Our Cisco Networking Academy blends face-to-face teaching and hands-on lab exercises with web-based curriculum and assessment. Teaching is delivered by fully qualified Cisco Academy instructors, and students can practice, experiment, learn and share their work in a laboratory equipped with the latest Cisco networking devices.
Computer networks are central to modern IT systems. Networking technologies have helped to create global industries and have transformed the way many businesses operate today. With networks growing in scale and complexity, more and more skilled professionals are required to design, secure, and maintain them.
Industry-leading telecoms brand, Cisco Systems established their Networking Academy programme in 1997 to prepare students for careers in networking and IT. Nowadays, Cisco certifications are among the most recognised in industry and can significantly enhance your career prospects.
Courses
- Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)
- CCNA Security - planned
- CCNA Cyber Operations - planned
- Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) - planned
If you are interested in the Academy courses, please email Dr Rinat Khusainov: rinat.khusainov@port.ac.uk.
Other supported activities
In addition to Cisco courses, the laboratory also provides an environment for network simulation experiments to support the design and development of large-scale network deployments. The specialist dual-boot (Linux and Windows) PCs in the lab are supplemented with a private cloud, which can be used to implement and test virtualised computing and network infrastructures.
Equipment and software
Networking
- 96 Cisco ISR 4221 routers, 2x1G and 2xWAN interfaces
- 48 Cisco Catalyst 2960-24TC-L level 2 switches, 24x100M and 2x1G ports
- 48 Cisco Catalyst 3650-24TS-E level 2/3 switches, 24x100M and 4x1G ports
- 24 Cisco ASA 5506-X security appliances with FirePOWER services
Cloud
- 200 cores at 2.4GHz, 64 cores at 3.1GHz, 32 cores at 2.67GHz
- 704 GiB combined RAM capacity
- 11 TiB of attached storage in various capacities
Software
- Operating systems: Windows 10 and CentOS
- Modelling: Riverbed Modeler (former Opnet)
- Virtualisation: VmWare, VirtualBox, KVM
- Cloud: Open Nebula
Study Computing at the СÀ¶ÊÓƵ
Shikun Zhou shows you round the Cisco networking lab.
This is one of the flagship labs in the whole university.
All of our course team work with students for more than 20 years. We have all sorts of experience that you need.
The university constantly puts lots of investment to upgrade all the state of the art Cisco devices. You can touch them, you can configure them, you can learn how it works.
On top of that this course is also a member of Cisco Network Academy, as well as a VMware I.T. Academy. So we give you the chance of pursuing an excellent degree as well as professional certificates, plus we do have our very own cloud service. You will learn everything about the cloud and then you will build your own cloud with us.
We will open the door for you and we will hopefully welcome you very soon.
Where to find us
Cisco Academy Network Laboratory
School of Computing
Anglesea Building (A2.NET)
PO1 3DJ