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Yesterday, Internetwork Expert put on a show that was promoted heavily as a “major corporate announcement.” Yes, I am serious, that’s what they called it. What a show it was!
Fascinated, I watched the big announcements again carefully and thought I’d share some of my own, personal thoughts about the way I personally perceived the news…
ANNOUNCEMENT #1: 10 months ago, IE decided NOT to take part in Cisco’s 360 program
The main theme of their webcast/commercial was about how they DIDN’T join Cisco’s CLP (Cisco Learning Partner) program and are not going to sell the 360 training; a decision they apparently made 10 months ago. Since when does deciding NOT to do something 10 months ago qualify as news, worthy of such hype? Maybe next week we can learn how Brian decided NOT to go skydiving or some other “almost/maybe could have, but decided not to” kind of event.
There were some questionable statements made throughout the presentation… starting with the FIRST slide!
“We were honored to be selected to participate in the development and delivery of the 360 program.” (0:01:30)
Oh, really?
The truth is, Cisco put this project out to bid in a RFP to a dozen or so training entities. As Brian points out himself later in their commercial, “we had the option to sell our self-paced training to Cisco.” (0:02:06) It turned out that Cisco was hoping to pay much less for the materials than IE (or IPexpert) would be willing to accept. The process had little to do with being “honored to be selected.”
“If we became a Cisco Learning Partner, we could not focus our business outside of the U.S. It has to be within North America.” (0:03:30)
Wrong.
Basically, Cisco Learning Partners are able to sell/market in any “theater” they desire, provided they are approved to do so and agree to pay the “royalties” (referred to by many as the “Cisco tax”) for activities in the other regions. While IE may have found doing so undesirable (as IPexpert did when we were a CLP), Brian’s statement was untrue and was repeated multiple times.
Later in the presentation, Brian talks about the requirements Cisco has for CLPs, saying that they would have to sell a certain number of “kits.” (0:08:35) Actually, when IPexpert was a CLP, there was a benchmark set for revenue, not kits. On the very next slide, Brian claims that IE will do $5MM in business this year. If that’s true, they would have easily surpassed the revenue benchmarks set for CLPs.
I’m wondering if IE will become a CLP if Brian decides to actually read the contracts. Maybe someday.
More about IE’s decision-making process…
“Back in December timeframe, the January timeframe, we knew we weren’t going to participate.” (0:13:19)
OUCH! But that doesn’t help your other point…
IE customers have been clamoring lately (places like Group Study) for their long-promised product updates. During the presentation, Brian suggests that they haven’t delivered updated products because of lingering decisions about the 360 program. In fact, one of the slides reads, “This has caused a delay in our release schedule while the decision was being considered.” Well, if his customers weren’t already puzzled by the above quote, Brian later reiterates, “we pretty much knew back in December of 2007 that we were not going to participate in the 360 program.” (0:25:20)
“… with the scholarship program, we give away three full-blown scholarships…” (0:05:15)
Yeah, and… ?
While I do praise them for their generosity, Brian’s repeated claims of IE being a $4-5 million company left me wondering why they don’t do more. This year, I am pleased to say that IPexpert gave away well over $100,000.00 of CCIE training… and didn’t make people beg for it in written essays. As I write this, I’m thinking of some things IPexpert can do for the unfortunate candidates that don’t write a good enough essay to win IE’s “scholarship.” Stay tuned for an announcement on that! :)
“We could be charging more!” Brian says somebody told him that CCIE training is underpriced.
Charge more?
After the Tolly Group report showed the offset in value, as advertised by IPexpert and IE product and course offerings, IE rushed to make changes. (I believe these findings led to more of IE’s announcements yesterday as well.) The point is, I don’t think it would be wise for IE to charge more (though I wouldn’t mind it).
ANNOUNCEMENT #2: IE catches up to its competitors with business and product delivery concepts, then calls their revelations “CCIE 2.0″
Hey, everyone, CCIE 2.0 is here! Judging by recent Group Study threads, I’m guessing some customers are wishing Internetwork Expert finished their CCIE 1.0 first. Anyhow, drop whatever you’re doing because IE has some big ideas…
- Mailing lists (1:05:30)
Obviously, this isn’t a new idea at all. In fact, after using Group Study for years to build the reputation/visibility of himself and IE, it was my impression that Brian was bashing Group Study directly when he said he “won’t name it, but a public mailing list” is “80% junk, so much junk, you just leave.” (1:30:00) Brian’s new list isn’t going to have any OTs so don’t worry about that!
- CCIE candidate blogs with ratings. (1:07:20) I wonder where they got that idea.
On the topic of blogging, Brian expressed great concern about the bloggers being “backed by other companies.” He wondered, “are they getting something to say something, and that’s exactly the thing that people don’t want with blogs.” (1:07:50) That’s funny; earlier this year, IPexpert approached some bloggers that were displaying IE banners to see if they would also display an IPexpert banner. Often, we were told that they were given free and/or discounted IE products in exchange for their blogging, so “the Brians won’t let them” advertise IPexpert, too.
But now, with IE’s CCIE 2.0 explosion, Brian wants to “keep these blogs clean. We want to keep these vendor-neutral.” This should be interesting to watch, since he predicts IE will be paying out over $10K per month to helpful bloggers. (1:10:20) I wonder if any will be rewarded for talking about IPexpert or Narbik or CCbootcamp.
Seeing how they treat customers that choose to work with more than just IE, I don’t think Brian will be too “vendor-neutral.” (There are more victims than just Larry H., sorry to say.)
- More interaction with the instructors
After talking a LOT about how customers are going to have much more interaction with the instructors (singling himself out, specifically), it appears to me that most of the interaction will be with “Customer Success Managers” (who are still in training right now!) and those people will report to Brian. (0:30:00) He says, “in the early days, people would just email Brian or myself, but the Customer Success Managers are now those people,” adding, “these are the people you are going to communicate with.” Also, “when we were a small company, people could talk to me directly.” (0:52:10)
- Poly-Labs will revolutionize everything!
Brian tells how their Poly-Labs output will provide the student with recommendations, claiming “nobody else does that.” (1:01:50)
Is that so?
Actually, Proctor Labs has a very robust grading system that provides students with remedial learning suggestions as well as up to 10 hours of video tutorial for EACH graded lab. In each lengthy video, the instructor walks the student through the lab, step-by-step. It may not be “Polymorphic,” but our customers seem to like it!
- Lots more Class on Demand (1:13)
There is going to be 40 hours of Class on Demand added every month. “Nobody can beat that!”
Try to keep the breaks short, OK?
My understanding is that some IE COD videos are left with the breaks in the recording. While I admit that I have not verified this with my own eyes, Brian repeatedly makes comments in the presentation like “4 hours long… 5 with the breaks.” Why not do some basic post-production work, so the advertised length of videos actually represents lecture / learning time?
Also, when you get to CCIE 3.0, try producing your videos in high-definition. Students love it! :)
- Regular, perpetual updates to products
“People ask us all the time, ‘when is version 5 of volume 1 going to be done?’ It’s never going to be done.” (0:37:00)
After reading some recent Group Study posts, that won’t come as a shock to some IE customers.
Brian talked a lot about the problem of “long delays between updates,” promising that “we’re going to have constant updates… we want to get into this evolution of constant, perpetual updates.” (0:35:30)
Hey, now you’re catching on! At IPexpert, our R&S products were completely updated again and released this summer. Earlier this month, I spent time with one of our valued customers that provided some great feedback and suggestions for our Volume 1 Worbook and Proctor Guide. Wayne and I discussed it and had Tyson Scott dedicate two weeks making improvements to several sections. The updated files were immediately made available to all customers that owned that product.
So I can tell you from a company already providing regular, perpetual updates, this “new idea” you have should be a hit!
ANNOUNCEMENT #3: IE is Self-Proclaimed “Largest CCIE Trainer in Cisco”
Yes, that is a bold statement for Brian to make, but he was ready to back it up with facts…
“Let me tell you all the companies we beat out to become the largest CCIE trainer inside of Cisco. And that’s us!” (0:14:07)
No, I didn’t edit that. That’s what he said.
If you’re wondering if you read that quote wrong, you didn’t. It was just another of many incoherent statements throughout this big announcement.
Trying to back up the point, he adds, “when we competed against the other vendors for business inside of Cisco, we took that business!” (0:14:38) That’s strange; I wonder how IPexpert has been able to perform dozens of on-site Boot Camps for Cisco. We’ll stop taking what’s yours, Brian, and I’ll ask Narbik and Brad to have the same courtesy. Can we at least sell into your classes?
Expanding on the point that IE does so much business with Cisco, he admits, “we’ll probably lose this business because they’ll be forced to go to the 360 program, but that’s fine.” Yeah, I bet he thinks it’s fine to lose “two weeks a month on average” of training! (0:15:08)
ANNOUNCEMENT #4: IE getting into lower-level certs
What a coincidence! Just 10 days after IPexpert announces IPexpert University, Brian announces that IE is also “going to start going into the Associate and Professional levels.” (1:19:45)
Interestingly, Brian claims that he, along will Anthony, Scott, Petr and Brian will be the ones teaching all those different classes! (1:25:30) And the existing CCIE courses? That is amazing!
Other Observations
Seemingly missing from the event:
- Is Scott Morris really an IE employee? Except for the occasional Group Study post from an IE email account, he seems elusive. Not even a “hello” during the big announcement and just a couple passing mentions by the Brians.
- Also missing was the prior effort to proof read the slides for typos. It seems like a Major Corporate Announcement would call for a proof reading session, but I guess that’s something Brian thinks the bad “marketing people” and MBA-types would insist on.
Top 10 Contradictions & Other Wild Statements
- There were supposedly 500 people registered for this big announcement (1:39:25)… but only 2 questions. Strange!
- Brian charges that “Cisco Systems creates the market for Test King.” (0:22:25)
- Brian states that he, Anthony, Scott, Petr and Brian will be the ones teaching their Associate and Professional-level courses. (1:25:30) We’ll see about that.
- Talking about the scholarships, “We started this recently, but we’ve been doing this for years.” (0:05:20)
- “I was involved in a lot of start-ups. Not a lot of start-ups, a few start-ups.” (0:34:05)
- Pumping up the Poly-Labs launch, they are “actually in beta now. Actually, alpha I guess, technically. Alpha or beta.” (0:42:30)
- About the guy writing their assessment labs, “his PhD is in eLearning,” then “he’s working on his PhD thesis in eLearning.” (0:57:50)
- After repeated reassurance that he is not concerned about profits (only customers!), Brian reveals that if IE signed on to offer the 360 program, “it would take away half of our revenue right off the top… at least half… maybe even more right off the top.” (0:11:30)
- Brian states that they NEVER deny a requested date to retake a class. You pick a date, you get it! (1:17:17) But how could this be if “every single 12 Day Bootcamp we run is sold out“? One of these claims cannot be true – sorry!
- “This is key.” Since so many topics were prefaced with, “this is key,” I assume that either some were not really key, or there were just way too many key points. And that’s key!
Some other notable moments:
- It was funny when Brian referred to Bruce and Val as, “the most respected instructors out there…” all the while beating up their product line.
- “We do charge for the rack time to resit a class,” admits Brian. (1:17:17) Hey, thanks for leaving some downfalls in tact after the Tolly Group report was released!
- 100 racks soon, 400 later! LOL…
NOTICE TO THE HARDCORE IE FANS
If you plan to refute any of my comments, PLEASE HURRY UP and verify what I’ve said first. I tried to help you out by providing time stamps for you to get around quickly! You see, after the Tolly Group report was released comparing IPexpert’s CCIE R&S offering to Internetwork Expert’s, they quickly made changes to their website in order to refute what was already documented. So act fast!
A TRUE EXAMPLE OF IRONY
During the presentation, Brian warns his followers
“Don’t get fooled by fancy marketing or misconceptions out there.” (1:17:17)
Oh, I think they’re catching on, Brian!
Can’t wait for next week’s 2-hour presentation on the Polymorphic Supercharged Gizmotron 3000.
Thanks for reading! Your comments are welcome…
Tags: 360, brian, Cisco, clp, ie, internetwork expert, partner
Matt, I will be EXTREMELY interested in the “As I write this, I’m thinking of some things IPexpert can do for the unfortunate candidates that don’t write a good enough essay to win IE’s “scholarship.” Stay tuned for an announcement on that! :)” part. Study scholarships or anything similar to it be it free giveaways will be a big boost to me ;-).
Matt, I will be EXTREMELY interested in the “As I write this, I’m thinking of some things IPexpert can do for the unfortunate candidates that don’t write a good enough essay to win IE’s “scholarship.” Stay tuned for an announcement on that! :)” part. Study scholarships or anything similar to it be it free giveaways will be a big boost to me ;-).
This is an interesting perspective. I am using IE’s products and have no experience with IPX but I am not sure where this vendor war is going to go. I guess we will have to wait and see. @Matt – I think your analysis is pretty detailed and providing timestamps was helpful. I still think IE did the right thing by not joining the Cisco 360 because competition is good. I am sure IPX was approached for the same duty too but I won’t comment since I am only dealing with IE and Narbik’s WBs for my R&S :)
This is an interesting perspective. I am using IE’s products and have no experience with IPX but I am not sure where this vendor war is going to go. I guess we will have to wait and see. @Matt – I think your analysis is pretty detailed and providing timestamps was helpful. I still think IE did the right thing by not joining the Cisco 360 because competition is good. I am sure IPX was approached for the same duty too but I won’t comment since I am only dealing with IE and Narbik’s WBs for my R&S :)
Matt, I am a current customer of IE and have been a customer of IPExpert in the past. This critisicm is not based on my experiences as customer of both providers but as audience member reading your posts here and dialogs taking place in other public forums (Subnets, etc…). I perceive the way you represent your organization as sophomoric. Obviously, history exists between the players of both companies. I don’t care about your history or what you think about what somebody else is doing. As a continuing customer, that also happens to be a technical manager of a major telecom with a training budget, I care about how you care about your product. I care about this because I have to grow my team organically. This can be a long process and requires me to scrutinize my training providers. I need certainty in the products I invest in. I feel confident in investing in providers who first and foremost place the success of their clients as a top priority. I look for provider to present their product in a manner that proves it has been developed and continually optimized with a fastidiousness that guarantees that they place the success of their clients first. My perspective, IE accomplishes this & IPExpert falls drastically short. This view has been formed by the impropriety of your behavior in public forums and the incongruity it creates with your product. Simply, what you say your product does and what you and your personnel do, don’t match.
Matt, I am a current customer of IE and have been a customer of IPExpert in the past. This critisicm is not based on my experiences as customer of both providers but as audience member reading your posts here and dialogs taking place in other public forums (Subnets, etc…). I perceive the way you represent your organization as sophomoric. Obviously, history exists between the players of both companies. I don’t care about your history or what you think about what somebody else is doing. As a continuing customer, that also happens to be a technical manager of a major telecom with a training budget, I care about how you care about your product. I care about this because I have to grow my team organically. This can be a long process and requires me to scrutinize my training providers. I need certainty in the products I invest in. I feel confident in investing in providers who first and foremost place the success of their clients as a top priority. I look for provider to present their product in a manner that proves it has been developed and continually optimized with a fastidiousness that guarantees that they place the success of their clients first. My perspective, IE accomplishes this & IPExpert falls drastically short. This view has been formed by the impropriety of your behavior in public forums and the incongruity it creates with your product. Simply, what you say your product does and what you and your personnel do, don’t match.
Hi, Nickelby.
Thanks for the comment! You will definitely be a contender for the training giveaway. Are you good at writing poems, songs, or anything other than essays? ;)
Hopefully your vendor-neutrality won’t get your IE products taken away!
http://tinyurl.com/IE-is-anti-competitive
Stay tuned and thanks again, Nickelby!
Hi, Nickelby.
Thanks for the comment! You will definitely be a contender for the training giveaway. Are you good at writing poems, songs, or anything other than essays? ;)
Hopefully your vendor-neutrality won’t get your IE products taken away!
http://tinyurl.com/IE-is-anti-competitive
Stay tuned and thanks again, Nickelby!
Matt, in fact I used to have a flair for literature and am a diploma holder in music so drop me a mail anytime (you got my mail on my IPX account I am sure) if I could contribute anything. Thanks again :-)
Matt, in fact I used to have a flair for literature and am a diploma holder in music so drop me a mail anytime (you got my mail on my IPX account I am sure) if I could contribute anything. Thanks again :-)
CCIEtalk,
I agree completely with your point about IE doing the right thing by not joining the 360 thing. Despite the “battles” that are visible to the outside, the leaders of all the top vendors actually communicate peacefully on a fairly regular basis! Wayne and I had several lengthy conversations with Brian D. earlier this year when we got out of the CLP program. We told him all about our (mostly negative) experiences with the program, so yes, they did make the right decision there.
Thanks for being an active blogger, btw!
CCIEtalk,
I agree completely with your point about IE doing the right thing by not joining the 360 thing. Despite the “battles” that are visible to the outside, the leaders of all the top vendors actually communicate peacefully on a fairly regular basis! Wayne and I had several lengthy conversations with Brian D. earlier this year when we got out of the CLP program. We told him all about our (mostly negative) experiences with the program, so yes, they did make the right decision there.
Thanks for being an active blogger, btw!
Brent Leekley – Hello!
I want to thank you for your response – and actually commend you for leaving your real name. Most people responding or posting don’t have the backbone you do. I attempted to call you on the telephone number we have on record for you to discuss your comments (actually – to ask you to back them up) – however, your voicemail wasn’t set up therefore I couldn’t leave a message.
Brent – to get to the point – this is America – and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If you feel that our response to IE’s false claims about IPexpert and our products is “sophomoric” – well, that’s your opinion. (I actually like the “underdogs” when it comes to sports – so I can almost see your logic!)
What concerns me is your statements: “I care about how you care about your product” and “IE accomplishes this & IPExpert falls drastically short….what you say your product does and what you and your personnel do, don’t match.” I’d like you to expand on this. As you might know (if you are indeed engaged in our various discussions online) – IPexpert leads the world in terms of the most successful clients by a CCIE training vendor. What you might not know is as follows: 1) IPexpert’s products (let’s discuss R&S since that’s what you purchased from us) are updated consistently. We just updated our entire R&S self-study bundle to include 3 workbooks w/ detailed walk-through solutions, 10 video tutorials for our Volume 3 workbook, 30+ hours of R&S video on demand – high def, newly updated audio lecture, grading for the first 5 labs in Volume 3 (free of charge if you use Proctor Labs) and solid – actually phenomenal support on our support forum and email list. I challenge you to measure that against your favored IE product. I can tell you that their product updates have fallen short for…”various reasons”. Their video product is low quality streaming. They don’t measure up in terms of the number of success stories, their racks don’t have free grading and their interface doesn’t match up technically – to the Proctor Labs interface. Their support forums are weak – and many questions go unanswered. Again – let’s remove the emotion you have for the beloved IE gang and let’s get serious and compare apples-to-apples….I’d love to engage in this discussion – because I am quite confident as to where we will fall and how we will stack up against our competition. If you’d like to chat – please feel free to call me at the office at 810.326.1444 – ext 888 – I’d love to chat w/ you – intelligently – about the facts pertaining to our products against IE’s. You seem to be confident making public statements pertaining to the quality of both – so PLEASE – respond with supplemental backup info….Awaiting your response – Wayne
Brent Leekley – Hello!
I want to thank you for your response – and actually commend you for leaving your real name. Most people responding or posting don’t have the backbone you do. I attempted to call you on the telephone number we have on record for you to discuss your comments (actually – to ask you to back them up) – however, your voicemail wasn’t set up therefore I couldn’t leave a message.
Brent – to get to the point – this is America – and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If you feel that our response to IE’s false claims about IPexpert and our products is “sophomoric” – well, that’s your opinion. (I actually like the “underdogs” when it comes to sports – so I can almost see your logic!)
What concerns me is your statements: “I care about how you care about your product” and “IE accomplishes this & IPExpert falls drastically short….what you say your product does and what you and your personnel do, don’t match.” I’d like you to expand on this. As you might know (if you are indeed engaged in our various discussions online) – IPexpert leads the world in terms of the most successful clients by a CCIE training vendor. What you might not know is as follows: 1) IPexpert’s products (let’s discuss R&S since that’s what you purchased from us) are updated consistently. We just updated our entire R&S self-study bundle to include 3 workbooks w/ detailed walk-through solutions, 10 video tutorials for our Volume 3 workbook, 30+ hours of R&S video on demand – high def, newly updated audio lecture, grading for the first 5 labs in Volume 3 (free of charge if you use Proctor Labs) and solid – actually phenomenal support on our support forum and email list. I challenge you to measure that against your favored IE product. I can tell you that their product updates have fallen short for…”various reasons”. Their video product is low quality streaming. They don’t measure up in terms of the number of success stories, their racks don’t have free grading and their interface doesn’t match up technically – to the Proctor Labs interface. Their support forums are weak – and many questions go unanswered. Again – let’s remove the emotion you have for the beloved IE gang and let’s get serious and compare apples-to-apples….I’d love to engage in this discussion – because I am quite confident as to where we will fall and how we will stack up against our competition. If you’d like to chat – please feel free to call me at the office at 810.326.1444 – ext 888 – I’d love to chat w/ you – intelligently – about the facts pertaining to our products against IE’s. You seem to be confident making public statements pertaining to the quality of both – so PLEASE – respond with supplemental backup info….Awaiting your response – Wayne
Matt and IPX crew:
I think it really speaks for itself when you guys post angst-filled rants against IE all day long on your blog and other public places online. There is such a thing as healthy competition and then there is just lunacy. You have really crossed that line by attacking a company who has revolutionized the CCIE training industry time and time again. While they’re focusing their efforts on improving products and providing some of the most excellent and extensive free technical resources that can be found anywhere (see their blog, for instance) all you guys can do is whine and scream at them like a little child throwing a temper tantrum. Anyways, I’m done – not interested in wasting time on this anymore. Back to studying with my IE material!
Matt and IPX crew:
I think it really speaks for itself when you guys post angst-filled rants against IE all day long on your blog and other public places online. There is such a thing as healthy competition and then there is just lunacy. You have really crossed that line by attacking a company who has revolutionized the CCIE training industry time and time again. While they’re focusing their efforts on improving products and providing some of the most excellent and extensive free technical resources that can be found anywhere (see their blog, for instance) all you guys can do is whine and scream at them like a little child throwing a temper tantrum. Anyways, I’m done – not interested in wasting time on this anymore. Back to studying with my IE material!
Jake, first – thanks for joining the discussion! Naturally, we disagree here, and that’s OK. But I do appreciate the debate. I am curious, though, which of my points did you find untrue? I’m fairly certain I cited every single point, knowing that the IE fans would be fiercely pining for their favor. IPexpert evolved several years ago to building a full business model with individuals and groups in areas of leadership/strategy, instruction/development, sales, support and administration. That means vendors like IPexpert and CCbootcamp, where the founders are able to work “on” the business and not always “in” it, are able to walk and chew gum at the same, as the saying goes. I assure you, our products are always – and will continue to be – in a state of constant improvement, as evidenced by many updates and new releases in just the recent past alone. At the same time, we are able to defend our position as the true leader in this space and call out competitors’ egregiously-false claims. You may not realize it, but our desire to keep IE honest and competitive only HELPS folks like yourself. (No thanks needed.) ;) … again, thanks for chatting!
Jake, first – thanks for joining the discussion! Naturally, we disagree here, and that’s OK. But I do appreciate the debate. I am curious, though, which of my points did you find untrue? I’m fairly certain I cited every single point, knowing that the IE fans would be fiercely pining for their favor. IPexpert evolved several years ago to building a full business model with individuals and groups in areas of leadership/strategy, instruction/development, sales, support and administration. That means vendors like IPexpert and CCbootcamp, where the founders are able to work “on” the business and not always “in” it, are able to walk and chew gum at the same, as the saying goes. I assure you, our products are always – and will continue to be – in a state of constant improvement, as evidenced by many updates and new releases in just the recent past alone. At the same time, we are able to defend our position as the true leader in this space and call out competitors’ egregiously-false claims. You may not realize it, but our desire to keep IE honest and competitive only HELPS folks like yourself. (No thanks needed.) ;) … again, thanks for chatting!
Their whole “big announcement” was pretty weak. It was nothing but a poorly written and presented marketing campaign. It had more holes in it than swiss cheese. I guess it’s time for us to do another spoof. Darn, and I thought I had a no-work weekend ahead of me. CCBOOTCAMP kicks everyone’s ass anyhow. :)
Their whole “big announcement” was pretty weak. It was nothing but a poorly written and presented marketing campaign. It had more holes in it than swiss cheese. I guess it’s time for us to do another spoof. Darn, and I thought I had a no-work weekend ahead of me. CCBOOTCAMP kicks everyone’s ass anyhow. :)
Anon,
While I see no point in engaging in debate here about mostly opinion-related things or dragging any bashing around one way or the other…
Like I’ve said to people when I worked at IPexpert or now at InternetworkExpert, I would strongly suggest that you load thy brain before firing thy mouth. In other words before you thrown strongly worded things out there, make sure you have some semblance of a clue about what you are saying.
Again, I have no intent on debating marketing vs. reality stuff. But when you come out with “Real world examples? Yeah, right. NONE of the IE instructors are IN the real world! They all do nothing but teach.” I can tell you completely and utterly without a doubt that you are WAY off base.
I know I would have several customers concerned to hear that. I know I would have received much more sleep in the past few weeks by avoiding maintenance windows and other exciting troubleshooting “opportunities” on different customer’s networks. I’m pretty sure that the excuse of “I’m sorry I can’t help you, I’ve been told that I do nothing but teach.” would not go very far in helping people get their networks upgraded/working again.
And I know I’m not the only one of the bunch. But…. everyone is entitled to their own opinions about things, and vendor wars are certainly nothing new. But no matter where you are going with it, try to avoid making stuff up, especially if you are pretending to be critical of others for taking liberties with altered reality.
As for other things, we can agree to disagree, but it won’t change your opinions one way or the other. :)
Cheers,
Scott
smorris@internetworkexpert.com
(Apparantly the quiet one)
Anon,
While I see no point in engaging in debate here about mostly opinion-related things or dragging any bashing around one way or the other…
Like I’ve said to people when I worked at IPexpert or now at InternetworkExpert, I would strongly suggest that you load thy brain before firing thy mouth. In other words before you thrown strongly worded things out there, make sure you have some semblance of a clue about what you are saying.
Again, I have no intent on debating marketing vs. reality stuff. But when you come out with “Real world examples? Yeah, right. NONE of the IE instructors are IN the real world! They all do nothing but teach.” I can tell you completely and utterly without a doubt that you are WAY off base.
I know I would have several customers concerned to hear that. I know I would have received much more sleep in the past few weeks by avoiding maintenance windows and other exciting troubleshooting “opportunities” on different customer’s networks. I’m pretty sure that the excuse of “I’m sorry I can’t help you, I’ve been told that I do nothing but teach.” would not go very far in helping people get their networks upgraded/working again.
And I know I’m not the only one of the bunch. But…. everyone is entitled to their own opinions about things, and vendor wars are certainly nothing new. But no matter where you are going with it, try to avoid making stuff up, especially if you are pretending to be critical of others for taking liberties with altered reality.
As for other things, we can agree to disagree, but it won’t change your opinions one way or the other. :)
Cheers,
Scott
smorris@internetworkexpert.com
(Apparantly the quiet one)
Brad, NO DANCING, alright??? ;)
Brad, NO DANCING, alright??? ;)
Hey, Scott. Good to hear from you. I think people were wondering where you were during the big corporate announcement. Brian was falling all over Petr and Anthony got to chime in, but no “Hello!” from Scott. :( Anyhow, I agree with your points completely! Thanks for your thoughts — always welcome!
Hey, Scott. Good to hear from you. I think people were wondering where you were during the big corporate announcement. Brian was falling all over Petr and Anthony got to chime in, but no “Hello!” from Scott. :( Anyhow, I agree with your points completely! Thanks for your thoughts — always welcome!
[...] waited till this morning to finish this post because I wanted to see what Matt Brooks over at IPexpert had to say on the IPexpert blog. Matt Brooks has a really good way of pointing out the flaws in Brian Dennis’ Announcement. [...]
[...] waited till this morning to finish this post because I wanted to see what Matt Brooks over at IPexpert had to say on the IPexpert blog. Matt Brooks has a really good way of pointing out the flaws in Brian Dennis’ Announcement. [...]
Posted about it on my blog. Didn’t want to seem to harsh either way but I did want to speak my mind. I just want a good product and people that want to help me pass. IPX has always cared about me passing, more than others, yet sometimes the product frustrates me. Specifically the lab guides. It causes me to be torn between the two vendors.
I do think that your attention to detail is great, and you pointed out some very important facts about the presentation by IE. I can tell you this, Brian was either really nervous about his announcement or really excited. Considering he is not new to speaking to people I guess it was excitement. I like the competition because it ultimatley creates a better product or service for the consumer. I don’t know how I feel about the way the competition is played out but that’s not something that I have the right to decide. Ultimately they are your companies. It cant be hurting business right, other wise you would take a different approach. Anyhow Thanks for the post!
Posted about it on my blog. Didn’t want to seem to harsh either way but I did want to speak my mind. I just want a good product and people that want to help me pass. IPX has always cared about me passing, more than others, yet sometimes the product frustrates me. Specifically the lab guides. It causes me to be torn between the two vendors.
I do think that your attention to detail is great, and you pointed out some very important facts about the presentation by IE. I can tell you this, Brian was either really nervous about his announcement or really excited. Considering he is not new to speaking to people I guess it was excitement. I like the competition because it ultimatley creates a better product or service for the consumer. I don’t know how I feel about the way the competition is played out but that’s not something that I have the right to decide. Ultimately they are your companies. It cant be hurting business right, other wise you would take a different approach. Anyhow Thanks for the post!
Scott,
I am sorry to see any one working for a firm that makes such a bad announcement, they made an ass of themselves, one lie after another, how could you associate yourself with a bunch like that ??????????????
I was involved in this program from day one and none of the stuff that they are claiming is true, you know it as well as who ever that was involved.
Scott,
I am sorry to see any one working for a firm that makes such a bad announcement, they made an ass of themselves, one lie after another, how could you associate yourself with a bunch like that ??????????????
I was involved in this program from day one and none of the stuff that they are claiming is true, you know it as well as who ever that was involved.
Could you imagine Brad, Wayne or even i making a comment like that, you and everyone of these jokers would have kicked in where sun does not shine.
Could you imagine Brad, Wayne or even i making a comment like that, you and everyone of these jokers would have kicked in where sun does not shine.
Brad,
Stop being a Brian, now you are advertising.
Brad,
Stop being a Brian, now you are advertising.
I couldn´t agree more with Matt… IE has some good ideas, but, IPExpert is out there with many of those “ideas” for a while now! Really… CCIE Blog>_, onlinestudylist, try out IE CoD, than try IPExpert CoD, see the difference?! Blended Learning Solutions is CCIE 2.0 already! When I have a doubt, onlinestudylist solves it quickly! You can check some of my thoughts in this post:
http://cauew.blogspot.com/2008/10/begins-again-internetwork-expert-major.html
Im using IPExpert materials for a while and I must say, IT ROCKS! And Im not the only one out there, check a few blogs and you see for yourself! That doesnt mean Internetwork Expert stuff are bad, but, right now, I really prefer IPX stuff! Thats just my two cents!
I couldn´t agree more with Matt… IE has some good ideas, but, IPExpert is out there with many of those “ideas” for a while now! Really… CCIE Blog>_, onlinestudylist, try out IE CoD, than try IPExpert CoD, see the difference?! Blended Learning Solutions is CCIE 2.0 already! When I have a doubt, onlinestudylist solves it quickly! You can check some of my thoughts in this post:
http://cauew.blogspot.com/2008/10/begins-again-internetwork-expert-major.html
Im using IPExpert materials for a while and I must say, IT ROCKS! And Im not the only one out there, check a few blogs and you see for yourself! That doesnt mean Internetwork Expert stuff are bad, but, right now, I really prefer IPX stuff! Thats just my two cents!
Gang – please post with your real name and email address. Matt – we should look to enforce this – I get pretty annoyed when “anonymous” posts are made – even though we can see their source IP and take a stab at who it is – validated posts by individuals showing their true identity are preferred….
Gang – please post with your real name and email address. Matt – we should look to enforce this – I get pretty annoyed when “anonymous” posts are made – even though we can see their source IP and take a stab at who it is – validated posts by individuals showing their true identity are preferred….
Anon – I can vouch for the fact that Scott does do some consulting work on the side (I think it’s primarily service provider work)…..if that matters….Regarding the other guys – I’m not sure – but in reality – who really cares. This isn’t about “real world experience” – it’s about CCIE training….let’s not lose focus! ;-)
Anon – I can vouch for the fact that Scott does do some consulting work on the side (I think it’s primarily service provider work)…..if that matters….Regarding the other guys – I’m not sure – but in reality – who really cares. This isn’t about “real world experience” – it’s about CCIE training….let’s not lose focus! ;-)
I just dumped the anonymous posts.
I just dumped the anonymous posts.
Wayne,
Few months ago i responded to a post on GS, and Petr, and one of the Brians, i think it was Mcgahan (Sorry for spelling), and a gentleman by name of Tarun (5 CCIEs) were all involved in the post, the subject was route reflectors, and i was responding to the post by saying that no one uses redundant route reflector in the same cluster, but Petr from IE had few hundred pages of comments regarding that, which proved to me that the real life experiance is lacking.
I think an instructor should either have some real world experiance or stay quite when another instructor with experiance makes a comment, because they look rediculusly bad.
Wayne,
Few months ago i responded to a post on GS, and Petr, and one of the Brians, i think it was Mcgahan (Sorry for spelling), and a gentleman by name of Tarun (5 CCIEs) were all involved in the post, the subject was route reflectors, and i was responding to the post by saying that no one uses redundant route reflector in the same cluster, but Petr from IE had few hundred pages of comments regarding that, which proved to me that the real life experiance is lacking.
I think an instructor should either have some real world experiance or stay quite when another instructor with experiance makes a comment, because they look rediculusly bad.
[...] appears that IPExpert has something to say about all this hoopla with IEs big announcement. I did get the impression that the event yesterday [...]
[...] appears that IPExpert has something to say about all this hoopla with IEs big announcement. I did get the impression that the event yesterday [...]
Is it true that ie didn’t got selected by the 360 program? or it just a rumor?
Is it true that ie didn’t got selected by the 360 program? or it just a rumor?