Well, the short answer to this question is nothing. After the impressive and (mostly) stable Anniversary Update in 2016, your Windows 10 system should be sitting at version 1607.

To answer the important question of what's next, let's review the different update approaches to Windows 10 that exist out there.

The mainstream consumer release of Windows 10 that most of us have updated with the Anniversary Update is called the Current Branch (CB). Understand that the Current Branch for Business (CBB) lags behind the CB by several months. This is an excellent idea, since most businesses want there to be extra time while any issues with the CB are ironed out with bug fixes. That's right—Microsoft experiments a bit with us home users.

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Cisco is pretty clear on what you might need to configure in their new Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices Part 1 (ICND1) exam. When you look at the exam blueprint, they use the language configure, verify and troubleshoot as opposed to just describe.

What does this list of possible configuration topics look like? Here you go! 

• IPv4 addressing

• IPv6 addressing

• Pv6 stateless address auto configuration

• VLANs (normal range) spanning multiple switches

• Interswitch connectivity

• Layer 2 protocols (CDP, LLDP)

• Port security

• Inter-VLAN routing

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Nano is a prefix that means small, really small. Maybe even microscopic small. So that means we know right away Nano Server is very small version of Windows Server 2016. But wait, didn’t we already have that with Windows Server 2012 Core. Nano Server is a nice GUI-less version of the server technology.

+ Also on Network World: Is Windows Nano Server a data center game-changer? +

Nano makes Server Core look bloated and massive. Don’t believe me? Let’s looks at some numbers.

The full GUI Server version of Windows Server has required the following:

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Cisco's Virtual Internet Routing Lab (VIRL) platform is splendid for practicing with all kinds of Cisco gear. For example, you can easily connect ASAs, NX-OS, Layer 2 IOS switches and routers, and more devices in a topology in seconds. And you are fully licensed for all of the fun thanks to the powerful emulator's annual subscription.

So what is the problem? Well, the fancier your equipment and/or the larger your topologies, the more RAM your host is going to need. In fact, anything less than 16GB of RAM on the host system tends to be pretty disappointing pretty quickly for students. 

The VIRL team has gone a long way in solving this issue for many users with their partnership with packet.net. Packet.net is a bare metal hosting cloud service and it turns out to be very powerful for a cloud-hosted VIRL implementation. 

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I have been waiting years for Cisco Systems to refresh their popular Design Associate certification, and that day has finally come!

The new exam number is 200-310. The old exam, 640-846, features a last day to test of December 14, 2015. The great news is the new exam is live right now and you can start studying for it immediately. 

In order to obtain the CCDA, you do need to meet an important prerequisite. You must possess a valid CCENT or a valid CCNA Routing and Switching. Of course, you can also have any CCIE certification act as a prerequisite.

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