CISCO IS REVAMPING ITS CERTIFICATIONS

It was announced by Cisco that it will be altering its Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) certification program so that it can aid its partners and other networking professionals in meeting heightened demands for network security, voice and wireless experts.

The product marketing manager at Cisco, Ramesh Bijor, said: “An overwhelming percentage of enterprises – around 80 percent – are looking for dedicated roles in security, and about 70 percent [are looking] for voice, video and wireless. So Cisco has been working over the last few years, and looking at what can we do to train the next group of engineers to fill the talent gap in these areas.

” Security, voice and wireless initiatives have traditionally been managed by network analysts and administrators, but, according to Bijor, this is no longer the case. He states that dedicated experts are now sought in three areas by CIOs, and this ensures that network administrators can focus on network troubleshooting and debugging issues.

 Consequently, its CCNA program is being rebranded as “CCNA Routing and Switching,” and the company’s program will place more attention on things like ensuring that Cisco’s networking gear is correctly implemented, performing fault isolation and fixing problems with regards to system administration. Also being revamped is the CCNA Routing and Switching program, and content related to newer networking technologies (like Cisco IOS version 15 and IPv6) will also be a part of this.
 Furthermore, courses that are taken by partners and other networking professionals will remain, and the processes that guide them will be made easier and more accessible by Cisco.

The director of product management at Cisco, Tejas Vashi, said: “For the security, wireless and voice people – who used to evolve from the route and switch world – we have actually created a direct path so they can get to their security, wireless and voice areas much faster, with the right level of talent requirements.
The security person isn't the one troubleshooting the network anymore.” By cutting testing requirements for its CCNA Security, CCNA Voice and CCNA Wireless programs, Cisco is addressing the above. In the past, program participants had to finish two exams which were focused on basic routing and switching concepts (ICND1 and ICND2), and a third exam also had to be completed, which concentrated on one key area. ICND2 will no longer need to be taken, as a result of recent changes. Vashi said: “We have given them the ability to get right to security [or wireless or voice] without having to know things they don't necessarily have to for their jobs.” Finally, the Cisco Certified Design Associate (CCDA) certification program for network design engineers will now need a valid Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician (CCENT) certification, from October 1 this year.

This will ensure that network design engineers will know about basic routing and switching technologies, contrasted to the past where this knowledge was not needed. He added: “If you're a design person, you have a much more complex network to design today than you did just five years ago. Therefore, we want to make sure the design people have an appropriate base understanding of routing and switching as well.” All Cisco partners that seek to enroll in the vendor’s specializations programs require Associate-level certifications, and these need to be renewed every three years. The new changes are applicable only to Cisco’s Associate-level certifications, and not the higher Professional and Expert certification programs. SOURCE