Between now and the end of the week we will be releasing our January to June 2013 schedule. You will see a lot of new classes/bootcamps added covering a wide range of topics. These include CCNA Data Center, CCNP Data Center, CCNP Wireless, CCNA Service Provider, CCNP Service Provider, Nexus 1000v & Open vSwitch, UCS & OpenStack, Nexus Live Online Bootcamps, Nexus Live Onsite Bootcamps, etc. You will also notice we are adding new 2 day online courses covering a wide range of topics (ISE, WSE, IOS XR, IOS XE, OpenFlow, etc).

The biggest change that you will notice for 2013 is that for ALL of our new products we will offer hands-on labs and equipment rentals. We've made a big push for new hardware in 2012 and we'll be making an even bigger push for 2013. During the first week of January you will see the new CCNP and CCIE Security racks along with the new CCIE Data Center racks coming online. Additionally our new CCNP Security course will have hands-on labs available around the same time frame.

In 2013 we will be making all of our CCNA courses available free of charge like how our CCNA and CCNA Voice courses are now. Not only will they be free to stream online, we will offer hands-on labs and equipment access for all tracks (CCNA Service Provider, CCNA Data Center tracks, etc). Some of the equipment will be offered free of charge for AAP members and some equipment even free of charge to the general public. The key to learning at this level isn't to be bored to death with some "professional presenter" going over hours and hours of PowerPoint slides or some low budget video production with a "professional presenter" dancing around the screen. You need to be engaged by watching a real instructor cover the topics hands-on while you also following along on the equipment. Lastly in regards to the CCNA, you will see the current courses redone to allow for this new format.

For the workbooks will be retiring the workbook volume structure (Vol 1, Vol 2, etc) that we first introduced years ago and is now copied by nearly every vendor. We will be moving to a new format that is a single solution laid out in a structured manner as opposed to a portfolio of products. This new format allows for quicker updates and additions to the products along with many other benefits. The new CCIE Security and CCIE Data Center products will be the first to be offered in our new format.

Lastly I will be making a separate post later this month in regarding a new series of online classes that I personally will be doing next year.