VoIP Technologist Certifies Expertise in Fast-Growing Industry

Almost four years ago Dave Goodwin joined a Cisco team supporting new technologies. Today his years of experience with voice over IP are hard to match.

Four years ago Dave Goodwin, CCIE #4992 in R&S, was on the scene of a major paradigm shift in the IT industry--though he may not have known it at the time. This technical support engineer was just looking for a challenge to keep his career interesting when, in mid-1999, he discovered an opportunity in Cisco's multiservice team. The group assisted early-adopter customers implementing a range of emerging networking solutions. As a certified CCIE in R&S, Dave joined the multiservice team, and was exposed to many new technologies, quickly adding to his knowledge base.

Eventually Dave was assigned to work on a product that became the foundation for Cisco CallManager, a key application for managing enterprise telephony solutions on a packet-based network. He had the feeling he had gotten in on the ground floor of something that really appealed to him. Currently Dave serves as escalation manager in the Voice technology team, working with customers on longer term development and trouble-shooting issues. His seniority working with CallManager distinguishes him as one of the foremost technical experts in VoIP at Cisco, but that wasn't enough for Dave. Looking beyond his current role, he wanted tangible proof of his skill and expertise in the voice industry.

"It's not just early adopters anymore-- it's all vertical markets. Even insurance companies and financial service firms are implementing VoIP networks. It's a very exciting time for this technology."

In March 2003 Dave registered to take the CCIE Voice written exam. As might be expected, he passed easily and began to study for the subsequent CCIE lab exam. Even for an expert, the voice lab proved challenging. Reports Dave, "I can confidently say the people who pass this exam are experts in implementing enterprise voice communications over Cisco IP networks. The exam is definitely high-quality and comparable to the difficulty of other CCIE exams."

Dave believes that achieving his CCIE in Voice validates his expertise to his managers and others in the voice industry. Whatever his future holds, Dave will have the CCIE Voice certification as proof of his skill and mastery in this field. He also believes the shift to IP-based telephony is very real. "All the telephony vendors are getting involved now," he explains. "It's not just early adopters anymore--it's all vertical markets. Even insurance companies and financial service firms are implementing VoIP networks. It's a very exciting time for this technology."

Dave offers some advice for CCIE Voice candidates and notes that, like other CCIE exams, it is possible to be an accomplished technologist and still fail, unless you manage your exam time extremely well. He suggests candidates take a moment to reread the question and make sure they understand it before forging ahead on their solution. Dave notes that the Voice exam is unlike the R&S exam in that it is less about network connections and more about higher layers in the OSI model. "You spend a lot more time working with CallManager, Unity and other PC-centric applications," he explains. Dave also encourages those who fail the exam to take heart and try again. "Once you become familiar with the exam format and how the networks are laid out, you will be significantly better prepared than the first time around."

October 2003