Are Dynamips Days Numbered?

Are Dynamip's days numbered or will it be here for a long time yet? The reason this question popped into my head is reading on the superb IOS Hints and Tricks blog that the new IOS only supports one of the Dynamips platforms namely the 7200. Read the post here. That would be bad enough on it's own but then I read on the Network Ninja blog and Joe Harris's blog that Cisco is slowly planning to roll out it's software activation and licensing feature. So what does this all mean for Dynamips, are it's days numbered or will someone come up with a way to get round these obstacles? Not sure what will happen but I do think that it is definitely in Cisco's interest to allow people to access it's software for learning purposes. The more engineers that are trained in Cisco technologies the more potential customers Cisco will have. I have also seen rumors that Cisco has it's own emulation software that internal staff can use, so if they do and they kill Dynamips maybe they can release it to the community. If Richard or Joe or someone else who works for Cisco can confirm if they do have their own internal emulation software that would be most helpful :-)

San Fran Network Admin Saga Over

The San Fran Network saga that cciepursuit posted about is over. It has all come to a bit of tame end in my opinion. Terry Child's brain must have caught up with his ego or it might be that he was not keen on life in a US jail. Mind you I would not be keen on going to jail in the US or any other country for that matter :-) Anyhow head over to cciepursuit to read his full post.

San Fran Network Admin

CCIE Pursuit has just posted a really interesting article on a rogue network admin in San Francisco head over to his blog to check it out http://cciepursuit.wordpress.com/2008/07/19/weekend-fun-ccie-keeps-city-locked-out-fiberwan-devices/ To me the managers in this mess are just as culpable as the engineer. I mean how did they let this situation continue for years and why did they not ensure that everything was documented just in case something happened to the senior engineer?

Scott Morris and Internetwork Expert

Well it is old news but since I have only just started blogging Internetwork Expert have acquired Scott Morris. Now in the CCIE world this is big news hey in my little world this is pretty big news. Scott Morris was the first CCIE instructor I ever heard of mainly by reading his column in TCP mag. He was the reason the first materials I bought were from IPExpert. In fact to me Scott was IPExpert and from opinion I get from the other blogs and forums out there many other people saw him in the same way. So the news that he had moved was at that time pretty earth shaking in the CCIE training world. I wondered what would happen to IPExpert would they fold was Internetwork Expert going to be the thousand pound gorilla in the CCIE training world. Initially it seemed that IPExpert would indeed be fading away. However in recent weeks they seem to be generating a bit of a buzz well at least to me anyhow, I am starting to see more and more IPExpert banners on the blogs I read. They have come up with some great new products and ideas. The CCIE blogging site seems a great idea and from some of the stuff I have read their new blended learning solution seems pretty awesome. I also happened to find this blog http://mdownipexpert.blogspot.com/ Now he is not a CCIE trainer his blog says he is a CCIE training advisor but he does seem to have some pretty good ideas on marketing and hey if you are a good blogger and nice to him he is even offering you the chance to earn some freebies. He also has some pretty interesting posts up on his blog about the underside shall we say of the CCIE training market. Anyhow even if IPExpert have lost their glamour instructor they do seem to have some pretty cool ideas up their sleeves and if they can pull them off especially the CCIE blog/community thing I think they will cause a real stir in the market place.

Study Materials

I have been toying with the idea of doing the CCIE for a little while now and have actually bought all my study materials already. I bought the old IPExpert Version 9 Workbook (not the new blended learning solution) at a time they had a sale on so I got the Proctor Guide, the Class on Demand and the Audio CD's. I was very impressed with the materials however I did not like the fact that the COD did not include actual footage of the command line in action, it was more a series of slides with a lecture and I felt the labs were a bit advanced for me. So in a moment of madness or when I was feeling rich with an intrest free credit card offer I also bought the Internetwork COD with the two workbooks. I still have to get ready for my written exam but I wanted to be doing some work on the CLI at the same time I was reading so I have been working through the Internetwork Expert Version 4.1 Workbook 1 as I read about a technology. I am still working through these labs and am waiting patiently for all the new Version 5 labs to be complete. Investment protection from Internetwork Expert has to be one of the best things about buying your materials from them, as it means that you have access to all the upgrades of the product you bought until you pass your CCIE. For someone like me who wants to retain their family (when they are good :-) ) and their job while they try and study for the CCIE investment protection was a major selling point.