The world we have built, CCIE Journey, 20 years Life time Emeritus

It struck me when i realized its been 20 years since i got my CCIE on Dec 18 2003. Time flies, i was bestowed with the number 12680. It became my identify ever since.

Trust me, i wanted to get a number below 10,000 but work, and building a lab took a long time with new changing requirements. And then most importantly, it was not easy to pass CCIE lab. All of you who are reading this, know how much dedication and multiple attempts it might take to get a CCIE certification. Did i hear 8% passing rate? 😉

Anyways, After graduating with engineering and getting my first job with a Cisco partner, all i wanted was to pass my CCIE lab. My friends who i owe a lot, Atif Awan, Rizwan Afzal and Ibrahim Malick, contributed immensely in taking me along this journey. 

I still remember when i first saw a cat 1900 24 port switch, a Cisco 4000 and Cisco 2911 routers with async ports. I was in an awe... logging into the console port, it was a technological marvel, excitement is hardly a word i  will define to explain how i felt. There was so much to do and so much to learn on IOS console. When i look back i can see myself changing encapsulation from HDLC to PPP,  reading books to understand how OSI model operated. Configuring T1, T3 interfaces, multi-point, point to point, frame relay and ISDN BRI and PRIs, and many more......... soon my fingers felt like typing at million key strokes a second. Console became my life, my brain got this instant gratification as i syntax-ed every letter. The more i did, the more i wanted, i was hooked for life, at least that's what i thought.

And then in a true geeky fashion, lets talk about layer 3 protocols, my first configuration of RIP v1, IGRP, and progression to OSPF and BGP and MPBGP. is the peering done? Damn let me check if the neighbors are up ??? arrrghhh, was my growl if you they were still not up...  My jokes were weird, "Don't hit debug ip packet" first thing i will tell a new network engineer.😀

In between, I quickly went from CCNA and CCNP tracks with lab practice and reading Cisco Press books, till i got to the bible of all, Bruce Caslow's and Jeff Doyles CCIE books  ( i am writing all this from 20 year old memory).

After my CCIE, and what a dream it is for a tech person, a Solution architect position with my own network engineering Team.

Big opportunities came after every certification leading to CCIE...... Optical boxes, 15454s, BPXs 8600, IGX, ATM backbone with atm aal5snap with PVCs for voice and data traffic, getting into nexus architectures, Cisco 7200,7600, ASR routers, Service profiles on UCS. Voice gateways, Wireless AP, Call manager 3.x and unity voicemail, and then came ISE 1.x configuration, you all know what i mean when i say lets setup ISE 1.x  ;) .....

Looking back, all of you helped me to get to this point, directly or indirectly, so many unsung Heroes are behind this number.

I dedicate this CCIE 20 year anniversary and Emeritus status to all of you. The Distinguished engineers who wrote/created the protocols, the engineers who created the HW. The business leaders who conceived how to operationalize protocols into products, .... the partners who worked with Cisco in proliferating the technology. AnD for sure" The visionaries" who brought the world together through IP protocol. 

 Let 12680 be your success and lets rejoice on how we have all brought the world together. Thank you Cisco, Thank you for creating such a marvelous company, an ecosystem, " The bridge to possible"