CPUG materials are posted online

I am getting regular requests to share my presentations from CPUG conferences.

Thanks to Barry, all the materials from CPUG Europe from 2008 till today are available now online here.



Enjoy, everybody!

Hello, Check Point training revolution!

So guys, it's just happened.

With official launch of R75 CCSA course and availability of so-called training blades Check Point has finished reforming the whole training and certification mechanism.

You can get the full details on CP education page, or just see the latest Check Point training newsletter here.

The key points are:

• Both CCSA and CCSE official training courses are now three, not five, days only.
• All update courses, both new and old "acceleration" ones are now called Training blades.
• Core certification (CCSA/E) benefits are valid for two years only.
• To extend R7x certification benefits for one more year must take two additional training blades.

This scheme may cause some business issues for ATCs, and all training blades for R7x are now directly available from Check Point.

There are only two blades published fro the moment, Application Control and DLP, some others to follow.

Each blade contains 1 hour web-based training, 6 hours of labs and costs $245 only. Web based certification exam is included.

Important: CCSA/E R75 exams are not yet available.

CCSA R75 materials are available for ATC partners

Check Point has started distributing R75 CCSA instructor kits and other training materials to ATC partners. This  means CCSA R75 official training will soon be available publicly.

There are no news about CCSA R75 certification exam just yet.

Going to CPUG 2011 Europe

In a couple of hours I will be in my car driving north to Chur, Switzerland, where CPUG 2011 Europe starts tomorrow at 8:00.

In my opinion this is the best technical Check Point oriented event of the year. Transparent, frank and and truthful discussions - these are the core values of the event. It is not vendor sponsored, it is not marketing controlled.

100% professional, 100% independent. This is the way to get the full picture, good knowledge, way to improve your skills and meet friends and colleagues.

See you there, guys.

Rumors - CCSA R75 courseware to be available in October

There are some talks behind the scene about having CCSA R75 courseware available quite soon. Sources are talking about  books being available in October for ATCs to order.

There are no news yet about exams being available for both CCSA and CCSE R75.

I am not sure about policy in other ATCs, but in my training center in Lausanne I am holding R75 courses just because there is no ETA for the tests.

We provide free PearsonVue test vouchers for all our students valid for half a year to take an exam in our test center. Without clear availability dates it is not possible to do for CCSA/E R75.

More news to come, I will keep you posted, guys.

CCSE R75 course - be careful, exam is not out yet

I have been mentioned already Check Point releasing R75 CCSE training.

There is one warning I have missed the last time. Guys, R75 CCSE exam is not yet available and expected to be released in the fourth quarter. If you are planning to take R75 CCSE, remember to take R75, not R71 exam. This means you will have to wait after course for an exam to be available.

R71 CCSE course is quite different from R75 one. So is the exam! Most of R71 exam topics are moved to Blade modules with R75.

If you have to certify soon, go for R71 course and exam. If you can wait till the end of the year for certification, you can safely take R75 CCSE course.

CPUG Europe 2011 - are you coming? Second call

Come to CPUG CON 2011 EUROPE!

This is your invitation to the upcoming CPUG Check Point Administrators Conference in Chur ("Koor"), Switzerland on September 19th-21st (plus optional two days of Workshop/Training on September 22nd-23rd).
This will be our fourth year and we're planning to make it bigger and better than ever!
Register Now!
By attending, you'll receive all these benefits:

• Learn how to save hours of trouble and debugging in our Technical Sessions.
• Learn about Check Point's new products, including version R75, Endpoint Security E80, Application Control and IPv6.
• Meet and have a beer with fellow Check Point administrators from all over the world.
• Learn how to improve security against new and emerging threats.
• Meet with industry experts and vendors.
• Enjoy three or five days in the beautiful Swiss Alps.
   

New This Year!  Two-day workshop/training in:

• Check Point Best Practices, or
• CCSA/CCSE R71/R75 Exam Preparation

Join us for our Mentor's Dinner (it's included with registration), we'll be having a tour and dinner at a local brewery!
CPUG CON 2011 EUROPE is the #1 European conference for Check Point firewall administrators and end-users.
This year we're being sponsored by Wuerth Itensis, ComputerLinksSwitzerland, Dimension Data, Crossbeam, and Tufin.
Save money by registering soon!