Cisco just announced new certifications in the market and they’re super exciting! Of course, a lot of you are already writing me about when my books will be out… All I can say is I’m pounding the keyboard as fast as I can and that yes, I wish I could figure out some way to do that while sleeping too! But since I haven’t figured out how to do that yet, just hang in there-at least I’m not on strike!

Anyway, I actually want to talk to you a bit about the old network certification path first, starting with the CompTIA certifications that led to the CCNA. Referring to the figure below, a newbie to the networking field would start off by studying, learning, practicing on LANs and probably some hosts and servers as well. After that, they’d possibly take the CompTIA Network+, Security+, Server+, A+, etc:

Moving right along, with the foundational background of the CompTIA certifications in hand, our newbie’s next logical move would be to dive straight into the Cisco CCNA — either through the Certified Entry Network Technician (CCENT) or by just taking the CCNA exam (640-802). Of course, all this assumes that the Newbie has made a career choice and opted for the “Networking” path.  Makes sense…

Once you’ve nailed your CCNA, you’re good to go for the professional level certifications like, Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP), Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP) or Cisco Certified Voice Professional) (CCVP) as shown here in the next figure:

But let’s say you still want more. At this point, all paths lead to the veritable PH.D. of Cisco Certs-the Cisco Certified Internetworking Engineer (CCIE). People really don’t have to subject themselves to the special torture of the lower level certification process CCIE gauntlet, but getting through it alive and well definitely has benefits. (At the very least, you get major props and bragging rights!)And, although many people have tried many paths (many times), the most popular way to tackle this monster is step by step: CCNA, CCNP, then the CCIE Routing and Switching (R&S) lab. Over 50% of the pushes for the CCIE summit take this route!

But as I said, Cisco has tweaked things and changed its various professional paths to networking nirvana. Yep…Cisco even put a new one on the radar — it’s all pretty cool!

For instance, if you were going with the foundational CompTIA certifications, you can still take:

1. Your basic CCENT/CCNA Routing and Switching Cisco foundational certifications.
2. The CCNA, CCNA Security, then the CCSP, and finally the CCIE Security.
3. The CCNA, CCNA Voice, the CCVP, then the CCIE Voice.
4. The new, most exciting one of these is the new CCNA Wireless Certification path. Start with your CompTIA foundation, grab your CCNA, and then head straight for the CCNA wireless. In the near future you’ll go to the Cisco Certified Wireless Professional (CCWP) and then on to the CCIE Wireless.

Cisco has my full attention here — are you with me?

(Note: The basic CCNA, either through the two test method of ICND1 or ICND2, or the one test method of the 640-802 exam, is a requirement before any other CCNA certifications.)

Let me show you what Cisco’s new approach to certification looks like:

Okay-you can see that yes, it’s true, there are now four paths, and you get to choose any of them from beginning to end-sweet! (Again, the advanced Wireless certs are not announced yet – hopefully soon.)

So which path is for you? Since they’re all awesome, I’d say, “take them all!” But that’s just me. I bleed Cisco blood, what can I say? Seriously, you really can’t go wrong with any of them, which is why the changes Cisco has made are so exciting. So many options — so many ways to succeed!

Oh, and just so you know, I’m going to be teaching all of these new courses soon at GlobalNet Training, inc, in Dallas, Texas-the exclusive reseller of my “Cisco Authorized Todd Lammle BootCamps” *.

Cheers!

Todd Lammle

*All courses are delivered by Internetworking Training, inc. a Sponsored Organization of FastLane.

Cisco has just announced that the CCNA 640-802 exam price is now $250, effective immediately!

Like getting the CCNA isn’t hard enough, now if you fail it, the cost, both financially and emotionally is a huge toll!

Well, let’s just make sure we pass our exams the first time….

Cheers!

Todd Lammle

Okay, Yes… The rumors abound suggesting our great Internet, as we know it today, is going the way of the Dodo. We could get on that boat and talk about the end of the Mayan calendar and the Nostradamus’s predictions too, or we can take a more sober approach and look at this issue not hysterically, but in an informed and logical way!

First, I’ll acknowledge the threat is real. Certain large corporations would love to become even larger and not only control our Internet access, but charge us for that “service” in the name of protecting our children from danger and impropriety and saving us adults from viruses and identity theft. Can’t happen you say? I’m telling you it can… Check out this little beauty that was, well, leaked from a supposed large, well, known marketing company about a month ago and is now making its way around the still free Internet (click the image to get the full-sized version):

As an analogy, think about way back when T.V. was free, and there was nothing you bought with that TV except, maybe an antenna. There were only a few channels on the air, though as time went on, more became available—for free. Now I pay somewhere around $130 a month now for HDTVs with satellite connections and a package of about 500 channels. Times have indeed changed… This was unfathomable 20, maybe even 10 years ago, and if I’m not mistaken, coming right up in 2009, there will be no longer be any free TV (analog signals) at all!

So what does this have to do with the Internet? A lot…Most people were getting onto the Internet in the mid 90’s, with many more going online into the late 90’s. Some people still weren’t on the Internet until the 2000s or so, but now, pretty much everyone is. Many of us absolutely need to be online simply to work. How did that happen? Well, let’s look at how this all progressed… First we paid the telephone co. for dial up, and then moved up to some broadband provider, and then, hmmmm… Now you can get one company to provide phone, video and data services…aha! Now we’re talking. Can you see where I’m going with this?

So, yes, theoretically, your Internet access could become controlled by your ISP and /or large corporations selling access packages at different levels/plans depending on your need/desire for access to get to various sites. But it may not turn out that we’re all doomed to this ugly fate. I’ll back the fact that the issue of preserving Net Neutrality is very real, but know that it’s has own league of Big Business behind preserving it! Google, for one, is developing free tools to enable big cable company’s customers to detect when their connections have been throttled, or when their access has been modified in any way. I’ll provide a link to an article detailing all this that came out June 15th in a bit, but for now, to quell your fears I want you to know that there’s a ton of effort happening right now to get laws passed that will block cable companies from this kind of censorship.

The F.C.C. itself has promised to take a serious look into charges that big-time cable and other large companies are planning to attempt an access heist on us. The article also mentions that in May there was a bill re-introduced to Congress asking to redraft the present U.S. Antitrust laws with language that would prevent network operators such as Comcast and AT&T from, I quote, “blocking, impairing, or discriminating against “lawful” Internet content, applications and services, or from charging extra fees for “prioritization or enhanced quality of service.” End quote.

So while plans for an access controlled, “pay per view” Internet may well be being laid, and the threat against Net Neutrality is definitely genuine, to me there’s a distinct possibility—even probability—that Net Neutrality will come out the winner! Check out the links below to the articles I mentioned and quoted and let me know what you think:

Google prepping broadband-monitoring tools
FCC: We’ll investigate Comcast-BitTorrent flap
Democrats revive another Net neutrality proposal

Cheers,
Todd