Certifications are a wonderful method to obtain self-improvement, better technical data, and better profession targets. They’ve all the time been private and particular person—till now.
Superior Unibyte GmbH (AU), based mostly in Metzingen, Germany, has taken the drive for excellence and profession development to new ranges with a staff strategy to certification. They’ve studied, practiced, and examined as a staff for a number of CCIE certifications to contribute to the corporate’s success and their very own staff achievements. This staff effort paid off, profitable the corporate Cisco Gold Accomplice 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 smart with AU’s networking experience
AU provides IT infrastructure and data heart options, in addition to cloud and managed companies. 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 staff of engineers and resolution architects that keep the infrastructure of their cloud knowledge heart, it’s essential for his or her technical data to remain up to date.
When staff leaders thought-about the certifications the corporate wanted, they reviewed all the Cisco architectures. They determined to certify the staff in Information Middle, Enterprise Networks, and Safety specializations, in addition to Service Supplier — which might be an ideal funding in their very own cloud infrastructure and companies. However they didn’t cease there. The staff additionally determined to specialise in Buyer Experiences to fulfill Cisco’s laws 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 underneath its belt, the CCIE certification has reached fairly the standing stage, as tech certifications go. Whereas the time it takes to earn this cert depends upon talent stage, dedication, and research hours per week, getting ready for the CCIE lab examination usually takes one to 2 years. Be taught extra in regards to the .
What’s extra, CCIE certification is required for Cisco Gold Accomplice standing. The truth is, clients in Germany worth the CCIE a lot that the majority firms can’t work with public clients until they’ve Gold Accomplice 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 because the 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 eventualities.
Immediately, 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.
Immediately’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.
Crew achievement results in Gold Accomplice standing
To satisfy the Cisco Gold qualifications, CTO Stephan Körner needed the group to realize a minimal of 4 CCIEs. So, in typical AU staff vogue, 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 apply, it was a staff effort.
The staff 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. Certainly one of us was creating the problem for the others so they may practice on that,” Körner stated. For the part on fiber channel zoning on the CCNP Information Middle expertise core examination, the staff thought-about completely different challenges and created their very own zones.
“Doing it collectively was simpler as a result of if one in all us was dissatisfied that he didn’t move or perceive one thing, we all the time 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 exhausting. You need to work after hours and on weekends. You don’t have anybody to speak to who’s in the identical state of affairs. It’s simply not the identical since you don’t obtain collectively.”
The truth is, 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 ideal group dynamic and, for our functions, the one real looking method to obtain our targets.”
It’s clear that Körner agrees. “Having a educated staff has made all of the distinction in our success in attaining Cisco Gold Accomplice,” 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 objective.”
When all was stated and carried out, the group would have fun 4 of their teammates incomes the CCIE Information Middle certification. As for AU, going for the gold paid off. Since incomes Cisco Gold Accomplice standing, the corporate has seen a 40 % enhance in income, with one other 20 % development anticipated within the subsequent two years.
Learn the case research: Cisco Gold Accomplice Superior UniByte Unites for CCIE
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