May is fast approaching.  Many people at Cisco, myself included, are making a lot of preparations for Cisco Live US which is May 18 -22, 2014 in San Francisco.This is a special year when Cisco Live returns to San Francisco.You might be wondering what's special, and here's a quick tip.  It happens only every five years, when it's a major Cisco anniversary year.  Last time it happened, it was 2009 when Cisco celebrated its 25^thanniversary.  Over 10,000 people attended Cisco Live US that year. This year is Cisco's 30^thanniversary.The attendance is expected to be more than doubled. Here're a few reasons that explain the rapid growth, based on 2013 theCisco Live surveyedattendee feedback:

• 99% believe that Cisco Live was a good investment of their time
• 98% advised they gained valuable knowledge at the event that can be implemented by their company

Every year, new content and topics are being added so that you can keep up with technology evolutions and progress.I want to bring your attention to an exciting new hands-on, instructor-led training session: LTRCRS-2004 Catalyst Virtual Switching System -Instant Access (VSS -IA) Lab.It was first offered at Cisco Live Milan in January this year. It was a full house event -many people were put on the wait list because they did not register early enough.

In the past, LAN switching networks extensively depended on the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) to achieve path redundancy and loop-free operations.While this standard-based protocol has been a proven industry success, it also shows a number of limitations, such as reduced bandwidth due to port blocking and slow convergence in case of device failure.Cisco Virtual Switching System (VSS) is an efficient technology that removes dependency on STP and other protocols such as Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) and Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP), delivering simplified operations and high resiliency. Furthermore, combined with the Instant Access (IA) technology, you can greatly reduce your operational tasks while achieving enhanced software, security and feature set consistency. Watch this video for a quick demo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO-aHWg3tJA If you are attending Cisco Live this year, I'd strongly recommend that you sign up for this hands-on VSS-IA lab. Why sign up now, you might ask? Here's an answer from a Cisco Live attendee:

"... Cisco Live is different. The purpose of signing up before hand is not just to be a helpful schedule, but you need to sign up beforehand because it's your reserved seat for the session. This is primarily important for the most popular sessions, but you don't want to be stuck waiting outside of a session you really want!"

Here again is the VSS-IA lab description page. It has a link near the page bottom for you to login and register. You can also click here to start your registration. Hope you sign up early and have your seat secured for you!