topic Re: Meraki Certifications in Cloud Networking Platform

Meraki Certifications

Mr_IT_Guy — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 19:37:55 GMT

I am currently a CMNO. @btevans995 wrote a post asking about access areas for CMNA and Masters. How does one become a CMNA or a Master?

Re: Meraki Certifications

CarolineS-Meraki — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 19:40:26 GMT

Hi @Mr_IT_Guy

CMNA and Masters are programs for Meraki partners - https://meraki.cisco.com/partners/. CMNO is the certification for customers.

Cheers!

Re: Meraki Certifications

CapitolG — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 19:42:41 GMT

At the Meraki Partners website you can see available dates for CMNA. It's free and fun. I took the class about a month ago and learned some new cool things.

Re: Meraki Certifications

Mr_IT_Guy — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 19:43:12 GMT

@CarolineS1 does Meraki have any plans for CMNOs to eventually be allowed to become CMNA or a Master?

Re: Meraki Certifications

BHC_RESORTS — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 20:03:15 GMT

@Mr_IT_Guy wrote:
@CarolineS1 does Meraki have any plans for CMNOs to eventually be allowed to become CMNA or a Master?

I too have asked about this, with some of the Meraki marketing management. But the more Meraki employees we pester about it, the better. Judging from some of the deployments I've seen mentioned here, a lot of the "end-users" likely make much more significant purchases than some of the partners who may just be resellers or VARs. It would be nice to be recognized as well with advanced training opportunities.

Re: Meraki Certifications

dbate — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 20:12:43 GMT

Hi all, I can weigh in here, as my team owns Meraki trainings and certifications. CMNA and CMNO both cover the full Meraki product stack with a medium level of depth across the board. The main difference is that CMNA is intended for those positioning and selling Meraki, and CMNO is intended for those operating Meraki networks. As such, the content is presented in a somewhat different way in each course. But neither is more in-depth, and one is not the precursor for the other.

We've definitely heard the request for more in-depth, self-directed trainings as a follow-up to CMNA or CMNO, and that's a big area of focus for my team this year. So stay tuned for more over the coming months.

To that end, are there any particular areas in which any of you would like to go deeper? Thoughts on the best way to structure these advanced trainings? I'd love any input.

Re: Meraki Certifications

cfraysier — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 20:19:43 GMT

that's kinda silly.. why not just have one cert?

Re: Meraki Certifications

MerakiJockey505 — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 20:23:33 GMT

Thanks @dbate for clearing up the distinction. I am currently a CMNO but would also love the ability to pitch Meraki equipment to other teams and clubs that I've worked with or consulted for. I think it's a much easier sell to others when you are actively using the product in practice. Also, the ability to develop plugins and extensions for the Meraki dashboard would be an awesome training course that I would definitely sign up for.

Re: Meraki Certifications

dbate — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 20:27:20 GMT

@MerakiJockey505 are you referring to trainings around how to leverage the Meraki APIs? Is that something that you're looking to do with your organization?

If that's what you meant, it's something that we're looking at.

Re: Meraki Certifications

MRCUR — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 20:28:38 GMT

Given the way Meraki products are administered, I certainly get the argument for one big cert. The problem with that (as I think anyone with CMNO/CMNA would know) is that it doesn't allow for a ton of depth to the cert.

@dbate I'd be very interested in certs for each product line that go into much more depth than CMNO did. I did really like the time and format of CMNO, so shooting for that with these other certs would be great. Given the simplicity of even the most complex deployments, I don't think this would be impossible. Self paced/self administered would be really, really nice as well.

Re: Meraki Certifications

MerakiJockey505 — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 20:33:00 GMT

@dbate, Yes definitely! I've followed some of the work being done with Location Analytics API and 3rd Party integration and would love to see that kind of development utilize some of the other devices for various applications such as Penetration testing and more in-depth security application. A training along that lines and a corresponding cert program would be awesome!

Re: Meraki Certifications

Vikassi — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 21:32:53 GMT

I also took the CNMA about a month ago. Did you get your polo shirt or equipment yet?

Re: Meraki Certifications

cfraysier — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 15:36:04 GMT

If the CMNO and CMNA are covering the full stack then why wouldn't the CMNO be eligible for Meraki Masters?

Re: Meraki Certifications

Mr_IT_Guy — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 16:55:30 GMT

@cfraysier, don't you think we should also be eligible for the polo 😄

Re: Meraki Certifications

cfraysier — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 17:00:42 GMT

It is a pretty sweet polo..

Re: Meraki Certifications

BHC_RESORTS — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 17:29:32 GMT

@Mr_IT_Guy wrote:
@cfraysier, don't you think we should also be eligible for the polo 😄

I think I had to buy about $250k worth of equipment before I got mine!

Re: Meraki Certifications

Mr_IT_Guy — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 17:33:38 GMT

Oh.... We've easily done that.. I think our very first order with Meraki was $200k

Re: Meraki Certifications

DarkStar1 — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 04:36:54 GMT

@dbateThat sound backwards. The CMNO operator is the end-user the one with the most knowledge and the partner gets the CMNA administrator/associate ???? Should have CMP for the partners and CMNA for the end-users/operators/admins and CMNP for the professionals.

Re: Meraki Certifications

Mr_IT_Guy — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 14:18:09 GMT

@dbate wrote:
CMNA and CMNO both cover the full Meraki product stack with a medium level of depth across the board. CMNO is intended for those operating Meraki networks.

To quote the Meraki website

The Certified Meraki Network Operator certification is a full day commitment for IT professionals with CCNA (or equivalent) networking knowledge.

My question is the following: If the CMNO is aimed at professions with CCNA (or equivalent) networking knowledge, how is the it possible for members in my organization who 1.) have limited exposure to Meraki and 2.) have little to no networking experience/knowledge to be passing this exam? I understand that this is a free certification and that I probably shouldn't be putting much weight into this, but for it to be touted as a CCNA level certification only to have it passed by though without the knowledge is a bit discouraging.

Any thoughts?

Re: Meraki Certifications

dbate — Thu, 28 Sep 2017 04:34:45 GMT

Hi @Mr_IT_Guy, maybe I can provide some clarification here. We don't intend to position CMNO as a CCNA-level certification. In fact, the objectives of the two trainings are very different. Whereas CCNA serves as foundational training in the fundamentals of networking through the lens of Cisco, CMNO is intended to give Meraki users the context and confidence that they need to operate Meraki networks.

We do ask that participants have solid networking fundamentals (CCNA-level) to participate in CMNO because we believe that those fundamentals are required in order to get value out of the experience.

Hopefully that helps to clarify, and I hope that the members of your organization that went through CMNO found it helpful in their operation of a Meraki network!