CCIE Bootcamps: INE or Micronics

tl;dr:

No "bootcamp" will prepare you for any exam. You have to prepare yourself. A bootcamp is there to run you through the paces to make sure you aren't lying to yourself. The experience is what you make of it. I used it as fuel to keep pace for as long as I can.

So, you're thinking about taking a CCIE boot camp and you've looked at a few training vendors but you aren't sure which one to choose and with the price of a boot camp roughly between $4000 - $6000, you want to make sure you choose correctly.

I'm fortunate enough to have been to an INE boot camp in North Carolina August 2017 and a Micronics Training boot camp March 2018 in Herndon, Virginia.

The INE boot camp was a 5 day CCIE Fundamentals boot camp led by Rohit Pardasani and the Micronics bootcamp was an 8 day "No Excuses" CCIE boot camp focusing on the CCIE Lab Exam led by Narbik Kocharins.

• INE - https://ine.com/collections/ccie-routing-switching-bootcamps/products/ccie-routing-switching-written-exam-bootcamp
• Micronics - https://micronicstraining.com/event/end-to-end-no-excuses/

Prior to my first boot camp I purchased the Cisco Press CCIE Official Certificate Guide (authored by Narbik Kocharians of Micronics Training and others). I had spent a few hours a week reading and thumbing through the book. I was never good at studying in this manner. I currently held a CCNP R&S and wasn't sure what I didn't know or what I needed to know to take the next step in my certification journey. The opportunity arose for me to attend a boot camp and I thought it would be better for me the learn that way, not being distracted by day-to-day life and be hands on.

INE

This was the first boot camp style training I had been to, I wasn't sure what to expect but I had an open mind and was eager to make the best of my experience. This boot camp was held in INE's offices at RTP(Research Triangle Park) North Carolina. I stayed at the adjacent hotel so I could walk back and fourth to the venue. The class was led by Rohit Pardasani a 4xCCIE. I used this event to kick-start my studying. This class is a preparation for the CCIE written exam. This was a podium style instructor lead class, although there wasn't an actual podium. There was a raised table with enough room for the instructors laptop and peripherals. To the the left and right of the table were projector screens each broadcasted the instructors desktop. Rohit used a number of digital teaching aids, while giving a lecture or going over topologies. He frequently used a Wacom Tablet allowing him to digitally draw on his screen. Rohit did not use any of the pre-canned INE slide presentations.(IIRC) We each got our own login to INE virtual training environment, this consisted of the virtual routers and switches used throughout the week. I believe the routers were Cisco CSR1000v's, hosted on a Vmware backend. We never interfaced with a backed, we only telnet/SSH into each device and work through our labs. For being a "foundations" class and a preparation for the written it was ~70% hands-on in the Cisco cli.

• The schedule: between 8 - 10 hours days
• The style: Instructor led lecture with hands-on labs
• The size: the class I attended had around ~15 attendees.
• Who should attend: anyone looking to kick-start their CCIE studies.
• Was I ready for the CCIE Written afterward: NO
• Was this helpful towards achieving my goals: Yes.

I really learned alot. I learned many advanced topics that weren't introduced in CCNP materials. I discovered my deficiencies and it drove me to really dive in deep.

You should be proficient in routing and switching before taking this class.

One day during the bootcamp we were going over OSPF and I was getting lost in the network types, Area Types and LSA's. I went back to the hotel and watched Narbiks OSPF video(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM3OI_ZyRuQ) twice back to back. I felt it was really helpful and planted the seed in my head for signing up to his bootcamp when the time comes. The next day I felt much more aware of OSPF and felt I understood the lessons better.

After the bootcamp ended I started the INE Advanced Technologies Workbook and as of this writing I am nearly finished all the topics. It has been really helpful to follow-up the bootcamp with 6 months of self-study.

...6 Months Later...

Micronics Training

The "No Excuses" 8 day boot camp was held at Cisco's corporate building in Herndon, VA, although this training was not produced by Cisco it was held at their facility in one of there meeting rooms. I stayed at the hotel down the street and if not for the freezing weather I would have walked back and forth each day. The class was led by Narbik Kocharians a 3xCCIE, and owner of Micronics Training. Throughout class we leveraged 3 training environments. There was a real-hardware environment we leveraged for some labs. There was a virtual environment hosted on an EVE-NG/UNETLABS platform we used for directed activities and Narbik's own labs. We also, as part of our bootcamp package, received 100-hours and 10 labs on Cisco 360 (https://expert-level-training.cisco.com/), which included some graded/timed assessments.

• The schedule: it varied and was based on the classes pace
• Day 1 - 13 hours
• Day 2 - 14 hours
• Day 3 - 17 hours
• Day 4 - 19 hours 
• Days 5 through 8 were a blur and I don't recall how many hours we put in.
• The style: Narbik leads the class in instructions using wall-to-wall white boards. He does NOT use projectors and doesn't spend anytime at the CLI. (This is stated on his website as well)
• The size: there were 22 students on day 1 and I believe there were 19 remain at the end.
• Who should attend: any one preparing for their CCIE Lab Exam who has already put in the requisite hours to be proficient in most of technologies. This class should be used to find out where your weak points are and learn the pace necessary to pass the CCIE Lab exam. You should be within 1 month of your exam.
• Was I ready to take the CCIE Lab Exam afterward: NO.
• Was this helpful towards achieving my goals: Yes.

Throughout the week as Narbik would go over the material I was happy to see I wasn't surprised by any technology or configuration. I felt I was well prepared, far beyond where I was 6 months prior. If not for my previous bootcamp and my 6-months self-study I would not have made it past Day 1. At the end of Day 1 we had a graded assessment lab on Cisco 360. It was an eye opener to see the pace of the lab and the depth of technologies used... the Day 1 lab was the easy one, and it only got harder. By the end of the bootcamp we were doing full-scale ~30 devices Cisco 360 graded lab assessments, in just a few hours(4 - 6 hours). I really enjoyed pushing myself to the limit and completely immersing myself in the technologies and labs, that's the environment bootcamps give. Narbik whiteboards everything and I enjoyed that approach. Infact I whiteboard nearly everything at work so, I'm a fan of the style but, I would have benefited, if he used a projector to give a demonstration of a configs we were working with. That's only my opinion because that's how I'm comfortable learning. Narbik try's to push everyone to think outside the box. He likes to give a task and take away all the obvious and basic options. Overall Narbik was great... we laughed, we learned and we laughed some more. It was a fantastic experience and I highly recommend it to all who are ready.

Cisco 360: I don't have much of an opinion on this having only used it during Narbiks class, but I definitely will be purchasing a few more graded full-scale exams prior to my being ready for the Lab Exam. 

The Cisco 360 labs had an added value for me: When you're labbing at home you aren't pushing your self as hard as you would when your in a room with 20 other people all trying to get the highest score in a timed event. That really helped me to build a strategy around taking the CCIE Lab Exam. It showed me how detrimental it can be to get stuck on a single item and waste your time on it. Read the entire sub-section before you start. Have a strategy and be prepared to move on if you get stuck.

If you have not prepared yourself, you will not keep up.

What I've Learned:

No "bootcamp" will prepare you for any exam. You have to prepare yourself. A bootcamp is there to run you through the paces to make sure you aren't lying to yourself. The experience is what you make of it. I used it as fuel to keep pace for as long as I can.

Each boot camp I attended I felt "here are my people". People who are serious about achieving CCIE, are passionate about what they are doing and we can recognize each other. It's a great experience going to a bootcamp and I hope to make it back around again before it's my turn to take the lab exam.

The title of this blogpost is "CCIE Bootcamps: INE or Micronics" and sadly it's misleading. It should read "CCIE Bootcamps: INE and Micronics" because that's what I really think. I think there is real value to seeing similar topic talked about and demonstrated from different points of view with different explanations.

If you had to choose only one you should ask yourself are you at the beginning of your studies or near the end?