Cisco CCIE 360 Program — Press Here to Add to Cart

I saw this today in the Cisco Learning Online store.

How do you feel ?

Its nice to know that the CCIE pro­gram can be bundled up into a single mouse click. Have you got your credit card ready ?

Lets look a little bit deeper into this.

It is a one-​​year sub­scrip­tion train­ing pro­gram that includes more than 300 hours of e-​​learning:

The study pack­age con­sists of:

1. one four hour “find your­self” lab
2. 20 hours of video
3. 2000 page study guide
4. four prac­tice labs
5. 25 lab scenarios
6. and an online ment­or­ing program

Now, here the spe­cial part:

Upon pur­chase, stu­dents will be assigned a par­ti­cip­at­ing, author­ized Cisco 360 CCIE R&S Learning Partner who deliv­ers mentor ser­vices and provides a pro­gram intro­duc­tion. The pack­age includes a one-​​year sub­scrip­tion and a 10-​​day setup and down­load grace period.

And how much would this cost ? Yes, [insert ShamWow voice here] it’s ONLY$5999.00 for ONE YEAR.

Since most people take more than a year, that is going to cost some real money.

Is it good value ?

Probably not. Given that you could get much bet­ter value for money from IPexpert or InternetworkExpert. Looking at the Internetwork Expert pack­ages, you can get a lot more for USD$3495.00:

You get a lot more than 20 hours of video, and lot of proven and reli­able work­books, plus Mock Exams, Class-​​on-​​Demand and other good­ies. And they keep updat­ing their mater­ial. It is my under­stand­ing that the sub­scrip­tion lasts for a lot longer than one year.

Cisco isn’t in the busi­ness of training

In October 2008 I said Cisco is not going to be a train­ing com­pany and the pri­cing sug­gests that this is true. They have taken someone elses product, put a good mar­gin on top and selling it with their name on it.

This is a good thing. Cisco train­ing com­pan­ies can be reas­sured that their busi­nesses are secure. The reason for Cisco offer­ing these pack­ages is o that resellers can use rebates and train­ing cer­ti­fic­ates to buy CCIE study. For many Cisco reseller part­ners, they think this form of fund­ing for train­ing is a type of “free money” and is the only way that reseller engin­eers (who have a very tough life) can get training.

Wrap up

That is why this product exists. I am sure it is a qual­ity product, but you would not buy it at this price. I would con­tinue to recom­mend you to IPexpert or Internetwork Expert for you CCIE train­ing resources.¹

Footnotes

1. I am not a cus­tomer or paid by either com­pany in any capa­city [back]

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