ZNDP 010 – An overview of the Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE) Certification with Jeremy Filliben

CCDE
CCDE

Welcome back Nerds, Geeks, and Ziglets!! Thanks for joining today for our Tenth episode of the Zigbits Network Design Podcast (ZNDP), where Zigabytes are faster than Gigabytes.  I’m Michael Zsiga, also known as Zig, and I am your host. Today’s show is all about the CCDE!

I can’t believe we have made it to the tenth episode of this podcast! As always our goal, our mission and our promise is to provide you with real world context around technology. That’s what this show, this podcast stands for.

We have a special show with a very special guest.  Our Guest has over 20 years of industry experience, he is a network architect, and a trainer of network architects.  He is a well known Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE) instructor, training over a thousand networking professionals.  He holds high level certifications from multiple vendors.  He is a personal mentor and friend of mine, please welcome Jeremy Filliben!!

Today’s show is an overview of the Cisco Certified Design Expert Certification (CCDE), lets get started!!

1. What is the Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE) Certification?

High Level:

  • Vendor Agnostic Expert level design exam
  • Full understanding of Routing & Switching and Service Provider technologies
  • Broad knowledge of technology operations, strengths and weaknesses
  • CCIEs are focused on implementation and CLI while the CCDE is focused on translating requirements to technology
  • CCIE is the “how” and CCDE is the “why”
CCIE vs CCDE
CCIE vs CCDE

CCDE Task Domains: Use Cases

  • Add/Replace Technology, Service or Application
  • Merge/Divest
  • Scaling
  • Design Failure
  • Greenfield

CCDE Job Tasks:

  • Analyze Design Requirements (36%)
  • Develop Network Designs (39%)
  • Implement Network Designs (13%)
  • Validate and Optimize Network Designs (12%)

CCDE Technologies:

  • Layer 2
    • STP, Fabricpath, Trill
  • Layer 3
    • MPLS, BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, ISIS
  • Network Virtualization
    • DMVPN, LISP, VXLAN
  • Design Considerations
    • QoS, Security, Mobility
  • Misc
    • Voice Requirements
    • Firewalls, VPNs, and overall security

2. How to obtain the Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE) Certification?

 Qualification or Written Exam (352-001)

  • Like CCIE Written (computer based)
  • Focused on technology operations
  • What technology should be applied in specific situation
  • What protocol solves a specific problem
  • Evolving technology questions added in 2016
  • Instant results: Pass / Fail

 Practical or Lab Exam (352-011)

  • No hardware and No CLI
  • Lots of reading, this is a reading comprehension exam
  • Documents or exhibits are given: Emails, typologies, NMS graphs
  • Questions build into an overall “story” for the scenario
  • Branching, Multiple choice, drag and drop, Charts, Diagram hotspots, etc…
  • Like an 8 Hour Written exam, with a 1 hour lunch
  • Instant Results: Pass / Fail Have to wait 10 – 12 weeks for results.

3. How many Cisco Certified Design Experts (CCDEs) are there today?

  • At the time of this posting there are roughly 350 CCDEs world wide.

4. History of the Cisco Certified Design Expert Certification

  • The CCIE Design
  • CCDE Unveiling 2007

5. What does a Cisco Certified Design Expert do?

  • Value Added Reseller (VAR) Technical Presales Roles
    • Elicit Business requirements, constraints and drivers from key stack holders in the company (CxO level) to develop technical solutions to meet the needs of the business.
    • Trusted Advisor to customers
    • Technical influencer to customers and the industry
  • Enterprise Architect Roles
    • In the corporate world these roles are more the norm for someone that needs to develop technical solutions, sometimes not the best solutions at all, to meet the needs of the business.  To drive the business further!
  • Vendor (Cisco, Juniper, etc…) Solution Architect Roles
    • Develop a business case around a solution:
      • Why should this Vendor or that Vendor invest in developing that solution?
      • Whats the Return on Investment (ROI) for that solution.
      • How can that Vendor market that solution?
    • Giving business focused presentations:
      • What is the business use case
      • Whats the growth and market potential
CCDE
CCDE

Hosted By: Michael “Zig” Zsiga

Guest Expert: Jeremy Filliben


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