Monday was crazy! We all got an early start, and now the convention was in full swing. Since I couldn’t do any breakouts, I decided to stop by the CCIE Certification Lounge in WoS, and then tackle a WISP or two. Unfortunately the network connection crashed mid-Monday and my Viptela WISP with it, but since I had a scavenger hunt to work on I wasn’t that hurt.
I also wanted to check in at the Cisco dCloud booth. I know people over there and the dCloud platform is a great offering by Cisco that allows test drives and demonstrations of solutions without having to get real gear.
Throughout the day I worked on my scavenger hunt and checked out the amazing Cisco DevNet offerings. DevNet has been kind of a low-key Cisco initiative for a while, but is really starting to gain exposure as more and more Cisco solutions come with programmability. This is my first Cisco Live, but I get the feeling like DevNet got major support and showcasing this year and it paid off. A lot of attendees were crowding DevNet all the time and it had a fairly sizable chunk of the floor.
While in DevNet I ran into Silvia K. Spiva, the social media queen and patron angel of DevNet on Twitter. She was on my scavenger hunt list, and I had to talk to her. She was super friendly and ready to take a few photos.
Between socializing with my fellow RouterGods, my scavenger hunt, and WISP/DevNet, I also tried my luck at the CCDE Written certification. I hadn’t studied at all, I was relying entirely on past experience and just wanted to recon the test for free. I needed 860 and only got 710, the very first Cisco cert exam I’ve failed (not including the CCIE lab, which took two attempts). I wasn’t displeased with my performance considering not having studied at all, but I definitely will work on the blueprint in order to try again early next year.
My interest in CCDE has been there for a while, as a network designer/architect, I help customers with network designs as part of my job. Rather than pursue another CCIE which will take 30 hours a week (and end up with divorce papers), I decided to focus on CCDE after I got my CCIE R/S.
I have been reading the Cisco Learning Network’s CCDE site and the Unleashing CCDE blog, which has contributors like Daniel Dib and Nick Russo. It’s administrated by the Program Manager of the CCDE Cert program, a wonderful woman named Elaine Lopes. She was on my scavenger hunt list.
We talked about CCDE and how the study strategy differs from other IE certifications, she offered great advice and was generally awesome.
I also ran into Daniel Dib in the CCDE lounge and he offered other advice and suggestions. He was also on my scavenger hunt list, as a CCDE and fellow RG.
Monday night was the annual RouterGods party, and it was great to party with the best group in the business.
