For most candidates, their Cisco track beings with CCENT and the ICND1 exam. Passing this exam gives you your first Cisco certification and puts you halfway through your CCNA, opening the doors to a career in networking. Needless to say, embarking on this journey is absolutely worth it (think better jobs, delicious promotions and sweet paychecks).

As we mentioned in our previous article, Cisco have significantly upgraded (and by saying Upgraded we mean Complicated) CCENT this year, making it prerequisite for most tracks. The fact itself shows that the program and the current ICND1 exam are no longer of ‘introduction’ level.

While the materials the exam covers are available in the blueprint, it is worth pointing out that Cisco has bumped up the depth of knowledge required for all of them, including the usual OSI, TCP/IP, subnetting (you better get used to solving subnetting problems in a blink of an eye, or otherwise they’ll steal too much time on your exam).

Some subjects, like IPv6, VLANs, IVR, EIGRP and OSPF have been migrated from the old CCNA curriculum to be included in the CCENT. Originally published by Todd Lammle, these are the topics newly added and removed from the CCENT. Don’t freak out.

Topics REMOVED from the CCENT in March 2013:

• Securing the network
• Understanding challenges of shared LANs
• Solving network challenges with switched LAN technologies
• Wireless LAN’s
• Using Cisco® SDM
• Configuring serial encapsulation
• Enabling RIP

Topics ADDED to the ICND1 Exam:

• Implementing VLSM
• Scaling the network with NAT and PAT
• Managing traffic with ACLs
• Implementing VLANs and trunks
• Routing between VLANs
• Implementing single area OSPF
• Introducing basic IPv6
• Understanding IPv6
• Configurating IPv6 Routing

This information is great to keep in mind when going through the brain dumps and evaluating what you need to spend more time on.

CCT – Can It Be A Stepping Stone For You?

Sometimes overlooked among other Cisco’s ‘cool’ certifications, CCT (Cisco Certified Technician) is actually very worth looking at. It stands separately from other certifications, having its separate exams and not being on par with CCENT/ICND1. The program mainly targets technicians who plan to diagnose, restore, repair, and replace critical Cisco networking and system devices at customer sites, working closely and efficiently with Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

While having a CCT certification isn’t a prerequisite for CCENT or CCNA, knowing the material covered in this certification may be very helpful to network experts. Compared to CCENT and CCNA, CCT is more focused on hardware and is somewhat less heavy on theory, leaving its students with extremely solid understanding of Cisco products and services (which is very helpful for a successful Cisco career in the long run).

Available for a few different tracks, this program is customized to target your specific career needs. Currently Cisco offers the following specialized CCTs: CCT Data Center (required exam: 640-893 DCTECH), CCT Routing and Switching (640-692 RSTECH), CCT TelePresence (640-792 TPTECH).

Although not as coveted as CCENT and CCNA, CCT may be a good place to start for network expert wannabes as it will make further CCNA easier. Also, those who have taken the exams for both certifications claim that CCT exams are a lot easier than the ICND1.

So, if you want to give your career a Cisco boost but aren’t sure are up for the CCENT challenge, CCT may be your solution. (OR, alternatively, you may think about the CompTIA as vendor neutral certifications if you just need to start somewhere, but that’s totally off topic now).

So what is it gonna be for you: getting CCENT certified straight away or will you make a stop at CCT?

This is no secret that Cisco has significantly revamped its certification program, especially CCENT and CCNA, earlier this year. Originally announced in late March, the changes and new CCNA tracks were fully implemented this fall.

So, these are the Cisco certification levels we’re looking at now:

Entry Certifications

• CCENT
• CCT (CCT Data Center; CCT Routing & Switching; CCT TelePresence)

Associate Certifications

• CCNA Routing and Switching
• CCDA
• CCNA Data Center
• CCNA Security
• CCNA Service Provider
• CCNA Service Provider Operations
• CCNA Video
• CCNA Voice
• CCNA Wireless

Professional Certifications

• CCDP
• CCNP
• CCNP Data Center
• CCNP Security
• CCNP Service Provider
• CCNP Service Provider Operations
• CCNP Voice
• CCNP Wireless

Expert Certifications

• CCDE
• CCIE Collaboration
• CCIE Data Center
• CCIE Routing & Switching
• CCIE Security
• CCIE Service Provider
• CCIE Service Provider Operations
• CCIE Voice (Retiring February 13, 2014)
• CCIE Wireless

Architect Certification –  CCAr

What has changed in 2013?

If you are collecting information about CCENT and CCNA from message boards and brain dumps, be sure you’re looking at the updated 2013 data. This is important as CCENT and CNAA appear to have been changed the most.

What we hear may be sad news to many out there: CCENT (ICND1; exam 100-101, which can also be part of your CCNA R&S) has gotten harder – significantly. Subjects added, especially the labs, go more in depth and cover a lot more aspects (including lots of IPv6 stuff) compared to the old CCNA. CCENT Certification hasn’t been a joke before and it has gotten much further from being one now! This certification is also now a prerequisite for most CCNA certifications (except CCNA R&S, CCNA Data Center and CCNA Service Provider).

The Associate level programs, according to Cisco, have been redesigned to better fit the industry needs and the roles networking professionals need to fill. Yes, it means even more practical hands on stuff. To achieve advanced technology certification in an accelerated manner, you now need to pass only two required exams.

As upper certification levels haven’t been affected by the changes to such a degree (we’ll go over them in separate articles), another change to the Cisco certification structure would be the new recertification timeframes.

Renewal and Recertification Timeframes

If you decide to settle on your already achieved certification and do not intend to go up another level any time soon, keep in mind that Cisco Entry, Associate and Professional level certifications last for 3 years. When this time is up, you will have to renew it. Meanwhile, all CCIE and Specialist certifications last for 2 years. And in you’ve made it all the way up the Cisco scale and are now Cisco Certified Architect (no words are enough to express the respect you deserve for that!), your awe-inspiring certification will need to be renewed after 5 years.

A gentle reminder that if you do not register and pass your Cisco recertification exam before your certification expires, you will have to repeat the entire certification process. Now, you do don’t want to challenge yourself this much, do you?

And for those of you planning to recertify, here’s your Recertification Roadmap:

Specialist Recertification Roadmap

Collaboration  

• Cisco Unified Presence Specialist
• Cisco Unity Design Specialist
• Cisco Unity Support Specialist

Data Center      

• Cisco Data Center Application Services Design Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Application Services Support Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Storage Networking Design Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Storage Networking Support Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Design Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Support Specialist

Operating System Software     

• Cisco IOS XR Specialist

Security              

• Cisco ASA Specialist
• Cisco Firewall Security Specialist
• Cisco IOS Security Specialist
• Cisco IPS Specialist
• Cisco Network Admission Control Specialist
• Cisco VPN Security Specialist

Video  

• Cisco Video Network Specialist
• Cisco Rich Media Communications Specialist
• Cisco TelePresence Solutions Specialist

Retired Certifications

This year, Cisco has retired 6 certifications:

• CCIE Storage Networking
• Cisco Data Center Networking Infrastructure Design Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Networking Infrastructure Support Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Storage Networking Design Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Storage Networking Support Specialist
• Cisco TelePresence Installations Specialist

All of these retired certifications have relevant replacement available, so you can easily find a new destination for your Cisco journey.

Which Cisco certification do you have your eyes on now? Feel free to tell us in the comments. And – although the road can get bumpy sometimes, remember to keep your eyes on the prize.