If, like many of us, you didn’t get to sign off to attend VMware PEX in Vegas a few months ago, the upcoming changes to the Partner Competencies for Enterprise and Premier Solution Providers may not have come to your attention yet. Competency and certification changes come into force from 1^st October 2012, with the revenue targets being enforced from 1^st October 2013.

So, hot off the press we have highlighted the more poignant changes. Please be aware the details below are relevant to developing countries within the VMware SP Programme.

Cyber threats are a serious economic and financial challenge facing the US today. Technology is rapidly changing and becoming more sophisticated, yet every day brings new reports of high-profile organizations suffering significant data breaches. These breaches result in access to and loss of vital information causing negative publicity, a lack of trust, a drop in consumer confidence, and lost market share.

The explosion of data, its criticality, and business’ growing dependency on digital information are leading to larger and more complex information storage environments that are increasingly challenging to manage.

IT/storage managers and storage professionals across companies of all sizes face the following mission-critical challenges:

Some of you may have noticed that our blog was inaccessible a few times over the last couple of weeks. Our hosting company experienced a number of server issues that knocked us offline, but hopefully everything is resolved and running again. Thank you for your patience and understanding while we work through these problems!

The terms ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) and IT consumerisation have become part of business jargon as increasing numbers of employees use mobile devices in the workplace. But what are the associated opportunities for mobile learning, and how should L&D professionals seek to maximise these?

Now for the fun part of the project: configuring it for actual operation. The “real” configuration tasks will be reserved for lab exercises, but some initial setup helps things run more smoothly. The tasks involved are as follows:

Have you ever considered how some people may consider security awareness training to be like exercising? Some employees may feel the need to do it because they have to, while others simply do it because it’s the right thing to do. While many companies perform security awareness training, not all do so in a way designed to reap maximum benefits.

There are three generally accepted ways to access equipment for a lab. First, you can rent rack time from a wide number of vendors, which can save on your power bill and simplify practice. Second, for routing platforms, you can use an emulator or simulator, such as Packet Tracer or GNS3. Finally, you can get your own equipment and assemble your own lab, which I think is the best choice. You can utilize spare equipment at work, request some from your local Cisco Users Group, or purchase your own using Craigslist or eBay. Here is a parts list that can make the process straightforward.

Along my journey from CCNA to CCIE, I had to go through the task of periodically building lab environments to give me hands-on experience. This was especially critical in the CCIE Lab, which involved multiple devices, protocols, and tasks to complete. When I first began teaching CCNA courses, I came up with the idea of creating a scaled down version of a lab exam to assist with hands-on learning.

As workplace learning professionals, we help our clients define, design, and develop comprehensive learning strategies that include a very deliberate blend of learning modes. You may be familiar with the 70−20−10 rule of workplace learning which estimates that about 70 per cent of workplace learning takes place on the job, through solving problems and through special assignments or other day-to-day activities. Another 20 per cent occurs through accessing the knowledge of others in the workplace and through support, coaching, and mentoring from managers and colleagues. Only 10 per cent occurs through formal learning, whether classroom, virtually-facilitated, or eLearning.