The CCIE Voice blueprint has finally been updated- I’ve been checking the CCIE announcements pretty much every morning for the past year with great anticipation and when the day finally came it was greeted warmly by most of the community studying for their CCIE Voice.
In a nutshell the primary objective of the upgrade (the newer release is known as CCIE-V version 3.0 compared with the current version, 2.0) has been to make the test relevant to the software and hardware that is currently being deployed in the field. The WS-6608 blade, ATA 186, VG248 and Catalyst 3550 have all gone. Traditionally candidates have detested the CatOS so that will no doubt be the most welcome news.
Regarding software, version 7.0 is the standard for all products. Unified Communications Manager and the Express equivalent are built upon the principles of CallManager 4 and CallManager Express 3.3 (the current tested versions of aoftware). Pretty much everything that is applicable to the older versions is still applicable to the newer software versions- its just that you need to know a whole lot more:-)
For those of you considering embarking on the journey that will conclude with your CCIE Voice certification I would recommend preparing to sit the version 3.0 blueprint which will alive and kicking in July 2009. You can use the holiday season to get familiar with the concepts- reading through the SRND’s is a good starting point. Until training vendors have new material published, it might be worthwhile to use the version 2.0 training material that you may already possess- obviously ignoring sections that deal with obsolete hardware. If you are comfortable with the concepts used in the older releases of software, it will hold you in good stead for the future.
For the candidate in the middle of their preparation then the good news is that Cisco gave you 7 months notice. Depending on your current progress it is a good idea to continue preparation on the version 2.0 blueprint. Many potential candidates have commented that it is extremely difficult to get a lab date before July. I would in the most polite way say that they are not trying hard enough in getting a lab date. Over five people in the past week have informed me that they have new lab dates booked for the March/April timeframe.
Finally, for all the readers out there, I hope to see many of you in a bootcamp class at some stage in the future or on the various forums out there that support aspiring engineers. Hopefully the forever worsening economy doesn’t affect you and your families and we are all in tact in the New Year!