Certifications are a wonderful technique to obtain self-improvement, better 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 group strategy to certification. They’ve studied, practiced, and examined as a group for a number of CCIE certifications to contribute to the corporate’s success and their very own group achievements. This group 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 companies. With experience in information 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 group of engineers and answer architects that preserve the infrastructure of their cloud information heart, it’s essential for his or her technical information to remain up to date.
When group leaders thought-about the certifications the corporate wanted, they reviewed all the Cisco architectures. They determined to certify the group in Knowledge Middle, Enterprise Networks, and Safety specializations, in addition to Service Supplier — which might be a fantastic funding in their very own cloud infrastructure and companies. However they didn’t cease there. The group additionally determined to focus 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 degree, as tech certifications go. Whereas the time it takes to earn this cert will depend on ability degree, dedication, and research hours per week, getting 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 Companion standing. In actual fact, prospects in Germany worth the CCIE a lot that the majority corporations can’t work with public prospects except 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 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 by which 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 exams 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 trade. And now, you’ll be able to 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, supplying you with time to evaluate and plan your prep methods.
Workforce achievement results in Gold Companion standing
To fulfill the Cisco Gold qualifications, CTO Stephan Körner wished the group to realize a minimal of 4 CCIEs. So, in typical AU group trend, practically 30 technical mans selected totally different paths within the Cisco certification program — from CCNA to CCIE — and began to prep collectively, from learning the certification examination blueprints to constructing their very own labs, each for certification examination prep in addition to follow, it was a group effort.
The group constructed labs for putting in cert merchandise after which examined on the merchandise they bought.
“Within the lab, we considered totally different layouts, duties, and challenges. Certainly one of us was creating the problem for the others so they might prepare on that,” Körner mentioned. For the part on fiber channel zoning on the CCNP Knowledge Middle expertise core examination, the group thought-about totally different challenges and created their very own zones.
“Doing it collectively was simpler as a result of if considered one of us was dissatisfied 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 arduous. 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 a fantastic group dynamic and, for our functions, the one real looking technique to obtain our objectives.”
It’s clear that Körner agrees. “Having a educated group 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 purpose.”
When all was mentioned and completed, the group would rejoice 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 research: Cisco Gold Companion Superior UniByte Unites for CCIE
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