Certifications are a superb approach to obtain self-improvement, larger technical data, 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, successful the corporate Cisco Gold Associate 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 clients’ 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 answer architects that preserve the infrastructure of their cloud knowledge heart, it’s essential for his or her technical data to remain up to date.
When crew leaders thought of the certifications the corporate wanted, they reviewed the entire Cisco architectures. They determined to certify the crew in Information Heart, Enterprise Networks, and Safety specializations, in addition to Service Supplier — which might be an awesome funding in their very own cloud infrastructure and providers. However they didn’t cease there. The crew additionally determined to focus on Buyer Experiences to satisfy Cisco’s rules for Gold Companions, which was the right match for his or her philosophy of buyer relationship and lifecycle administration.
However why CCIE certification? With 30 years below 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 sometimes takes one to 2 years. Be taught extra concerning the .
What’s extra, CCIE certification is required for Cisco Gold Associate standing. In actual fact, clients in Germany worth the CCIE a lot that the majority firms can’t work with public clients except they’ve Gold Associate 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 good distance for the reason that CCIE of 1993
Since its inception on Sept. 27, 1993, the Cisco Licensed Internetwork Skilled (CCIE) certification has developed from a two-day check wherein candidates arrange {hardware} and initialize a pod with fundamental configurations on the primary day after which return on the second day to carry out extra superior configurations and troubleshoot situations.
At the moment, the CCIE lab examination is a 1-day check 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 abilities 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 trade. And now, you may keep forward of the newest examination expertise adjustments 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.
Crew achievement results in Gold Associate standing
To satisfy the Cisco Gold qualifications, CTO Stephan Körner wished 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 follow, it was a crew effort.
The crew constructed labs for putting in cert merchandise after which examined on the merchandise they bought.
“Within the lab, we thought of completely different layouts, duties, and challenges. One in all us was creating the problem for the others so they might prepare on that,” Körner stated. For the part on fiber channel zoning on the CCNP Information Heart expertise core examination, the crew thought of completely different challenges and created their very own zones.
“Doing it collectively was simpler as a result of if considered one of us was upset that he didn’t move 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 stated. “I talked to different CCIE guys who did this on their very own, and it’s fairly laborious. It’s important to work after hours and on weekends. You don’t have anybody to speak to who’s in the identical scenario. It’s simply not the identical since you don’t obtain collectively.”
In actual fact, Neu believes the group certification course of was solely achievable as a result of the entire firm was concerned. “We have been simply 4 guys [going for the] CCIE. However for the entire course of, we had about 30 guys, which was an awesome group dynamic and, for our functions, the one sensible approach 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 Associate,” he stated. “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 purpose.”
When all was stated and achieved, the group would have fun 4 of their teammates incomes the CCIE Information Heart certification. As for AU, going for the gold paid off. Since incomes Cisco Gold Associate 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 Associate Superior UniByte Unites for CCIE
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