Certifications are a wonderful solution to obtain self-improvement, higher technical information, and better profession objectives. They’ve at all times been private and particular person—till now.
Superior Unibyte GmbH (AU), based mostly in Metzingen, Germany, has taken the drive for excellence and profession progress to new ranges with a crew strategy to certification. They’ve studied, practiced, and examined as a crew for a number of CCIE certifications to contribute to the corporate’s success and their very own crew achievements. This crew effort paid off, profitable the corporate Cisco Gold Companion standing. And now that Cisco is celebrating 30 years of the CCIE certification program, it’s a good time to inform AU’s story.
CCIE certification is sensible with AU’s networking experience
AU provides IT infrastructure and data heart options, in addition to cloud and managed providers. With experience in knowledge safety and availability, they develop new, custom-made options to drive prospects’ digital transformation. The corporate’s experience lies in storage, community, computing, and virtualization options, in addition to the technical IT integration of worldwide subsidiaries. As for the crew of engineers and resolution architects that keep the infrastructure of their cloud knowledge heart, it’s essential for his or her technical information to remain up to date.
When crew leaders thought-about the certifications the corporate wanted, they reviewed the entire Cisco architectures. They determined to certify the crew in Knowledge Middle, Enterprise Networks, and Safety specializations, in addition to Service Supplier — which might be an amazing funding in their very own cloud infrastructure and providers. However they didn’t cease there. The crew additionally determined to concentrate on Buyer Experiences to fulfill Cisco’s rules for Gold Companions, which was the proper match for his or her philosophy of buyer relationship and lifecycle administration.
However why CCIE certification? With 30 years beneath its belt, the CCIE certification has reached fairly the standing stage, as tech certifications go. Whereas the time it takes to earn this cert relies on ability stage, dedication, and examine hours per week, making ready for the CCIE lab examination usually takes one to 2 years. Be taught extra in regards to the .
What’s extra, CCIE certification is required for Cisco Gold Companion standing. In truth, prospects in Germany worth the CCIE a lot that the majority firms can’t work with public prospects until they’ve Gold Companion standing. CCNP and CCIE certification simply made sense — not just for the good of people’ careers but additionally for the AU’s enterprise alternatives. That’s dedication!
We’ve come a great distance for the reason that CCIE of 1993
Since its inception on Sept. 27, 1993, the Cisco Licensed Internetwork Knowledgeable (CCIE) certification has developed from a two-day take a look at by which candidates arrange {hardware} and initialize a pod with primary configurations on the primary day after which return on the second day to carry out extra superior configurations and troubleshoot eventualities.
At the moment, the CCIE lab examination is a 1-day take a look at that focuses extra on community technique, structure, and the community lifecycle, with particular regard to planning and designing for buyer necessities. The examination targets the end-to-end community lifecycle, which incorporates Day 0 (planning and designing), Day 1 (implementing and deploying), and Day 2 (working and sustaining). The method assessments complete expertise throughout the whole spectrum of community options.
At the moment’s CCIE certification is accepted worldwide as essentially the most prestigious networking certification within the business. And now, you may keep forward of the most recent examination expertise modifications with Cisco Certification Roadmaps. This program goals to speak examination updates on a frequent and incremental cadence-based mannequin, providing you with time to evaluate and plan your prep methods.
Group achievement results in Gold Companion standing
To fulfill the Cisco Gold qualifications, CTO Stephan Körner needed the group to realize a minimal of 4 CCIEs. So, in typical AU crew style, almost 30 technical mans selected completely different paths within the Cisco certification program — from CCNA to CCIE — and began to prep collectively, from finding out the certification examination blueprints to constructing their very own labs, each for certification examination prep in addition to apply, it was a crew effort.
The crew constructed labs for putting in cert merchandise after which examined on the merchandise they offered.
“Within the lab, we thought of completely different layouts, duties, and challenges. Certainly one of us was creating the problem for the others so they might practice on that,” Körner mentioned. For the part on fiber channel zoning on the CCNP Knowledge Middle expertise core examination, the crew thought-about completely different challenges and created their very own zones.
“Doing it collectively was simpler as a result of if one among us was upset that he didn’t go or perceive one thing, we at all times had three guys round us to assist out and to speak to about options,” Johannes Neu, Alliance Supervisor at AU mentioned. “I talked to different CCIE guys who did this on their very own, and it’s fairly onerous. You must work after hours and on weekends. You don’t have anybody to speak to who’s in the identical state of affairs. It’s simply not the identical since you don’t obtain collectively.”
In truth, Neu believes the group certification course of was solely achievable as a result of the entire firm was concerned. “We had been simply 4 guys [going for the] CCIE. However for the entire course of, we had about 30 guys, which was an amazing group dynamic and, for our functions, the one real looking solution to obtain our objectives.”
It’s clear that Körner agrees. “Having a educated crew has made all of the distinction in our success in reaching Cisco Gold Companion,” he mentioned. “Plus, our nice group dynamic helped us construct our collaborative course of. It linked us extra strongly than earlier than the certification as a result of all of us had the identical objective.”
When all was mentioned and finished, the group would have a good time 4 of their teammates incomes the CCIE Knowledge Middle certification. As for AU, going for the gold paid off. Since incomes Cisco Gold Companion standing, the corporate has seen a 40 p.c improve in income, with one other 20 p.c progress anticipated within the subsequent two years.
Learn the case examine: Cisco Gold Companion Superior UniByte Unites for CCIE
Join Cisco U. · Be part of the Cisco Studying Community.
Observe Cisco Studying & Certifications
X | Fb | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube
Use #CiscoU and #CiscoCert to hitch the dialog.
Share: