On Tuesday, November 20th, Cisco® quietly announced their latest certification track: the CCNA and CCNP Data Center. The CCIE Data Center has been around for a short while, and the buzz for the last year was that they were working on this new cert path.
So, why is this important to you? I mean Cisco® has many, many certification paths, with more to come probably. You can chose from the most popular, which is Routing and Switching (R/S), but also Voice, Wireless, Service Provider, Security, and more – and all of these can provide great job security and good pay. However, the Data Center track will be the hottest cert in 2013 and beyond.
All medium-to-large-to-enterprise companies will eventually move to a Unified Computing System or similar model. This model allows companies to unify their networks, computing resources, virtualization and storage in an easy to manage manner. Yes, I know it will take years for some companies to even consider consolidating their data centers, but there are many, many companies that need to do it now, are doing it now, or have already done it. If you’ve been following my blogs, and social media posts, you know I am all about jobs — and Data Center is the “New Hot Job with lots of potential and good pay!”.
However (why is there always a ‘but” or “however” when you just read good news?), working in a new UCS Data Center is not easy, it is tough and takes a lot of effort and brainpower. I found that out the hard way in the last year or so when I tried to take my many decades of work experience and apply it to what I was doing on a day-to-day basis with UCS. Sure, Ethernet is Ethernet, and TCP/IP is still the same, but you have all new technologies that you need to learn with UCS, and if you’ve been a router & switch guy in the past, the virtualization and storage pieces can be a bear to get a handle on!
Let’s take a look at how the new certs appear in Cisco®’s new certification lineup:
Notice interestingly enough, Cisco® didn’t make the old-tried-and-true CCNA R/S a pre-requisite as it is for all other certification tracks. This makes no sense to me, especially since the first test in the CCNA DC track is a networking exam (with some introduction to Data Center info). Cisco® could have easily made the CCNA R/S a pre-requisite to the CCNA DC and then made the CCNA DC a single test instead of the two they have. These two tests you must pass for the CCNA DC are: Introducing Cisco® Data Center Networking (DCICN) and Introducing Cisco® Data Center Technologies (DCICT). There is no single test for the CCNA Data Center. For the CCNP, there are four more tests to pass, wtih two paths to chose from: an Implementation path or a Design path. I’ll provide you all the different CCNP Data Center tests to take at the end of this blog, because trying to gleen this information from their web site is very difficult.
Starting in 2013, I will be teaching my new CCNA Data Center 6-day bootcamp, as well as the CCNP Data Center 12-day bootcamp at GlobalNet Training & Consulting, Inc. My new bootcamps will be all-inclusive, meaning luxury Hyatt hotel where the classes are held, testing onsite with test vouchers included (2nd shot vouchers are included in the DC bootcamps!), hot fresh meals, 24×7 UCS rack availability, all taxes and gratuities included – no hidden fees.
NOTE: For the price of just one Cisco® Data Center class at another company, where you take one class at a time at a high cost, plus your travel, hotel and rental car, GlobalNet Training & Consulting, Inc will give you all the needed CCNA Data Center or CCNP Data Center classes in one single boot camp, and include the hotel, meals, and tests, in one low price — which will cost you less, and you’ll learn more because you never leave the learning enviornment!
Here are the CCNP Data Center Two Certification Paths:
Cisco® CCNP Data Center Implmentation Path:
Four Exams, three certifications
642–999 DCUCI (v5.0)
642–997 DCUFI (v5.0)
642–035 DCUCT
642–980 DCUFT
Cisco® Data Center Unified Computing Support Specialist
642–035 DCUCT
642–999 DCUCI (v5.0)
Cisco® Data Center Unified Fabric Support Specialist
642–980 DCUFT
642–997 DCUFI (v5.0)
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Cisco® CCNP Data Center Design Path
Four exams, three certifications
642–999 DCUCI (v5.0)
642–997 DCUFI (v5.0)
642–998 DCUCD (v5.0)
642–996 DCUFD (v5.0)
Cisco® Data Center Unified Computing Design Specialist
642–999 DCUCI (v5.0)
642–998 DCUCD (v5.0)
Cisco® Data Center Unified Fabric Design Specialist
642–996 DCUFD (v5.0)
642–997 DCUFI (v5.0)
SMART CLOUD SOLUTIONS 