If you are an IT professional who wants to validate the expert-level skills and knowledge of complex collaboration solutions, the Cisco CCIE Collaboration certification is the perfect choice for you. To obtain this certificate, the potential candidates are required to pass two exams, which include one written test and one lab exam. Thus, it is possible to evaluate both your technical and practical skills to ensure that you will be able to deal with almost any task related to collaboration technologies. This means that you should go through the entire network lifecycle and know how to design, deploy, operate, and optimize.

To be eligible for this certification path, you don’t need to follow specific tasks other than passing the qualification exams. However, the vendor recommends that you have 5-7 years of experience with collaboration technologies and solutions. Besides that, you must gain a good understanding of the topics covered by the prerequisite tests if you want to clear them successfully.

Exam Details

To prove that you are able to implement and operate Cisco collaboration core technologies, you need to start with the Cisco 350-801 exam. This is a 120-minute written test of the path that focuses on your knowledge of collaboration infrastructure. You will be given about 100 multiple-choice questions in English that you need to clear to get the passing score. The exam contains the following topics that you must master before going for it:

• Infrastructure & Design – To be able to answer the questions from this subject area, you are required to have knowledge of DNS and SNMP as well as know how to support Cisco collaboration solutions. Knowing about the key design elements of disaster recovery, licensing, bandwidth, QoS, and so on is important as well. If you know how to configure different network components, you will succeed for sure;
• Codecs, Endpoints, and Protocols – The next topic is all about troubleshooting DTMF, SDP, and collaboration endpoints. You should also be able to identify the needed collaboration codecs and configure codec negotiations. Moreover, the potential candidates should have the skills in deploying SIP endpoints;
• Cisco IOS XE Gateway – As for this domain, it covers the details of the configuration of MGCP, DTMF, dial peers, ISDN PRI/BRI, codec preference list, as well as voice translation rules & profiles. It is also vital to know how to identify the proper media resources and perform the troubleshooting procedure when necessary;
• Call Control – This part evaluates your skills in implementing toll fraud prevention as well as configuring globalized call routing. Besides that, you have to know about Cisco Unified Communications Manager, MRA, and various route patterns;
• QoS – The questions from this section include the information about the class models needed for providing QoS on a network, QoS trust boundaries, LLQ, poor quality of video or voice, and CAC bandwidth requirements that are based on location;
• Collaboration Apps – If talking about the last objective, it is important to mention that you should gain the skills in configuring the Cisco Unity Connection SIP integration options, call handlers, and mailbox. The students should also know about the Cisco Jabber deployment on premises.

The second test of this expert-level certification is a hands-on lab exam that is 8 hours long. It validates your practical skills and proves that you know how to deploy, operate, or optimize.

Further Career Path

The expert-level certificates can be difficult to obtain because of the number of steps you need to take. However, getting the Cisco CCIE Collaboration certification is a sure way to make yourself known and noticeable for the role you prefer among all the candidates in the market. It can also be a good reason to ask for a better salary or promotion. If you maintain the status of your certificate and renew it every 3 years, you will be able to demonstrate the latest skills and relevancy to have all the possible benefits alongside the evolvement of your career.