Becoming an IPAM Expert: Why Training Makes All the Difference

If you’ve ever taken a BlueCat training course, there’s a good chance that I’m the guy who developed it. As the curriculum developer and a senior trainer for BlueCat Education, I’ve had a ringside seat watching the emergence of IPAM from something that needed to be explained to an enterprise “must have.”

Our goal at BlueCat Education is to ensure that our users are able to hit the ground running and start using our solutions immediately. We measure our success not only in terms of satisfied customers, but also by far fewer support calls coming into Customer Care as users understand the way the IPAM system works and how to use the system effectively.

At BlueCat Education, we understand that successful learning comes from measurable learning objectives. BlueCat training courses cover key IP Address Management concepts including:

• The way DNS zone transfers work
• The differences between DHCP failover and Crossover High Availability (XHA)
• How to model your address space using IP blocks

The “secret sauce,” however, is giving our students the opportunity to practice in a production-like virtual environment. Students learn how to:

• Build a network template to provision thousands of networks
• Configure DNS and DHCP validation tools to prevent errors and issues before they occur
• Configure Notification Groups using SNMP and email so that administrators are notified when an important network event occurs

Key functions and skills are broken into measureable tasks, discussed in the classroom, performed in a lab, and finally tested with assessments.

Instructor-led courses, both in the physical and virtual classroom, are interactive. Instructors engage with the students answering questions and encouraging discussion and in many cases, help customers learn new and better ways to complete a task or solve a particular challenge.

One of the best things about BlueCat training courses is our hands-on labs. Written to provide varying degrees of difficulty, students are provided with the opportunity to make mistakes in a safe environment. This helps to ensure that mistakes are far less likely to happen in production.

For more details about our training courses, please click here.

New ‘How-To’ Video Series

We are currently upgrading our core DDI course for release this summer. In addition to updated material and labs, we’re adding something brand new: “How-To” videos. These narrated videos will demonstrate a number of tasks including:

• How to create a user account
• How to configure DHCP Shared Networks
• How to configure an LDAP Group

With these videos, not only can students use them as a guide when working on the labs, but they can turn to them after the courses have finished for a refresher on how to complete a particular task. Be sure to look for the first round of these videos to be released this summer.

BlueCat trainers have years of experience in designing and delivering relevant training courses and materials, and implementing customer solutions. Bringing this experience to BlueCat Education is just another way we can help ensure your success.

See you in class!