Welcome back!

Well judging by the responses, I see there are some of you left out there. As I mentioned before, I'm going down the Service Provider 3.0 path. I kind of wished I started in the 2.0 track, but I can't change that now. The biggest hurdle is the lack of study resources, and rack time. Well, over at the IEOC Forums there has actually been a successful pass of the version 3 blueprint. That person has some service provider experience, but also used the Cisco provided practice labs (from the SPv3 study group) as well as some old material from the training vendors such as INE. And apparently, GigaVelocity will soon be offering SPv3 rack rentals!

So I've loaded up a new server to run my dynamips routers, ordered the SP v2 workbooks from INE (hoping they update to 3.0!) and using as much of the resources from Antonio Soares mini-labs as I can. I plan to just do the scenarios, read the DocCD and give it a try. I've got my written scheduled for July during Cisco Live so I need to get as much written studying done as possible.

Hopefully one of the vendors soon update their materials to cover the new blueprint. Until then, I plan to go at it alone hoping this isn't as difficult or as time consuming as the R&S. I don't have any real world experience in a true service provider environment, but I do work for a large company that runs their own MPLS network with service such as VPRN, VPLS, VPWS, MPLS-TE, RSVP, etc.

I also need to fit time in to finish my Alcatel-Lucent NRS-II and SRA certifications, but since I can't resume those studies until July, may as well stay sharp and get back on the Cisco track!