Last week, I had a chat with Fred Weiller, Director of Cisco Marketing, who gave me a sneak preview of the new "CCIE Emeritus" certification status Cisco announced today. CCIE Emeritus was developed in response to very experienced CCIEs who wish to keep their CCIE status, but are not interested in biennial recertification exams anymore. CCIE Emeritus comes with three restrictions:

No priority TAC access anymore.

Does not count toward channel partner status (Gold, Silver, etc).

CCIE's in the Emeritus program must note "Emeritus" in their signatures or official correspondences. For example, if I went into the Emeritus program, I would be "CCIE #11733 Emeritus".

Those are the main restrictions. The Emeritus program is open to CCIEs who have been current and active for 10 years. I passed 8 years ago in May 2003, CCIE #11733. So, I'm going to guess, at this point, that would be CCIEs below #9000. There is an application process to go through along with an $85 charge. CCIE Emeriti must re-apply each year submitting what they have done to stay active in the networking industry. Speaking with Fred, this would be networking projects, management of networking organizations, consulting, blogging, publishing, etc. Essentially, you still have to work in networking. Once accepted, there are no more recertification written exams to take every 2 years. However, should you want to reactivate your CCIE to full status, you simply need to pass a written exam again, no lab exam needed. However, if you are already an inactive CCIE, there is no backdoor to the Emeritus program; you poor guys and gals have to retake the lab exam. Cisco's impetus for this new status category was feedback from the CCIE community. Cisco polled and listened to their most important advocates (the CCIEs) and developed a program to meet their needs. A quick Google search for CCIE Emeritus turned up a 2006 CCIE Customer Feedback survey that mentions the need for an Emeritus status: In summary, I think this is good. It recognizes that a lot of people, 10 years after passing the CCIE, have probably moved into different roles and do not have the time or the incentive to take written exams every two years, but still don't want to lose something they worked very hard for. Good for Cisco. This is a fine idea.