Cisco

Cisco reaches 1 Million certified, CCIE R&S Program Update, and NEW CCNA Voice Option

1. Cisco recently announced that, to date, they have certified over 1 Million individuals and over 20,000 people with CCIE certifications. WOW - can you believe that there are over 1 million people in the world who are Cisco certified? Pretty amazing!

When I achieved my CCIE, there were about 5,000 CCIEs. Now, 7 years later, there are 20,000.

2. Cisco announced changes changes to the CCIE Routing and Switching written certification test. In the latest revision, dubbed “4.0″, the new test will have hands-on troubleshooting and will now cover MPLS and VPN. This new version will come on line October 18, 2009.

To me, personally, this is critical news as I will have to take this test to keep my CCIE. I have to do this prior to May 2010 so stay tuned for news about this test as I will be following it closely.

3. Cisco has announced changes to the CCNA Voice certification. There will now be two options available for candidates wishing to achieve their CCNA Voice certification: A commercial option and an enterprise option.

Cisco Live is this week!

Will you be at Cisco Live 2009 (aka Cisco Networkers)?

I blogged about Cisco Live back in May because I was even excited about it then. Now that it is here, I am even more excited about it. Even though I won’t be there this year (I opted to go to VMworld instead of Cisco Live), I will be following the conference through Twitter (Follow me on Twitter) and through the Cisco Live conference website (Cisco Live!).

Here are some important facts about Cisco Live in 2009:

• The conference runs from June 27 to July 2 in San Francisco
• You can still just “show up” and register onsite
• This marks the 20th anniversary of Cisco Networkers / Live
• If you are like me and you can’t make it to the event, you still need to register for Cisco Live Virtual. The standard version of this allows you 2 days of ondemand technical training classes and the Premier level (for $395) gives you additional access to virtual programming and 1 year to check it all out.
• And, you don’t want to miss what John Chambers has to say at the Keynote!

For more information, checkout Cisco Live 2009!

Introduction to Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances

In this article from the Petri IT Knowledgebase, Tom Finnis covers the Cisco ASA 5500 series appliances - what models are available and what they offer you. All the key features like Firewall, SSL, IPSec VPN, Intrusion Prevention (IPS), and Content Security are covered.

To read the full article, take a look at:

Introduction to Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances

Cisco’s John Chambers answers questions from Twitter

During Cisco Live 2009, @CiscoSystems Twitter followers submitted questions for John Chambers the CEO of Cisco. Their questions regarding the companys overall strategy, Flip, video, and smart grid technology are answered in this video.

Prevent Network Attacks on your Cisco Network including the ping of death

Over at TrainSignalTraining, they recently published towCisco Security articles that I found to be very helpful if you have any remote interest in preventing networks attacks. The articles are:

• How to Prevent Threats and Attacks on Your Cisco Network
• The PING of Death and Other Network Attacks

Cisco IOS How-To Tips and Tricks

I have published over 20 different Cisco IOS tip and trick articles over at the Petri IT Knowledgebase. In these Cisco tips, I cover things like setting up a Cisco switch, VLAN configuration, DDNS, ACLs, and selecting the right router for your CCNA studies.

Of these 20+ Cisco tips, here are 5 of the most popular:

• Cellular Data to your Cisco Router
• Cisco 800 series Routers - the best routers to practice for your CCNA exam and learn the IOS
• Configuring Dynamic DNS (DDNS) in the Cisco IOS
• How to Recover a Lost Password on a Cisco Switch
• How to Setup VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP) on Cisco Switches

I hope you will check them out!

Will you be at Cisco Live 2009 (aka Cisco Networkers)?

I attended Cisco Live/Networkers 2007 in Las Vegas and it was a blast! While I may always call it “Networkers” instead of Live - its still the best networking conference in the world. Besides John Chambers big keynote, tons of Cisco Education, lots of vendors, and big This year, Cisco Live will in in San Francisco, California from June 27 to July 2. While I won’t be able to make it to Live this year (because I will be at VMworld in San Francisco at the end of July), I highly recommend that you go if you can make it.

And if you can’t make it to California this year, you still have the option to attend “virtually”, over the Internet with the new Cisco Live Virtual.

For full conference information checkout the Cisco Live! 09′ website!

Cisco Nexus 1000V switch for vSphere resources

In my last post (VMware vSphere Launch and Resources), I covered the VMware vSphere launch. On the same day that vSphere was launched, Cisco launched their revolutionary new virtual network switch that integrates with VMware vSphere.

Dubbed, the “Cisco Nexus 1000V” (or N1KV), this switch actually replaces and builds on the functionality of the VMware vSphere dvSwitch. The N1KV comes in two pieces - the VEM and VSM (or virtual ethernet module and virtual switch module, respectively).

Luckily for us all, Cisco is offering the Cisco Nexus 1000V available in a free 60 day evaluation mode (keep in mind that you need vSphere up and running to use it).

To learn more about the Cisco Nexus 1000V and download the 60 day evaluation, just visit the links below:

• Nexus 1000V product website
• Nexus 1000V Community
• Download Nexus 1000V Software
• 60-day 16-CPU evaluation License for Nexus 1000V
• Cisco Nexus 1000V Documentation

I hope that you will try out this cool new Cisco product with VMware vSphere!

Video: How to perform DHCP Snooping from Train Signal

In this sample of the Train Signal Cisco CCNA training course, Chris Bryant offers a demonstration on how to perform DHCP snooping in the Cisco IOS.

Will Cisco’s New Unifed Computing System (UCS) change your datacenter?

Recently Cisco announced their new Unified Computing System (UCS) and they say that it will change your datacenter. The video (below) starts off with “there is a movement afoot”… Sure, Cisco wants there to be a movement but will the movement catch on to datacenters around the world? That’s hard to say.

Certainly Cisco envisions having Cisco network devices, voice communication (unifed computing), and even, one day, servers? They offer a ton of information on their new DataCenter 3.0 / Unified Computing System (UCS) site and that is where YOU will have to research and decide for yourself if Cisco’s vision will come true in your datacenter!