Cisco Live 2016 – Animals and Oh's!
Wait, what is the title of this blog post and what does it mean?
Well as you are probably aware, Cisco Live 2016 is just a few months away from now – in fact just about 90 days from now! So around this time when information starts to come out as to who we may be listening to at the Customer Appreciation Event (CAE).
Before I reveal the big news, few housekeeping things that we should try and cover. First, Cisco Live 2016 is in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Convention Center from July 10 – 14th. Yeah, it will be a bit warm – but if you stay at the Mandalay Bay or Luxor, you won’t even have to go outside. Second, if you are not registered yet, you should hurry up and click HERE to register. Go, now – do it and then come on back.
Welcome back, looking forward to seeing you there! Now that you are registered, you may want to add your name over at Tom’s Corner (NetworkingNerd) Cisco Live Twitter list. This list quickly becomes an amazing list of individuals that will be at the event – and people that you may want to meet ( or avoid, who knows but I would suggest meeting them ).
In the past we have had a Social Media area at the event, and this year that will be the same. This is a great place to find and meet people as well as a fun place just to hang out. There are some amazing conversations that happen there and no topic is taboo – Networking, personal, financial, anything as there is always someone there who shares your passion. That is an awesome side benefit of this event, you get to connect with peers who have common ideals and experiences. I have learned a lot meeting others there – just a treasure trove of information above and beyond what you gain from the technical experience at Cisco Live.
Now that I have rambled for a bit, lets get to the information that you really want – the CAE information. First off, it will be held at the T-Mobile Arena.
I suspect that our opening act will be one that you love – as it is none other than the person in the below video:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uLI6BnVh6w]
In case you have not figured it out, it will be none other than Elle King!
Now to follow that up we will be having none other than…
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpgTC9MDx1o]
Maroon5!
This is shaping up to be an awesome event! Last year was amazing and this year is on target to be just as amazing, if not more!
Hope to see you there!
It is finally official, Juniper has extended their certification expiration from two years to three years.
Originally Juniper certifications where active for 2 years, and then you had 1 year after that to renew. If you did not re-certify prior to the 2–year anniversary, you went into an inactive status for a year with your certification. Then if you did not renew within that two years, your certification became expired and you would have to take the test(s) again to regain that certification. What Juniper has now done is give you three years of active status, and you need to re-certify prior to the 3rd year anniversary – there is no more inactive status. While this does alleviate much pressure on candidates (it can be hard to re-certify every certification every two years), it also means that the motivation factor of “inactive” status is gone.
I just logged into my CertManager portal page to check on my certifications as I know I had one that was in inactive status. It is now active, but now shows _Expiring._ At least that tells you that you need to re certify soon! Luckily they do also list the date of the Expiration on the page, so you know your drop-dead deadline.
If you have a Juniper certification and want to check its status, you can do that by going to their 
Coming this November, Juniper has finally jumped into the Customer Summit bandwagon. This is something that has been asked for for many years now, a way for Juniper customers and advocates to get together and talk Juniper. This event will allow you to connect with your peers in the industry, meet current and potential new customers, and connect with Juniper leadership. Some of the primary topics of the inaugural event this year is:
Back in 1993 the CCIE Cisco Certification, the first Cisco certification, was created and tested. Yes, the CCIE certification came years before the CCNA certification (1998) and thus Cisco needed a way to weed out candidates who were not ready for the CCIE lab exam. What they came up with was a Written pre-qualification exam to show that the candidate was ready to attempt the CCIE Lab exam. The CCIE Written is not a certification in itself, even though many job seekers seem to think that it is, it is just a qualifier to show that the candidate is ready to attempt the CCIE lab exam. To this day the CCIE written is still needed, regardless if the candidate does not have or has other Cisco certifications. Today though, with all the Cisco certifications, training, and the amount of Cisco networking gear in the enterprise, it is quite different and begs the question, “Does the CCIE Written still make sense today?”
Cisco Live is coming up fast, just over a week away as I write this.
So I figured I would share some quick updates with you as you prep for the trip.
Are you on Twitter? If you are be sure to add yourself to the Cisco Live 2015 Twitter list at 
The other week (3/11/15) I was invited by Juniper Networks to their Sunnyvale, CA HQ location to particiapte in their 2015 Innovation Showcase. I have participated in 
Continuing on with the “What’s in my toolbag” series ( 
The first thing worth mentioning with the Airconsole is that fact that it has an Ethernet port on it. What is this good for? Well, the airconsole is also a WiFi and Bluetooth device that can come in handy for more than just console access.