EEK, just noticed I’d not written anything about attending Networkers yet. Well I had a whale of a time and not just because of a rather cool ‘customer appreciation event’, the former Cisco party. But because I was able to attend a fabulous Techtorial and I managed to discuss a lot of issues with key people from Cisco.

Networkers has really changed my view on Cisco, the technical guys there were really interested in what we, the customers, had to say. They welcomed open discussion during their sessions and handed out business cards galore. I even received mail during the weekend after with answers to questions I posed during face-to-face Design sessions in between the presentations/normal sessions.

I must clarify that I registered my sessions very early and I planned it meticulously. I’ve only been to level 3 sessions which kept me safe from hot air marketing talk etc. Also I agree with Cisco when they say that what you get out of it is what you put into it and it really paid off for me. I’ve got so much info to take back with me and process that I’m glad I made so many notes. It surely was way more valuable than a month of full time classroom training.

Further things that impressed me were: Explanations of road-maps, a few of them even more than 12 months ahead. How approachable everyone was. How I managed to baffle one of the speakers during an MPLS VPN Design session I walked into; MPLS VPN hub-and-spoke via a firewall without using a vlan per vrf. There is no solution…

Better stop here else I’ll never stop. I will probably divulge into one or more of the subjects I attended some time in the future, but I’d better not promise anything… 😉

Categories: CCIE R&S
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