Cisco Training - Here we go!

[jtr8178]

OK, the company I work for has typically outsourced almost 100% of the IT needs, and has now grown to the point where it is very cost prohibitive -- Example: At our smallest location we pay $10,000 per year to "rent" equipment, which includes unlimited tech support. The cost to purchase the gear, brand new, is about $9,000 ... So over 5-years (our contract term), we've paid $50,000 to rent $9,000 worth of gear, and we don't own it in the end.... And this is our smallest location of about 6 physical sites.

Anyhow, our contract is up in 2 years, and I've convinced the VPs that we need to purchase/lease gear ourselves, and be able to do basic support. Anything beyond basic, we get a 3rd party involved to help and pay on a per-failure/hour basis instead. They are all for it.

They've also agreed to pay for any and all training that I may need so that we can get to that point in 2 years.

With that said, am I better of just enrolling in the classes at local tech colleges and/or Academy's since they are footing the bill? Or just buy some books and learn it myself? Enrolling in classes and getting paid to sit in a training room sounds much better than trying to find time durnig the day (or at night) to learn somethnig new. I've read some messages on here how classes are a waste of time and money, but since it really isn't my money, maybe they would move this process along quicker?

We do have Cisco Voice as well, so I want to get that cert under my belt as well eventually. We are on as 12-month contract with a current vendor that manages our Cisco Voice system.

 

[Vito_Corleone]

Make them setup a lab for you. Go to some week-long classes and learn what you can (also get all the CBT-based stuff you can find). Also, and probably most importantly, make sure the consulting firm is providing training and knowledge-sharing during the transition back to in-house.

 

[damacus]

I was enrolled just this semester for the Cisco Academy Discovery stuff. Was not impressed - first of all, at least where I am, it's only offered online, and when the online resources unlocked Monday, I reviewed the syllabus and it was all self-study. The class itself was reading the book, emailing in word files that were essentially reading review, and then taking tests on the Cisco NetAcad site. For $450 a semester, I'll do it myself thanks, and quite possibly in a lot less time -- what I had noticed in reviewing the chapter reviews of the book is that I already knew quite a bit of the material that was going to be covered. I can think of better uses for my time and money. Needless to say, I dropped the class Wednesday night.

Before that point, I had already pre-ordered the Cisco Press CCNA 640-802 Cert Library, which contains a more dense collection of the information covered for a CCNA. (The Discovery books laid out the information in a linear progression that would supposedly be sufficient to learn the same material.)

So I would think that you could basically have your employer buy the 4 books of CCNA Discovery and also the CIsco Press CCNA 640-802 Certification Library. Link. (Prev edition is also available.)

CCNA Discovery books:
1-Networking for Home and Small Businesses
2-Working at a Small-to-Medium Business or ISP
3-Introducing Routing and Switching in the Enterprise
4-Designing and Supporting Computer Networks

Between those you should have a decent network library at the company, and you can go through the review sections of the Discovery books to figure out what blanks you need to fill in your knowledge and go from there. I agree with Vito that the weeklong courses would probably be a better value.

Need to look into the CBT Nuggets stuff. Heard about it, but haven't seen any of it personally.