On October 25, 2004 Cisco announced a new CCIE specialization in Storage Networking. This announcement shocked the networking world because nobody previously cared about storage networking. Few topics are as boring as storage networking, but if you can get a CCIE in it, it must be great! Most people remember when Cisco announced the CCIE DESIGN specialty only to later change their mind. Before you decide to dedicate your life to storage networking, it might be prudent to wait a few weeks and see if it’s for real. Since the CCIE/Storage seems like the answer to a question no one was asking, we decided to seek out a celebrity with the same attributes. We selected mega-skank Paris Hilton because, like the CCIE/Storage program, she’s here but nobody knows why. Ladies and Gentlemen, Paris Hilton!



Paris’s empty head at perfect 22.5° angle

 

 

 

 

 


Paris’s vacuous head assumes
a perfect 45° angle

 

 

 

 

 


Paris is able to dangle her
nonsensical noggin  at an
astonishing 38° angle!

RouterGod Magazine
Welcome Miss Hilton, thank you for agreeing to explain the new CCIE/Storage program to us.  First off, what is storage networking all about?

Paris Hilton
Storage networking is a patchwork quilt of protocols and technologies that do many things, including speeding up disaster recovery and improving perfomance.

RouterGod Magazine
Wow, you’re smarter than you look!  A *lot* smarter!  No kidding!  Anyway, give us an example of these protocols you speak of.

Paris Hilton
Well, iSCSI, FCIP and FICON for example.

RouterGod Magazine
FICON?  What on earth is that?

Paris Hilton
FICON stand for Fiber Connection, it’s a method of transferring full duplex data over fiber with distances up 20 kilometers.  Storage Networks use it to move data between storage devices.

RouterGod Magazine
What’s on the written test?

Paris Hilton
You can expect the usual Router management stuff, then some Fibre Channel, there will also be some TCPIP followed by more Fibre Channel. Questions about storage networks and more Fibre Channel, there’s questions regarding management and oh, yeah more Fibre Channel..

RouterGod Magazine
What’s the lab like?

Paris Hilton
Ok, here’s the Blueprint  You can see there’s plenty of switching and QoS as well as security.

RouterGod Magazine
Who would be a candidate for CCIE Storage?

Paris Hilton
The CCIE Storage has such a narrow appeal it’s really aimed at egomaniacs, you know, guys who are already quad CCIEs and are looking to go for five.

RouterGod Magazine
Well, let’s not be too sure, storage networking may turn out to be the next big thing, you never know, Cisco may know more about this industry than you do.  Actually, by getting your CCIE in storage you might be getting in on the ground floor of something huge!

Paris Hilton
Perhaps, but where would you get training?

RouterGod Magazine
Cisco just announced this new specialty 5 days ago, it usually takes 10 days before the “Boot Camps” crop up!