CCNA Cloud vs CCENT

CyberDanny

Hi all:
I'm starting down the CCNA Wireless and/or CCNA Security path. I'm wondering if a CCNA-Cloud which has no pre req's would count as the pre-req for the CCNA wireless/security? My thought was it might be smarter to obtain CCNA-Cloud if that would count towards CCNA-Wireless and Security rather than bother with CCENT, which is the necessary pre-req for CCNA-Wireless and Security.
Thanks a lot guys for any insight/advice you're able to provide!

OctalDump

No. You cannot use CCNA Cloud as a prerequisite for CCNA Wireless or CCNA Security. You can use CCNA Routing and Switching or CCENT or any CCIE. The CCNA Routing and Switching is valid in case you did the combined ICDN1/ICDN2 exam and "skipped" the CCENT. The CCNA Cloud doesn't include the necessary exam in its path.

For CCNA Security, many people recommend CCNA Route and Switch as a prerequisite. For CCNA Wireless, you spend a lot more time on Wireless fundamentals, so CCENT is probably ok. You need to know about VLANs, trunking, and a bit about routing - being able to do router on a stick.

From the relevant Cisco pages:

[h=2]Prerequisites[/h]Any valid Cisco CCENT, CCNA Routing and Switching, or any CCIE certification can act as a prerequisite.

Cisco seems to be moving away from the CCENT + specialist exam format, and moving some of the content in the CCNP to the CCNA. Currently, R+S, Wireless, Security, Industrial and the CCDA are the only ones in this track. Data Center, Cloud Collaboration and Service Provider are all completely separate streams, although there is still a lot of overlap.