My CCDE journey

Given the number of request for comments and feedback, i decided to write about my CCDE experience.

After my second CCIE, CCDE seemed to be the natural choice, in my opinion it was the glue that puts it all together,

the wide scope of technologies covered and the totally different approach from a CCIE point of view were challenging so this was the right track to make that learning curve to spike again :), this was a critical factor in my choice, since for me, the learning process is the most gratification phase in any certification.

It was also directly related to my daily tasks, where design is a key component so it actually meet all my learning and professional goals.

I started by going on the needy gretty details of the certification, what was it all about, understanding the approach, the mind set, the focused technologies, went trough several CCDE Workshops (available on CLN), all the certification related Cisco Live Sessions and some interviews from distinguished CCDEs like Russ White, that first approach only confirmed that this track was exactly what i was looking for to go one step further as an engineer.

Although i had already read most of the recommended list books, i put together a list of the ones to review and others to read for the first time, used an online project management tool to keep track of my progress and established some strict milestones to do it, follows the ones i think were critical:

- Optimal Routing Design

- Art of Network Architecture

- Definitive MPLS Network Designs

- BGP Design and implementation

- ARCH

- CCDE Study guide

Did also some reviews on the use cases from several other Cisco Press books like End-to-End QoS Network Design.

Also fundamental were the Cisco Live Sessions, i attended about 40 sessions, some of them more then once :), most of them are listed on CLN for the CCDE preparation so i will not post them here.

All in all, it was about 10 months of hard studying, dedicating about 3 to 4 hours daily after work on weekdays, and a couple more on weekends, this can be pretty complicated when you have a really high demanding job and family (it would not been possible without their support).

Followed some interesting blogs (like Orhan Ergun), spend any available time reading  technical documentation, and articles (mostly for multicast,security, QOS and IPv6) and took high level look to some CVDs.

Most of the time it was a pretty individual journey, except on the last couple of months when i meet two other skilled and experienced CCDE candidates, our daily discussions were one of the most critical aspects for success, we discussed every use case that we could found both on Cisco Press books, bootcamps and Cisco Live, we had different backgrounds so we all could add value to the discussions and keep pushing each other towards the common objective…learning and becoming CCDEs.

I booked the exam after i went trough INE bootcamp, it was really important to assess my knowledge and week points,  i was really motived and confident after working on those scenarios so i decided that it was time.

Although all the materials described above were important for my preparation, i have no doubt that real design experience is really a must!

The exam itself...well..make no mistake...it was brutal!!! :)

I have no doubt that this is the tougher exam on Cisco Certification portfolio, the amount of technical details, business requirements and constrains can be overwhelming,

unlike CCIE, where they ask you to configure this, configure that, and you actually see it working (or not :), CCDE is all about reading, analysing, processing that huge amount of information and translating it to deep technical solutions (and when i say deep i really mean it :) ), it requires high analytic skills and deep technology understanding to be side by side when choosing the best solution from multiple valid and working solutions.

The exam can be sometimes very frustrating (just as in real life) when dealing with multiple customer constrains like costs, skills, business and application strict requirements, for sure, it is not a best practise exam, its a highly business driven exam that requires always a top down approach in order to deliver the most suitable technical solution to the customer.

Because of this i think its a very emotional exam also, and this emotional 8 hour roller coaster can be exhausting.

In conclusion...it was a hell of a ride :) and im very happy to be among the few worldwide CCDEs.

Good luck for all the CCDE candidates!