Cisco's worldwide Routing and Switching CCIE count falls by -48

For the first time since 2000, Cisco's coveted and prestigious R&S CCIE track is in decline.

By Brad Reese on Wed, 12/02/09 - 1:25am.

This month, George Morton - Dual CCIE #18532 Routing and Switching/Security, provides his analysis of Cisco's new worldwide CCIE count:

"The December Cisco CCIE count shows that the new CCIE R/S test is slowing down the number of successful candidates, however, the Security numbers are growing again now that Cisco's new test has been out for a while. Meanwhile, Service Provider is now the fastest growing track. Nonetheless, over the past 37 days, the worldwide CCIE count grew by just 18 new CCIEs.

"A month ago I spoke with the Director of the Cisco CCIE program. When you see Cisco's worldwide CCIE count it equals:

"(Active + Suspended) – Inactive = Count

"Active: A CCIE who has passed the Lab and/or has passed the Written within two years of the anniversary of passing the Lab.

"Suspended: A CCIE who has passed the Lab but has not passed the Written within the two year anniversary of passing the Lab.

"Inactive: A CCIE who passed the Lab, but has not passed the Written in over three years of the anniversary date of the Lab. These CCIEs are no longer in the count (to become included in the count again, they would have to pass both the Written test and Lab from scratch).

"China was down again for the second time. Cisco swears that's not so, but I'm just using the numbers from Cisco's web site.

"The bottom-line:

"Cisco's CCIE count is sliding downward.

"Why?

"I can only guess.

"New testing, world economy, and perhaps the most dangerous one for Cisco:

"No one cares that much about IP."

October 2009 vs. November 2009 Worldwide CCIE Count Comparison: