ONT vs CIT

GregD

How do you guys feel about the move away from troubleshooting, to putting in voice/qos/wireless stuff in the CCNP?

Having done ONT myself, I'm not really sure why they decided to remove troubleshooting. They've taken something that had a lot of practical application and use, and replaced it with a bunch of theory - on areas that are covered much more in depth in other areas.

It really seems like more of an "Introduction to VoIP" sort of deal, covering both QOS and Voice topics, with wireless thrown in to the mix for no apparent reason. I'm not sure why they're offering very very very basic information on advanced subjections as part of a professional level certification. It would seem to me that it would have been best to update troubleshooting, and leave QOS to the IP/VP tracks, and Voice to VP. Wireless... Well, this does fit in better with the NP track, since wireless solutions are becoming a big deal in the industry, and the knowledge is useful to have.

Most of the QOS knowledge in ONT was rather simple, as well, things that could easily be picked up with some experience with them on the job - not that SDM or AutoQOS are really complicated to begin with.

buulam

I still have a bunch of CIT study material and I plan to go through it once I have completed my CCNP.

I had a training course with Global Knowledge a few months ago and asked the instructor a similar question. He said GK is still offering a Troubleshooting course because there is just as much demand for it even though no certification will come from it.

networker050184

I think they wanted the NP to cover most networking technologies so you have a broad knowledge of networking as a whole. The othe professional level certs are concentrated on a more specific topic and that is why they go deeper into certain subjects. If you are a "network professional" you should at least have a working knowledge of VoIP, QOS, security and wirless since these are all integral parts of networks. If you know the topics troubleshooting them should be fairly simple and they have added troubleshooting to each of the individual courses.

GregD

networker050184 wrote:

I think they wanted the NP to cover most networking technologies so you have a broad knowledge of networking as a whole. The othe professional level certs are concentrated on a more specific topic and that is why they go deeper into certain subjects. If you are a "network professional" you should at least have a working knowledge of VoIP, QOS, security and wirless since these are all integral parts of networks. If you know the topics troubleshooting them should be fairly simple and they have added troubleshooting to each of the individual courses.

Really, the issue I take with it is that they treat it as introduction level coursework as part of the professional certification. There is nothing taught in the ONT curriculum that could not be learned on the fly with a little bit of experience.

As for the troubleshooting being pushed through to the other NP pieces, I disagree. In BCMSN, there was no extra troubleshooting offerings. From what I've gotten into on ISCW, the same is true here. I cannot speak for the BSCI, though, so unless they lumped a whole courses worth of information on troubleshooting in an already large section, troubleshooting as once offered has been effectively eliminated.

The thing is, I would say the ONT exam and curriculum (Be it on netacad, or in cisco press books) is, on a whole, easier than the CCNA. BCMSN was on an entirely different level than it. I didn't feel challenged with ONT - nothing was in depth. Memorize the name of Call Manager Feature X, remember the difference between DiffServ and IntServ QOS, etc. Know what SONA stands for. What's IIN? And so on.

About the only section of ONT that I don't feel was worthless was the Wireless component, and it was the shortest out of all of them. I just don't feel that the knowledge presented and tested on in the ONT certification is really on a professional level. It would have been better suited on an Associate level cert for internet provider or voice hopefuls.

Deadmaster200

Just to add my comment,


This is exactly why I decided to attack it by doing CCNP and CCVP at the same time, and planning on following that up with CCDP and CCIP.

Now that I have BSCI and CVOICE done (started studying BCMSN toward the end of CVOICE), I will study both BCMSN and QOS, which also means I am studying ONT. After knocking out BCMSN, I will basically prepare for QOS and then take QOS and ONT together (maybe not the same day, or then again, maybe I will!) Then I will start studying for ISCW and CIPT or GWGK.

I recertified CCNA and got CCDA for the first time before starting the Pro stuff, and I am glad I did. Studying all of this together had my head swimming for a few months, but now it is all really starting to come together.

I also highly recommend CCDA before Pro stuff. Lot of people say the opposite, but look at it this way. Why should one study 2 or more tests to help them with one when they could study for one test that will help with so many others later???

And yeah, I plan on going through the troubleshooting material and the old practical studies stuff after a few more tests as a refresher, one, and to polish such 'hard skills'.