The Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert, or CCIE, is a technical certification offered by Cisco Systems. The Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) and Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE) certifications were established to assist the industry in distinguishing the top echelon of internetworking experts worldwide and to assess Expert-level infrastructure network design skills worldwide. These certifications are generally accepted worldwide as the most prestigious networking certifications in the industry. The CCIE and CCDE community has established a reputation of leading the networking industry in deep technical networking knowledge and are deployed into the most technically challenging network assignments. The Expert-level certification program continually updates and revises its testing tools and methodologies to ensure and maintain program quality, relevance and value. Through a rigorous written exam and a performance-based lab exam, these expert-level certification programs set the standard for internetworking expertise.
The program is currently divided into six different areas of expertise or "tracks". One may choose to pursue multiple CCIE tracks in several different categories of Cisco technology: Routing & Switching, Service Provider, Security, Collaboration, Data Center, and Wireless.
CCIE Requirements
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CCIE candidates must first pass a written qualification exam and then the corresponding hands-on lab exam. Though there are no formal requirements to take a CCIE certification exam, an in-depth understanding of the topics on the exams and three to five years of job experience are expected before attempting certification.
There are two test sets for the requirement for certification
- Written Exam : Duration 120 minutes , 90 - 110 questions with multiple choice and simulation
- Lab Exam : 8 hours Lab exam (One day), Previously, CCIE Lab Exams were two full days exams
Details: The CCIE Routing and Switching Lab exam consists of a 2 hour Troubleshooting section, a 30 minute Diagnostic section, and a 5 hour and 30 minute Configuration section. The format differs per track.
The eight-hour lab exam tests your ability to configure actual equipment and troubleshoot the network in a timed test situation. You must make an initial attempt at the CCIE lab exam within 18-months of passing the CCIE written exam. Candidates who do not pass must reattempt the lab exam within 12 months of their last scored attempt in order for their written exam to remain valid. If you do not pass the lab exam within three years of passing the written exam, you must retake the written exam before being allowed to attempt the lab exam again.
Tracks of Expert Certification
There are seven tracks of Expert Level certifications. It was designed for the requirement of the industry. It was updated over time, and the latest tracks should be verified on CCIE official website.
- CCDEÂ : The expert-level network design engineers who is capable of translating business needs, budget, and operational constraints into the design of a converged solution.
- CCIE Routing & Switching: The most popular CCIE track. The expert-level network engineers who can plan, operate and troubleshoot complex, converged network infrastructure.
- CCIE Collaboration: Suitable expert level for the Collaboration Architects, Unified Communications Architects, or Voice and Video Network Managers
- CCIE Data Center: Expert of the planning, design, implementation and management of complex, modern IT data center infrastructure.
- CCIE Security: Concerning the modern security risks, threats, vulnerabilities, The security experts who have the knowledge and skills to architect, engineer, implement, troubleshoot, and support the full suite of Cisco security technologies and solutions using the latest industry best practices to secure systems and environments.
- CCIE Service Provider: The expert-level ISP (Internet Service Provider) network engineers who bring the knowledge and skill to build an extensible Service Provider infrastructure to deliver rich managed services
- CCIE Wireless: The expert who is able to demonstrate broad theoretical knowledge of wireless networking and a solid understanding of wireless local area networking (WLAN) technologies from Cisco.
CCIE Emeritus
Active CCIE holders are able to apply for CCIE Emeritus status when they pass their ten year anniversary of CCIE certification.
- CCIE Emeritus status generally applies to those that have moved out of "day to day" network and technical work but would like to stay involved in the CCIE program serving as ambassadors to current and future CCIE program.
- CCIE Emeritus status is a non-active CCIE holder but candidates are recognized for technical proficiency and long term status within the CCIE program.
- CCIE Emeritus holders have the opportunity to re-enter active CCIE status by taking any current CCIE-level written exam.
Continuing Education Program
The Continuing Education Program is alternative way of re-certification for the CCIE license instead of passing the written exam. This program is managed according to three core principles: Flexibility, Diversity and Integrity.
- Flexibility: Allowing individuals a wide range of options for the re-certification
- Diversity: Several options of training: online courses, instructor-led training and authoring of content
- Integrity: Achieved by having Cisco authorized content providers with re-certification requirements validate the credits submitted by that individual
Relevance to real-world situations
Regarding a new approach to networking with software-defined networking, there are some critics about CCIE certifications that challenge corner-case scenarios of written and lab exams. However, the principle of networking is still the same and a router or a switch is a physical device or just a piece of software, the fundamental networking operations remain the same in the real-world internetworking. CCIE holders are still relevant to the software-defined networking era.
See also
- CCNA
- CCNP
- Cisco certifications
References
