The word “update” hardly describes the process that is associated with updating the DCUCD v3.0 and DCUCI v3.0 courses to their respective v4.0 existence. There are considerable differences between the updated courses and their previous incarnations—enough to warrant an overview of those changes.
For Students:
1. Prelearning
2. New Cisco Unified Computing System products
As the body of knowledge associated with the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) expanded from its birth in late 2009 through to today, the 5-day instructor-led course format quickly overflowed with need-to-know information. We chose to address this with web-based prelearning. For the DCUCD v4.0 and DCUCI v4.0 courses, this involved the addition of the Virtualization 101 web-based course, which the student is expected to complete before attending the instructor-led course. The learning partner will provide access to these upon registration. For the updated DCUCI course, an additional web-based prelearning program, called DCUCI-ELT, provides much of the static product information that would otherwise consume precious time in the instructor-led course. This shift of content into the prelearning format will allow adequate time for the instructor value-add curriculum. The first lesson in the DCUCI v4.0 course will be a review of the essentials discussed in the web-based prelearning content.
The new materials include the UCS-C series rack mount servers and cover the multiple new options available in both UCS B and C series systems. The solution-level labs have been updated to more effectively implement the Nexus 1000V with VSphere 4.1 on the UCS, as well as the latest adapter cards enabling virtualized Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). Finally, a broader hypervisor and application perspective has been taken by adding Hyper-V and Citrix to VMWare ESX. Cisco Validated Design documents and applications have also been added to the evaluation components of the DCUCD v4.0 curriculum.
For the Learning Partner:
1. Special Practice end-of-life (EOL)
2. Lab environment
The first release of these courses mandated that Cisco provide the delivery lab environment, which limited the number of learning partners that could be supported. A “Special Practice” was devised to implement this, and it has been scheduled to EOL on May 30 because the learning partner community has stepped up to providing the delivery labs since that time.
The UCS lab provider environment has been evolving rapidly—expect more news to come regarding lab services from Partners and Cisco alike in the future.
For more information please review the Data Center Specialist Certifications page.
By: Vince Wilkins
