Cisco hardware experts rule world of networks

BOULDER — With some 85 percent of market share, Cisco Systems Inc. rules the inter-networking world. It makes sense then that those who know Cisco equipment — the routers and switches that move data packets around the office and around the world — rule the internetworking industry.

Cisco Certified Internetworking Experts, or CCIEs, virtually can name their salary, which is often in the six-figure range given their high demand in the marketplace. Currently, mid- to large-sized U.S. companies alone have about 340,000 unfilled technology jobs. And 82 percent of technology companies expect to increase their information technology, or IT, staffs in the next several years.

Preparation for Cisco certification is typically a long, expensive process involving months of study and practice for written and practical exams. Until recently those practicing to take the practical exam had to schedule time at a Cisco installation to get hands-on experience.

Early this year, however, Cisco established a Practice Lab at the University of Colorado Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program, or ITP, in Boulder. Cisco donated two racks of equipment to the ITP lab so aspiring CCIEs can get practical experience locally. The ITP houses one of only three university Practice Labs in the country; the others are at Wichita State University in Kansas, and the University of Santa Cruz Extension, in Santa Clara, Calif.

At a cost of $500 per rack per day, using the ITP CCIE installation isn’t small potatoes, but it is a big convenience. The first step toward certification is a two-hour, written qualification exam administered by Sylvan Prometric.

Then the candidate must pass a two-day, hands-on lab exam.

“The first day you go in and the proctor gives you scenarios to build,” explained Steve Pollock. Pollack, a CCIE and systems engineer for Cisco’s Denver office, installed the Cisco racks in the Boulder lab. “Then you have to explain why you built them the way you did. If you get a high enough score, he breaks your configuration and you have the second day to troubleshoot and fix it. Since there’s more than one way to do things, it’s a very difficult exam.”

Most people take the lab test at least twice, according to ITP graduate Monica Lluis. Lluis, a Cisco support engineer who works at corporate headquarters in San Jose, currently is studying to take the written exam. Once she’s done she’ll begin training for the practical exam, which she thinks will take upward of six months of practice.

“There’s thousands of commands. The book that just lists the most common commands is over 1,000 pages,” Lluis said.

For Lluis preparation is convenient and available at a bargain price, since she has the equipment right in the building where she works, and as a Cisco employee she gets a break on the cost of using it.

ITP lab personnel are enthusiastic about having so much Cisco support.

“We wanted more equipment so we could offer a more advanced lab,´ said Paul Dial, lab co-manager and ITP student. “But actually Cisco approached us, and it turned out to be a mutual benefit.”

Lab co-manager and ITP graduate Mike Forbes is using the in-house equipment as he trains for Cisco certification. “I am planning on taking the written exam this month and plan to take the lab by August,” Forbes said. “Both take a huge amount of my time. I am doing it mainly for the experience. No one works with all of the protocols required by the CCIE in their workplace.”

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