Most of my posts are about labs, CCIE news, CCIE training vendors, and tips/recommendations for the classes I teach as a Cisco Certified Instructor.  My company does not advertise.  So I’m wondering how much you know about the company that I work for.  Have any of you, my students excluded, ever heard of Ascolta? 

If you answered “No” let me ask this, do you know of GlobalKnowledge?  If you have taken any Cisco Certified Training you probably have answered yes.  Global Knowledge is probably our larges competitor.  We sell Cisco Certified Training for the CCNA, CCNP, CCSP, CCVP, and CCIP.  There are probably more but I cant think of them off hand.  Ascolta also does custom course development, private on-site training, and actual development if some of the Cisco Certified Courseware.  In fact, we wrote the telepresence training.  Last year Ascolta was named Cisco Learning Partner of the Year in the US/Canada theater.

But why am I bringing this up?  Because I am trying to get the company with the times!  Ascolta is now on twitter, http://www.twitter.com/ascolta, and they also have a facebook page.  If you are doing any sort for Professional Level or Associate Level training you might want to follow them for some of the deals they are offering, industry news, and free online tech-sessions that will begin next year. 

Ascolta does not compete in the CCIE arena, although we do have CCIE instructors.  When students ask my personal recommendations on CCIE training I point them to IPexpert and InternetworkExpert as they are the two vendors I am currently using.  There are pros-and-cons to each but thats besides the point.  They are the best in their area.

If you would like to know more about Ascolta please reach out to me using my contact form on this blog, or via email.  You can also check out the Ascolta web site at http://www.ascolta.com or search for Ascolta on Facebook. 

There are many changes coming around the beginning of the year and I am sure that it is going to be an exciting time!