As many of you already know, the launch date for the CCIE Data Center Lab Exam is approaching soon. The CCIE Data Center Written Exam is now live, and lab scheduling will come online in the coming weeks. At INE, we’ve completed two out of our three planned online classes for CCIE DC - CCIE Data Center Nexus Switching and CCIE Data Center Storage Networking. Videos from the Nexus class are currently available for download and streaming, and Storage is currently in post-processing and will be available next week. More information on the Storage Networking class, as well as samples, will be posted early next week. The final portion of our online classes – CCIE Data Center Unified Computing – will be held at the end of this month, the week of October 29^th. Seats in the online class are still available for purchase, which includes the downloadable videos after class – All Access Pass members can attend this class live online for free. This brings us to the most anticipated and requested product of the CCIE Data Center line: INE’s CCIE Data Center Workbook and Rack Rentals.

Like our online Bootcamps, INE’s CCIE Data Center Workbooks will take a three-part approach to the topic scope: Nexus Switching, Storage Networking, and Unified Computing. Unlike our previous workbook products, however, the delivery of the Data Center Workbooks will be enhanced. The Data Center Workbook series will be delivered as online content. It will still include diagrams, technology scenarios, configurations, and verifications, but it will also include embedded streaming video content that delves deep into technology breakdowns, verification, and troubleshooting. By delivering the content in an online format as opposed to print-formatted PDFs, we will be able to shorten the time to market for the labs through incremental releases, and we will be able to ensure that everyone always has the most updated version of content without the need for a complicated sub-versioning system. Furthermore, the embedded video breakdown content will take this product above and beyond the incredibly high quality bar that you, our customers, are already accustomed to with INE.

The time frame for content release of the CCIE Data Center Workbooks is as follows:

• Nexus Switching: Mid to Late November 2012
• Storage Networking: Mid to Late December 2012
• Unified Computing: Mid to Late December 2012
• Full Scale Labs: Mid to Late January 2013

What about rack rentals? We plan to release access to rack rentals in tandem with the release of the workbook content. Rack rentals will be offered in multiple ways. First we will offer smaller subsets of the overall complete hardware topology that is used to complete specific technology labs. For example, a lab on vPC on Nexus 5000 may consist of 2 x Nexus 5548UPs and an end host. Likewise, as you progressively work through the labs, the topologies will get more complex, ultimately culminating in full-scale multi-protocol labs that require the entire overall hardware topology.

The full hardware topology used in the workbooks will consist of:

• Nexus 7000s with both M1 and F1 modules
• Nexus 5500UPs
• Nexus 2000 1GigE & 10GigE Fabric Extenders
• MDS 9200i Fibre Channel & IP Storage Switches
• UCS C Series Rackmount Servers
• UCS B Series Blade Servers
• UCS Fabric Interconnects
• Additional 1GigE & 10GigE attached end servers
• Fibre Channel attached Storage Arrays

Further details, such as pricing for the workbooks and rack rentals and the availability of the rack schedule, will be solidified within the next few weeks. As always, questions and comments are welcome, and I hope to see many of you in the upcoming CCIE Data Center – Unified Computing class at the end of the month!