Is The New CCNP irrelevent for NE's in Small to Medium Business?

[jcarrabine1]

Given the topics of the up and coming CORE test. Is this relevant to workers in these markets? GO!

[Leo Laohoo]

Yes.

[jcarrabine1]

Supporting proof?

[julian.bendix]

Hi...

I would say it is relevant for any Network Engineer.
Why would it matter in what kind of company/enterprise you are working?

If anyone would not want to evolve, CCNP is as a whole is maybe irrelevant :)

Best regards
Julian

[jcarrabine1]

Ah so you are saying that there is a need for DNA Center, Assurance, YANG, and etc automation in a Medium and small environment? Is there a use case to invest in those new directions that Cisco says are the future for under 5k users?

I personally see this as Cisco's aim to get into a market where they failed. They are trying to get a slice of the pie pioneered by Ansible, Chef, and etc. It's like the whole VIRL fail all over again. With that Cisco saw what GNS3 was doing and made their own version, except VIRL sucked and costs money vs free. It seems Cisco is always there to try and do a smash and grab to get money in a market where they are no longer growing. Buy it or copy it. This time however, they, in my opinion, are trying to reshape their certifications around technologies that only make sense to large enterprise, and leaving the rest of their customer base to either jump onboard or screw off. I know my $10k license per-year for Advanced ISE licensing is an impact to my business, and now I should learn all of this other stuff and tell my employer to buy a DNA center appliance for $70k plus reoccurring licensing at astronomical pricing? That's real funny, but if I don't why bother keeping the CCNP? If I do, and my place of business can not justify the equipment that supports my certification why bother having the certification, and without that experience how am I suppose to pass the CCNP to maintain the certification? Especially when said certification is now at least $400 every 3 years to maintain.

[julian.bendix]

It seems you are pretty angry at Cisco Certifications, so I probably won't be able to change your mind.

But we are talking about a Certification here...
If you want to be a "Cisco Certified Network Professional in Enterprise Networks" (CCNP Enterprise), then you will have to learn about DNA-C, Yang and all those kinds of topics - simple as that..

If you don't want to be CCNP Enterprise - then don't study that.
Simple as that, just enjoy what you are doing.

Hope you have a nice weekend.

Julian

[jcarrabine1]

<<<If you don't want to be CCNP Enterprise - then don't study that.>>>

I didn't. I dropped that waste of time cert after 15yrs of having it. Thanks for your advice. It helped.

[Seb Rupik]

Hi there,

I feel your pain, 10 years ago I worked for a charity where money should be spent on clients and not the IT! We had a Franken-network lashed together with sub £50 switches and routers to build our regional WAN and remote sites. I still remember the conversations, pleading and hoops I had to jump through to justify my £1200 ESXi training...I never got it!

Any certification should be viewed as a way to validate what you know or to equip you for your next role in another (larger) company.

Agreed that there is a lot of cisco specific topics in the CCNP, but Cisco is in the business of pushing tin and software, some of it great (6500's) some of it not so much (Prime!) either way engineers need a way to prove they know how do drive this portfolio.

If you wanted the most vendor agnostic path through CCNP then just take 350-401 and 300-410 .

Regarding the other technologies which you are concerned about not having exposure to, take a look at the DevNet labs. It is a great resource to learn with and more than capable to pull you through the CCNP exams.

https://developer.cisco.com/site/networking/

https://developer.cisco.com/site/data-center/

https://developer.cisco.com/site/security/

Good luck with your studies!!

cheers,

Seb.

[knaik99]

this link can help you

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/training-events/training-certifications/certifications/professional/ccnp-routing-switching-migration-tool.html