Couldn’t choose a headline so I’ll call it a tie!

I’m having a hard time deciding if Cisco’s new Certified Design Expert (CCDE) certification is a good idea. Maybe you folks can help me out.

Rolled out a little more than a week ago, the CCDE is described as being parallel to the CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert) in terms of difficulty and experience. But, in this new structure, Cisco views CCIEs as being predominantly about implementation.

The CCDE, on the other hand, will be responsible for planning and designing those solutions. So they need to be really up on things like technology trends, scalability, organizational issues, and compliance requirements.

“It’s like the chef versus the cook,” explained Cisco Certification Portfolio Manager, David Bump.

In other words, the CCDE will figure out how the IT infrastructure needs to be changed. The CCIE will then go do it – or tell somebody else to do it.

David is a good guy, and he was very patient while I worked-him-over incessantly on what seemed like the same question. But I’d always thought that high-end IT strategy development was what the CCIEs were all about. I’m sure they get their hands dirty too, but most of the grunt work has got to be done by people lower on the certification org chart. Isn’t that true? Because CCIEs are expensive.

“The CCIEs have been telling us that they no longer do the hands-on implementation,” Bump explained. “They’ve moved into this architectural role, and we needed to develop an assessment that establishes the minimum qualifications for an expert-level architect.”

Okay, I can agree with the need for minimum qualifications. But does that require a whole new certification, or does it merely require an adjustment to the CCIE curriculum to reflect the emerging “chef” role that they’re migrating towards.

Technology trends and issues related to scalability and legacy equipment, and even organizational issues are things that CCIEs should have well in-hand. They’ve probably been forced to tackle compliance issues too. But that’s probably one area where the curriculum might need to be adjusted to better meet the needs of a changing industry.

All of this would be a question of semantics if the Cisco channel program weren’t so complex. I’ve long advocated good reasons for that complexity. But because that complexity is there, Cisco needs to be very judicious about adding new moving parts to the program. The good news is that CCIE and CCDE are interchangeable from a channel requirements standpoint, which will make it easier for integrators to manage. But my interview with Cisco also left me some question that this will continue to be the case.

Cisco’s slideware also says the CCIEs and CCDEs are peers, given that they’re both Expert-level. That may be true on the org chart. But I think anybody who has the authority to draft a set of instructions for you to follow is, in fact, your boss!

From a marketing standpoint, I find this disturbing.

CCIE is a great brand! In the human hierarchy I always thought they ranked somewhere between Jesus and John Lennon. But now they’re going to have others (probably ex-CCIEs) telling them what to do? Hmmmm. What does that do to that great, technical kingpin brand?

Bump says the arrival of CCDEs is good for CCIEs because the CCIEs can now focus on all that dirt-under-the-fingernails stuff that they’d rather be doing. That’s not ringing true for me.

Am I wrong?? I know there are a lot of CCIEs who read the Subnet. What do you think?