It was a Networkers 1998 - Philadelphia, I believe - where Cisco first announced CCNA to the general public. Now, 10 years later at Networkers 2008 (aka Cisco Live), Cisco is announcing some major additions to CCNA.
I'm going to repeat this a few times so there's no question: the existing CCNA is NOT changing per Cisco's announcement this week. What is changing is that Cisco is expanding the CCNA program, adding three new certifications that have the CCNA name:
Good old 10 year old CCNA keeps the same name.
First, to learn more, check out this web page. But for a brief intro, here's the highlights:
More interesting, I think, is how these fit together: Good old, plain old 10-year-old CCNA is the Pre-req for each of the new CCNA certs. In short, if you want to get Cisco certified, the most likely first step is to get your CCNA. Then, the new CCNA Voice is a pre-req for CCVP (don't worry - I'm sure there's some accommodation for those in progress on CCVP.) Similarly, CCNA is a pre-req for CCNA Security, which will become a pre-req for CCSP. (For wireless, there's no Cisco CCWP cert, so there's nothing for which CCNA Wireless can be a pre-req.)
There's no point in repeating what Cisco's worked so hard to prepare on their web site. I'll give you folks some time to look at the collateral, and while I'm here at Networkers, I'll try and find out some of the positioning about what these certs are meant to be. If you have any specific questions, post them, and I'll see if I can get some answers while I'm here.
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Odom, CCIE No, 1624, splits time between writing books for Cisco Press and teaching classes for Skyline ATS. In his 25-ish years in the networking industry, he has worked as as a pre-sale and post-sale SE for a few networking vendors, as well as a network engineer implementing network technology. Wendell has spent the majority of the last 15 years teaching, consulting, and writing about networking technologies, most of which in some way relate to Cisco products. His books include titles on QoS, CCIE R/S, as well as several titles related to CCNA certification, including the September 2007 book CCNA Official Exam Certification Library (CCNA Exam 640-802) (Read a sneak peek of chapter 7). Click for the list of current titles by Wendell.
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CCVP/CCSP Prerequisite
According to the certification progress tracker, we have until 6/29/2009 to get a CCVP/CCSP without the new CCNA Voice or CCNA Security.
Maybe longer...
Hey Ben,
I asked at the cert booth at Networkers, and they said that the requirement for CCNA Voice as a pre-req for CCVP, and CCNA Sec. as a pre-req for CCSP, would only be enforced eithern in 1 year (as you mentioned), OR, when your current (regular) CCNA expires, whichever is later. IE, you'd get at least a year, maybe longer. That was the verbal answer from a knowledgable person at the show - but I didn't see it written down, so look for that extra tidbit in writing before relying on it. Thanks!
Wendell
CCSP - Will ISCW be a prerequisite instead of CCNA Security ?
Hi Wendell,
Could you please clarify if the CCNP ISCW will be a possible pre-req for CCSP in the future? This is not yet mentionned to do, but to my understanding of the CCNA Security IINS, most (>80%) of the content is already covered by the CCNP ISCW content.
I don't really undestand the reason why Cisco introduced this new training + test for covering the almost same content than the ISCW.
IMHA it would have made more sense to update the ISCW content and to either make this new ISCW as the qualifying exam for the CCNA Security or to add the ISCW to the CCSP track list.
My opinion on this new way to become CCSP / CCVP (future CCWP ?) is for Cisco to introduce an additional exam and to make more money with the people (or the organizations funding them) wanting to get certified. Cisco should take care to consider people wanting to get certified as a kind of profesional partner and not as people to make revenue on. Once the training material + exam for achieving a full track will be no more affordable for most of the engineers and the SME using Cisco-gears, it will be a marketing risk to loose these vectors for promoting Cisco engines within their employers. I strongly believe that a non-negligible part of the Cisco success is because of the presence of Cisco certified people within companies. This people most of the time push Cisco products to its management (they know the company, they know the technology and they know the Cisco products, thus they can convince their management better than any other Cisco commercial partner). Making CCNA / CCNP more rare will also reduce this very appreciated marketing vectors for the Cisco sellings.
I'm not speaking about the people cheating at the exams. If avoiding this people to get certified would reduce the number of globally certified CCxx, this would make the certification more valuable.
My 2 cents...
Yann
I don't expect ISCW as a pre-req for CCSP
Hi Y.,
I'll get to a response on most of what you wrote in my next regular post, but I wanted to get something back to you quickly. This is pure speculation on my part, but I don't see ISCW as a future pre-req for CCSP. Instead, when Cisco decided to create CCSP, they of course created a course, and took some/most/all from existing courses. (I've not done a thorough examination of the old/new courseware yet.) I think the pre-req for CCSP will change from CCNA (before this week, and into the next year), to adding CCNA Sec on top of that, and that'll stay the same.
More by Monday! Thanks....
Wendell
What is going to happen to the CCNP 642-825 ISCW Exam now?
https://cisco.hosted.jivesoftware.com/community/certifications/security_ccna/iins?view=overview
Above is the link to the outline of CCNA Security certification exam.
If you look at the contents of CBT Nuggets CCNP 642-825 ISCW & TrainSignal CNP 642-825 ISCW courses (see links below), the material for the security sections is remarkably similar to the Cisco CCNA Security certification.
http://www.cbtnuggets.com/webapp/product?id=371
http://www.trainsignal.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=79
I'd go so far as to say they are identical.
Does this mean the entire CCNP curriculum is going to be re-jigged again? Not that I am against this, as Cisco seemed to have shoved everything they thought you needed to know, but had no where else to put, into the current version of CCNP.
They shoved Multi-Casting into the BSCI telling us its going to be the next big thing, which I swear is worse than IPv6 in terms of all talk and no substance.
Wireless & VOIP was crammed into the BCMSN
AAA, IOS Firewall and Security into ISCW (The old BCRAN)
Left over VOIP & Wireless got shoved into ONT, which is just the bloody QoS course they ought to have for the CCIP and kill 2 birds with 1 stone.
And after all that, you can be a qualified CCNP and really really know you stuff theoretically & practically, about the topics required to pass the CCNP, and on the other hand, know next to nothing about things like SNMP or Netflow, how to configure them, and how to use them to monitor your network properly, let alone having the 1st real clue about Cisco hardware in the real world, or doing things like being able to successfully navigate the Cisco Website and painlessly extract any meaningful answer from it, whatsoever!
Sometimes you just have to wonder, how serious Cisco is about producing certified personal ready for the real world?
I think it's a broader issue, unrelated to the new CCNA
Hey Shaun,
Ran outta time last night, got back to it at the end of the day today.
Anyway... Yep, the topics are like ISCW. They're also substantively like the SND course, and maybe a little like the SRND course, both of which are associated with CCSP exams. So, there was already overlap between CCSP and CCNP before the new CCNAs got announced.
So, if you interpret the two options for CCSP today: CCNA + pass the SND test, or become CCNA Security... well, that's pretty close to the same thing, at least from a 10,000 feet view. So I don't think these announcements about CCNA drive us any more or any less towards the day that CCNP will be revised.
As for your comments about the relevance of what is covered in CCNP, I don know that Cisco spends what seems to be a lot of time researching what people do in their jobs before they change the existing certs. have things changed quicklyin the last 2 years releative to CCNP topics? I'm not a big fan of the current coverage in ONT exam especially, and the ISCW vs CCSP overlap is unfortunate as well. I'll be interested to see what changes there down the road. However, I don't think they'll ever get into hardware specifics on the certs, though, because it makes the certs obsolete quicker, and more importantly to them in my opinion, it makes the courseware obsolete quicker. But I agree that the whole how do you manage the thing would be an interesting addition next time the CCNP revs.
My 2 cents.
Wendell
The CCSP is changing with CCNA: Security
http://cisco.com/web/learning/le3/le2/le37/le54/learning_certification_type_home.html
If you take a look at this page for CCSP you will notice that SND will be kicked out from the CCSP as CCNA:Security will probably mirror the materials covered.
Therefore CCSP does not change a thing, it is still 5 exams they just moved one to the Associate level and renamed it :)
All the best.
Branko
I agree generally; probably small diffs
Branko,
I'd agree substantively. I know the CCNA Security class (IINS) course differs a little. But your right on for the general intent. thanks,
Wendell
I think it makes more sense
I think it makes more sense and In my opinion it would be easier for the candidate to progress further... The current CCNA is too broad and not specific.
Tools and preparation products for new CCNA conentrations!
For those interested in learning what tools & products are available for the new CCNA cocnentrations - Cisco Press has products available now! Read a sneak peak of the chapters and learn more at http://tinyurl.com/3sw3yp.