Best Study Guides for 300-820 Exam

• Official exam guide

  Before you begin with the detailed training, you have to check the complete list of topics. All the relevant areas are recorded on the official site and can be downloaded at your own convenience. This PDF file breaks down the four major domains of the Cisco 300-820 exam. Each of these holds 25% of the total syllabus. This means every section is equally substantial, hence the need to be competent in all divisions.

• David J. Bateman’s Configuring Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Unity Connection: A Step-by-Step Guide (Amazon)

  The book is created to provide you with an in-depth analysis of two remarkable Cisco systems: Unified Communications Manager and Unity Connection. With a detailed summary of the processes on how to design, configure, and manage both Cisco voice messaging and call processing, you get to maximize your skills and become well-rounded with the demands of the industry. In addition, there are lessons covering the procedures that administrators, integrators, and other professionals working with collaboration solutions should be aware of.

• Brett Hall and Nik Smith’s Practical Cisco Unified Communications Security (Amazon)

  Authored by industry experts, the book is a pivotal tool in mastering the core areas of Cisco UC system security. This material further addresses the fundamental attributes of how to effectively protect environments that aid in supporting various types like meetings, messaging, video, and voice. Likewise, it zooms in different real-time collaboration functions that are grounded on either mobile with remote access or mobile devices on BYOD initiatives.

  For a quick reference of the content, this begins with the impact of guarding your workforce through safety techniques and basic physical security features. Once you understand its importance, it’s easy to take necessary countermeasures to keep Cisco Unified CM, Cisco Meeting Server, and Cisco Unity Connection secured and functional. Other essential subjects that are accounted for are Session Border Controllers, as well as UC services, resources, and applications.

• David Schulz’s Cisco Unity Connection, 1st Edition (Amazon)

  Though this book was already released years ago, most of its contents are still relevant to today’s Cisco Unity Connection solution. Make use of its thorough collection of concepts and techniques to efficiently master the crucial tasks involved in handling Cisco Unity Connection operations. These include planning, implementing, and maintaining voice messaging systems. Furthermore, the author delivers a more realistic approach in understanding the system lifecycle and that is by giving an extensive explanation, together with some practical examples, case studies, and industry set solutions.

Cisco 300-820 Exam Syllabus Topics:

Reference: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/training-events/training-certifications/exams/current-list/clcei-300-820.html

Official Training Course

Follow up the topic introduction with a comprehensive course administered by Cisco. This training comes in two delivery options, either a physical classroom with hands-on labs or e-learning. Both run for 5 days, with a specific audience targeted for collaboration administrators and collaboration engineers.

The course outline is very exhaustive and well-thought-out to provide you with the most relevant knowledge needed for your upcoming exam as well as your job role. Its main objective is to provide quality learning through blow-by-blow discussion and lab practices. Completing this program shapes your skills in Cisco Unified CM, together with Cisco Expressway, their configuration, and additional features. Subsequently, lectures acquaint you with troubleshooting of collaboration solutions and security of B2B communication. Also, using Cisco Collaboration, you gain proficiency in B2B calls.

Another key part of the course is Cisco’s Mobile and Remote Access (MRA). At this point, there will be an all-inclusive explanation of important skills, specifically in designing, troubleshooting, integrating, and securing MRA features. Some of the primary aspects that are deliberated include Cisco Instant Messaging and Presence and Cisco Unity Connection. Concluding the discussion are Cisco Webex Hybrid Services.

With the combination of lectures and labs, you get the upper hand with your test preparation. It readily highlights your knowledge of leveraging collaborative technologies for the accessibility of work supports such as content, voice, video, and remote workloads. And considering the weight and extensiveness of the course, there are certain prerequisites that needed to be cleared beforehand. First of all, it’s imperative to have a solid background in networking technologies, predominantly in voice and video. Unerring comprehension of basic Cisco collaboration solutions and Cisco Unified Communications Manager call control fundamentals is also a must. Lastly, you should already be familiar with vital signaling protocols like XMPP and SIP. If you think your contextual grasp is not enough, it’s advisable that you take the associated courses. These are “Understanding Cisco Collaboration Foundations” and “Implementing and Operating Cisco Collaboration Core Technologies”.