When the CCIE was incepted in 1993 it was an entirely different test than it was today. The 1993 era test went incredibly deep into the intricacies of Cisco IOS and Routing/Switching protocols, which makes the test today seem almost surface level. This statement makes some “modern CCIEs” cringe as if it means they didn’t work as hard to get their number. The truth of the matter is the test, in my opinion, did not get easier but instead changed how the difficulty is implemented.
The first way the difficulty changed is that the test got wider. The massive overhaul of CCIE R/S to CCIE Enterprise was not just a “rebrand”, but a redesign of scope. While we used to be tested 1000 miles deep on just routing and switching, we are now tested 400 miles deep on R/S, 150 miles deep on Software defined Infrastructure, 100 miles deep on automation and programmability, and 150 miles deep on design.
This diagram is an example and not in-line with actual exam blueprint percentages.
This may seem like these changes makes the test easier, but in fact, there is hidden complexity in increasing the width of the exam. When the scope increases we also fall victim to the interaction surface between these technologies widening. A good analogy to think of when you are trying to envision this is n(n-1)/2, or the formula to calculate the amount of links in a full-mesh network. Every item you add that widens the blueprint has the potential to interact with every existing blueprint item in some way.
We now have to think about interaction surfaces that were not possible when the exam was limited to routing and switching. A good example of this would be L3 handoff between SD-Access and cEdge devices. This is an entire topic on the blueprint that simply represents the interaction surface between two SDx technologies.
More notable examples of interaction surface complexity include interaction between:
- Traditional routing protocols and SD-WAN overlay (OMP)
- Python and device REST APIs
- SD-WAN and traditional transports
- Network controllers (DNA-C, ISE, vManage) and network devices
- Guestshell and the underlying device
These are just few of the newly introduced interaction surfaces unlocked with the Enterprise blueprint. Each one of these instances chips away at the argument that the CCIE Enterprise “isn’t as tough” as the Route and Switch exam once was.
As with most of technology, the complexity resides in the interaction between protocols more than within the protocols themselves.