Re: [OSL | CCIE_Security] IPexpert racks for 4 or 5 hours

[Pieter-Jan Nefkens]

HI Marko and all, How's iceland?  My guess is that if you would focus on the two main theatres, the USA and Europe, you would cover a lot of timezones and customers, and probably also reduce the load of the support engineers during lab schedule switchover times. So, at this moment, IPExpert has 00:00 until 8:00, 8:00 till 16:00 and 16:00 till 24:00 in the US time zone (I thought eastcoast), so that means 6:00 - 14:00, 14:00 - 22:00, 22:00 - 6:00. If you would split the pods up into two parts, you would offer: 00:00 - 8:00 and 02:00 - 10:00 for racktime. That would result in 0:00 till 8:00 for both US and europe.  For central europe, I could choose to start at 6:00 or 8:00 for the labs in the morning. For the UK, it would be 5:00 / 7:00 and for eastern europe (greece / mosco / ukraïn) it would be 7:00 / 9:00. All reasonable start times for europe. Of course you can do the math for the US part as well..  BTW, I'd also would like to ask what kind of support is needed, as we are all trying to get our ccie certification, so basic network troubleshooting (and thus some windows troubleshooting) should be part of our skills anyhow ;-) Perhaps, if some sort of automated support system would be in place that shows the status of the backend, my guess is that support might be reduced as well. My only call to support was to verify whether the SQL server for authentication was down.. Pieter-Jan On 19 jul 2010, at 16:41, Marko Milivojevic wrote: Pieter, I think your post hits the right problem. I don't think 8-hour sessions themselves are the problem. It's the scheduling times, which are convinient only if you live on the East Coast. Everywhere else (barring +/- 8 hour offset) they don't. I think we could benefit by shifting the sessions around just a little bit. Whad would make it work for you? Also, have in mind that we need to make sure to support 3 time-zones well: PST, EST, CET and to some extend, BST (British Standard Time). -- Marko Milivojevic - CCIE #18427 Senior Technical Instructor - IPexpert YES! We include 400 hours of REAL rack time with our Blended Learning Solution! Mailto: mar...@ipexpert.com Telephone: +1.810.326.1444 Fax: +1.810.454.0130 Web: http://www.ipexpert.com/ On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 14:26, Pieter-Jan Nefkens <pjnefk...@nefkensadvies.nl> wrote: HI All, I think the 8 hour labs are great. although because of the time zones, the 8 hours are just a bit off to "normal" workhours. It's either from 6am to 2PM or from 2 PM until 10PM (and of course the night shift) for me. So, if there would be four hour lab slots, I might actually go from 10 am until 2 PM, so that I can do some customer stuff in the morning, have 12 hours, which leaves me enough time to prep the lab, do my lab and evaluate afterwards.  I understand the arguments about cost / support impact /etc.. But what if you would, as Jimmy suggests, give a discount if you book a 8 hour + 4 hour slot and make the 4 hour slot a bit more expensive. I mean, if the 8 hour slot is $40, then a single four our slot for $30 would not be a problem for me, if the 8 + 4 would be $60 (40 + 20)..  Another idea is to split the 8 hour labs a bit more logically for europe as well. for example the same as now applies in the us timezone:  00:00 - 8:00 CEST, 8:00 - 16:00 CEST, 16:00 - 0:00 CEST My guess is, as IP expert is becoming international, that introducing four hour slots will reduce the support load on the "change" levels and flatten it a bit out.  Just out of curiousity, has IPExpert also considered to setup racks in Europe as well, as sometimes the latency to the US is really kicking in and thus increasing my type-errors, as I type faster than the latency is coming back in.. ;-) Kind regards Pieter-Jan On 19 jul 2010, at 16:18, Tyson Scott wrote: Jimmy,   Unfortunately doing it without set scheduling is unrealistic.  I know it would work great for others but it would never work for us.   Regards,   Tyson Scott - CCIE #13513 R&S, Security, and SP Managing Partner / Sr. Instructor - IPexpert, Inc. Mailto: tsc...@ipexpert.com Telephone: +1.810.326.1444, ext. 208 Live Assistance, Please visit: www.ipexpert.com/chat eFax: +1.810.454.0130   IPexpert is a premier provider of Self-Study Workbooks, Video on Demand, Audio Tools, Online Hardware Rental and Classroom Training for the Cisco CCIE (R&S, Voice, Security & Service Provider) certification(s) with training locations throughout the United States, Europe, South Asia and Australia. Be sure to visit our online communities atwww.ipexpert.com/communities and our public website at www.ipexpert.com   From: Jimmy Larsson [mailto:kvisto...@gmail.com]  Sent: Monday, July 19, 2010 10:13 AM To: Wayne Lawson Cc: Tyson Scott; ccie_security@onlinestudylist.com Subject: Re: [OSL | CCIE_Security] IPexpert racks for 4 or 5 hours   My .25:   If the cost would be equal for 4 and 8 hours there´s simply no benefit. On the other hand, as a customer I expect to pay half the price for 4h as for 8h and we´ve seen indications that it would be more expensive than that do buy 4h.    So, if 8h cost $40, roughly in what range would it be for 4?   To extend the logic seen earlier in this thread. I´ve lately been buying double sessions (16h). As I see it there would also be a discount for doing this since it would load the support slightly less and all other arguments Tyson wrote.    As I can see it the biggest change needed to support any of this is to implement a token-system which enables customers to more granular pay for smaller time slots (per hour?).    The coolest thing for me as a customer would be if I was able to buy whichever amount of adjacent hours as needed. If the system has a free pod, why can´t I just be able to book from 2am to 5am, and then another session from 5pm to 11pm?   If you  consider  rewriting your scheduling backend, please do it so that we dont have to care about time slots.   /Jimmy   2010/7/19 Wayne Lawson <groupst...@ipexpert.com> So - to sum up Tyson's email - we're still weighing the pros and cons. Of course, the sales team wants 4-hour sessions - but support doesn't....we're not sure our clients are willing to absorb the cost. Thoughts? Regards, Wayne A. Lawson II - CCIE #5244 (R&S) Founder, President & CEO - IPexpert, Inc., Proctor Labs, Inc. & Platinum Solutions Group, LLC. Mailto: wlaw...@ipexpert.com Telephone: +1.810.334.1564 eFax: +1.810.454.0244 ::Message sent from iPhone:: IPexpert & Proctor Labs are premier providers of Self-Study Workbooks, Video on Demand, Audio Tools, Online Hardware Rental and Classroom Training for the Cisco CCIE (R&S, Voice, Security & Service Provider) certification(s) with training locations throughout the United States, Europe, South Asia and Australia. Be sure to visit our online communities at www.ipexpert.com/communities and our public website at www.ipexpert.com or www.proctorlabs.com. Platinum Solutions Group (PSG) provides high-end consulting services with a primary emphasis on Cisco's Data Center Solutions, Service Provider Solutions, Unified Communications and Security-enabled infrastructures. Be sure to visit www.platinumsolutionsgroup.com. On Jul 19, 2010, at 9:22 AM, "Tyson Scott" <tsc...@ipexpert.com> wrote: > Not to be a downer but there are some serious things that have to change.  There are logistical problems we need to work thru like having the support personnel to support the additional sessions.  At the beginning and end of each session is the most difficult time for our support staff, so we basically have to go to a 24x7 support model to do this.  Which will be a big cost for us (It will triple our support costs which will probably mean we would have to raise our proctorlabs prices).  Complete redesign of the website backend structure.  We have to change how we schedule sessions, not just changing from 4 hours to 8 hours but some major logistical changes that makes 4 hours realistic.  Although we have hoped to have it happen right away I think it is going to be a ways out, (I am not trying to be a downer just realistic), so don't wait around for this to happen thinking it is going to be soon. > > I want to be frank with you guys so that you don't have expectations that lead to frustration. > > Regards, > > Tyson Scott - CCIE #13513 R&S, Security, and SP > Managing Partner / Sr. Instructor - IPexpert, Inc. > Mailto: tsc...@ipexpert.com > Telephone: +1.810.326.1444, ext. 208 > Live Assistance, Please visit: www.ipexpert.com/chat > eFax: +1.810.454.0130 > > IPexpert is a premier provider of Self-Study Workbooks, Video on Demand, Audio Tools, Online Hardware Rental and Classroom Training for the Cisco CCIE (R&S, Voice, Security & Service Provider) certification(s) with training locations throughout the United States, Europe, South Asia and Australia. Be sure to visit our online communities at www.ipexpert.com/communities and our public website at www.ipexpert.com > > -----Original Message----- > From: ccie_security-boun...@onlinestudylist.com [mailto:ccie_security-boun...@onlinestudylist.com] On Behalf Of Johan Bornman > Sent: Sunday, July 18, 2010 11:55 AM > To: 'Marko Milivojevic' > Cc: ccie_security@onlinestudylist.com > Subject: Re: [OSL | CCIE_Security] IPexpert racks for 4 or 5 hours > > Good news. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Marko Milivojevic [mailto:mar...@ipexpert.com] > Sent: 18 July 2010 04:42 PM > To: Johan Bornman > Cc: Kingsley Charles; ccie_security@onlinestudylist.com > Subject: Re: [OSL | CCIE_Security] IPexpert racks for 4 or 5 hours > > Hello, > > This is in the works. It requires drastic changes to our backend systems, but our development team is working on that and several other things. > > I can't say the date, but it's happening soon. > > -- > Marko Milivojevic - CCIE #18427 > Senior Technical Instructor - IPexpert > > YES! We include 400 hours of REAL rack > time with our Blended Learning Solution! > > Mailto: mar...@ipexpert.com > Telephone: +1.810.326.1444 > Fax: +1.810.454.0130 > Web: http://www.ipexpert.com/ > > On Sun, Jul 18, 2010 at 09:20, Johan Bornman <jo...@isc.co.za> wrote: >> I agree. >> >> >> >> I have only 2 sessions scheduled in the week (starting at 14H00) but >> have to cancel at least 1 because of work. Over the weekend I have 4 >> scheduled to make up for “lost time”. >> >> >> >> If there is a 4 hour slot available, which will fit in nicely with >> this current slots (8 hours/2), I will probably have a session every >> day. The benefit to students and also Proctorlabs is obvious. >> >> >> >> From: ccie_security-boun...@onlinestudylist.com >> [mailto:ccie_security-boun...@onlinestudylist.com] On Behalf Of >> Kingsley Charles >> Sent: 18 July 2010 10:59 AM >> To: ccie_security@onlinestudylist.com >> Subject: [OSL | CCIE_Security] IPexpert racks for 4 or 5 hours >> >> >> >> Hi all >> >> As if now, the IPexpert racks can be rented for 8 hours only. It would >> great, if there is an option for having 4 or 5 hours slot so that we >> can practice on weekdays too. With 8 hours, it is possible to practice >> on weekends only. >> >> >> >> With regards >> Kings >> >> _______________________________________________ >> For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, >> please visit www.ipexpert.com >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please visit www.ipexpert.com > > _______________________________________________ > For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please visit www.ipexpert.com _______________________________________________ For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please visit www.ipexpert.com --  ------- Jimmy Larsson Ryavagen 173 s-26030 Vallakra Sweden http://blogg.kvistofta.nu ------- _______________________________________________ For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please visit www.ipexpert.com --- Nefkens Advies Enk 26 4214 DD Vuren The Netherlands Tel: +31 183 634730 Fax: +31 183 690113 Cell: +31 654 323221 Email: pjnefk...@nefkensadvies.nl Web: http://www.nefkensadvies.nl/ <green.gif> Think before you print. _______________________________________________ For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please visit www.ipexpert.com --- Nefkens Advies Enk 26 4214 DD Vuren The Netherlands Tel: +31 183 634730 Fax: +31 183 690113 Cell: +31 654 323221 Email: pjnefk...@nefkensadvies.nl Web: http://www.nefkensadvies.nl/  Think before you print.

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