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CCSP IPS Exam Certification Guide Review by V. Karuppannan
Pleasure to Read
First I want to mention that the title of the book accurately reflects the content. The content is meant for medium to advanced users who have some level of understanding of networking, network security, and Intrusion Detection. The readers require some experience with Cisco networking technology because all the switch and router setup examples in this book are based on Cisco technology, which is understandable since this is Cisco focused.
The book follows a structure which is similar to other Cisco Press certification self-study books. Each chapter starts with an introduction to the chapter content, followed by the "Do I Know This Already?" quiz, then the actual chapter content, and a Foundation Summary summarizing the key information learned in that chapter, and finally a Q&A section. The foundation summary at the end of each chapter really helps to re-capture what has been learned in the chapter and helps to remember the key points from the certification exam point of view. The Q&A at the end of each chapter helps to test what has been learned in the chapter.
The author also added lot of notes in between which helps to understand any additional information relevant to the configuration and functionality of the Cisco IPS. Sometimes the author makes a comparison of the IPS feature with a similar feature in another Cisco product for easy understanding, for example he compares the virtual sensor feature with virtual firewall feature which some readers may be familiar with. I like the way the author explains each topic with a suitable example rather than just going through the configuration commands.
Another really good thing about this book is that it has very few errors and typos. The author has really done a very good job of presenting accurate and error free content in this book.
The author explains all the important menu items in the IPS Device Manager (IDM) tool in a logical sequence making it easy to follow and understand.
The book also covers IDSM-2, however there are no real examples shown. Some real scenario example could help to understand the IDSM-2 configuration even better. The book even covers the NM-CIDS router module, and the Security Monitor tool also to an extent.
In essence this books rounds up all the Cisco IPS related technologies, and hence serves as a good reference for Cisco IPS. This book is useful not only as an exam preparation guide for the Cisco IPS exam 642-532, but also as a reference book for those who work with Cisco IPS appliances on day-to-day basis.
Like any other Cisco certification exam, in addition to this self-study book I also recommend the readers to have some hands-on practice to pass the exam comfortably.
The book includes a CDROM which contains exam practice questions in study mode, practice mode and flash card format. If you are using this book to prepare for the Cisco IPS exam 642-532 then these practice questions will help you to assess your preparedness for the real exam. The CDROM also contains the entire book in PDF format and some extra supplemental materials, which is a definite advantage for anyone who wants to carry the entire book in their laptop.
The only complaint I have about this book is that the IDM screen shots are not quite readable. I hope this will be improved in the next edition.
I strongly recommend this self-study book for anyone preparing for the Cisco IPS 642-532 exam. I would certainly read other titles from this author.