A course written for one team
A custom course begins with what your engineers have to be able to do, and is built on the platforms, versions and designs they will be doing it with.
What makes it custom
- Your platforms and versions. The course is taught on what you run, or on what you are moving to.
- Your design as the worked example. Where you agree, the labs follow your own topology and naming.
- Your team's starting point. We ask what the team already knows, so nobody sits through a day of revision and nobody is lost in the first hour.
- Your timetable. One block, or short sessions spread across the weeks of a project.
- Tasks before features. Each module is a job: add a site, trace a failed call, change a rule, recover from a failure.
Subject areas
The topics listed are examples. Your outline is written for your team.
Voice and collaboration
For the engineers who run phone systems: call control, gateways, session border controllers and cloud calling.
Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco CUBE, AudioCodes and Ribbon session border controllers, Webex Calling, Zoom Phone and Microsoft Teams Phone.
Example topics
- Telephony fundamentals, from the PBX to cloud calling
- Reading a SIP trace and finding why a call failed
- Dial plans, call routing and number translation
- SIP trunks and session border controllers
- Troubleshooting audio: one-way audio, DTMF and codec mismatches
Cloud calling migration
For a team that is about to move an on-premises phone system to a cloud platform, and will run it afterwards.
Moves from Cisco Unified Communications Manager to Webex Calling, Zoom Phone and Microsoft Teams Phone.
Example topics
- How the new platform differs from the one your team knows
- Taking an inventory of the old system, including what nobody listed
- Mapping users, numbers, devices and features to the new platform
- Moving in groups, verifying each one, and rolling back
- Testing emergency calling
- Day-two operations: adds, changes and troubleshooting
Networking
For the teams that operate campus, branch and wide-area networks and are asked to change them safely.
Routing, switching, wireless and wide-area networks, taught on the platforms your organization runs.
Example topics
- Routing and switching for operations teams
- Wide-area and branch connectivity
- Quality of service for voice and video
- A method for troubleshooting, from the symptom to the cause
- Modeling a change before it is made
Network security
For the engineers who write the rules: firewalls, segmentation and remote access, without breaking what runs through them.
Firewalls, VPN and segmentation, including Cisco and Palo Alto Networks platforms.
Example topics
- Firewall policy: reading it, writing it and migrating it
- Network segmentation, planned and tested before it is enforced
- Remote-access and site-to-site VPN
- What voice and video need from a firewall
- Testing a security change before it reaches production
Choose one, or combine them.
On site
An instructor in your classroom, with your team together and away from the queue. Best when the course ends with work on your own design.
Live online
The same instructor and the same labs over video. Short sessions spread across several weeks fit well beside a project.
Recorded, at your own pace
Recorded lessons and the lab guides, for engineers who join the team later or cannot attend live. Ask us about lab access for self-paced learners.
What your team keeps
- A course outline, agreed before anything is built
- Slides and a lab manual for every attendee
- A lab environment for the length of the course
- The runbooks your engineers write during the labs
From first message to first session
Four steps, whether the course is half a day or a week.
Tell us about the team
What they run today, what is changing, and what they should be able to do when the course ends.
Agree the outline
We write a course outline with the topics, the labs, the length and the format. Nothing is built until you have approved it.
We build it and teach it
Slides, a lab manual and a lab environment, prepared for your platforms and taught by an engineer who does the work.
Your team keeps it
Every attendee keeps the materials, and the runbooks they wrote during the labs go back to work with them.
Questions we are asked
How long is a course?
From half a day to a week, depending on the subject and where the team is starting from. Shorter sessions spread over several weeks work well alongside a project.
How long does it take to prepare one?
It depends on how much of the material is new and how closely the labs follow your own environment. We give you a delivery date with the outline, before you commit.
Can you teach on our own design?
Yes, and it is the most effective kind of course. With your agreement we use your topology, your naming and your migration plan as the worked example, and we model them in the lab.
Is the training tied to a certification?
No. The aim is that engineers can do the work. It sits well beside certification study and does not replace it.
How many people can attend?
Small groups work best for lab-based courses, so that every attendee completes every lab. We agree the group size with you when we plan the course.
Do you run public classes on a schedule?
Not at present. Each course is arranged with one organization, which is what lets us build it around that team.
