CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert) certification is an expert level certification launched by Cisco in 1993. It is recognized as the most authoritative certification in the IT industry and the top certification in the field of global Internetworking.
The CCIE certification program sets a professional standard for network technology which has been widely recognized in the industry. Passing CCIE certification is considered to be the best proof of one’s professional network technical knowledge and rich working experience.
Holders of CCIE certificate account for less than 3% of the total number of those who have passed Cisco certification, and less than 1% of global network practitioners (Cisco official data). Cisco certification mainly provides the expertise engineers need to control Cisco devices in today’s rapidly changing network environment. CCIE certification is the certification of the most advanced technical capability of Cisco (in addition to the newly launched CCA). It is at the top of the Cisco pyramid certification system. CCIE certificate is also one of the most authoritative and respected certificates recognized by the IT industry. In 2003, CCIE was rated as the No.1 of the world’s top ten IT certification, with the reputation of the ultimate certificate in the IT industry. In addition to the recognition of the whole industry, CCIE certificate is also an indicator of your continuous possession of the latest network knowledge. You will become one of the most competitive persons in your professional technical field.
CCIE certification includes the active and inactive states. In order to enable CCIE certificate holders to track new technologies and maintain the expert level of CCIE, Cisco has to re-certify them every two years since they passed CCIE certification. Otherwise, although you still have your CCIE number, your state will change from active to inactive, and some rights conferred by Cisco will be lost. Harsh certification rules make CCIE certificate one of the most valuable and respected certificates in the IT industry. Of course, it has also become one of the most difficult certificates to obtain.
Cisco launched CCIE certification exam in 1993. The current CCIE number minus 1024 is equal to the number of those who have passed CCIE certification in the world. The CCIE number starts from CCIE #1024. In order to commemorate the difficult CCIE Lab exam, Cisco determined that the CCIE Lab exam itself was a CCIE # number (so the CCIE Lab exam was named CCIE #1024). So the first candidate to pass CCIE certification was CCIE #1025 (Stuart Biggs). However, Stuart Biggs himself was the examiner of Cisco CCIE exam at that time, so the real first candidate to pass CCIE was CCIE #1026 (Terry Slattery, CEO of Netcordia)
Obtaining CCIE certificate spoto exam not only proves that your technology has reached the expert level and has been recognized and affirmed by the industry, but also becomes a symbol of honor and an embodiment of your self-worth. Obtaining CCIE certificate has become the dream of every network technician. In order to enable customers to obtain expert level technical support, Cisco requires that in its certification agent system, the gold and silver certification agents must have a certain number of CCIE experts, which directly stimulated the demand for CCIE experts. In 1999, the annual salary of CCIE experts in mainland China was as high as 123,076 US dollars. Now in the system integration project, many business owners propose that the contractor must have CCIE experts to be qualified to undertake the project. This shows the recognition of CCIE experts in the industry.
CCIE certification is the highest level in Cisco certification system. It is divided into Routing and Switching, Network Security, Operator, Voice, Storage, Wireless and other directions. Individuals choose the direction according to their own development goals. Network security engineer is only one of those directions. CCSP certification in Cisco also belongs to Security direction.
Part of CCIE certification involves network security. CCSP is Cisco Certified Security Professional. Generally, network companies pay more attention to CCIE than to CCSP. They also prefer CISSP and CISA
Network security is a part of CCIE’s knowledge. A specialized network security engineer is not necessarily a CCIE, but a CCIE must be a network security expert.
