Instant Answers, Increased Knowledge Just Some of the Reasons for Attending Cisco Users Conference

BY RHONDA RAIDER

Send me details about Networkers 2003!

When Packet® investigated the reasons people attend networkers, Cisco's premier technical users conference, the responses didn't lack for variety. Networkers attendees responding to our inquiries hailed from around the world -- which is fitting, considering that Networkers conferences are held in Asia, Europe, and North and South America throughout the year. Attendees work in education, government, enterprises, and service provider organizations. For some, 2002 marked their first Networkers show, while others have been attending for years. What they share is a conviction that Networkers helps them do their jobs better. "Networkers is like a [US]$15,000 training class," says Jason Aarons of iReadyWorld, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based company that provides outsourced management of Cisco packet telephony solutions. "Where else can you learn so much about so many topics in such a short time? There were days I was up at 6 a.m. and engaged until midnight. Didn't want to miss out on any good stuff!"

Why They Come: Results!

"I lean toward sessions with content I can take back and use immediately," says Greg Swafford, network operations analyst for Costco Wholesale in Issaquah, Washington. Swafford attended the Large-Scale Deployment of CiscoWorks2000 technology session to learn how to split up the various CiscoWorks2000 applications. He wasted no time: the first day back he met with his team to discuss implementing CiscoWorks2000 in a distributed fashion for the company's 400 sites.

Aarons, too, came to Networkers 2002 with an immediate mission: to learn multicasting. After attending Implementing IP Multicast, Troubleshooting Multicast, and Advanced Multicast, he was prepared to roll out multicast to all the sites that iReadyWorld manages. "When we deploy multicast, our clients will put someone on hold, and the music-on-hold feature will take up less bandwidth," he says. Aarons also attended the Birds of a Feather Carrier Routing session and follow-up evening sessions to get ideas for advanced dial-plan design. The reward was immediate. "In our existing dial plan structure, we were able to reduce the number of tasks to create a new tenant in an office building, reducing our time to market," he says.

Learning more about security was the chief goal for Wilson Trahan of Landata Systems in Houston, Texas. "After attending the Security technology sessions, I was able to show my peers why and how we should implement a separate VLAN [virtual LAN] for management," he says. "Networkers greatly improved my confidence in designing and implementing solid, sound solutions for my client Stewart Title and its many affiliates." That same confidence-building was experienced on the other side of the world by Takayuki Osabe, of Matsushita Graphic Communication Systems. "I attended Networkers Tokyo to improve my network design skills," says Osabe. "I now have a much higher level of knowledge about troubleshooting switches and routers."

Other attendees came with a longer-term view. "When I attended Networkers 2001 in Las Vegas, I went with the intent of answering questions about my company's current projects," says Kevin Brown, senior data systems engineer for Sprint, Jefferson City, Missouri. "This year I spent more time looking at technologies I'll be using in the future. I wanted to get as much available information as possible to enable my preparation." Brown attended the all-day Power Session on Building an End-to-End IP Telephony Network. "Most customers are used to how things work in the traditional telephony world and want to preserve those traditional features as closely as possible. Additionally, since the design models are changed in the IP telephony world, the knowledge gained will enable me to assist Sprint's customers in the transition." Brown also came away from Networkers with an immediate project: he implemented a hybrid wireless solution based on what he learned during the Deploying and Managing Wireless LANs session.

"Networkers greatly improved my confidence in designing and implementing solid, sound solutions for my client Stewart Title . . . ."

-- Wilson Trahan, Senior WAN Engineer, Landata Systems

At 21, Tim Reid, network administrator for the City of Weatherford, Texas, is the youngest of the attendees Packet interviewed and a graduate of the Cisco Networking Academy™, which he attended in 1999 as a high school senior. Reid came to Networkers 2002 to learn how to implement a Cisco IP telephony solution to replace the city's aging traditional phone system. His schedule included Designing IP-Based Managed Voice and Video Services, Troubleshooting IP Telephony Networks in Campus Environments, and Advanced Dial-Plan Design for IP Telephony. Reid also took advantage of the Design Clinic to discuss how to provide secure wireless access for the City of Weatherford's police officers at the station. "The most helpful aspects of Networkers were the breakout training sessions and new product demos," he says.

"Awesome Finds"

For some attendees, Networkers 2002 provided answers to elusive questions. Glenn Allison, network engineer at W.W. Grainger in Chicago, Illinois, had for some time puzzled over a problem relating to using netconfig for his company's 500 devices. He found the answer during the Deploying CiscoWorks2000 in Enterprise Environments session. "The instructors were familiar with the problem and offered a patch. I applied it as soon as I got back, and it worked," he reports. "It was an awesome find."

Many such finds are discovered in Networkers Design Clinics, where Cisco engineers stand ready to hash out attendees' design problems over a whiteboard. Chris Widmer, vice principal of technology for the Monmouth County Vocational School District in Colts Neck, New Jersey, needed information about the Cisco PIX® Firewall feature set, which his school district loads on its router instead of on a separate device. "I sketched what we had, and the systems engineer helped me figure out what we needed to do. It was the best 20 minutes I spent that day. Ordinarily we would have had to hire a consultant to get that kind of information and focus."

Deanne Cranford, director of Cisco programs at Davenport University in Warren, Michigan, took advantage of the Design Clinic for help with the University's TACACS+ server. "Design Clinic had different techs for every problem," says Cranford. "They quickly diagnosed that we had the wrong application software running on the server and incorrect software on the client. The engineers sketched a design and explained to me what CiscoWorks software should be installed on the client."

Brown spent an hour at the Design Clinic discussing the relative merits of two Cisco products. "Some under-the-cover details helped me make the choice," he says. "It's so much easier to talk to a specialist face-to-face, with a whiteboard between us, than to describe a situation over the phone." An attendee of Networkers Bolivia agrees. "The ability to interact with the Cisco technical staff who develops equipment, protocols, and applications is unprecedented in our area," says Rodolfo Delgado, head of information technology for Banco de Credito in Bolivia. "During the three days we received an impressive amount of information that will be very valuable for projects we have planned."

For Trahan, the Design Clinic was the perfect forum to resolve an issue relating to how traffic flowed from the Internet through the Cisco PIX Firewall to the DMZ. "The design guy confirmed for me that I had to use separate interfaces for traffic flowing in and out," he says. "It was good to get confirmation on my own conclusion."

And then there were the product demos, a popular feature at all Networker shows. According to Kim Jae Suk, a Networkers Seoul attendee who works for Hanaro Telecom in Seoul, "The best part of Networkers is the opportunity to learn from the best Cisco engineers and to gain first-hand experience with the latest systems at the demo booths."

Networking Academy

Three interviewees are educators and look forward each year to the Cisco Networking Academy sessions for advance notification of program changes. "The Networking Academy sessions at Networkers are becoming critical to those of us training the next generation of LAN and WAN professionals," says Kevin Shaffer, assistant professor at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas. Shaffer attends to learn about new directions in the CCNA® and CCNP® programs. "Technology changes so rapidly that I have to change my department equally rapidly. Networkers helps me plan as far in advance in possible." After this year's Networkers, Shaffer decided to offer preparation courses for the Cisco Security Specialist certification in addition to CCNP and CCDP courses.

Widmer, who has attended three Networkers, looks forward to the Academy Update session. "To stay current, I review 50 trade magazines, but how do you filter the information that's important to you? Networkers helps us figure out what we should focus on. What I learn from Networkers I use on a daily basis to make my life easier as a network administrator and educational administrator."

Cranford agrees, "Knowing about the changes in the certification prepares us to update our curriculum and retool our instructors and students. It also enables us to prepare line items to budget equipment changes that may occur because of curriculum enhancements. Networkers keeps us on the cutting edge of technology and what we need to know as instructors." Cranford also left Networkers with some ideas for improving retention by offering a tutorial program and getting internships for her students. "Some of the other attendees had partnered with area businesses," she says. "That's a great idea we might not have investigated if we hadn't heard it from another attendee."

Lasting Effects

The knowledge and connections gained at Networkers advance careers. For example, Swafford has been in the networking field for a relatively short time and yet holds a senior position in his department, an accomplishment he attributes in part to Networkers. "It's a strength of mine to quickly pick up how things work," he says. "Networkers is a perfect learning forum for me because I really enjoy learning about diverse technology rather than going to a class on one specific subject. If I can deal with problems on my own and don't have to escalate them, my managers definitely notice."

"At Networkers, I'm not only exposed to Cisco technology, but to the technology that everyone else is trying to implement."

-- Toan Nguyen, Principal Technical Staff, AT&T

Jung Kook Kwon, a senior engineer at Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) who attended Networkers Seoul, comments, "All the things I learned at Networkers can be applied to real-life work situations. The technology sessions made it possible to actually implement switches and routers."

Where Swafford and Kwon are hands-on professionals, Toan Nguyen, of AT&T in Lake Mary, Florida, is a strategist: a network architect responsible for custom offerings. Networkers 2002 marked Nguyen's fourth Networkers conference. "Every time I go there's something new for me to learn. That's invaluable for me because I'm a planner. I need to expose myself to technologies that I might not be aware of. If it's of interest, I ask our Cisco account rep for more detailed information." Nguyen came to Networkers 2002 to learn about rapid provisioning using the Cisco Internet OSS, the Cisco Content Delivery Network, and using Cisco Long-Reach Ethernet for the hospitality market. Especially valuable were Introduction to Content Networking and Principles of Protocols of Content Networks. "This information is helping me plan a solution we can sell to universities and governments," he says.

Nguyen adds, "At Networkers, I'm not only exposed to Cisco technology, but to the technology that everyone else is trying to implement. This helps me make sure we're remaining competitive." This theme, being prepared for future directions in networking, was expressed by many interviewees, including Sergio Lopez Figueroa, who works for Pemex, Mexico's state-run oil company, and attended Networkers Mexico. "Networkers improved my understanding of the new landscape for networking applications," he says.

Many attendees take advantage of the free certification testing available while at Networkers. Shaffer, for example, has taken the CCNP and CCDP exams. "By taking the exams at Networkers I can brush up and review, and save a little money in the process." Norimasa Ota successfully completed the CCNP exam at Networkers Tokyo. "Networkers helps me brush up on my systems engineering skills," he says. Costco's Swafford took his CCDA® exam at Networkers 2001, and this year took his CCIE® written portion. Allison attended the all-day CCIE Power Session in preparation for the written exam. The high-level overview, he says, sparked his interest in different areas to dig down and study.

Relationship Building

The opportunity to meet other people at Networkers is also helpful, as Trahan points out: "I came to share and to build relationships with our Cisco account team, Cisco partners, and my peers." One of the ways Trahan made contacts was by visiting the World of Solutions, where Cisco and its partners exhibit. "At Networkers you can get very recent information that's not yet available on partners' Web sites," he notes. "That was great!"

Aarons notes that he especially enjoyed the product sessions held during the Tuesday night technology evening. "We met people doing similar network projects and heard their ideas for deploying new products in ways we hadn't thought of. At Networkers we trade business cards, swap ideas, and have fun, too." Regarding the latter, Aarons notes that the iReadyWorld's team was first in line for the keynote address by US General Chuck Yeager, and subsequently received autographs from General Yeager.

"Networkers is a great place to interact with peers and other instructors," says Cranford. "I've made wonderful friends from across the world who e-mail each other when we have a networking problem. I use Networkers as a source for doing the best job I can." Her fellow educator Widmer echoes the sentiment. "I could do research from the Web and by asking questions of Cisco systems engineers, but it's much easier to ask questions at the Design Clinics and Networking After Hours. That's where people take off their ties, roll up their sleeves, and chat. It's amazing what you learn over pretzels and soda."

Gear Up for Next Year

The end of one Networkers signals preparation for the next. "I'm already starting to write down new questions so I can bring them to Design Clinic for the next Networkers," says Cranford.

Trahan sums up the attendees' feedback, "It was a full three days for me and I loved it! My Cisco Networkers conference badge is still sitting here on my desk, and I'm still fired up."

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