SCOR Exam Passed


So a couple of days ago, I passed the Cisco 350-701 SCOR (Secure Core) Exam. I passed on my 2nd attempt.

I spent quite a bit of time preparing for this exam, as alot of security technologies are new to me.

This means im now eligible to book a CCIE Security lab exam. However, im a fair bit away from actually being able to commit to a deadline for my first lab attempt (not even considering the global pandemic). But it does mean that the first milestone has been reached, which im very pleased with.

So whats next?

I am in the process of designing and purchasing some lab gear to run the topologies i need. Unfortunally alot of these services (I am looking at you ISE, FMC and Stealthwatch) take alot of computational resources (CPU cores and memory). That means my old Cisco 1U server is not going to cut it anymore (way too slow processors and too few cores as well as too slow disk IO).

eBay to the rescue. Im trying to negotiate with a few sellers on a good deal (2x E5-2690v3 processors, 256G memory and SSD disks). However, no matter what, its still quite pricy so im looking at options at the moment, but in the end I need a decent lab going forward.

I also need to find a suitable online bootcamp as traveling is not an option with the pandemic going on. There are a few options on that front and im not locked into any one vendor just yet.

So I basically have alot of preparation to do for the practical exam, which im going to be doing over the next many months. However im looking forward to going down this path along with a great study partner this time around.

Hopefully I will have time to create some security related posts in the future :)

Take care and stay safe!!

/Kim