Monday, December 8, 2008

CCIE Voice Lab Blueprint Update!

Cisco has announced an updated to the CCIE Voice Lab, beginning in mid-July 2008. While I welcome the announcement, it should not come as a surprise to anyone who attended the CCIE Power Session at the 2008 Networkers. The new blueprint will include:

Lab Equipment:
Cisco MCS-7845 Media Convergence Servers
Cisco 3825 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR)
Cisco 2821 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR)
ISR Modules and Interface Cards:
VWIC2-1MFT-T1/E1
PVDM2
HWIC-4ESW-POE
NME-CUE
Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series Switches
IP Phones and Soft Clients

Software Versions
Any major software release which has been generally available for six months is eligible for testing in the CCIE Voice Lab Exam.
Cisco Unified Communications Manager 7.0
Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 7.0
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 7.0
Cisco Unified Presence 7.0
Cisco Unity Connection 7.0
All routers use IOS version 12.4T Train.
Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series Switches uses 12.2 Main Train

Network Interfaces
Fast Ethernet
Frame Relay

Telephony Interfaces
T1
E1

I believe this to be the right move for Cisco. For them, it should make managing the lab far more efficient for scrubbing pods and managing images in VMWare. For the test taker, I believe these newer releases are far more relevant to what is being purchased and deployed by our customers.

It has been a very busy few weeks, despite the macro-economic climate. I’ve been testing and validating some CUCME 7.0 and CUE labs, based loosely on the Cisco Press “Cisco IP Communications Express: CallManager Express with Cisco Unity Express” workbook, and hope to post a number of updates in the coming weeks!

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