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Cisco certifications

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Cisco Career Certifications are IT professional certifications for Cisco products. The tests are administered by Pearson VUE (Prometric previously administered the test; but as of 1 Aug 2007, no longer does). There are three levels of certification: Associate, Professional, and Expert.

Associate Certifications

The first stage of Cisco's certification system is the "Associate" level and begins with CCENT as an interim step to Associate level or directly with CCNA and CCDA certifications.

Cisco Certified Networking Associate (CCNA)

Candidates have the option of gaining the certification by passing two tests (INTRO and ICND), or one single test (CCNA); the two-test option has the advantage of allowing the candidate to focus on certain subjects.
The certification is valid for three years; at that time a CCNA holder must either
  • re-take the CCNA or ICND exam, or
  • take and pass an exam for one of the Professional (e.g., CCNP) or Specialist level certifications (excluding the sales specialist exams), or pass the CCIE written exam.
These exams are known by their corresponding numbers. When the curriculum of the exam changes the exam number also changes. The current exam number for CCNA is 640-802 (from 15 Aug 2007). The exam number for INTRO is 640-821 (Last day to test 11/6/07) and ICND the exam number is 640-811 (Last day to test 11/6/07). New ICND Part1 (640-822 ICND1) and ICND Part2 (640-816 ICND2) available from 15 Aug 2007.
These exams are conducted by authorized test centers at a cost of $100 for the INTRO or ICND exam and $150 [1] for the full CCNA exam.
There is also the Cisco Networking Academy Program, which brings the CCNA and CCNP curricula into traditional educational institutions in over 150 countries.[2]

Cisco Certified Design Associate (CCDA)

The CCDA certification indicates an apprentice knowledge of Cisco network design. Individuals who have earned a CCDA are capable of designing switched or routed networks consisting of LANs, WANs, and various dial services. While a CCNA certification is not required to take the CCDA exam, Cisco recommends being familiar with CCNA material.

Professional Certifications

Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)

The CCNP is considered proof of having the ability to work with medium-sized networks (between 100 and 500 end devices) and with technology such as QoS, broadband, VPNs, and security-minded features. To acquire a CCNP, one must pass four tests, and either re-certify or upgrade to a CCIE every three years. (The CCNA is a prerequisite for CCNP, but CCIE does not have any prerequisites: see below.) Additional resources and tools to aid in preparing for the certification are available on the CCNP Prep Center.[3]

Cisco Certified Design Professional (CCDP)

The CCDP certification is an advanced network design certification provided by Cisco Systems, Inc. Candidates for the certification are tested for advanced knowledge of Cisco devices and the way to interconnect them. This certification is considered a professional level certificate by Cisco Systems. (The CCNA and CCDA are prerequisites.)

Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP)

The CCSP certification is an advanced network security certification. Candidates for the certification are tested for advanced knowledge of various Cisco security products.
To attain this certification several tests must be passed in the areas of VPN, IDS, PIX firewall, Secure IOS, the Cisco SAFE, as well as having a CCNA or higher level certification (e.g. CCNP or CCIP).
The common practice is to take five exams which include one elective paper. The list of exams and elective papers can be found in the Cisco website.

Cisco Certified Internetwork Professional (CCIP)

The CCIP certification is a professional certification covering the end-to-end protocols used in large scale networks.
To attain this certification tests must be passed in the areas of routing, BGP, MPLS and Quality of service.

Cisco Certified Voice Professional (CCVP)

The CCVP is a certification covering all aspects of IP Telephony/VOIP networks and applications.
To attain this certification, five tests must be passed in the areas of Quality of service, Cisco VoIP, IP Telephony Troubleshooting, Cisco IP Telephony, and Gateway Gatekeeper.

Recertification

To recertify any Professional level certification, pass any 642 exam that is part of the professional level curriculum after August 18 2006, or pass a current CCIE written exam.

Expert-level certifications: Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert

The expert-level certification is the Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE). It is the highest level of professional certification that Cisco provides. There are 5 active CCIE tracks, as below. As of April 2, 2007 there are 14,387 people with active CCIE certifications.[4]

Cisco began its CCIE program in 1993[5] originally with a two day lab, later changing it to the one day format used today. Less than 3% of Cisco certified individuals attain CCIE certification, and on average will spend thousands of dollars and 18 months studying before passing[6]. Many candidates build mock-labs at home using old Cisco equipment, selling it again to other candidates after passing. Alternatively candidates may rent "rack time" online and practice lab scenarios on Cisco equipment hosted on the Internet for that purpose.

Cisco refers to the CCIE as the "most respected IT certification"[7], and from 2002 to 2005[8] it was voted as such in CertCities magazine. It has also been voted the most technically advanced IT certification by CertMag[9], and is generally reported as the highest salaried certification in IT salary surveys.

The CCIE is comprised of a written exam and a "lab" exam (each in the specific area of the chosen track). The written exam is required to take the lab exam, and has a cost of $315 [1] USD per attempt. Upon passing the written exam, the candidate is qualified to attempt the lab exam for 18 months. If a candidate does not pass the CCIE lab in that time, they must pass the CCIE written exam again before making additional attempts at the CCIE lab exam.

The CCIE Lab is currently $1,400 USD[1] per attempt and are offered only at ten Cisco lab exam locations worldwide. The locations are Bangalore; Beijing; Brussels; Dubai; Hong Kong; Research Triangle Park, NC; San Jose, CA; São Paulo; Sydney; and Tokyo. In addition, according to a survey by Cisco the average cost to prepare for CCIE certification is $9,050 as of April 2006, spent mostly on practice equipment and self study material. [10] This is partially offset by the increased salary the certification commands, which a March 2007 Network World article estimates at 10% - 15% over similarly experienced engineers who do not have a CCIE. [11]

The lab is an 8-hour hands-on exam designed to demonstrate that the candidate not only knows the theory, but is also able to practice it. Many prospective CCIEs need multiple attempts to pass the lab exam.

There are no formal prerequisites for the CCIE exam, but Cisco recommends one has at least 3 - 5 years experience in networking before attempting to become a CCIE. CCIE was the first Cisco Certified qualification, and as such there were no other certifications that could be taken prior. The development of the associate and professional certifications was due to recognition of the fact that a CCIE is overkill for many networking personnel, and also for the vast majority of businesses who employ such people, and that certifications needed to be offered at lower levels. Despite the development of the lower certifications, Cisco has chosen not to make them formal requirements for the CCIE certification.

It is possible to hold multiple CCIE certifications. This is done by passing both the written and the lab exam in a particular track. As of April 2, 2007 there are 1,113 individuals who hold multiple CCIE certifications. Of those, 161 hold three or more CCIE certifications.[12]

CCIE Routing & Switching

Routing and Switching is by far the most popular track, and covers a wide range of subjects, such as: LAN, WAN, Ethernet, TCP/IP, OSPF and BGP,IPv6 and many more.

CCIE Security

The Security track concentrates on network security and covers subjects such as ASA, IDS, IOS security, security and many others.

CCIE Service Provider

The Service Provider track focuses on networking in the service provider industry. Subjects include Optical networks, DSL, WAN switching, Voice over IP, Content Networking, Broadband Cable and Metro Ethernet.

CCIE Voice

The Voice track concentrates on voice solutions for the enterprise and includes subjects such as QoS, MGCP, Call Manager (Cisco's VoIP PABX), Cisco Unity (Cisco's Unified Messaging platform), Unity Express and IP Contact Center Express.

CCIE Storage Networking

The latest addition to the CCIE certification tracks is the CCIE Storage Networking track. As the name suggests, the Storage Networking track concentrates on storage networking topics, such as Fibre Channel, iSCSI, FCIP, Intra VSAN Routing and FICON.

Career Aspects

After Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) what employer want(this addition is based on current requirement of CCNP Professionals)

  • You can managed at large enterprise WAN (about 300- 400 routers)
  • You will be well versed with the routing protocols EIGRP, RIP, OSPF and BGP
  • You will be familiar with MPLS
  • You will be able to understand Network Protocol
  • You will be familiar with WAN communication technology like ChE1, PRI, E1, E3 etc
  • You will be familiar with operation, hardware and architectures of the following series of Cisco routers 17xx, 18xx, 28xx, 37xx, 38xx and 7500
  • Manage high-end Cisco Routers, L2 and L3 Switches, Firewalls, RAS, VPN, Checkpoint, IDS, (L4 to L7) Content Switches, Lease Line, HP Open View, IBM Tivoli, CiscoWorks2000 LMS, RWAN, VMS, and MRTG etc. Call Manager, IP Phones, VoIP, VLAN, STP
    • Area of Expertise
    • Routing : OSPF, BGP, RIP, EIGRP, and Static.
    • Network : TCP/IP, SMTP, SNMP, DHCP, DNS,
    • Routers : Cisco 7206, 7507 3745, 3662, 3640, 2620, 1760, 1750, 1720, 1600, 2501,etc

Intel Router, D-link Router, Juniper Router Switches: : Layer3 – Cisco 6509, 4507, 3550. Layer2 –2970G, 2950 Cisco 1900, 3Com, D-Link Layer 2 Switches Enterasys L3 MATRIX E5 series switches

References

  1. ^ a b c Cisco Exam Pricing Change
  2. ^ Cisco Net Academy
  3. ^ CCNP Prep Center
  4. ^ CCIE's Worldwide - A breakdown of CCIE qualified engineers around the world
  5. ^ Cisco 1993 Press Release Cisco press release announcing CCIE
  6. ^ Cisco CCIE general facts
  7. ^ Most respected certification
  8. ^ CertCities certification survey
  9. ^ CertMag certification survey, 2003
  10. ^ Cisco 2006 CCIE Survey
  11. ^ Network World IT salary review
  12. ^ Employer Information: What CCIE certification stands for; Why you should hire a CCIE; Why you don't want to lose a CCIE from your staff.
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