I've recertified my CCIE for three years more. I took advantage of my participation to Cisco Live Europe that granted an average of 20 points each, and the CiscoU free trainings to reach the necessary 120 points.

Today I passed exam CWDP-302 and got CWDP. To be honest I had to renew my CWNA that was about to expire but I don't really like to renew, I prefer o move forward when I can. Exam preparation To prepare the exam I read cover-to-cover the official study guide and review some topics on the CWNA study guide. The study …

Today I passed exam VCP550 and got VMware VCP5-DCV certification. Exam preparation For exam preparation I attended the official training that is mandatory to access the exam. The printed material provided with the training is good enough but I integrated with the great Mastering VMware vSphere 5.5 by Scott Lowe. The …

As a holder of many technical certifications every few months I have to renew some. When possible I try to renew the certifications with a new track instead of doing the newer version of the exam I've already done. This time was the turn of HP ASE - Network Infrastructure 2011 to be renewed as HP ASE - FlexNetwork …

Today I've attended a Meraki technical training course at Cisco offices. The training was organized in short presentations of product features followed by hands-on labs based on all the products available today. I was suprised to find not only people from small companies or system integrators but more that 50% of the …

In the very last day of availability of the CCIE v4 350-001 written exam I've renewed my CCIE for a couple of years more: ](https://www.ifconfig.it/images/ccie_exam_renew_2014.png) My plan was to recertify with another track - Wireless or Security - but life happens and I took the easy path and did R&S again. I've …

This means two things: I'm CCIE for over one year now I need to prepare again the written exam The last day to test the v4 edition is June 3, 2014, I've passed that exam twice so I expect a little effort to pass it again.

Ten years ago I've passed my first Cisco exam: CCNA! What was supposed to be just a marginal skill for a junior systems engineer became both my job and my passion. Ten years and 21 Cisco exams later (and a bunch of other vendors), with 2 labs in Brussels, 1 FAIL and 1 PASS, I'm still excited about networking and I hope …

As many other vendors HP has a fast track for people already certified with Cisco to achieve an HP certification skipping some basic exams. There's an upgrade path tool available on HP website than shows the required exams for each path. CCIE R&S certification in my case allows to get "HP MASE Network Infrastructure" …

Today I've passed 642-874 ARCH exam that in conjunction with CCIE and CCNP entitles to obtain the CCDP certification. To prepare the exam I've used the official study guide along with the documents in the Cisco Design Zone. The hardest part of the exam preparation was to study technologies I've never really implemented …

Huawei network devices are becoming more and more popular in European market lately. It all started with 3G adapters, then mobiles, and now I see routers and switches deployed in many locations. For a project I'll deploy in the next few weeks I had the opportunity to attend an Huawei training. Huawei provides a …

Got mail from Cisco:

In really enjoyed to read all the blog post of people passing the CCIE lab exam over the years. I've found the stories very inspirational so now it's time for me to give back. I started working as a system engineer in 2001 supporting Microsoft Windows 2000 client and server for a bank. I had the opportunity to work …

I noticed that not everybody knows how to download Cisco certs PDF files or order additional printed copies. Just open this link, login with your Cisco credentials and enter the menu "Certification Fulfillment". An additional CCIE plaque costs 150USD, paper certs cost 15USD. HTH

Cisco stopped to publish CCIE statistics some time ago but in Cisco Live presentations we can find some slides like this: A couple of days ago on twitter Bob McCouch who passed his lab on February 21st posted this: I know 14 days are not enough to make statistics, but let's play with the numbers since they're very …