ccna expiring soon - renewal

googol

Hey all,

been a while since I have been on these forums, been pretty crazy at my new job and enjoying things, but thought my CCNA was going to be expiring in May, but since I took CCNA security in the past in Feb, it is actually expiring Feb 2015. So that has me thinking a bit.

I could take the ICDN2 exam and get it over with, but might be a fallback plan, but looking at something new.

I think I am leaning towards CCNA Data Center or CCNA Wireless right now since we might be getting some Nexus switches finally and been bouncing around the idea of UCS, but likely not, but we are also looking to replace our wireless infrastructure with latest Cisco wireless most likely, so might be useful with CCNA wireless there. I figure I could probably stagger these two tests, do one, then do the other like 2-2.5 years down the road to renew again, but I am sure the exams and certs will change over time.

I was wondering on thoughts from the Cisco crowd here? CCNA Voice and Video don't really do much good I think when we don't use Cisco's Voice solution and we might be using telepresence in the future, so Video possibly.

With my nearing deadline, might be able to squeeze in a quality boot camp in January, but want to start prepping and reading the book prior to that as most boot camps will be the final review and fill in whatever holes, typically take the test on site on that Friday when the camp is over.

Which would be reasonable with my experience of CCNA/CCNA Security, working as Network/Security/Systems jack of all trades engineer for several years. Wish I had some definite answers from my company on our technology approach and that would decide, but might just want to do what interests me. What stands out more than the others, any glaring issues that I haven't read about with any of the tests or like seriously outdated material? That just bugs and irks me, when stuff like IRQ is on an exam.

Thanks in advance.

aftereffector

I can't add much, but personally I wouldn't do Video without doing Voice beforehand. Even if your company doesn't implement Cisco voice products, the cert might still give you some useful knowledge... but really I don't think you can go wrong with any of the Associate exams; they're all going to be helpful in some way.

I plan to renew my CCNA with Voice and then go after either Wireless or DC, even though my current job has nothing to do with network engineering (I'm 100% GRC right now) just to keep up some semblance of familiarity with layer 2 and layer 3

googol

Is there a recommended path? I know that Cisco says that you go in any direction, heck I read that you can go from CCENT to some of these as well, but seems like some sites say CCNA.

Is it Voice -> Video -> ?? I heard the wireless exam can be pretty tough, covering all the areas, from the history to diving into the spectrums.

I think I will be sticking around the CCNA associate level, not moving up to professional, though CCNP does seem up my alley around routing and switching, just not sure how much I really want plus I don't necessarily want to do that as I would be diving into full time networking and I like mixing it up with various technologies and products. We consult and work often with VAR/network augment and have CCNP/CCIEs for design, implementations, advanced level tasks to bounce ideas off of, and I have enough work as it is and CCNP is a whole another level with 3 tests and whatnot.

Just not sure where to go and I think I need some direction as to where the company is going, as far as selecting between Video, Data Center and Wireless. Guess I can grab these at all various times, spacing them out like 2-2.5 yrs like I said previously.


On a side note...GRC like the security assessment? Governance, risk and compliance? We are looking at new products for that in fact and if you don't mind messaging me some tools you have looked at and what you guys went with? We definitely don't want Archer.

aftereffector

GRC for a DoD entity... unfortunately we don't use anything that you would probably be interested in (it's all focused on DIACAP compliance with a possibility of transitioning to the NIST RMF), and almost nothing is automated right now. Lots of manual compliance audits with DISA STIGs and so on...

googol

Ah, I remember that all too well. Luckily I was not on the IA side of the house. Good luck and thanks!