Paul Tatum, CCIE #26866

I am happy to report that several months of waking up at 3 AM to study before work have paid off: I passed my CCIE Service Provider lab exam yesterday at RTP! This is my second CCIE certification, having already obtained Routing & Switching last September. It?s funny because it was the inclusion of MPLS VPNs on the Routing & Switching blueprint really peaked my interest about the Service Provider track. Since I had used INE's awesome Routing & Switching material I decided to purchase the Service Provider bundle as well. Of all the material I had at my disposal the Advanced Technology Classes were the most valuable preparation tool by far. The in-depth lectures about the technology and subsequent walkthroughs really help me to understand not just how to configure something, but why. Even though the videos were based on the version 2 blueprint (until just earlier this week when the version 3 material was released) it didn?t matter so much because as Brian always preaches: it?s the foundational knowledge that is most important. Because of my foundational knowledge of the core topics on the lab exam, I was able to pick up the material updated on the version 3 blueprint with relative ease. Additionally INE?s blogs and the IEOC community were great resources as well, and I can?t thank everyone enough whose contributions helped me to pass. To give back to the community I will post a detailed (but not too detailed of course) report on my lab experience and preparation on IEOC in the near future. Thanks to INE for providing me with the materials and resources I needed to obtain not one but two CCIE certifications! Paul Tatum, CCIE #26866 Routing & Switching / Service Provider