Vettel proved all his critics wrong in abu Dhabi! Vettel can"t overtake, vettel is a bad loser, vettel is a cry baby, vettel relies on his team strategy to win,vettel has d best car on the grid..blah blah blah...

still available...brand new mint!

@nissparts, remote window rolling works in Altima 05 too.

Sky-walker:


This is seriously new to me. glad to know as i had a chat with a guy who as looking for a cloud backup for his organization only for him to tell me he receives 1mbps for upload speed.i told him to forget it. Like you said Big companies are the ones that can afford it.Yea Micro finance can be classed as that.Since you are in the field and you know more into microsoft and Vmware, how is the IT situation in Nigeria? Are there lots of companies using servers,exchange,Vmware, backup, Vpn and stuff like that [/b]or is it still restricted to the big boys?[b] Are there any IT support companies in Naija that provide support to companies for the IT projects and stuff. I have been trying to find this information a while.Do IT guys get paid well in this fields? excluding the Cisco CCIE guys.

My bro skywalker, i can see you're trying to do a survey of the IT business climate in naija. the answer to the bolded in ur post is YES. The IT companies are the system integrators/partners i mentioned in my earlier post. and to be a partner, you know a good portion of your staff have to be certified in their products. I'm talking about procurements/deployments running into hundreds of million of dollars. And they pay their pre-sales guys OK depending on level, solutions architects and solutions champions are paid huge sums.
Mostly the clients are the Government agencies e.g CBN, or the large comapnies - oil/gas companies, large telcos, multinationals etc. There's no serious business catering for SMEs yet aside from what MTN is cooking up.

AjanleKoko:

Since you know all of these things, why are you concerned about your future?

That was part of the aim of opening this thread. It pays to talk about stuff as it engenders better understanding. By replying to some of the posts (mostly by skywalker), I'm better understanding my situation and answering my own question. I guess Things are in proper perspective to me now as opposed to when i opened this thread, as i would say - overwhelmed with information and piecing together the puzzle.

Sky-walker:


Cloud services in Naija? how do they cope with bandwidth? I am really enjoying having this conversation as i have tried trying to understand technology in Nigeria and talk to IT pros in Naija but everyone is all about Cisco. Are this technologies available to Small to medium enterprise companies? or its just the big companies still running it?

Yes O! Nigeria has bandwidth. Our problem is with the "Last Mile" to the consumer. Only big companies for now can pay for fibre optic last-miles, but depending on the service being rendered, low bandwidth and less "chatty" services would be made available. I believe all these will be catered for with time. Micro-finance banks could be considered Medium scale enterprises right? If i'm right, then i'll say MTN is already catering for SMEs.

Yes and Nope. Yes on a minuscule scale, But mostly for their internal use. E.g MTN,Airtel n co building DR sites around lagos and planning on implementing BYOD for employees(utilizing Virtual Desktop). Certain companies (referred to as System integrators e.g PPC, Weco,Resourcery)are certified partners with Microsoft,VMWare,Cisco,NetApp etc. These companies purchase,execute, deploy adn sometimes manage these technologies on a large scale in Enterprises and Government agencies. These kinda companies are in my LOS too!

I don't know if you've heard that MTN has just lunched an Application in the cloud (XaaS) - software for Microfinance banks. There are much more coming. I'm privy to information that another Nigerian Telco is seriously seeking to enter the cloud services space in Nigeria. These guys already have the financial muscle, communication infrastructure(fibre connectivity et al) and Data center to install.

Other multinationals(I wont name the companies) are thinking of building Cloud services data centers in Nigeria or partnering with Telcos, with DR sites in other parts of the world. The world around us is changing, how we conduct business is also changing, Nigeria isn't going to be left out!

@Sky-walker: Cool! I guess we're on the same page now!

@Sky-walker:
True for Organizations whose core need for networking infrastructure isnt more than providing internet and network connectivity to staff.

@Skywalker, i have vast experience with real life cisco gear at a production network level, as i was formerly a network administrator @ a leading ISP in Lagos. I had previously designed IP WAN networks for our abuja,kaduna,kano,ilorin,ph locations.So cisco, network design etc are not new to me. It's like my natural turf. So even if i practice with GNS3 emulator (note emulator, not simulator)i have the real world look and feel.

I know what you mean about it's nigeria that are more into cisco, but if that is true, CISCO wouldn't be market leaders in routing and switching. In Enterprise environments in Nigeria, your assertion is half-true - just 1 cisco router @ d core, and maybe HP,netgear switch at the access and distribution layers etc. They are the ones big on the likes of VMWare, CyberRoam, citrix and microsoft.
In Production environments however (Service Providers, Telcos,Datacenters), there's a huge cisco ecosystem ranging from their routing and switching gear, to UCS(Unified Computing systems), (MDS)Fibre channel San switch, Fabric interconnects&extenders etc. VMWare, citrix and microsoft are huge too on the Datacenter/Cloud side of things of production environments.

I'll certainly do my VMWare & Citrix because they are also germane to my future plans - and as you rightly pointed out, they're easier to learn/lab.
Looks like i'll still have to do everything, i just have to find the right balance and schedule my timing too.

Thanks Sky-walker

@sky-walker
I already made up my mind since not to write the VMWare exam, but to get the knowledge. Usually, it's the individual's company that arranges and pays d fees for the qualifying VMware authorized course in order for their staff to be VMWare certified.

As per the others, i'll work on consolidating and solidifying my skills. It's just painful that there's a limit to what one can do with GNS3 for cisco labs e.g for Emulating Cisco IOS-XR and IOS-XE, Multilayer switching et al. I'll stick to my plan for cisco - (1)written (2)design.

I guess less socializing and more Labbing is way to go

Wow!
@sky-walker, many thanks. really insightful.

the below is culled from : www_cert">http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=12457&ui=www_cert
VMware Certified Professional – Datacenter Virtualization (on vSphere 5)

Become a VCP5-DV

There are different paths to VCP5-DV certification based on your background. Choose your path and complete the three core validation components:

Attend a qualifying VMware authorized course. - this is the one that costs about $5k
Gain hands-on experience with VMware vSphere 5.
Pass the VCP5-DV Exam

pedestal82:

Thank God u survived the jump, a guy was not so lucky back in Uniben
He died doing exactly what u did, but from 4th floor, Faculty of
Social science. Any Uniben witness in the house! Crazy things guyz
Do mcheew

@pedestal, i was in final year engineering uniben then wen we heard the gist. lol. and i even heard the girl denied any knowledge of him! you know Faculty's floors are extra high, so 4th floor is more like jumping from a normal 6th floor building. lol. i pitied him. i even heard he was a post-grad student

Iliveon: Yes boss.... I heard the gist back then in 2005/6. The most stupid thing I did was spending my exam time teaching that girl yet she went behind me to blocked the course.

@pedestal, i was in final year engineering uniben then wen we heard the gist. lol. and i even heard the girl denied any knowledge of him! you know Faculty's floors are extra high, so 4th floor is more like jumping from a normal 6th floor building. lol. i pitied him. i even heard he was a post-grad student

AjanleKoko:

What you need, really, is a good job that will give the right kind of exposure. Send your CV to IBM, Microsoft, Google.
In fact, send me your CV. Send me a PM.

You have more than enough certifications to get a decent job. And don't knock teaching at Aptech; it's kind of like teaching at university. You'll learn a lot in a lab environment, and by teaching others. Industry will narrow your focus to whatever your job role is.

Thanks AJ, you've got mail!

AjanleKoko: The OP should calm down. He just wants to do everything.
Maybe he wants to teach at APTECH

lol, Aptech no fit pay d kain money wey i dey find o! i just love to learn!

obowunmi: OP: you can't do it all.

You need to start developing in-depth expertise in a particular field. When you focus on one subject area, you won't move around as much as you are.

Don't become "jack of all trades, master of none."

My aim is the datacenter and progressing into consulting - this comprises of networking, storage and virtualization. i hope u see what i'm aiming for! I listen to podcasts of networking/technology nerds and if you read the penultimate paragraph in my original post, you'd be enlightened as to what is expected of you @ dat level. Am not talking about the regular 9-5 employee...i'm talking about solution champions in cisco speak

Thanks Yamakuza..
first: CCIE Written is a theoretical evaluation of your knowledge of the cicso IOS, and yes, you must do the lab within 18months. There are cisco mobile labs twice in a year in Naija, so if adequately prepared i can schedule it.
HAAA..for you to do CCDE, you have to be a fully qualified CCIE first. The design certificate i want to do is the CCDP, of which the CCIE written or CCDA are the pre-requisite exams. i will save money by avoiding going through the CCDA route.
Vendors are quite important in the business e.g in production and large enterprise environments, you're more likely to see Vmware than Citrix, or microsoft Hyper-V. These Vmware competitors - citrix, microsoft,HP et al are more suitable for small/mid enterprises.

I'm not concerned about the certificates per-se, it's just a way of documenting my knowledge in these areas. The certificates will get me to the door, then i have to prove my worth so i can be ushered in. I'll learn the vmware VCP5, but i have to find another way of demonstrating my knowledge in that area since my current job doesnt give me that exposure.
For Netapp, i just got a simulator, I'm still considering that...

yamakuza: you seem to have answered your own question on the other Oracle thread.

This things are mentally consuming! maybe with age,I'm trying to go easy on myself>>

I'm yet to decide though.

Bams95: but do people that studied Computer science and computer engineering in School have upper hands in geting jobs in the ICT world than people in other science fields?

Guy, it's not so. Employers just need to see your passion, communicate that through your Resume. I studied civil engineering in school. i started out doing web designing while in school, during my 6months IT, i was home learning PHP/MySQL. I had previously learnt HTML and SQL from w3schools.com, so the SQL part of PHP/MySQL was a breeze.
After graduation, i got a pre-NYSC job with a small TELCO doing web development, and computer hardware/software support. While there, i did Oracle 10g OCA. i hoped to use it to secure a job just like you but reality dawned on me pretty fast. I started learning Windows server 2003; thereafter, i was given access to domain controllers etc, and i had hands-on experience. My Microsoft server knowledge and Web dev. skills helped me secure another job with a major ISP where i managed their server infrastructure email, web and a host of others on various platforms. I picked up a bit of Linux, just enough to get by.lol.
While with the ISP, i also developed a passion for networking, as i was good with windows networking, i had a task to relieve my boss on some Network admin duties, so i learnt Cisco Networking! I loved it instantly! i had worked with it for 2years, learnt quite a bit b4 even writing any of the exams. my self studying even propelled me in the company as many major network designs were undertaken by me, of course supervised by my boss who most of the time vetoed it because he had confidence in my abilities. I have my CCNA and CCNP. CCIE is for next year
I've moved to a multinational company now, and UNIX is my Forte! With my small linux knowledge, learning Sun Solaris was a breeze! I've come to appreciate it a lot. with time i may need to brush up on my Oracle DB skills(Dats if i have any left).

Why did i write all these? Bros OP, you need to diversify! so you can fit into any IT job as a starter. Your future employer/employment may shape your thinking, give you exposure and also determine the skills you acquire. IT is one big circle! When i was being interviewed for my current job, i was asked questions on SQL server, cisco/windows networking, general IT, Linux etc. They just need to know you're not a 1-field man who knows oracle but nothing else.

Nobody is mentioning rituals/blood money..lol..no need for education na..

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wetin all this people dey talk sef?
so it's a crime to forget your belonging?
He who is without sin should cast the first stone!

nonsense

<hisses>

My V6 does 120Km/h @ 2100rpm. Now tell me that isn't fantastic! no noise, no vibrations nothing! The engine hasn't even started working sef...i hate I4s!

I hope it's not a Cisco Linksys wireless router sha

LOL...just saying....

Nigerians should stand up for what is right and not shoot down those doing so! Are we really interested in making this country better or do we prefer status-quo? If you are sure you forgot your cell-phone in my house and you came back for it and i can't produce it, will you sulk and walk away or hold me responsible?
I tire for Nigerians sha!

It's the naija crowd mentality, that's why eveybody is still buying 99 camry!
Go to Ladipo, parts full everywhere....
Avalon is my 2nd love, after Mercedes S-class!