Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Cisco Gold Companion: A Workforce Strategy to Certification Turns to Gold at Superior Unibyte


Certifications are a superb method to obtain self-improvement, higher technical data, and better profession objectives. They’ve at all times been private and particular person—till now. 

Superior Unibyte GmbH (AU), based mostly in Metzingen, Germany, has taken the drive for excellence and profession development to new ranges with a group strategy to certification. They’ve studied, practiced, and examined as a group for a number of CCIE certifications to contribute to the corporate’s success and their very own group achievements. This group effort paid off, profitable the corporate Cisco Gold Companion standing. And now that Cisco is celebrating 30 years of the CCIE certification program, it’s a good time to inform AU’s story.

CCIE certification is smart with AU’s networking experience 

AU provides IT infrastructure and data heart options, in addition to cloud and managed providers. With experience in information safety and availability, they develop new, custom-made options to drive prospects’ digital transformation. The corporate’s experience lies in storage, community, computing, and virtualization options, in addition to the technical IT integration of worldwide subsidiaries. As for the group of engineers and resolution architects that preserve the infrastructure of their cloud information heart, it’s essential for his or her technical data to remain up to date.

When group leaders thought of the certifications the corporate wanted, they reviewed all the Cisco architectures. They determined to certify the group in Knowledge Heart, Enterprise Networks, and Safety specializations, in addition to Service Supplier — which might be a fantastic funding in their very own cloud infrastructure and providers. However they didn’t cease there. The group additionally determined to focus on Buyer Experiences to satisfy Cisco’s laws for Gold Companions, which was the proper match for his or her philosophy of buyer relationship and lifecycle administration. 

However why CCIE certification? With 30 years underneath its belt, the CCIE certification has reached fairly the standing stage, as tech certifications go. Whereas the time it takes to earn this cert depends upon talent stage, dedication, and research hours per week, getting ready for the CCIE lab examination sometimes takes one to 2 years. Study extra concerning the .

What’s extra, CCIE certification is required for Cisco Gold Companion standing. In truth, prospects in Germany worth the CCIE a lot that almost all corporations can not work with public prospects until they’ve Gold Companion standing. CCNP and CCIE certification simply made sense — not just for the good of people’ careers but additionally for the AU’s enterprise alternatives. That’s dedication! 

We’ve come a good distance because the CCIE of 1993

Since its inception on Sept. 27, 1993, the Cisco Licensed Internetwork Knowledgeable (CCIE) certification has advanced from a two-day check by which candidates arrange {hardware} and initialize a pod with fundamental configurations on the primary day after which return on the second day to carry out extra superior configurations and troubleshoot eventualities.

At the moment, the CCIE lab examination is a 1-day check that focuses extra on community technique, structure, and the community lifecycle, with particular regard to planning and designing for buyer necessities. The examination targets the end-to-end community lifecycle, which incorporates Day 0 (planning and designing), Day 1 (implementing and deploying), and Day 2 (working and sustaining). The method exams complete expertise throughout all the spectrum of community options.

At the moment’s CCIE certification is accepted worldwide as probably the most prestigious networking certification within the trade. And now, you’ll be able to keep forward of the most recent examination know-how adjustments with Cisco Certification Roadmaps. This program goals to speak examination updates on a frequent and incremental cadence-based mannequin, providing you with time to evaluate and plan your prep methods.

Workforce achievement results in Gold Companion standing

To satisfy the Cisco Gold qualifications, CTO Stephan Körner needed the group to attain a minimal of 4 CCIEs. So, in typical AU group style, practically 30 technical mans selected completely different paths within the Cisco certification program — from CCNA to CCIE and began to prep collectively, from finding out the certification examination blueprints to constructing their very own labs, each for certification examination prep in addition to observe, it was a group effort. 

The group constructed labs for putting in cert merchandise after which examined on the merchandise they offered.

“Within the lab, we thought of completely different layouts, duties, and challenges. One in every of us was creating the problem for the others so they might practice on that,” Körner mentioned. For the part on fiber channel zoning on the CCNP Knowledge Heart know-how core examination, the group thought of completely different challenges and created their very own zones.  

“Doing it collectively was simpler as a result of if one in all us was upset that he didn’t move or perceive one thing, we at all times had three guys round us to assist out and to speak to about options,” Johannes Neu, Alliance Supervisor at AU mentioned. “I talked to different CCIE guys who did this on their very own, and it’s fairly arduous. You need to work after hours and on weekends. You don’t have anybody to speak to who’s in the identical scenario. It’s simply not the identical since you don’t obtain collectively.”

In truth, Neu believes the group certification course of was solely achievable as a result of the entire firm was concerned. “We have been simply 4 guys [going for the] CCIE. However for the entire course of, we had about 30 guys, which was a fantastic group dynamic and, for our functions, the one reasonable method to obtain our objectives.”

It’s clear that Körner agrees. “Having a educated group has made all of the distinction in our success in reaching Cisco Gold Companion,” he mentioned. “Plus, our nice group dynamic helped us construct our collaborative course of. It linked us extra strongly than earlier than the certification as a result of all of us had the identical objective.”

When all was mentioned and performed, the group would have a good time 4 of their teammates incomes the CCIE Knowledge Heart certification. As for AU, going for the gold paid off. Since incomes Cisco Gold Companion standing, the corporate has seen a 40 p.c improve in income, with one other 20 p.c development anticipated within the subsequent two years.

Learn the case research: Cisco Gold Companion Superior UniByte Unites for CCIE

 

Join Cisco U. · Be part of the Cisco Studying Community.

Observe Cisco Studying & Certifications

X | Fb | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube

Use #CiscoU and #CiscoCert to hitch the dialog.

Share:



Related Articles

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest Articles