Exeperienced network engineer, what certs should i take next ?

robinwilli

I am network engineer with just over 10 years experience behind me. I previously passed ccnp for route and switch but let it lapse after recerting it a couple of times. 
As the market changes i can see the more traditional routing and switching falling off in favour or cloud & automation based skills as well as a strong market focus on cybersec. 
I would like to get in to more security focused work (i have decent experience wirth ASA & checkpoint) but am wondering what the best certs and learning would be for me? 
I've kind of already committed to the new CCNP Sec and with my background i think i have a bit of head start. What i do wonder though is would I be wise to also look at some vendor nuetral certs, like the comptia stuff etc? 
Whilst furloughed i did the AWS cloud practictioner exam as i knew nothing about cloud up to that point but really quite enjoyed.
Would there also be a path i could take that would use my networking skills, my interest in security that could lead to me doing work with cloud tech? 
Any suggestions on what certs i should do (and i am quite happy to start with the basics in both cloud and general security) and what i should be looking to learn over the next 12 months or so?

JDMurray

The Cloud is made up of data centers that use Cisco equipment, all brands of servers, and Linux/UNIX/Windows OSes. So, if you want to work "inside" the Cloud as a Cloud infrastructure engineer, you should stay with the Cisco, VMware, Microsoft, and other vendor-specific certs. If you want to work "in" the Cloud as a systems and network admin caring for Cloud services and apps, the AWS SysOp Admin cert is a way to go with the AWS Security cert for showing Cloud IAM knowledge. There are vendor-neutral security certs for Cloud (CCSP and CCSK) and for general security (Security+ and CISSP). Look at job postings for the kind of positions you want to work and check if these type of certs are asked for much.

robinwilli

Thanks for the feedback JDMurray, some useful stuff there. 
 Yeah i definitely need to have a little think about what would be my ideal role and look for what they ask for. I think my view is somewhat coloured by the fact my current job search alerts are set up with cisco as a keyword, maybe i need to broaden that out a bit