Nashville State offers Cisco courses

Nashville State Community College is offering Cisco Networking courses at the Cookeville campus, beginning with the fall 2008 semester, says Cookeville Herald Citizen.

In addition to industry certification, the courses may be taken by company employees for professional development, or as part of an AAS degree in computer networking technology.

"The course prepares an individual for certification in the field, a vender-specific certification, but it covers a lot of the industry standards, including networking technology that applies to all or any brand of router or switch," states Kelvin Norman, a computer technology instructor at NSCC and a graduate of the Cisco Academy instructor programme.

According to CNN Money, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has completed an upgrade of its entire security system using the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) 5520.

A security update was called for because IOM's daily operations in the Philippines depend on a stable, highly secure network that can enable an uninterrupted flow of information, with hourly reports being sent to the head office in Geneva.

IOM's Manila operation is the IT hub for the entire organisation as well as the human resources centre and accounting core of worldwide operations.

As the Indian market for IT networking equipment expands on the back of robust growth in the retail, manufacturing and hospitality sectors, top gear-makers such as Cisco and HP Procurve are outpacing the industry's average growth rate by a wide margin, states The Economic Times.

Cisco says sales increased by 30% to 50% during the last three years while HP Procurve's growth rate in 2007 was four times that of the Indian market.

Technology research firm IDC estimates the Indian market for LAN switches and routers would grow 10.5% between 2007 and 2012. It sees the size of the market at over $900 million by the end of 2008.