I'm excited!  My manager is hot to trot to get me and my counterpart trained and certified for GCIH.  I am excited.  He told me our department has a seat for SANS.  From what dates and locations he was telling me I believe it is for one of the larger SANS conferences and not the community SANS.

I also told him that I would be open for doing the self-study method, either OnDemand or the Online classes with Ed in May.  I am sure that got his attention because that means he does not have to pay for my flight, nor does he have to pay my salary while I train.  I can do it completely off hours and on my own.  Which also means I may have more opportunities for additional training.

I know it may sound stupid for me not to take advantage of my company paying for everything, but I have a family at home that I want to be available for.  My wife is ok with being home for 6 days with the baby, because she understands how important this is to me and my career.. then ultimately to our finacial well being.

So, once I am done with the CEH, I plan on cracking open Counter Hack Reloaded and going for training. W00t!

lucky *#@$£?%!*>

enjoy, and don't forget to share the juicey bits....

Full disclosure: I both teach 504 for SANS and serve as an OnDemand Virtual Mentor...

One very nice thing about both OnDemand (online anytime you recorded Ed audio and the associated slide and notes on the screen) or @Home (online with Ed/John actually talking to you) is that you get to spend a lot of time with the material.  SANS definitely employs the firehouse method of instruction, and 6 days of drinking from that hose can be pretty overwhelming. 

Again note the full disclosure, but I highly recommend anyone taking a SANS class via another avenue look at bundling the OnDemand.  The additional cost is $399.  Given that your boss is not going to have to pay for travel costs, and the added cost of you being away from work for a week, the additional $399 for bundling OnDemand will likely not sound too bad.  So, my personal recommendation would be going for the @Home and then bundling the OnDemand.

An additional note/suggestion...  If you do end up having SANS OnDemand access, make use of the virtual mentors.  Basically any content related questions you have regarding a slide or assessment question can be submitted to the ODVMs.  The ODVMs that support content questions all teach SANS classes themselves...  You're not getting just some peon that is gonna google and fumble their way to something approaching an answer....  A lot of OnDemand students don't seem to realize that the backend content support is staffed with instructors...

I am, of course, biased, but I do hope this helped a bit.

Regards,
Seth Misenar

Thanks for all the input!  I will post my experience when my time comes.

My only concern is that I may get dropped into the Orlando session in two weeks, right before I sit for the CEH exam..  Other than that, I have my wife's full support.  Although, she wants me to take the training over the summer when she is able to be home with the baby (heck, she ain't a baby no more, she is going to turn 1 next week).  Unfortunately, my manager wants to get my counterpart and I training quickly so we can bring our Security Operation Center up to speed.

Seth, thanks for the input.  I will keep this under consideration.

Well, I don't think I'm going SANS Orlando.  Which is a good thing because my wife is really busy this week with church.

Anyone going to InfoSec World 2009?  I'll be there Monday night, mainly at the ISSA booth, and then Tuesday afternoon for Dr. Diffie, one session, then back to the ISSA booth, and the CISSP reception.

My hopes are being crushed.  It turns out the two SANS seats were going to come on loan from another department with money to burn in the training budget.  My manager said it is not looking good that we will get them.

I still asked for the Counter Hack Reloaded by Ed Skoudis so I can begin my journey of self study.  I hope that our budget will finally be approved by the time I am ready.  I also have course material from 2004 when a co-worker went through the class that I can review for the basics.  Well, you win some and you lose some, eh?

I'm also continually sending email to my boss about discounts that SANS is offering (this month it's 20% off).

We will see.

I have done this before and it has been great! You get extra time with the instructor. That extra time is something I would be willing to pay extra for.