20 Years with INE: Our Origin to Evolution
In 2003, Blu-Ray discs were released, Mac had a new computer tower, and MySpace was creating even more social anxiety by forcing us to rank our top friends. And in Reno, Nevada, a group of guys realized that better Networking training was needed. They took it into their own hands and created INE - Internetwork Expert.
The Building Blocks of Professional IT Training
- In 1993, the CCIE was created. It was originally a 2-day lab that individuals would spend, on average, 18 months and thousands of dollars preparing for - and only around 3 percent would successfully complete.
- At the turn of the century, Cisco was the most valuable company in the world (market capitalization of more than $500 billion). Establishing itself as the premier provider of hardware to address the new Internet Protocol (IP), Cisco was everywhere. IT professionals working in networking needed to know Cisco, inside and out.
- By 2003, still, only about 3 percent of CCIE certification attempts resulted in success. People needed better training. While traditional classroom training was the norm, what was lacking was hands-on, online training and self-paced videos that enabled students to actually put into practice what they were learning. And so, Brian Dennis and Brian McGahan founded INE. Check out our INE Live from August 22 to hear how Brian McGahan is celebrating 20 years with INE!
Adding the Missing Elements of IT Training
For more than 15 years, we solely focused on perfecting our Networking training - becoming a reliable partner in the industry. As we moved through the 2010s, there was a deluge of security breaches, each year worse than the last. We saw millions of dollars ransomed from organizations and communities and individuals impacted.
Cybersecurity training was the next imperative for the IT community.
- In 2019, we acquired PentesterAcademy and eLearnSecurity. Like with networking, cybersecurity training was missing elements. There were plenty of options on the market, but they were expensive, siloed, and most concerningly, totally hands-off. These acquisitions began the transition of INE as a Networking training platform to INE as a one-stop-shop for IT professionals to upskill.
- As technology evolved and roles began to overlap with cybersecurity and the cloud, we knew it was time to adapt. In (2022), we acquired Cloudskills.io to craft a base offering of cloud skills to our practitioners. Since then, we've continued to add content to address ongoing training needs for AWS, Azure, and Google.
Now, in 2023, we’re proud to be celebrating our 20th anniversary. Along the way, we’ve had the privilege of training thousands of individuals and organizations. To celebrate - we’re offering 25% off of Premium subscriptions for new subscribers - now through September 10.
For our current subscribers, we’ll have more exciting promotions, starting in September.
Looking forward to the near future - we’re releasing exciting features, products, and content coming fast over the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned and don’t forget to follow us on social media to stay updated!
