谁需要CCDE？

这取决于你如何阅读这个博客标题，你可能有两种方式。一种解释是，一个客观的声音问道:“追求CCDE背后的驱动力是什么?”The other is the darker and more confrontational voice, challenging you: "Why on earth would you go after this certification?" Over the past year, since I became aware of the CCDE and participated in the beta process I've had a lot of time to reflect on this cert. And because I've asked myself the question "Who needs the CCDE?" in both ways, in this post I'll look at the question from both sides. In the first case, the Cisco team responsible for the CCDE has created this ambitious certification track, parallel to the CCIE, for the purpose of providing a means for network architects to differentiate themselves from post-sale engineers who configure and troubleshoot equipment. From the lifecycle services perspective, there's certainly merit to this argument; the current CCIE tracks are much more focused on the implement, operate, and optimize phases of the lifecycle than they are on the prepare, plan, and design phases. Cisco's channel organization has also recognized the merits of the CCDE by permitting future CCDEs to count at the same level as CCIEs do for channel specialization requirements. However, I think that the real-world aspects of the CCIE certification overlay the CCDE's patch of turf much more in practice than in theory. I would be hard pressed to point to any CCIE who does not also have significant presale skills in the prepare, plan, and design phases of the lifecycle services model. It may be true that many CCIEs are less well-versed in network architecture best practices, particularly at the enterprise level, than they are in terms of configuration best practices. But the CCIE certification has tremendous industry respect because it is truly reflective of expert-level skills, coupled with the ability and determination to learn, articulate, and execute on very complex concepts. Architecture expertise requires the same types of skills and the same expert-level competencies, but the differentiation is a bit weak in my mind. Based on this discussion, Cisco's CCDE team has perhaps not made the strongest justification for creating the CCDE. However, I believe that it is well justified for other reasons. One: Network architects are not presently recognized at the expert level by any of Cisco's certifications. It's an area that cries out for this sort of recognition, because network architecture is just as important as the ability to install, operate, and troubleshoot networks. Two: Certifications serve vendors' commercial interests in many ways. One key area in this respect is getting as many practice-leading people as possible thinking along common lines with respect to design practices--and then deploying uniform standards (that is, the CCDE certification) through which these people can证明他们拥有这些技能。通过为专家级别的设计认证制定坚实的路线图(思科的说法是“蓝图”)，思科可以获得很多好处，许多决定追求认证的网络设计师和架构师也是如此。他们的雇主，其中许多都是思科渠道的合作伙伴，也将受益颇多，因为CCDE为他们提供了另一个关键途径，使他们区别于竞争对手。在今天的竞争环境中，我可以向你们保证，每一个思科渠道合作伙伴都在不断地寻找一个客观地将他们与竞争对手区分开来的东西。由像思科这样受人尊敬的巨头颁发的专家级证书符合所有这些利益。那么另一个角呢?一个听起来更像是卑鄙的挑战——“你到底为什么要去追CCDE?”This one is a lot more personal. It's an essential question anyone must ask himself or herself before pursuing an expert-level certification; if you can't answer it instantly and, well, expertly--then you have only the smallest chance of succeeding. When I ask myself this question, as a CCIE, I have to consider the question carefully because I have a pretty good idea what kind of preparation commitment is involved. I am certainly a member of the target audience that Cisco has in mind for the CCDE. But as good questions often do, this one draws out a bunch of additional questions. Am I willing to commit to the exam expenses, gap analysis, preparation, material costs, travel, and time investment required to earn the certification? Will earning a CCDE help me in my career? (A lot of projection and conjecture is required to answer this question, because the CCDE has no track record yet.) Do I really feel that the CCIE is less relevant to me, my career, my employer, and my customers than it was when I earned it? And that it needs to be replaced by a validation of my expert-level design skills? Does the CCDE prove anything to我该CCIE不？（归根结底，这是一个对每个候选人非常重要的 - 它可能变成是一个交易断路器如果答案是不够好。）我敢肯定，许多其他的启蒙学校，也许很多从未获得了这个谁凭据，但专业的网络建筑师和设计师，都问自己这些问题。它可能是答案的人更容易的问题，谁是不是CCIE但它是一个网络设计师或建筑师;那个人，这不是一个问题，“我已经有一辆兰博基尼在车库里？ - 为什么我需要一辆法拉利以及”这种特殊的问题，当然，显著比这更复杂。而只有部分原因是，每一个兰博基尼车主也希望法拉利。我们将开始学习在几个月的CCDE需求方面的答案，思科运行它的CCDE实践考试的第一个测试版之后。需求开始就要明确向世界思科是否在正确的轨道上创建新的凭证。由于思科是备受推崇的技术认证行业的领导者，这是一个安全的赌注，他们是。 In the meantime, I have more time to ponder my answers. What are你的答案？更重要的是，你有什么问题没有提出的？