RIPE NCC Training Report 2012

Introduction

The RIPE NCC has been providing training to its membership since 1995, when the first course was offered to Local Internet Registries (LIRs). Since then, the content of these LIR courses has been amended constantly as technology and policies changed. We also developed other courses, including the IPv6 Course and a course to promote the usage of the Routing Registry (RR).

Training courses in 2012

In 2012 we provided 103 training courses to over 2,000 attendees. In the table below this is broken down by type of course.

Roughly half of the attendees are from LIRs who never attended a course before (45%). The rest (55%) are returning LIRs, for instance new staff of existing LIRs or LIRs that want to refresh their knowledge.

These courses were held in 35 different countries. The map below shows all countries (in dark green) where the RIPE NCC provided a training course in 2012.

Figure 1: Map of the RIPE NCC service region. Countries in which we provide training courses are coloured in dark green

It is interesting to note that 83% of the attendees usually come from LIRs located in the country the course is taking place. Only 17% come from other (often neighbouring) countries. This means members are taking advantage of courses held close by. We will continue to provide courses in as many countries as possible.

Webinars

In March 2012 we started to offer webinars . Currently webinars are available on three topics:

• Introduction to the RIPE Database
• RIPE Database – Advanced Topics
• Resource Certification (RPKI)

Each topic is covered once per month, and each webinar can be attended by 23 people. In 2012 we provided a total of 33 courses. All of them were fully booked. The table below shows the breakdown of the webinars:

Feedback

Many attendees indicated that it was very useful to meet RIPE NCC staff in person and be able to interact with them personally. On the other hand, attendees of webinars appreciate the fact that they can follow the course online and interact remotely with the trainers and each other without having to travel. We will continue to provide our traditional training courses in addition to expanding the webinars.

Attendees found the following topics covered in our training courses most interesting and useful:

• LIR Course:
• The RIPE Database
• IPv6 resources & making assignments
• IPv6 Course:
• Addressing plan
• Hands-on exercises
• Routing Registry Course:
• RPSL in practics
• Tools and automation

IPv6 Roadshows

In addition to the training activities described above, the RIPE NCC also offers hands-on IPv6 courses. This IPv6 Roadshow is a joint initiative from the Middle East Network Operators Group ( MENOG ), the RIPE NCC and APNIC, offering three and five day events targeted at government and enterprise network operators. Currently these courses are only available in the Middle East. In 2012 six such events were held. You can find more information on the IPv6 Roadshow web pages .

Looking forward to 2013

Courses

We often receive feedback that there is demand for more RIPE Database-related information and exercises. It is by far the most popular topic during the LIR Course. This is why we decided to add a new course to our portfolio: in Q2 2013 we are launching a proper full day RIPE Database Course. On one hand this meets a demand from our members, and at the same time it allows us to shorten the RIPE Database section in the other courses which frees up time to provide more hands-on exercises on other topics (which was another request we received from our members).

Online Learning

In 2013 we will introduce additional topics for webinars. We are also working on a number of videos explaining various IPv6 transition mechanisms.

References

Here you can find additional information about our training services:

Overview of all RIPE NCC training related activities and services

A list of all available training courses

RIPE NCC training course material

All online and e-learning related services the RIPE NCC offers