Mission accomplished : Passed IPS!

Lizano

Today my friends, I finally obtained my CCSP or CCNP Security whatever Cisco wants to call me. Man, it was a long journey, when I started I thought it would take me a year. My work life had it go otherwise, had to spend too much time working on other technologies and learning other stuff and did not have time to study, and not working directly with ASAs and IPSs made it tough. Why would you go for a CCSP if you don't even work with that stuff some may ask? Well, networking is not just a job, it's a lifestyle. My line of thought was, get good at something you like, prove you are good, then somebody will hire you to do it. And if has kind of worked, now, thanks to my studies beside my full time job I also consult for some customers with ASAs and other Security equipment.

Getting a "P" level certification is commonly a 1 year journey for many, I thought it would be for me too when I started this path, I also thought I had chosen a specific path that I would work on, that I would become a Security expert and never have to think about voip or BGP or other stuff. Boy, did life teach me otherwise, during these 3 years I had to pause my studies many times to stay competitive at my new job and learn to deal with servers, learn voip, learn bgp and then find some time in between to continue what I had started, reading books, working without charge in exchange for access to a customer's CBT Nuggets, and paying gigavelocity for rack rentals. Today, that path is complete, it was long and tough and had failures ( http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccnp-security/68566-failed-ips.html ), but that only makes me enjoy it more.

Profile update: CCSP! Yoohoo! Man...I'm more excited than I thought I would be when this day came!

Version4

Congrats!

Thanks for sharing your path to success.

Besides CBT Nuggets, what other material did you use for the CCSP?

alan2308

Congrats!

Bl8ckr0uter

Epic man! What's up next? Any plans on doing the CCNP?

instant000

Congrats!

I had started a thread for this, but school got in the way. The Master's takes up so much time right now. After I get everything sorted with better time management due to the increased workload of the classes (haven't figured it out yet after a couple months) then I can get back on the bandwagon. It's a tougher road than some might think, considering especially lots of people don't use Cisco IPS at work, though they might get to use ASA's for some things.

nicklauscombs

Big big big congrats!

docrice

I've been in "IPS" mode lately (not specifically Cisco) and I had a possible chance to evaluate one of their appliances recently. Had to turn it down though since my organization's evaluation window was coming to a close. Could you provide your opinion on what I'm missing out on compared to the other IPS vendors?

I'd like to complete the CCNP Security journey one day, but my time at the moment is extremely limited for such an endeavour.

Lizano

Thanks to all for the Congrats. Short term I really dont have plans to go for the CCNP, I want to take the pen test course at elearnsecurity.com.

@docrice: Well, I'm not too familiar with other devices other than Fortinet and Cisco. The Cisco IPS does have some sweet features, its pretty solid, but I've also heard the price tag is extremely expensive. It does handle regular expressions fairly well, and the remote blocking capabilites and the ability to forward block requests to a master sensor is pretty cool.