OSL Members - I'd like to add to the post below from Matt Brooks - our Vice President.
As the founder, President and the strategic director of all of our products, classes and services, I have been (and remain) very aware of what our competitors are selling and offering. Some of you know this, some of you don't, but in 2001 I started IPexpert when the only competitor in this space was NLI (ccbootcamp). I was and have been a personal friend of Brad Ellis (president of NLI) and actually worked with him when we were both engineers at INS. I also am very aware of Internetwork Expert, as Brian Dennis was an instructor for IPexpert in 2002. Brian taught for us for several months before being replaced by Scott Morris, leading him to launch his own company. It's actually a pretty amazing story how almost the entire CCIE training market has evolved out of a close group of engineers that were either friends or co-workers and that many of the newer vendors that spring up from time to time were former students or us "old timers." Although I am very much "behind the scenes" in terms of my management style and visibility in the community, I'd bet I'm the most aware of every CCIE training product, class, instructor, website and service out there! I've lived it, breathed it and studied it for the past 8 years. In that time, I have hired a team of employees - where nobody is above the other - we're a solid team and all play a vital role in the company. Even as "famous" as some of my instructors are - they all play an equal role to each other (all 6 instructors!). I feel that the team I've built is a team that can't be touched - worldwide. I have spent a tremendous amount of time reviewing our competitor's offerings from a technical, delivery / support and pricing perspective. In early 2007 I decided that we (IPexpert) would focus on our instructor-led training offering. We built out our San Jose and Columbus facilities, added world-leading instructors (from across the globe), reviewed, updated, formatted and standardized all of our course materials and ensured that our hardware and interface (Proctor Labs) was top notch (most of us here feel it's the best in the CCIE industry!). We also reviewed our self-study products. Unfortunately - and to be quite honest - I came to realize that some of our products were lagging behind our primary competitor - Internetwork Expert. With that being said - 9 months ago, we developed the concept of a self-study (Blended Learning Solution) strategy that - I feel - makes our products and offerings the best available in the CCIE market. Including the release of the new products (now shipping) for the CCIE Voice and CCIE R&S tracks, the next several months will include more and more announcements of new products and services and CCIE-focused communities that we believe will bring great change to this important niche we serve. We hope you will be as excited by these times as we are and that you will be a part of the process by providing your thoughts and feedback. Your opinions are what matter to us most! On behalf of our instructors and the entire IPexpert team, I want to thank you for letting us be a part of your success plan, which enables us to be successful as well. Regards, Wayne A. Lawson II - CCIE #5244 Founder & President - IPexpert, Inc. Telephone: +1.810.326.1444 Cell: +1.810.278.1662 Fax: +1.810.454.0130 Mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Join our free online support and peer group communities: http://www.IPexpert.com/communities IPexpert - The Global Leader in Self-Study, Classroom-Based, Video-On-Demand and Audio Certification Training Tools for the Cisco CCIE R&S Lab, CCIE Security Lab, CCIE Service Provider Lab , CCIE Voice Lab and CCIE Storage Lab Certifications. _____ From: Matt Brooks at IPexpert [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, June 09, 2008 12:24 PM To: Masood Ahmad Shah; Masood Ahmad Shah Cc: Wayne Lawson; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; OSL CCIE Routing and Switching Lab Exam; Nathan Eger; Neil Apolzan; Wayne Lawson; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; OSL CCIE Routing and Switching Lab Exam; Nathan Eger; Neil Apolzan Subject: Re: [OSL | CCIE_RS] Request for info on update R&S VOD Hello, R&S candidates. We really appreciate all the interest in the new product line! Hopefully, this email can help to clear up some of the confusion with the various components included... First, let's begin with a quick comparison of the deliver model between the previous Workbook and Proctor Guide offering and the new books. The Workbooks we have produced in the past have essentially been two parts; the first part being individual protocol- and technology-specific lab scenarios and the second part combining technologies to build complex multi-protocol labs. With our new delivery model, those two parts / concepts are now represented by Volume 1 (the individual "Focus Labs") and Volume 2 (Multi-Protocol Lab Challenges). That's why existing owners of the Workbook / Proctor Guide get a FREE upgrade to receive the Vol. 1 and 2 materials electronically! (If you don't have those files already, just contact a Training Advisor at [EMAIL PROTECTED] and you will get yours immediately.) Now, let's talk about the new Volume 3 materials. The Workbook itself contains 10 newly-written "mock labs" that will really put your skills to the test. Like the Volume 1 and 2 books, you will be able to reference the accompanying "Proctor Guide" written explanations, which provide you with insight and understanding of the lab, as told by the instructor that wrote the lab. In previous years, we have received requests from our valued customers for more detail in lab explanations, so we decided to answer that request in a BIG way with the new Volume 3. All 10 mock labs are accompanying by not only the Proctor Guide written explanations, but a video tutorial that is sure to answer your every question. Each each lab's video tutorial, the instructor spends up to 10 hours tediously walking you through every task and solution involved in the lab, showing you the 'show' and 'debug' commands necessary to fully validate the solution for the task. It is truly like sitting next to our instructors and learning from them, one-on-one, as they teach you at your own pace! Don't confuse those Volume 3 video tutorials with the "Video on Demand" product, which is yet another separate component of the new Blended Learning Solution. Scott just completed recording this new video lecture series (completely re-written and produced from scratch), which has boiled down to a full 15 hours worth of in-depth lectures covering the various lab blueprint topics. In addition to the lecture, however, Scott also launches into deep-dive exercises throughout the lectures to illustrate points, reinforce your knowledge in core areas, and make fuzzy points crystal-clear for you. There are more than 15 hours of these videos (on top of the 15 hours of lectures!) all recorded in 720p High-Definition format. In contrast to the Volume 3 video tutorials described above, which are specific to the Vol. 3 labs (likely to be tackled later in a candidate's preparation path), the Video on Demand series is a valuable resource throughout. The last component of the Blended Learning Solution is the Audio Boot Camp, which is a simple one to describe. Taken from the final edit of the Video on Demand lecture series described above, we separated the audio file (Scott's discussions) and created MP3 modules. You are able to listen to these MP3s through the media player included on the portable hard drive included with the Blended Learning Solution or you can import them into your favorite media player. By importing to iTunes, you can load the Audio Boot Camp modules onto your iPod / iPhone / MP3 Player and take them with you anywhere. This portability has made this a popular product over the years for our customers that spend a lot of time commuting / traveling throughout the week. So, that covers each component of the new product line. Hopefully, this will clear up any questions lingering. I welcome you to revisit this page ( http://tinyurl.com/6j6md2 ) for more info and to access free sample sections of each product component, including 1 of the 10 mock labs with related media from the Volume 3 Workbook. One thing left to mention is that the first 5 labs in the new Vol. 3 Workbook are able to be graded when you use the ProctorLabs.com online racks. I cannot do justice to the full functionality of the new system, which Mark Snow has captured in the 2 videos he created. At the following URL, you can watch a brief overview of the new grading features and/or an in-depth demonstration... both of these will give you a solid idea for what to expect: http://proctorlabs.com/index.cfm/VerifiedLabs (Answering the direct question posed by Masood Ahmad Shah below... yes, each of your graded reports are saved in your login for reference later.) :) As always, please feel free to contact one of our ever-friendly Training Advisors for more information. Call +1.810.326.1444, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] or chat with them live at www.IPexpert.com/chat during business hours. Thanks again to all. We appreciate the opportunity to be a part of your success! -- Matt Brooks Vice President - IPexpert, Inc. Telephone: +1.810.326.1444 x101 Cell: +1.810.434.7447 Fax: +1.810.454.0130 Mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Join our free online support and peer group communities: http://www.IPexpert.com/communities -- IPexpert - The Global Leader in Self-Study, Classroom-Based, Video-On-Demand and Audio Certification Training Tools for the Cisco CCIE R&S Lab, CCIE Security Lab, CCIE Service Provider Lab , CCIE Voice Lab and CCIE Storage Lab Certifications. -- On Fri, Jun 6, 2008 at 8:33 PM, Masood Ahmad Shah <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: It would be nice. There are lot of work books/ volumes around. Like work book 3 , 4 and even 9 . Second, What if I purchase 25 sessions of lab; Is there any proctor gonna mark my lab sessions and respond with the results or one can see the history of my attended labs along with what he did to the previous labs & results.. Do you guys store labs results in some databases so one can check the progress.. From: Wayne Lawson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2008 3:51 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; OSL CCIE Routing and Switching Lab Exam Cc: Masood Ahmad Shah; Nathan Eger; Neil Apolzan; Matt Brooks Brooks Subject: Re: [OSL | CCIE_RS] Request for info on update R&S VOD I'm going to have Matt Brooks email you guys a complete overview of the products and how they fit into your preparation strategy. I'll see if I can get this done over the weekend. Regards, Wayne A. Lawson II - CCIE #5244 President - IPexpert, Inc. Telephone: +1.810.326.1444 Fax: +1.810.454.0130 Mobile: +1.810.278.12 Mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Jun 6, 2008, at 6:27 PM, Scott Morris wrote: The training advisors will have the best answers and packages for you! I don't really get into that part! :) But the Blended Learning Solution box set covers everything! Scott _____ From: Masood Ahmad Shah [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 7:23 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; 'OSL CCIE Routing and Switching Lab Exam'; 'Nathan Eger' Subject: RE: [OSL | CCIE_RS] Request for info on update R&S VOD I'm kinda confuse with all of this. We have VoD, workbook, proctor guide and Vol1 Vol2 and Vol3..I don't know what to buy . Can someone explain this to me? From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Scott Morris Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2008 3:16 AM To: 'Nathan Eger'; 'OSL CCIE Routing and Switching Lab Exam' Subject: Re: [OSL | CCIE_RS] Request for info on update R&S VOD The VoD is separate from the lab guides and solution guides! Vol1 of the new product set is Core Technology labs (Labs 1-18 in v9), except that they are all completely rewritten and many are expanded greatly. In addition, there are 22 labs instead of 18. Vol2 labs have been edited, and they have FULL solution guides at this point. Vol3 is new labs and solution sets as well as videos demonstrating further information about them. HTH, Scott Morris, CCIE4 (R&S/ISP-Dial/Security/Service Provider) #4713, JNCIE-M #153, JNCIS-ER, CISSP, et al. CCSI/JNCI-M/JNCI-ER VP - Technical Training - IPexpert, Inc. IPexpert Sr. Technical Instructor [EMAIL PROTECTED] Telephone: +1.810.326.1444 Fax: +1.810.454.0130 http://www.ipexpert.com _____ From: Nathan Eger [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 5:52 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; OSL CCIE Routing and Switching Lab Exam Subject: Re: [OSL | CCIE_RS] Request for info on update R&S VOD So, when you say "a number of the topics have been update", what does that mean? Is it a more detailed with the beginning technologies and more explanation of how things are done? How much more info. is in it compared to the prior lab & proctor guides? I'm trying to decide if I need to upgrade to all the new guides, or just keep the old lab guides, and maybe buy the Volume 3? Thanks in advance! Nate On Fri, Jun 6, 2008 at 3:36 PM, Scott Morris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Well, a number of the topics have updated, following the updates of the real-live ILT class. In addition, it's recorded in HD 720p format, so nice and crisp, and you get to see a little of me along with the slides (how exciting is that?) :) There are also recorded exercises (still 720p) with diagrams and router-output stepping through a number of things and observing different behavior along the way. In a nutshell, it's COMPLETELY different than its predecessor! HTH, Scott Morris, CCIE4 (R&S/ISP-Dial/Security/Service Provider) #4713, JNCIE-M #153, JNCIS-ER, CISSP, et al. CCSI/JNCI-M/JNCI-ER VP - Technical Training - IPexpert, Inc. IPexpert Sr. Technical Instructor [EMAIL PROTECTED] Telephone: +1.810.326.1444 Fax: +1.810.454.0130 http://www.ipexpert.com <http://www.ipexpert.com/> -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of L. Jankok Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 4:06 PM To: Request for info on update R&S VOD Subject: [OSL | CCIE_RS] Request for info on update R&S VOD Hi, I have been told that the R&S VOD has been totally reworked from the gro -- Matt Brooks Vice President - IPexpert, Inc. Telephone: +1.810.326.1444 x101 Cell: +1.810.434.7447 Fax: +1.810.454.0130 Mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Join our free online support and peer group communities: http://www.IPexpert.com/communities -- IPexpert - The Global Leader in Self-Study, Classroom-Based, Video-On-Demand and Audio Certification Training Tools for the Cisco CCIE R&S Lab, CCIE Security Lab, CCIE Service Provider Lab , CCIE Voice Lab and CCIE Storage Lab Certifications. --
