For the first time, Cisco has introduced the concept of a more basic certification level than CCNA – the Cisco Certified Entry Network Technician (CCENT). I’ll take a few days and concentrate on this new certification option, and get some discussion started, particular to find out whether anyone finds this to be an interesting option – or a big “so what”.
First, a bit of historical background can be helpful to understand what Cisco’s after this time around.
The breadth of the CCNA cert has been growing and growing each time Cisco updates the certification. In what was essentially version 1 of the CCNA exam, the underlying authorized courseware from Cisco that defined the scope of exam topics was smaller – a single 5-day course. Several times when Cisco revised the exam and associated courses, they would add content. First, they added the content in a 2-day self study course in what would have been CCNA version 3. In what could be called version 4 of the CCNA certification – with the exams introduced summer of 2003 and being retired this fall – the underlying courses included a 4-day course (called INTRO) and a 5-day course (called ICND). It was at this point, in summer of 2003, that Cisco began offering 2 ways to become CCNA certified: pass 1 CCNA exam (exam number 640-801 at the time), or pass both the INTRO (640-821) and ICND (640-811) exams.
So, why the option to take 2 exams? Well, if you took the official INTRO and ICND courses, but there was a time lapse between them, then Cisco rightly theorized that you might want to be tested on the first course’s content before you forgot it all. Also, some teachers in the Cisco Networking Academy Program, which can take 2 years to cover the materials for CCNA in a school setting, wanted to give students the chance to take a Cisco exam before a whole 2-year cycle.
While useful, this 2-exam option was certainly less popular than just taking the single CCNA exam. The real goal was to get CCNA, and frankly, even if you took the INTRO exam and passed, you really needed to remember those details to be successful on the ICND exam. Also, the CCNA exam (the single exam option) was weighted with more coverage for what was on the ICND exam. So, guesstimates suggest that probably 90% of people taking the exams went with the single-exam option.
Now back to the future. With these latest announcements, Cisco has continued to have a single exam option (CCNA, exam 640-802) to achieve CCNA, as well as a 2-exam option (ICND1, exam 640-822, and ICND2, exam 640-816). The two separate exams cover the same materials in Cisco’s new ICND1 and ICND2 courses – the general idea is just like the old exams. However, there are several key differences:
* Roughly 10% more topics – 10 days of courseware (5 days each course), rather than the 9 combined course days for the old exam
* The first course’s content was chosen to be truly representative to what a new network engineer in a small Enterprise, or working at an IT services company
* Equal weighting of ICND1/ICND2 topics on the CCNA exam
* If you pass the ICND1 exam, you become CCENT certified
All of these changes may mean that more people go with the 2-exam option for getting their CCNA – or it may not. Time will tell, but I’m interested to hear what you think. Were any of you planning to just take the CCNA exam, but now, with these recently-announced changes, plan to take the 2-exam path instead? Anyone tempted by the extra CCENT certification you get if you use the 2-exam path? (Yes, if you just take the CCNA 640-802 exam, you become CCNA certified, but NOT CCENT certified.) Or did you decide to just keep heading towards passing the single CCNA exam? Also, anyone out there who thought that studying for CCNA was too much hassle, but you might be interested in at least getting your CCENT?
So, post your comments. Plus, to get a little broader participation, here’s another survey. I’ll post more thoughts on ICND1/CCENT tomorrow, and get into the exam a little more. Thanks!!
Are you more inclined to take the new ICND1 exam today than you were to take the old INTRO exam?
