What CCDEv3 Means to You and Me

Cisco's CCDE Version 3 announcement brings about significant changes to our favorite certification program. As the year progresses I will write articles about the specific changes and how candidates can prepare for the new version of the exam. For now, I would like to cover what moving to the next generation of this program means to three groups - Existing CCDEs, Active CCDE Candidates, and Prospective CCDE Candidates.

Existing CCDEs

"Once a CCDE, always a CCDE"... provided you complete your recertification requirements every three years, of course. Cisco lists six different recertification possibilities:



The CCAr method is unavailable, as that program has almost certainly been retired. The CCIE Lab method is also unlikely to be helpful, as it is extremely rare for CCDEs to pursue an additional Expert level cert (a tip of the hat to those of you who have done it!). The easiest recertification method, in my opinion, is to pass the CCDE Written Exam (either the current 352-001 exam, or after November 1st, the new 400-007 exam). Oddly enough, the CCDE Written is the only exam in Cisco's portfolio that will, by itself, recertify your Expert-level status (whether CCIE or CCDE). The other recertification methods require two or three successful exam attempts. Perhaps this will encourage more CCIEs to pursue the CCDE certification.

It is also possible to earn credit toward recertification with continuing education credits and by contributing to the Cisco certification programs through writing or reviewing exam questions. As a CCDE instructor, I am ineligible to use this last method, so I can't provide any insight into it.

One other fun aspect of the new CCDE program is that all existing CCDEs (as of November 2nd, 2021) will earn an additional accolade, the "Cisco Certified Specialist – Design Core" badge. No exam necessary.. congratulations!

Active CCDE Candidates

Active CCDE candidates will have three opportunities to pass the current version of the CCDE Practical exam before the November 2nd 2021 switchover. If you are a student of mine, please be aware that you will have access to my updated CCDEv3 content as it is released (target is October 2021). It is my hope that you pass before the switchover, so please let me help you in any way possible.

Prospective CCDE Candidates

If you are considering pursuing the CCDE certification, you have a minor dilemma. You can try to start your pursuit now and pass before the switchover, or you can target the new version. The differences between the technical content on the two exams is not significant (something like 80% overlap, in my estimation). If you need help deciding which path to take, please reach out to me. You can reply to this email and describe your situation. Given the content overlap and my policy of continued access to materials, there is no risk to studying using my materials now, and targeting the version 3 of the exam.

As mentioned above, I will provide more detailed information on the differences between the exam versions in future blog posts and newsletters. CCDEv3 is going to give a great boost to this certification program; I am excited to be a part of these developments!

CCDE Thoughts After Cisco Live 2019

My CCDE Thoughts After Cisco Live 2019

The CCDE exam was conspicuously absent from the grand re-imagining of the CCNA/CCNP/CCIE certification programs. Here's a brief summary of the announcements (everything takes effect on February 24, 2020):

• CCIE Routing & Switching is being renamed to CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure
• CCIE Wireless is being renamed to CCIE Enterprise Wireless
• All CCIE labs will be rewritten to include a three hour design module (similar in style to the CCDE Practical, focusing on lower-level design). The lab portion will be five hours.
• CCDA and CCDP will be retired and transitioned to equivalent CCNA and CCNP designations
• CCNA will be a single track
• All Cisco written exams (except CCDE written) will earn candidates a certification; mostly Specialist certifications
• Cisco is launching a suite of DevNet certifications (Cisco Certified DevNet Associate, Cisco Certified DevNet Professional, Cisco Certified DevNet Expert)

There is much more to this. Check the web for others' takes. I'm only really interested in CCDE :)  A good place to start is www.cisco.com/go/nextlevel. There are plenty of tools to help us understand the transitions to the new designations.

Now, for my CCDE-related thoughts. That is why you are reading, right?!


CCDE Recertification
Active CCDEs will have three years to recertify, rather than the current two years. The third year replaces the 'suspended' status (I think that was a thing for CCDE.. I never got into the situation to find out). If you do not recertify by the end of the three years, you go inactive and will need to re-take the written and practical exams to re-earn your CCDE certification.
Recertification can be completed by one of the following:

• Passing the CCDE Written
• Passing three Specialist exams
• Earning 120 Continuing Education (CE) credits
• Various combinations of Specialist exams and CE credits (check the Cisco Learning website for details)

One important note is that your new 3-year certification window begins on the day that complete recertification. Your recertification date is no longer tied to your original pass date. I anticipate lots of us playing a game of 'chicken' with that 3-year window.. the closer to the end of it that you pass (or submit your CE credits), then longer you can wait before doing it again. But if you wait too long, you lose and start back at the beginning. Be safe out there! :)

The Future of the CCDE (Jeremy's Speculation)

I must preface this by telling you I have no insight into the actual plans for the CCDE. What you will read below is my 'best guess' at where things will go, based on my historical knowledge of Cisco certification programs and my own personal logic.

Name Change?

The new Cisco Certified DevNet Expert program will almost surely be known as the CCDE program, based on the naming of it. I suppose it could be CCDNE, or CCDevE, but those seem clunky to me. This makes me think that the CCDE program will get a name change. Perhaps something that combines the Architect and Design names into a single designation? I've never gotten on board with the differentiation that Cisco has placed on Architecture versus Design. Given that the CCAr program is all-but-dead (no one has attempted it in 3+ years, if my knowledge is accurate), and that only a handful actually passed the exam, I don't think too many would be upset if they were combined.

Where Will the CCDE Fit?
I expect the future CCDE program will be an umbrella over the CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure (former route-switch), CCIE Enterprise Wireless (former CCIE wireless), CCIE Data Center and CCIE Service Provider exams. It may/may not have a distinct qualification exam. If the specific CCDE written is retired, qualification may be something like “Earn two or more Cisco Certified Specialist Design badges.” This would bring the CCDE roughly in line with the CCIE lab requirement of “Pass the subject Core exam.”

If this comes to pass, and I need to repeat that this is purely my speculation, the CCDE Practical exam could turn into “four scenarios, one on each of the four mentioned silos (Enterprise Infrastructure, Enterprise Wireless, Data Center, Service Provider). The successful CCDE candidate would then become interface between the business and each of these technology areas (Security and Management would be components of each scenario). CCDEs would be tested in several ways:

Upstream toward the business- Extracting business requirements from documents, asking for missing information, recognizing constraints

Downstream toward implementation- Building coherent designs, communicating the design, adapting design to additional constraints

Multi-disciplinary design- Integrating two or more technology areas as required (for example, combining a Campus and WAN design, or adding an ACI data center to an existing environment to meet business requirements)

I do fear, and even expect, that the CCDE will become less vendor-neutral in any upcoming redesign of the program. As this past Cisco Live made abundantly clear, the Enterprise will no longer be a vendor-neutral area. All of Cisco’s most talked-about technologies (SD Access, SD WAN, ACI) are proprietary. In my view, Enterprise networks will become increasingly proprietary for the next few years, before they inevitably bounce back to open standards. We’ve all seen this before; at least those of us who’ve been around as long as I have:



Whatever happens to the CCDE program, existing CCDEs will be migrated over. Current candidates will be given at least six months notice (I expect at least two Practical dates as well) to wrap up their certifications. The CCIE announcements from this CLUS gave 8.5 months notice to candidates.

My advice, if you are seeking it, is to continue pursuing the CCDE if that is a goal of yours. Plan to finish by end of 2020, just in case the program changes significantly after that time.

Good luck, and let me know how I can help!
Jeremy

History of the CCDE, Part 3 -- 2013 to Present

(Click these links for Part 1 -- Origin to 2008, and Part 2 -- 2009 to 2012)

First, congratulations to all of my students who successfully passed the CCDE exam in 2016. I am proud to announce that our community of CCDE candidates has nearly reached one hundred successful students, including fourteen students this year. A recent successful student wrote the following recommendation of my training after passing his CCDE exam:

I attended Jeremy’s virtual bootcamp in October 2016, 3 weeks before my first and final CCDE attempt. The bootcamp to be extremely helpful in achieving the CCDE mindset. Jeremy covers a wide variety of technologies at a high level; the expectation is that students are already technical experts and are seeking to sharpen their analysis and design skills. These core skills are what separate CCIEs from CCDEs and Jeremy’s training material best addresses these skills. His scenarios are very realistic and, again, are primarily focused on critical thinking and problem solving, which is precisely what the real exam does. I highly recommend Jeremy’s bootcamp and self-paced study material for anyone serious about achieving the CCDE. -- Nick Russo, CCDE 2016::41

This article picks up from the beginning of 2013. Over the course of four test dates in 2013, we nearly doubled the total number of successful CCDEs. We started the year with 90 CCDEs, and added 81 more. This was by far the largest number of new CCDEs in a single year. In 2014 we literally one-upped the previous year, as 82 candidates passed the Practical exam. During these two years we nearly tripled the total number of CCDEs to 253. This still stands as the record number of passing students in a calendar year.

These two years also saw a broad diversity of CCDEs. Just looking at my successful students during this time period we saw the first CCDEs from the following countries:

• Chile
• Colombia
• India
• Indonesia
• Lebanon
• Oman
• Qatar

Over fifty of my students passed during these years. In some ways, it seems as though these years were the golden age of the CCDE program. After the great success of these years, 2015 and 2016 were slightly disappointing. Only 47 candidates were able to earn the CCDE certification in 2015, and this year saw exactly the same number of successful candidates. During conversations with CCDE program members I have learned that most of the reduction in successful candidates can be attributed to fewer candidates, and not to more difficult exams. Of course each exam date brings new content, so we cannot say with confidence that the exam difficulty has remained the same.

The last two years have also seen an global expansion of the CCDE program. I have had students pass the exam from countries such as Austria, Ghana, Luxembourg, Malaysia, and Romania. And of course, many students from the United States, Germany, France, etc. Thus far I have had successful students from 36 unique countries.

I am looking forward to what 2017 will bring to the CCDE program. With four upcoming exam dates and no announced changes to the Practical exam, we should see quite a few new CCDEs in the coming year. There are also rumors of changes to the recertification process. Stay tuned!

Thank you for reading!

Jeremy

Evaluating Your CCDE Practical Score Report

(This entry is a cross-post from my September CCDE newsletter. If you'd like to receive this to your email inbox two weeks prior to posting on my website, please sign up for my newsletter)

Over my years of helping CCDE candidates prepare for their Practical exam I have often been asked for my help in understanding the score report that an unsuccessful attempt yields. It is unfortunate when a candidate receives an unsuccessful result, but it happens often. Cisco's pass rate for Expert level exams (CCIE + CCDE combined) is approximately 15 - 20% per attempt, so more often than not, a candidate will not pass.

Unlike many of Cisco's written exams, the CCDE Practical does not give you a technology-based breakdown of your performance. While it would be great to receive something like this:

OSPF          70%

EIGRP         40%

IS-IS         30%

L3VPN         95%

Security      30%

etc, etc      10%

You will actually receive this:

1.0 Analyze Design Requirements           40%

2.0 Develop Network Designs               50%

3.0 Implement Network Design              60%

4.0 Validate and Optimize Network Design  90%

(These are made-up scores. If they match yours, I promise I wasn't looking at your paper)

So what can we do with this information? It certainly doesn't tell us which Cisco Press book to re-read in preparation for our next exam attempt. How can you build a study plan that gets will get you the crucial points to pass during the next exam date?

First, trust your gut. Your score report is given to you immediately after completion of the exam. The day's scenarios should be relatively fresh in your mind. Which of the technical topics was most challenging for you? Were there any terms or acronyms that were unfamiliar? I'm not ashamed to admit that during my CCDE Practical exam I came across at least one term that I hadn't been exposed to in my studies. This is why you'll see a few oddball acronyms in my training materials, especially during my practice exam.

Make a list of all of the topics, terms and design situations that made you uncomfortable. If it is a large list, so be it! I still haven't met a CCDE who was completely confident in their results before they saw their score report. The exam is designed to put you, the network designer, in uncomfortable spots. After all, doesn't real-world networking require compromise and educated guessing from time-to-time? The difference being that in the real-world we are allowed to use Google to validate our guesses before hitting submit.

So what does my result in each of these categories actually mean?

1.0 Analyze Design Requirements

This section is worth approximately 36% of your exam. The questions that fall into this category are of the style of 'What additional information do you require to develop your design?' Poor scores on this category reflect trouble understanding the scenario, and especially the business constraints presented. I like to think of this category as the one that tests your reading comprehension capabilities. It has been my experience, when working with students, that low scores make it practically impossible to pass the exam, as your core understanding of the scenario is flawed in some way. It is very difficult to determine the right answer to the following sections without proper knowledge of the core documents.

2.0 Develop Network Designs

This section represents the plurality of points on the exam, about 39% of the total points. These questions can be presented in many ways (multiple choice, multiple answer, diagram/hotspot, etc). The core skill tested in this category is the 'Which network design is most appropriate for this scenario?'. If your scores in this section are low, that represents a hole in your technical knowledge. Perhaps you do not understand one or more of the proposed technologies (if selecting the right solution) or the specific technology in the question (for example, where to place the BGP Route Reflector). Poor performance on this question type also makes section 4.0 (Validate and Optimize Network Design) difficult, as you are likely to go down a branch of the exam that does not have any correct answers available.

3.0 Implement Network Design

These are your implementation plan questions. As we discuss in my training, there is a specific strategy that I recommend for this question type. These represent only 13% of the total points on the exam, but with a passing score at or near 80%, every point counts. Fortunately, getting these questions wrong does not usually lead to a bad branching path.

4.0 Validate and Optimize Network Design

Although this section is only worth 12% of the exam points, I consider it the heart of the CCDE program. These are the questions that ask, 'Why did you make the design recommendation in the previous question?' or 'Why is this other proposed design not optimal?' I like to think of this question type as the one that clarifies whether the candidate knew the answer to the Design Recommendation question that came before it, or whether they had a lucky guess. It is very difficult to guess correctly twice in a row!

I hope this article has helped candidates who were unable to pass on their last CCDE Practical attempt. Next month's article will be a technical one, Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) 101.

Thank you for reading this!

Jeremy

Why You Should Prepare For Your CCDE With Jeremy

Once you commit to pursuing the CCDE certification, your next decision is how to prepare for it. Here are ten reasons why you should trust me with your training:

1) Proven Success

I have trained 10x the successful CCDE candidates as all other CCDE training companies combined. Nearly 100 of the 300 CCDE candidates who passed since I first offered my training have attended my classes. Why risk your training time and money on an unproven training vendor?

2) Focused Training

I only provide CCDE training! I am not distracted by offering training in other Cisco disciplines like CCDA/CCDP, or CCIE tracks. All of my development time is focused on this one certification. If you need training for other certifications, I will happily recommend a great provider. But I won't be able to help you myself!

3) Professional Experience

I have been a network designer/architect for 20 years. I earned my first Expert level Cisco certification (CCIE R/S #3851) in June, 1998. I have worked on the networks of several of the world's largest companies (General Electric, Comcast, Level-3, JP Morgan Chase). I am employed as a network architect at a Fortune 500 company, and I provide consulting to several additional companies. I not only teach this material, I implement it as well.

4) Teaching Experience

I have led dozens of CCDE training sessions since I started provided CCDE training in 2010. I know how to get critical concepts across to my students, and I am always available via email, Skype, or chat to offer advice and encouragement. I even earned the Certified Cisco Systems Instructor designation in 2010.

5) Long Involvement with the CCDE Program

I was present at the launch of the CCDE certification at Cisco Live in Anaheim, California in 2007. I was an active member of the CCDE beta team, and I was among the first handful of engineers to earn my CCDE certification (February 2009, CCDE #2009::3). I have lived and breathed CCDE subject matter since before other CCDE trainers had even heard of the program.

6) CCDE Success

I'm not normally one to boast, but I passed the CCDE certification exam on my first attempt. No other CCDE trainer can make this claim.

7) Clear and Legible Training Materials

As a native English speaker I am able to generate content that is easy to understand. You won't struggle to understand me whether you are in the classroom or online. This helps if you are also a native English speaker, but it is even more critical if English is not your primary language.

8) I have access to a wealth of CCDE-related minds

I am friends with many current and former CCDE program members. While this does not provide me with access to NDA materials (I would never cross that line!), it does allow me to keep current with developments in the CCDE program. My materials are always targeted at the current version of the exam.

9) Cisco Employees Trust Me, You Should Too

I have provided training for over 30 Cisco-employed CCDEs. I am a registered Cisco vendor and I have provided my classes on-site at Cisco offices. If you can't trust Cisco's judgment, who can you trust?



10) Simple Business Model

My CCDE business model is incredibly simple. You have two options:

          Option 1) Sign up for my online CCDE training for $995 USD. This entitles you to unlimited access to my online materials until you pass the CCDE Practical exam.

          Option 2) Sign up for my 5-day bootcamp class for $4995 USD. This allows you to attend one of my five-day bootcamp classes in person, or online; whichever works best for you. It also entitles you to unlimited access to my online materials until you pass the CCDE Practical exam. If you want to attend the bootcamp again you may do so for a nominal materials fee of $299 USD.

      Simple, right? No subscriptions, no upcharges, etc. Sign up for my training and I will work with you until you pass the exam. That's the guarantee I made my first students in 2010, and it is the guarantee I still provide today. Nearly 100 successful CCDE candidates can't be wrong!

Additional Information

Online Training
Bootcamp Training

Over 300 CCDEs Worldwide

CCDE Program Update

Congratulations to my students who successfully completed their CCDE journey this year. I am currently aware of 18 passing results for the year, but I haven't heard from all of my students quite yet. I suspect a few are still celebrating their accomplishment. For those candidates that were unsuccessful (whether they are students or not), understand that achieving an Expert-level Cisco certification is a process. The rumored pass rate for Expert-level exams is around 20% per attempt, so it is not unexpected to face adversity in your path to certification. If you attended my bootcamp, think back to my instructor introduction discussion... One of the most important steps in passing a Cisco exam is often failing it first.

Now that the 2015 CCDE testing cycle has ended, we can announce that the total number of Cisco Certified Design Experts is 304, minus any that have let their certification lapse. We saw only 51 total CCDEs certified this year, which is lower than in previous years. Without knowing for sure, I attribute this to a particularly difficult exam cycle, especially the August exam. According to Cisco the candidate volume has been steady. I think this bodes well for 2016.

Personal Update

Speaking of recertification, I was fortunate to have passed my CCDE recertification exam a few weeks ago. This brings me to a pair of personally-significant milestones. I am now sure to make my 20-year CCIE anniversary in 2018, and I am also certain to reach my 10-year CCDE anniversary in 2019. I have no intention of abandoning my networking efforts, but it is comforting to know that if I circumstances change I will still reach those two goals.

That said, I am still as interested in networking today as I ever have been. It's hard to believe that in a world of such rapid technology change, Cisco has been an integral part of my networking career since the beginning. So many of the competing vendors from the early days (Cabletron, Synoptics, etc) have faded away, and new ones have come and gone often. I suppose I'm trying to say that although I have been in networking for half my life, I am still amazed and challenged by the field. With regards to Cisco technology, I do not intend to take advantage of the CCIE Emeritus anytime soon. Nor would I use a CCDE Emeritus program if one were created, although I think that is an unlikely development.

I have a few other professional updates I'll be sharing in future blog posts, but I'll keep this post short so readers can get back to their studies :)

Training Update

I am eagerly looking forward to helping more students achieve their CCDE certification goals in 2016 and beyond. Several students asked that I publish a training schedule for the year so they can better plan their 2016 training schedule. Here is my schedule of 2016 classroom training:

April 18-22, 2016 - Orlando, Florida - April Registration Link
October 17-21, 2016 - Orlando, Florida - October Registration Link

As you may notice, my students have shown that they are more interested in attending classes in Florida than in the other locations I have offered in the past. Perhaps it is the ability to extend their travels and visit Disney World or the Florida beaches. It certainly is an easy location to travel to, regardless of your point of origin. If you have another location in mind, and a group of students who are sure to attend, let me know and I can add another class to the schedule. As always, all classes are available for remote Webex attendance as well. After my most recent training a remote attendee commented:

"By the way the class you put on was the best training I have ever attended."

I appreciate the sentiment, and those of my other students. It is great knowing that Webex attendees are on equal footing with classroom attendees. This was my fear when considering offering a remote learning option, but with the help of few friends (especially Ivan and Ethan) I found technology solutions that work for both types of students.

If taking a week-long break from your normal work duties isn't possible, you can attend my self-paced training. I recently added two new CCDE practical scenarios to the four previous ones. These exams were developed based on student feedback and cover additional network designs. My students now receive access to all six exams. If you are a current student who hasn't passed the CCDE practical exam, send me an email and I will provide you the additional content at no cost.

Jeremy

Fall 2015 Training Update

Fall is upon us in the Northern Hemisphere. The weather is getting cooler in my hometown, so it is time to head down to Central Florida for my next CCDE Practical Bootcamp class :)

Training Update

My next bootcamp class will include two all-new practice exam scenarios! I have been hard at work incorporating feedback regarding my previous practice exams and the notes of my beta tester (Thank you MD!). I am confident I will have them completed in time for class during the week of October 19th. Provided the classroom feedback is positive, I will review them for online students at the next review date (see below). If you are interested in attending my October bootcamp either in person or online, please take a look at the class web page.

The next live review of my CCDE practice exams is scheduled for Saturday October 24th (AmericaTel and MetalWorks) and Saturday October 31st (two new exams -- BrasCom and Canadian Fitness). Both review sessions will begin at 8am Eastern Daylight Savings Time. This is slightly early than prior start times, so returning students will need to adjust their schedules. If you are a new student and want to attend, please register for the sessions via the Online CCDE Practice Exam training page. For those who remember separate Online vs Self-Paced practice exam training, please note that I've combined the registration for the classes. There is no difference in content between the sessions and all students are welcome to attend the Webex recording sessions. Current students should send me an email to get on the Webex invite list.

Professional Update

I have been involved in several new and interesting projects for my primary customer network. WAN encryption, Performance routing enhancements (now IWAN) and IPv6 testing are all on the list or have already been completed. I hope everyone has heard that ARIN has given out its last IPv4 prefixes. If you haven't started with IPv6 in your Enterprise, please do not wait any longer. You can be the hero who saves your organization from getting too far behind the rest of the world :)

Is anyone else deploying IPv6 at an enterprise? I am interested to hear about your approach. My strategy thus far has been to start with VPN, then move on to web hosting. Cisco AnyConnect is a great starting point for IPv6, and I suspect it will be one of the first requirements for IPv6 access. We are now providing IPv4 VPN over IPv6 transport. It works well, although the default behavior of the client appears to be to try IPv4 first, then fallback to a AAAA record for the same DNS entry. I've had to disable IPv4 access on the client side to force AnyConnect to use IPv6 for transport.

Cisco Live 2015 is Here!

Congrats to my 70th successful CCDE student, Greg P.! Greg attended my most recent CCDE Practical Bootcamp in Orlando, Florida. He is among six students who passed the exam during the May 19th exam date. Congratulations to all of you, and good luck to those who are planning to take the exam later in 2015. For those who passed, please consider joining the LinkedIn Group for certified CCDEs. It is a low-volume group exclusively for discussions amongst CCDEs. Over half of all active CCDEs have joined, so you will have access to an incredible amount of Cisco design knowledge. Recent discussions have centered around the CCAr program and IPv6 deployment. Don't miss out on the fun!

Cisco Live San Diego

After a one year absence I will be back at Cisco Live this year in San Diego (Please Cisco, don’t ever hold Cisco Live in May again; it is too difficult to travel at the end of the school year). I can’t wait to meet up with old friends and meet new ones. I will be attending the CCIE/DE NetVet reception with John Chambers (for the last time, how bittersweet) and new CEO Chuck Robbins. I will also be at the CCIE/DE party on Tuesday evening. If any of my CCDE students (past, current or future) needs a date to the party, let me know and I will get you in (first come, first serve; I only get one guest). If anyone wants to discuss the CCDE program or my training while in San Diego, please reach out to me via email or Twitter (@jfilliben) so we can catch up. The CCDE program is closing in on 300 certified individuals, which means I am 100% confident that it has ‘caught on’ and will continue to grow like the CCIE R/S, Voice and Service Provider programs. Now if only Cisco will do something on the partner side to increase the value of this amazing certification. I’ll dig around for news and rumors at Cisco Live. If you will be there be sure to let me know so we can meet up. I plan to spend time at the Social Media area, and I will also attempt to be at the New Attendee meet-up on Sunday (I volunteered to be a mentor to a new attendee this year).

Upcoming Training

If you are looking for CCDE training, my next five-day CCDE Practical bootcamp class is scheduled for the week of October 18th in Dubai, UAE. This will be my final classroom training event of the year, and unfortunately I won't be able to offer it remotely from this training location. If that date or location is inconvenient for you, my Self-Paced Online CCDE Practice Exam Training is always available to suit your schedule. I have also scheduled a refresher Webex for August 1st for any of my students who are preparing for the August 19th CCDE Practical exam date. Send me an email if you would like to attend.

If you need convincing to attend my training, take a look at this sampling of student feedback from 2015:

“I just wanted to drop you a quick note to thank you for the bootcamp in April. It was a great experience. I took the CCDE practical exam on May 19th and passed. I am now CCDE 2015xxxx”

“I would like to share with you that I achieved my CCDE yesterday! I am very happy!!! Thanks for your class, it helped me a lot to have the overall impression of the exam. It made it more clear.”

“Just want to let you know that I've passed the exam! Thank you for the insights and hints to find the answers. Really appreciate the course.”

“I was about to write you an email and say a big 'thank you' to you. You helped me a lot to pass this exam. I appreciate it and never forget it.”

“Jeremy, You now have 55 students that passed.  Thanks for the great material!”

Interesting Projects

I’ve been working on a number of new projects for a Fortune 500 financial company. I plan to write a few blog posts detailing the design aspects of these projects. Here is a short list. If you have any specific interest in hearing about these, let me know which one(s) to prioritize:

Cisco iWAN deployment - Encrypted DMVPN over the Internet and carrier L3VPN. I started on this before iWAN was published, so I thought it was quite innovative. Now that Cisco has caught up to and passed me on this technology I am playing catch up. :)

AnyConnect over IPv6 - Deploying AnyConnect over IPv6 Internet for access to IPv4 resources

WAN Core Separation - Splitting up a WAN core consisting of two locations into individual IGPs and BGP ASNs. If you’ve read my blog long enough (or scroll waaaay back) you will remember when we reduced the core from three -> two locations. This project will take us to the logical conclusion. I have a Meet The Engineer scheduled at Cisco Live to work out the details concerning Performance Routing for this new design. I expect this project to occupy a large amount of my post-Cisco Live work attention :)

Campus LAN Refreshes - Is it time for white box switching in a large L3 campus? Does Meraki scale to the required size? Or is it time for my dream of an all-wireless campus LAN (probably not yet, but soon)?

Thanks for reading this far.. Please let me know what interesting projects you are working on; I am always on the lookout for new ideas.

Jeremy

Upcoming Training Classes

Last week I was in Orlando, Florida, where I taught my eleventh CCDE Practical bootcamp class. Thank you to all of the students who traveled to Orlando to attend the class, as well as those who braved the many hour time differences and attended remotely. It was great to have all of your experiences and questions during the class. My online students and I also recently completed a review of our four CCDE practice exams over the last two weekends. These online training events are open to all of my students, until they pass the CCDE Practical exam. For those taking the exam on May 19th, good luck. I can't wait to add more names to my list of 63 successful students!

My next CCDE Practical bootcamp will be held in Dubai, UAE, the week of October 18th. Details can be found at this page, and registration is now open via Eventbrite. Dubai is beautiful in October; we will be there just after the summer heat has begun to dissipate. During my last class in Dubai I had the opportunity to tour the Dubai Mall, the Burj Khalifa and the Madinat Jumeirah resort. It truly is an amazing city. More details concerning my last class can be found in this blog post. Unfortunately due to the timezone and venue challenges I will not be able to offer remote access to my October class.

If travel is an issue, or you can't spare a week away from work to attend training, I am continuing to offer my self-paced CCDE practice exam training. With this class you get same-day access to my four CCDE practice exam scenarios, as well as access to my CCDE overview training and the instructor-led exam review sessions. I regularly update the content of these exams to reflect feedback from my students and to align with public news regarding the CCDE Practical exam. Feedback for this training has been great; a former student gave me a nice compliment in his blog, ccdewiki.wordpress.com. Thanks Ken!

If you are going to be at Cisco Live in San Diego, let me know so we can catch up and say hi. It is certain to be an interesting Cisco Live, considering the recently-announced CEO transition at Cisco. Chuck Robbins sure has large shoes to fill! I wasn't able to attend last year, so I signed up for a full slate of technical sessions. I even plan to slip into the self-paced labs as time permits to test some of my configuration skills. I still work on production networks every day, but we do not use every possible technology so lab time is greatly appreciated (and anticipated!).

Fall 2014 Training Updates

First, I am proud to announce that 54 of my students have passed the CCDE Practical exam to date! Your efforts and hard work have allowed you to achieve one of the most difficult certifications available. If you haven't already done so, please join the CCDE Exclusive Linked In group by clicking on this link. This group consists only of fully-certified CCDEs and provides a way for us to share news and contact each other when necessary. About half of all CCDEs are members.. join today! :)


There are a several new announcements regarding the CCDE certification and my training:

CCDE As a Partner Requirement

Cisco has inched closer to making the CCDE certification a Partner requirement! This is great news for everyone who has achieved this certification (by my count, 233 individuals to date). It is also the perfect justification for Cisco Partners to encourage and support their employees in their pursuit of the certification. Details of the new programs can be found on Cisco's website (partner login required). The Partner Specialization that is expected to require a CCDE-certified individual is the Master Enterprise Networks Specialization, which launches in 2015.

Classroom Training Updates

I have several CCDE Practical Bootcamp classes on my training schedule for the next few months.

I have agreed to teach CCBootcamp's CCDE Practical class the week of November 10th, 2014. If you are interested in registering, please contact them at www.ccbootcamp.com or call them at 877-654-2243. Las Vegas is always a great city to visit, and this time of year is very reasonable weather-wise. It's nothing like Cisco Live's sweltering 110 degrees Fahrenheit daytime temperatures!

I am running a CCDE Practical Bootcamp in Dubai, the week of January 18th, 2015. Details can be found on my website (click here), or you can register by going directly to Eventbrite. I am offering a 15% discount if you register by the end of October. Use the promotional code 'october' when you register.

I also have a CCDE Practical Bootcamp class scheduled for the week of April 20th, 2015 in Orlando, Florida USA. Spring weather in Florida is nice, and the theme parks are great fun for the family, so considering bringing them along! Details can be found on my website, and registration is available at Eventbrite.

Online Training

I am also offering my online CCDE practice exam training in two forms. On Saturday November 1st, I will lead the first of the CCDE Practical practice exam review sessions. The second session will be on Saturday November 8th. These live Webex-based sessions allow candidates to ask questions about the CCDE program, CCDE practical exam and the practice exams that I offer. All past students are invited to attend, until they receive a passing score on Cisco's CCDE Practical exam. Details on this class can be found on my website.

If your schedule isn't flexible, my self-paced training is always available to suit your needs. Within 24 hours of registering you will receive my CCDE training materials and four practice exams. Once you complete the exams, let me know and I will provide access to recordings of the above-mentioned review sessions which explain the correct answers. Self-paced registrants are also permitted to attend any subsequent live sessions, and will be provided access to future recordings at no charge.

As always, if you have any questions about the CCDE program or these training opportunities, please email me at jeremy@filliben.com.

Thank you,
Jeremy

CCDE Training Schedule for 2014

Congratulations to my seven students who successfully completed the CCDE Practical exam on November 22nd! I am honored to have trained 31 of the world’s CCDEs. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your success. Passing this exam is quite an accomplish; you should be very proud of your effort.

Interest in the CCDE program has increased considerably since I started training network engineers and architects for this certification in 2010. I’m trying my best to increase my training offerings to meet candidates needs. To that end I have opened registration for the following CCDE training classes. If you are interested in attending, please click on the links below. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

April CCDE Practice Exams

My next online CCDE practice exams are scheduled for Saturday April 5th and 12th, 2014. Registrants for these sessions will receive four CCDE Practice exam scenarios, as well as my CCDE overview presentation and guidance documents. The review sessions will take place on consecutive Saturdays and are expected to last from 9am ET until approximately 1pm ET. Registration for these sessions in available at Eventbrite.

Self-Paced CCDE Practice Exams

My CCDE practice exams are available in a self-paced offering. Once you register you will receive the exam content within 24 hours. Registrations for the self-paced class are always invited to attend any subsequent live sessions as well, including the February 1st CCDE overview presentation and question & answer session. Registration for the self-paced class is available at Eventbrite. I have updated my content to reflect the most recent changes in the CCDE program, including the flexible lunch breaks and day-before registration for any Pearson Professional Center.

CCDE Bootcamp in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - January 27-31, 2014

My next scheduled live CCDE Practical bootcamp class is coming up at the end of January. It will be held at the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia, PA. My live class content has been updated to incorporate the latest CCDE updates. I have also added a new section comparing/contrasting GETVPN and DMVPN, based on feedback from recent class attendees. Registration is open at Eventbrite.

CCDE Bootcamp in Celebration, Florida - July 28-August 1, 2014

Last year’s Celebration, Florida class was quite successful. Feedback about the town (located near Orlando in Central Florida) and the Stetson University facilities was overwhelmingly positive. I have decided to bring my class back to the same location this coming July. Registration is open at Eventbrite. The course description can be found by clicking on the title above.

CCDE Bootcamp in Dubai, UAE March 30 - April 3, 2014

I am also offering my week-long class in Dubai during the week of March 30th, 2014. Registration is available in at Eventbrite. The class will be held at City Seasons Suites in Dubai. If you have any questions about this class please let me know. I am also considering a European class the month of November, 2014. If you are interested in attending a class in London or Frankfurt, please let me know. I am still trying to gauge the interest level before committing to this class.

As always, if you have any questions about my training classes or the CCDE program please write me an email at jeremy@filliben.com. I look forward to helping candidates succeed at this certification in the coming year.

CCDE Study Resources Update

It’s been a while since I have updated my CCDE Study Resources list. Below is a list of resources that I recommend CCDE Practical candidates use to prepare for the exam. But first… who should be attempting this exam?

Cisco recommends 7+ years of network design experience before tackling this certification program. I would like to add that 7+ years designing the same small network is unlikely to cut it. Candidates will want to have spent time in a variety of network design challenges; preferably split between service provider and enterprise networks. I agree with the CCDE program team that many technologies have made the jump between these two traditional network types, but not all of them have. For example, I haven’t run into an Enterprise running IS-IS. I know they’re out there, but they are still rare.

 

Recommended Reading List

I highly recommend that CCDE candidates read the following Cisco Press books. Remember, you can skip the configuration syntax, although I often find it helpful to review configs to bolster my understanding of technology:

• Optimal Routing Design
• MPLS Fundamentals
• End-to-End QoS Network Design (a new version is due out in November 22, 2013)
• BGP Design and Implementation
• Definitive MPLS Network Designs

I also suggest that CCDE candidates familiarize themselves with the technologies covered in these books. Whether you actually read them, or use their tables of content to guide you online learning, that’s your call:

• Layer 2 VPN Architectures
• IPv6 Fundamentals
• Network Management: Accounting and Performance Strategies
• Developing IP Multicast Networks (terribly dated, so I suggest researching this on your own)

Cisco Live 365

Cisco Live 365 is an incredibly valuable CCDE preparation resource. Himawan Nugroho wrote an excellent blog post on preparing for the CCDE where he covered the presentations that he used to pass the exam. My own list is similar to his, so I’ll only list my ‘must watch’ sessions here.

• BRKRST-2042 Highly Available Wide Area Network Design
• BRKSEC-4054 DMVPN Deployment Model
• BRKRST-2335 IS-IS Network Design and Deployment
• BRKRST-2310 Deploying OSPF in a Large Scale Network
• BRKRST-2336 - EIGRP Deployment in Modern Networks
• BRKRST-3051 - Core Network Design: Minimizing Packet Loss with IGPs and MPLS

As a bonus, here are a couple that look highly relevant to the CCDE Practical exam, but I haven’t watched yet:

• BRKIPM-3010 - Which Routing Protocol? - IPv4 and IPv6 Perspective
• BRKRST-2044 - Enterprise Multi-Homed Internet Edge Architectures
• BRKCRS-3036 - Enterprise Campus Design: Routed Access

 

Online Discussion Boards

There are two great online resources for CCDE preparation. The first is Cisco’s own Cisco Learning Network. The CCDE section of this site is the definitive source for test dates and official exam blueprints. There is also an online discussion board that is monitored by Cisco and several current CCDEs and CCDE candidates. On topic questions are generally answered quickly. You can even find a CCDE overview video that I participated in on the main page on the site.

The second resource is Ethan Bank’s CCDE Group Study Google group. Ethan is a prospective CCDE candidate who created this Google group. It currently has over 100 members, including several current CCDEs (myself included) and several of Cisco’s CCDE Practical content developers. My favorite part of the Google group is the ability to opt-in to daily email updates. Message traffic is light, but with so many participants, any questions are quickly answered.

 

Training

I provide two forms of training for the CCDE Practical exam:

 

CCDE Practical Bootcamp Classes

These are five day in person classes where we cover the technologies candidates will need to know for the CCDE Practical exam. My next class is hosted by CCBootcamp in Las Vegas, NV the week of November 11, 2013. I am tentatively scheduling my first CCDE bootcamp of 2014 for the week of January 27th in Philadelphia, PA. If you are interested in attending either of these classes, please email me at jeremy@filliben.com and I can provide registration information. Also, if you have a suggestion for a European location for 2014, please let me know. I’d like to take my class on the road next year… let me know where you’d like it to be.

Details on the format of the classes can be found at http://www.jeremyfilliben.com/p/ccde-practical-bootcamp.html.

 

Online CCDE Practice Exams

For those candidates who cannot take a week off for training, or have difficulty traveling to the US, I also offer an online CCDE training option. This event utilizes my CCDE practice exams to prepare candidates for the type of questions and format of the CCDE Practical exam. Participants receive four CCDE exam scenarios with a total of 80 questions. I review the exams via WebEx with candidates on two consecutive Saturdays (two scenarios per review session). Candidates are invited to attend the WebEx review sessions in real-time to ask questions, or they can choose the self-paced option and watch the review sessions on-demand. Registration for the self-paced option is always available. The next live review sessions are scheduled for November 2nd and 9th.

 

If you have any questions about these resources, please let me know. And if I have missed anything please send me an email so I can update this page.

CCDE Numbering and Requirements

This article is cross-posted from the CCIE Flyer March Issue

Upcoming CCDE Training

A quick note concerning upcoming training offerings. The next CCDE Practice Exam online offering is scheduled for April 27th. Details can be found at http://www.jeremyfilliben.com/p/ccde-practice-exams.html. The next CCDE Practical Bootcamps I am offering are in Cairo, Egypt in May, and Orlando, Florida in July. Details can be found at http://www.jeremyfilliben.com/p/ccde-practical-bootcamp.html.

Future of the CCDE Program

We’ve covered the history of the CCDE over the previous two articles... But what about the future? I expect the number of successful CCDE candidates in 2013 will easily beat 2011’s record of 28. Why? For several reasons:

• Increased Interest in the CCDE Program - I am already seeing record demand for my training offerings. I am also noticing increased activity on the Cisco Learning Network CCDE discussion board. More interest = more candidates!
• Immediate Test Results - This development (introduced in November 2012) will allow unsuccessful candidates to immediately begin preparing for their subsequent attempts. It was common in the early days of the program for candidates to skip every other test date, since they often would not get their results until a few weeks before the next exam offering.
• More Test Dates and Locations - Cisco has already announced four test dates for the CCDE Practical exam, covering a whopping 16 locations. Details can be found at https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/community/certifications/ccde/practical_exam?tab=4.

We’ve already seen a record number of successful candidates during the February testing date -- at least 15, including four of my students! In summary, I am quite confident that the CCDE program is here to stay. This was somewhat in doubt among networkers in the earlier years. I suspect this was due in part to the small number of successful candidates in 2008 - 2010, plus the short life of the CCIE Design certification in the early 2000s. With nearly 100 CCDEs to date, plus the fact that the CCDE is a necessary step on the way to the Cisco Certified Architect program, it is highly unlikely that this certification will be retired. In fact, I suspect the CCDE will broaden into other topics, much like the CCIE. Might there be a CCDE Data Center or CCDE Security in our future?

Certification Requirements

Now that we’ve covered the history and my best guess at a future direction for the CCDE program, how does one actual earn this certification? Like the CCIE program, there is no certification prerequisite needed for the CCDE program. Although CCDE sits on the top of the Network Design pyramid above CCDA and CCDP, neither certification is necessary to attempt the CCDE written exam.

The CCDE written exam is a 120 minute, 90 - 110 question exam that is delivered worldwide at Pearson Vue testing centers. The exam blueprint is quite extensive! Candidates should have strong familiarity with routing protocols, tunneling, quality of service, network management and network security. In contrast to the Practical exam, each written exam question is self-contained. Like all current Cisco exams, it is not possible to go back to previous questions or skip questions during the exam. I really miss that feature of Cisco exams! Without going into any details (respect the NDA!) I am willing to say that there are fewer ‘trivia’ questions on the CCDE written, as compared to the various CCIE-track exams I have taken. Most questions assume a high level of technical knowledge. The questions are more about how to use or evaluate technologies, rather than defining technical terms.

Passing the CCDE written exam recertifies any lower-level Cisco certification (CCNx, CCDx, etc). It also recertifies any current CCIE or CCDE certification. Lastly, passing the exam qualifies you to schedule and take the CCDE Practical exam. Your first CCDE Practical attempt must take place within 18 months of passing the CCDE written exam. You must pass the CCDE Practical within three years of your written exam; if you fail to do so you will be required to retake the written exam prior to any subsequent Practical exam attempts. If you fail the CCDE written exam you must wait six calendar days before re-attempting, and if you pass the exam you must wait six months before retaking the exam.

The CCDE Practical exam is an eight-hour exam that is offered on specific dates and at specific Pearson Vue testing centers. Upcoming test dates can be found on the Cisco Learning Network. The exam currently consists of four distinct scenarios, each consisting of 25 - 35 questions relating to a single network. Each scenario is self-contained; once you complete a scenario there is no reason to remember it for the next test segment. According to the Cisco Learning Network, candidates are required to complete the first and second scenarios in the four hour exam session prior to lunch. After four hours, all participants are escorted to lunch for one hour. Upon returning to the test center, all candidates will begin the third scenario. The third and fourth scenarios must be completed in the four hour exam session that begins after lunch. So in a way you can consider the exam to be two separate four-hour exams, separated by a one hour lunch.

When you have completed the final question of scenario four, your test will end. As you collect your belongings and exit, the Pearson Vue proctor will hand you your score report, with either a “PASS” or “FAIL” result. If you are unsuccessful, the score report will give you a brief breakdown of your results based on the question types present on the exam. If you passed, congratulations! Within a week (and likely sooner) you will receive notification of your CCDE number!

Recertification Requirements

Successful CCDE candidates must maintain their certification credentials by completing one of the following exams every two years:

• Any CCIE Track Written Exam
• Any CCIE Track Lab Exam
• The CCDE Written Exam
• The CCDE Practical Exam - has anyone done this for recertification?
• Successful Completion of the CCAr Program (Both Interview and Board Review) - This one is special, as it recertifies all lower-level certifications for five years... If my reading of the recertification policies correct.

CCDE Numbering System

As many know, the CCIE certification numbering policy began at #1025 and has increased sequentially from there. During the initial public unveiling of the CCDE program in 2007, the team requested thoughts on how CCDEs should be identified. There were several humorous responses, including binary and hexadecimal. The team settled on an eight-digit decimal string. The first four digits signify the year in which a candidate passed the Practical exam. The second four digits uniquely identify the candidate among those that passed in that year. My CCDE number is 20090003, which means I passed in 2009. From the “0003” portion you can infer that I passed early in the year, as compared to someone whose number is significantly higher. For example, four candidates passed during my February 2009 test date. We were given the numbers 20090001 - 20090004. The next test date had five successful candidates, who were given numbers 20090005 - 20090009. According to Cisco, there is no specific meaning about which number you receive during a test date. In fact, my original paperwork indicated my number would be 20090004, but the plaque I received had number 20090003.

It appears now that Cisco is also numbering CCDE candidates by theatre. All of the candidates that I know of that passed in Sydney in February 2013 received low 2013 numbers (20130001 - 20130003, at least). So a bit more information is conveyed by the numbering system. This was not the case in the earlier days of the CCDE program.

There are two other common representations of the CCDE number. The first is the use of a double-colon “::” to eliminate a string of zeros. Using this makes my number 2009::3. I certainly hope every recognizes the IPv6 aspect of this! It is also common to see the second half of the CCDE number represented in hex, especially if it makes it more interesting. For example, 2009::13 is more fun to write as 2009::D.

Next month's article will cover the preparation methods that successful candidates have used.

About Jeremy:

Jeremy Filliben is a 15 year CCIE (Routing/Switching #3851) and a CCDE-certified network architect. Jeremy was a member of the CCDE beta program and passed practical exam in 2009. Jeremy has trained 16 of the ~80 individuals who have passed the CCDE practical exam since 2010 (more than all other training organizations combined). His next CCDE Practical Bootcamp is scheduled for the week of July 29th in Orlando, Florida. More information on Jeremy's CCDE training offerings can be found at www.jeremyfilliben.com.

History of the CCDE Part 2

This article is cross-posted from the CCIE Flyer, published February 2013

We left off last month with the quasi-beta CCDE Practical exam which was offered in October 2008.

Community reaction to the beta was mixed. Most participants felt that the process was worthwhile, as it had forced them to learn technologies and concepts that were outside of their comfort zone. The actual testing experience was (and still is) quite different from the CCIE labs we've all come to know. The entire exam takes place on a single PC, with no 'real-world' devices. There are no routers to configure and most importantly, no proctor to ask clarifying questions. This has been the primary complaint I have heard in the 3+ years I've been training CCDE candidates. The second most common complaint was the long wait time in receiving exam results. It was often the case that registration for the subsequent offering closed within a week of receiving results for the prior exam. Later in this article we will cover the new grading system, which addresses this issue.

The low pass-rate from the October 2008 offering, coupled with the slow announcement of results contributed to a very light turnout for the first exam offering in 2009. Only 27 candidates took part in this exam, which was now held in both London and Chicago. Approximately twelve weeks later, four candidates received passing marks (myself included). For the August 2009 exam date, Cisco announced that they were expanding testing to Hong Kong, but the test site was canceled due to lack of registrations (this also occurred in December 2009). A total of 14 candidates passed the CCDE Practical exam in 2009.

Cisco offered the CCDE Practical exam three more times in 2010. During this year only 13 candidates passed the exam. Testing locations were expanded to include Hong Kong and Sydney. During Cisco Live 2010 in Orlando, Cisco announced some upcoming changes to the Practical exam. The exam would soon be moving to a four-scenario format, rather than six scenarios. It would also be completely rewritten and reformatted to ensure that all major protocols and scenario types would be present on each exam. These announcements turned out to be a bit premature, as they were not implemented until the first test date of 2012. To be fair, CCDE Practical content development is hard work, and it takes a lot of effort to be certain that the test questions are valid. The registration fee also increased to $1400 this year. I believe this was an across-the-board increase for all Cisco Expert level certifications.

The CCDE made a strong push in 2011 to get more candidates into the CCDE program. If I recall correctly, there were several Webex-based CCDE overview sessions provided by the team. The CCDE team created Youtube overview videos to remove some of the mystery from the exam. The exam was offered four times in 2011, with a record 28 successful candidates. Testing was conducted in Bangalore for the first time.

As mentioned earlier, 2012 brought a significant changes to the CCDE Practical exam. The CCDE exams (both written and practical) were relauched as ‘CCDE 2.0.’ The Practical now consists of four distinct scenarios, as opposed to the previous six-scenario exam, but by all indications the exam did not get easier! The second development was that it is no longer possible to miss any significant technologies on the exam. Due to the mixing and matching of scenarios on previous iterations of the exam, it was possible to completely miss a core technology like IS-IS. The new format makes this extremely unlikely, if not impossible. The final significant change in 2012 was the announcement of all testing dates and locations at the beginning of the year. This allowed CCDE candidates to gear their preparation toward a specific test site and date. The CCDE Practical exam was offered three times this year, and testing expanded to include, at various times, San Jose, Raleigh, Istanbul, and Bangkok. According to the CCDE team, testing center locations are determined by candidate demand. They use the locations of CCDE written exam participants to judge whether they should offer the CCDE Practical exam in a specific location.

In November, the final CCDE Practical exam offering of 2012 brought a much-requested improvement to the candidate experience--immediate scoring! As candidates completed the exam and exited their Pearson Vue testing center, a score report was handed to them with either a ‘Pass’ or ‘Fail’ result, just like any non-Beta Cisco written exam. Even unsuccessful candidates were able to appreciate this immediate feedback, as it allowed them to consider whether they wished to prepare for the next scheduled exam date. There were 24 successful CCDE Practical candidates in 2012, bringing the worldwide number of CCDEs to 90. This includes the eight individuals who created the exam, and assumes no one has allowed their CCDE credentials to lapse.

Next month's article will cover the (near term) future of the CCDE program, CCDE certification and recertification requirements, and the numbering system used to identify successful candidates.

About Jeremy:

Jeremy Filliben is a 15 year CCIE (Routing/Switching #3851) and a CCDE-certified network architect. Jeremy was a member of the CCDE beta program and passed practical exam in 2009. Jeremy has trained 11 of the 63 individuals who have passed the CCDE practical exam since 2010 (more than all other training organizations combined). His next CCDE Practical Bootcamp is scheduled for the week of July 29th in Orlando, Florida. More information on Jeremy's CCDE training offerings can be found at www.jeremyfilliben.com.

History of the CCDE Part 1

This article is cross-posted from the CCIE Flyer, published December 2012

If you are looking for the registration page for the January CCDE Practice Exams, please go to http://www.jeremyfilliben.com/p/ccde-practice-exams.html

What happens when some of Cisco's most senior CCIEs realize they don't have the correct knowledge of IOS trivia to pass the CCIE R/S written exam? They create a new certification program that more accurately covers their current roles, of course! In addition to this predicament, Cisco was getting pressure from customers and partners to develop engineers who could build more scalable and resilient networks. Many readers will agree that the CCIE program develops excellent network implementation skills. Active CCIEs know most of the IOS knobs that can be turned to make networks do things no one else could imagine. One thing the CCIE program does not develop, however, is a solid understanding of network design. The CCIE lab exam is an excellent guide for what not to do in a production network, with three (or more) active routing protocols in an eight router topology. Many CCIEs (especially senior ones) are looked upon to provide network designs and are given titles like 'Network Architect' or 'Network Design Engineer', but historically there was no way to differentiate CCIE-certified individuals who have design skills and those who do not.

In 2007 Cisco commissioned a team to develop a certification program that would test candidates on their ability to design and redesign networks that support the goals of resiliency, scalability and supportability. While I was not a member of this team, I have spoken with team members about this phase of the CCDE program. Cisco included several large customers in this program design phase to ensure that the resulting certification actually covered the skills that customers were seeking in the hiring decisions. The program was formally announced to the Cisco engineer community at Cisco Live 2007 in Anaheim, California. I was fortunate enough to be invited to this meeting. Russ White, Steve Barnes and Bruce Pinsky (all Cisco employees at the time) discussed the goals of this program and offered several example written exam questions. During the following Q&A period there was a spirited discussion concerning the focus of the exam. Was it a Service Provider exam, or an Enterprise exam? The team asserted that the skills being tested were universal, and that a good design engineer with proper technical knowledge of the tools at his/her disposal could develop network designs that meet the needs of either company. At the time this was an eye-opening concept. While I had worked in both the SP and Enterprise realms, I considered myself an Enterprise network engineer/architect and found little use for concepts like MPLS and L2TPv3 in my work. Follow-up discussions with other meeting participants revealed that many others felt the same as I did. I've come to find that even today the CCDE exam is a bit of a Rorschach test; engineers with an Enterprise background often remark on how SP-focused the exam is, while SP engineers feel the exam has too much Enterprise-related content!

The CCDE team, led by David Bump, invited all participants to take the CCDE written Beta exam in the Fall of 2007. They supplied an extensive book list, which was only slightly different than the current book list found at https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-1673. I immediately decided that this would be my next certification goal, as I had recently taken and passed the CCIE R/S written exam to maintain my CCIE certification, but I too found the process to be difficult (I failed the exam once due to my lack of knowledge concerning L2 LAN technology).

After what seemed like an eternity, the CCDE team announced that they would unveil the CCDE practical exam format during Cisco Live 2008. The Cisco Certification Lounge hosted a computer with an early version of the CCDE Practical Exam Demo (the current version can be found at https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-2438). For most of the week there was a crowd around this PC, and to add to the pressure the screen contents were simulcast to a large overhead display monitor so everyone within 25 feet could watch you take the exam. Talk about pressure! I earned a score of 22% on the demo and surprisingly that made it onto the makeshift leaderboard. I checked back at the end of the week and noted that the highest score achieved was only 44%. Clearly the practical was going to be a difficult exam.

The first offering of the CCDE Practical exam was an ungraded Alpha exam presented to selected Cisco employees in mid-2008. It did not result in any passing scores; its goal was to iron out any bugs in the testing engine.  At Cisco Live the certification team also announced that there would not be a large-scale Beta exam for the CCDE practical. While the first offering was referred to as a Beta exam, it was not restricted to CCDE Beta team participants and only CCDE Beta program participants were able to receive the reduced price ($980 instead of $1260; current price is $1500). This first official CCDE Practical Exam was offered in October 2008. While I was unable to attend due to a personal commitment, my friend Colin McNamara did a nice job of writing up the experience on his blog. The post can be found at http://www.colinmcnamara.com/my-experience-taking-the-ccde-practical-beta/. After ten weeks of grading, three of the forty-two candidates received passing scores.

Next month's article will cover the history of the CCDE program to the present time and the numbering system used to identify successful CCDE candidates.

For additional information about the early days of the CCDE program, see Michael Morris's blog at http://www.networkworld.com/community/morris. He no longer updates it, but he wrote extensively about the CCDE beta program and Michael was one of the first three candidates to pass the CCDE Practical exam.

About Jeremy:

Jeremy Filliben is a 14-year CCIE (Routing/Switching #3851) and a CCDE-certified network architect. Jeremy was a member of the CCDE beta program and passed practical exam in 2009. Jeremy has trained eleven of the roughly 63 individuals who have passed the CCDE practical exam since 2010 (more than all other training organizations combined). More information on Jeremy's CCDE training offerings can be found at www.jeremyfilliben.com.

January 2013 CCDE Practice Exams

Registration is now open for the January/February 2013 CCDE Practice exam offering. This offering consists of four scenarios based on the CCDE 2.0 Technology Topics and CCDE 2.0 Blueprint. The practice exams have been updated to reflect the CCDE Version 2.0 changes as described by Cisco. In addition to an overview of the CCDE exam, the overview presentation will also include:

• Differential analysis of the CCDE version 1.0 and 2.0 blueprints
• Overview of the CCDE Practical exam format changes between 1.0 and 2.0
• Listing of all new technical content on the CCDE Practical exam, as listed in the Written 2.0 blueprint

The review sessions are scheduled for Saturday, January 26th at 9am ET and Saturday, February 2nd at 9am ET. This should give participants enough time to incorporate their practice exam results into their study plans for the actual Cisco exam on Tuesday, February 19th.

We will cover a broad array of technical content from the CCDE 2.0 Blueprint. Topics will include:

• IP Routing protocols (OSPF, EIGRP, BGP, IS-IS)
• Tunneling (MPLS, GRE, DMVPN)
• Security (uRPF, Filtering, Encryption)
• Quality of Service (Congestion Management, Congestion Avoidance, Packet Marking)
• Network Management (Netflow, SNMP, IPFIX, OOB Management)

The exams cover an array of network designs, balanced between Service Provider and Enterprise topics. To be clear, I do not cover all the technical content that candidates will face on the CCDE Practical exam. That would be impossible to do in four practice scenarios. The primary goals of this offering are:

1. Provide an experience-based overview of the CCDE Practical exam
2. Familiarize candidates with the depth and breadth of individual CCDE Practical scenarios
3. Share my methods for determining the correct answer for each type of question on the exam

I am confident that my practice exam offering meets these goals. I encourage candidates to use the link below to register for this offering. As always, previous participants are encouraged to attend these sessions at no cost. Just drop me an email and I will send you the Webex link.

If you have any questions about the offering or the CCDE program, please write me at jeremy@filliben.com.

CCDE Practice Exam Registration Link