to gain under the NP certs the VIOP, Security and if you are bored Wireless. Personally I believe the VIOP and Security will be your biggest salary increase hitters!!!
By the way I just found your site today and am looking forward to going through its entirety and adding you to my favorites and utilizing your blogs as a reference for my networking growth. Thank you for what you are doing.
Just learned VRF, Thank you!!
Routing You!
A CCENT, CCNA, CCDA
Network Professional
Washington DC
6/25/2009
I am glad that you find this blog useful and inspiring. I didnt really care much if anyone reads this or not but I am glad you did. :) Got a few readers though and they find this blog useful as well. It would be nice if you provide me your email address and I would be glad to assist you get the CCNP. You don't need real routers though to practice. If you have a good pc at home you can try GNS3 aka Dynamips which can emulate Cisco IOS images and function like a real router. Visit www.gns3.net. Thanks for the comment!