3WsCertification.com-Training

Clients interested in onsite classes, please feel free to contact me at 3WsCertification.com. I am open to working with most companies and schools on the East Coast within a 2 day drive of my home. If you do not see a class scheduled that you are interested in please contact me directly.

The public announcement for this program will be published on InformIT.com in March/April 2008.

One course/program that I have proposed to several schools and publishers is "Designing and Administering an Integrated Network". A book proposal for this title was submitted to Novell Press in '06 just before they went through a round of budget cuts.

This course/program would require students to design, configure, implement and administer a real-world enterprise network that consists of NetWare, Microsoft, and Linux/UNIX servers and workstations, Cisco appliances, remote access solutions, and wireless devices. This program would take a student through introductory skills and concepts required to manage each of these platforms as well as have them incorporate products such as ZENWorks, Identity Manager, an e-mail solution and finally an SQL solution that would make distribution of data and applications manageable. Incorporated in this network would be a Web server, a Proxy Server, a NAT solution, a DNS and DHCP solution and a firewall.

Depending on the time available this could be a single course, or a program leading towards a degree, i.e. multiple courses with the final project being the development, design and configuration of a working enterprise.

If a vendor were interested, this could be a vendor-based certification, or an "open-source", "Multi-vendor/platform" certification, leading to a Master level designation. Some would say this is overkill, but those are the folks who have not looked at HR requirements for recent Network Engineer, System Engineer type jobs. This type of curriculum and their associated certifications and potential degree are what is being asked for in the IT market place. It just does not exist. Not in a way that if you hire someone with a single certification/degree you are assured that that person has the qualifications and hands-on experience necessary to do the job in an enterprise. This degree/certification guarantees that the person will have the needed skills and knowledge. The certification or degree could be called "Master of Integrated Networking."

A possible degree/certification/certificate program might consist of the following courses and assessments:

(Prerequisite: Either the A+ and NET+ certifications, or equivalent documented knowledge and experience. Could be validated with an online assessment.)

Students would graduate with a possible degree, multiple vendor certifications, a Master Level Certification/Certificate, and real-world experience in an Integrated, Enterprise Networking Environment.

Those who might be interested in such a course/program, feel free to contact me at 3WsCertification.com. I will be glad to work with Colleges, Universities, Vendors and/or Training Partners to change the face of the IT Training and Certification Industry.

This program has been presented to and is being consider by Florida State University's College of Information. It is also being presented to the wider community through an upcoming article on InformIT.com. It should be published in Q1 2008.

It has been reviewed by Emmett Dulaney in the August 2007 edition of Redmond Magazine. The review is called The Need for an Integration Certification. That review and Emmett's constructive comments can be found Here. My thanks to Emmett and Redmond Magazine for taking the time to review and present this proposal to the wider IT community. Any and all comments are welcome. Feel free to contact me at:

For the most up-to-date, official proposal for this program please contact me at the above email address.

Several suggestions that have come in since the review was published in Redmond Magazine and that I am seriously considering include the following:

Include a section dealing with networking Macintosh computers
Include a section dealing with virtualization and VMWare- might be creating a test lab using VMWare
Include a section on PMP
Include a section on Oracle
Remove the section on ZENWorks
Remove the section on Identity Manager
Include a section on Network Troubleshooting
Include a section on Installing and Configuring a Blackberry Server
Include a section on Web Conferencing
Comments from an Instructor in the UK:
- Yes this type of certification is needed. I thought Novell was going there with the CDE.
- Fits more in to academia rather than commercial training. Commercial training is more related to job roles. ... A student though will want this type of training so they would be able to apply for a range of jobs and also be assured of their skills learning the many IT disciplines.
- Vendor neutral is good, but products like IDM and Zenworks Configuration Management could be included as they are platform and directory agnostic.
- I think covering both GW and Exchange is good, a real comparison thatmany techies never get to see; however maybe IBM's Lotus Notes /Domino server should be in here to help support for IBM
- Web Services throws a spanner in the works as we move from administration into development. Admins should have some dev skills such as vbscript, bash scripting etc but the practical side of style sheets and xml do not fall into admin.
- I would agree with adding in virtualization