Welcome to ENCOR: Part 1

Welcome to your ENCOR v1.1 video training series, and specifically this course is the first in a two-part series available here on LinkedIn Learning that's going to get you ready for the ENCOR exam. And I emphasize that this is version 1.1 of the exam. That's the exam version, effective as of September 20th, 2023, and combined, the two courses in this series, we'll be covering every single topic on Cisco's exam blueprint for ENCOR v1.1. If you'd like to check out that blueprint for yourself, I created a shortcut link for you. You can go to Bitly, bit.ly/encor23. Notice that there is no E at the end of encor. And as you go through your studies, I want to encourage you to take lots and lots of notes that will dramatically increase your understanding and your comprehension of this material. And besides just watching the lectures, we've got some other resources for you as well. For example, I would like you to take a collection of chapter quizzes after you finish a chapter. They'll be under exercise files, a zip file that you can download. And if you expand that, there'll be a folder for each chapter in the course. And if you open up a chapter folder, you'll see a series of chapter quizzes for each lesson in that chapter. You can open it up, go through the questions on your own, scroll to the bottom of the document and you'll get the answer along with the detailed explanation. Also in Part 2 of the course, we have practice exams for you. Specifically, we have two full-blown practice exams to check your readiness for the real thing. And we also want to get your hands dirty in this course. And by that I'm talking about lab exercises. We're going to be using CML, Cisco Modeling Labs. And that could be your own copy of Cisco Modeling Labs or it might be the free version of CML available out at the Devnet Sandbox. But inside of those exercise files that you expand, you're going to find a series of labs, for example, here on screen you see the NetFlow lab, and each lab will contain three critical pieces. One piece is the .mov file, that's a movie file that's going to set up the lab for you, tell you what you're going to be doing. You'll be invited to pause the video, do the lab on your own, and then resume the video and we'll give you a complete walkthrough solution. Also, there will be a PDF for each lab that's going to show you the lab topology and the lab tasks. And you'll also get a .yaml file that's a file format that can be imported into CML, which will give you the topology and the base configuration for that topology. Now let's take a look at what we're going to be covering here in Part 1 of this two-part series. We're going to have three content modules. The first is on Enterprise Architecture. Here we'll be talking about some design concepts; enterprise design, wireless design. We'll be looking at a couple of software-defined technologies: SD-WAN, SD-Access. We'll take a look at quality of service and switching mechanisms. Then in our second content module, we'll be taking a look at virtualization. Not just server virtualization but also data path virtualization, network virtualization. We'll touch on topics such as VRF and VXLANs and LISP, the Location ID Separation Protocol. And in our final content module here in Part 1, we'll take a look at network infrastructure. This module is weighted at 30 percent of your exam content. So this is critical. Here, we'll take a look at layer 2 technologies such as spanning-tree and ether channel and trunking. We'll take a look at a couple of routing protocols like OSPF and BGP, wireless technologies, network services. And the good news here is, if you've taken the CCNA training, a lot of the topics in this module are just deeper dives into those various CCNA topics. And since you and I are going to be spending so much time together in this course, let me give you a quick bio. My name is Kevin Wallace and I've got a couple of CCIEs. I'm a lifetime Emeritus. I got my first CCIE back in 2001, and I have been working with Cisco Gear since 1989. Going back to the very first model of Cisco router, the old Cisco AGS+ router. I taught courses for Cisco Learning Partners for about 14 years, and in the real world, I was a network designer down at Walt Disney World in Florida. I've written a bunch of books and made a ton of videos for Cisco Press, including the Route Official Cert Guide and Route that's the predecessor to ENCOR. I've been a speaker at Cisco Live, but really, the bottom line of all of this is that I love this stuff. I'm passionate about it, and I cannot wait to guide you on your journey. And I'm not doing this solo either. I'll be joined in some of the videos with CCNP, Charles Judd. And now that you have an overview of this course, let's take a closer look in our next video at the ENCOR exam and see what certifications it can help us achieve.