I am studying network security at WGU. Some of my courses focus exclusively on Cisco, and nobody ever even mentions the other manufacturers. My textbooks read like advertisements for Cisco. College is not about forcing brand loyalty down the student’s throats. I once asked about Allworx, because I have worked with their IP phones, when I was reading about Cisco IP phones. The course mentor claimed to not know anything about them.
I wonder every day just how much CSCO stock my professors own. This is ridiculous.
You don’t think stuff like this or this might have something to do with it? And if not Cisco, it’s going to be HP or Juniper that gets covered.
What is WGU?
When I took a series of computer classes one summer, I was taught that learning Word Perfect, Lotus 1-2-3 and Oracle was a guaranty to success as they would NEVER be replaced.
They won’t even mention HP or Juniper. Also, Oracle is very much still around,they own Java.
When I was studying for an engineering degree there was an old prof who spent a career with GE designing and building motors.
His students were heavily recruited by GE, Westinghouse, and a host of other motor manufacturers based on the fact that they studied under him.
College shouldn’t be about forcing brand loyalty down the students throats but a thorough understanding of how the industry leader’s system works is a valuable resource.
CS departments often pick a particular programming language to teach the principles of software engineering without undue focus on the syntax of a particular language. A program’s focus on Java doesn’t mean its been bribed by Oracle.
Since Cisco dominates, it makes sense to teach the principles of network security using Cisco. I sincerely doubt that these other providers you mention are so fundamentally different that it’s important to have a class focusing on each type or a professor knowledgeable in each vendor’s offerings.
Learn the principles and don’t be a fucking pain in the ass to your professors about this or that vendor. There are two types of hands that go up to ask a question in a classroom:
- Students who have a question related to the material and either didn’t understand something or want to try and build on the knowledge beyond the book in a relevant way.
- Students who ask their own esoteric questions and are being really fucking annoying mainly because they don’t realize the professor and the rest of the class really aren’t interested in their little take on the topic or something only tangentially related to the topic.
Asking about HP specific features in a class on network security that uses Cisco to teach the specifics is more category #2. Especially if you do this more than once. Asking whether a specific feature used by Cisco is Cisco-specific or part of a general agreed upon framework for network security is category #1 and gets you the information you need. And really, if you want to learn about HP, put on your big boy pants and go look up their specifications yourself.
Presumably Western Governors University.
Bingo. If we’re talking routers and switches, we’re talking Cisco. Just about anywhere you go will be in one of two situations–all Cisco gear, or a mix of Cisco and other stuff. And if you’re in the latter, most of your coworkers will know Cisco and probably be thinking of commands on the other boxes in terms of translating mentally to Cisco equivalents. If you have CCNA/CCNP/CCSP certifications, people will know what those are–I wouldn’t assume people would know Juniper certifications by letters, even within the industry.
Since it’s Network Security, presumably they’re talking firewalls as well, that space is a little more open–start adding Crossbeam, Checkpoint, many others to the mix, but it’s going to be silly to explain the differences in the GUI for setting up a firewall rule for half a dozen different brands, just pick one to give an example for the basic principles, and Cisco is a reasonable default choice.
Yes. Absolutely. Cisco stuff is reliable, works well, and is darn near universal for most companies. If you learn how to program the Cisco devices, the language is found on most other devices, so it is a translatable skill.
A DOS command is a DOS command is a DOS command, no matter what platform.
Well… not exactly true.
The concepts are certainly almost identical, although Cisco has lots of proprietary stuff so that, for example, link aggregation may need special attention between Cisco and non-Cisco. It’s channel-group on an Enterasys device and interface xxx port-channel in Cisco-ese.
So the skill of understanding how to design 802.1q aggregation schemes is universal, but the language is often different to implement it.
I bow to the clarity of your post.
I will go put on the Cone of Shame and stand in the corner.
IMO, these classes should be to learn concepts, not specifics. You’ll get trained in whatever you need for a specific job by your employer or by your own research. And tools change over time so the course can never be completely current. It doesn’t matter that the entire course is taught with a Cisco bias. I question the premise of the whole thread, that what his professors are doing is a bad thing.
I’m not sure if your post was meant to imply anything except that Noelq’s statement was incorrect so I don’t know your opinion on the OP. Feel free to elaborate.
I agree with this. The same thing is true in computer science courses; it doesn’t matter what programming languages you learn, you’re supposed to learn how to do programming. (Preferably, in more than one paradigm.) The specific tools that you’ll actually use in your work may not even be invented yet while you’re learning this stuff. Learning a programming language is just a necessary first step to learning how to program, so you have to just pick one to get started. You might as well pick something popular so there’s a large base of existing resources and experts to help you. So a lot of schools choose Java or Python or something like that.
Same applies to learning networking with Cisco gear.
I agree completely – the key thing is to know, for example, “I want these six ports on this switch configured to be part of the same layer 2 broadcast domain,” and then the question of how to define a VLAN using Cisco, or Enterasys, or Juniper is left as something you can quickly look up.
Yeah, I just wanted to correct the notion that the literal configuration commands for rouoters and switches were like DOS commands – the same OS running on different hardware. That’s not the case, but, as you say, its not really that important. Understanding the concept is. Once I know I want to deny any/any and then permit 80 and 443 TCP to this address only, figuring out how to say that in Cisco is trivial. The knowledge that there is some reason to start with deny all and then permit TCP-only and only ports 80 and 443 is what’s important.
tldr: The OP is mistaken. 
Well… yes. But.
When I learned programming, it was Pascal, Fortran, COBOL, and RPG.
I have looked at C# and .NET code, and find myself pretty confused most of the time – because the big concept I was taught was structured programming. Classes, methods, all that stuff is very scary and confusing to me, and my programming education did not help me make that transition. (Admittedly, not undertaking a career as a programmer was probably a factor too).
I’ve often thought that if I tried to get a job writing code today, it would be like showing up at DuPont and saying, “Sirrah, I hight ye trade of alchemist - hast thou need of mine skill?”
That’s why I said “Preferably, in more than one paradigm.” 
BASIC, Pascal, Lisp and Prolog here. I moved into marketing years ago, and just listen to the engineering team while I nod my head.
OP: Cisco also does a lot of work ensuring that their products are available to the campus to use as well, keeping their domination in check thanks to an educated workforce.
Same for me, except I’m in program management. And to think that once I was a compiler geek.