30 Years As A CCIE: Why Certifications Matter In The AI Era
CISCO, Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026
Only a handful of professionals have maintained their CCIE certification for three decades. Salman Asadullah is one of them-and after delivering 300 customer engagements through Netnology over the past eight years, including in today's AI-driven era, he says the certification is more relevant now than ever before.
I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Salman Asadullah at Cisco Live Amsterdam to discuss his remarkable certification journey. Thirty years is a long time in technology, and much has evolved over the years.
What would he tell me about the evolution of networking? Would he tell me that AI has made traditional certifications obsolete? Our conversation was a masterclass in why deep technical expertise-the kind you earn through rigorous certification programs-remains critical, even (or especially) in 2026.