Whats the Diffirence?

downloaddan

Hi I know you are meant to start off by doing A+ and then N+ and then maybe Security+

But after that whats the Diffirence between going the MCP Route or the Cisco Route
and in Terms of Career what would each one get you to what sort of job would each route take you too?
So the Diffirence between going MCP Route or Going Cisco Route?

Thanks

IT Man

The difference is basically MCP's deal with Microsoft workstations and server operating systems. Cisco folks deal with Cisco networking equipment ie: routers, switches, firewalls, etc. With Microsoft, you tend to be more of a systems administrator/engineer and with Cisco, you tend to be more of a network adminitrator/engineer though these roles do overlap often. You may see a job description for a network administrator that requires some Microsoft certs and vice versa. It basically comes down to which direction you want to go in and that's something you would obviously have to decide yourself.

downloaddan

IT Man wrote:

The difference is basically MCP's deal with Microsoft workstations and server operating systems. Cisco folks deal with Cisco networking equipment ie: routers, switches, firewalls, etc. With Microsoft, you tend to be more of a systems administrator/engineer and with Cisco, you tend to be more of a network adminitrator/engineer though these roles do overlap often. You may see a job description for a network administrator that requires some Microsoft certs and vice versa. It basically comes down to which direction you want to go in and that's something you would obviously have to decide yourself.

Cant you do both? like work with Cisco networking equipment ie: routers, switches, firewalls
AND use Microsoft Software??
and Is Cisco Networking more for Telecommunication side of things?

darkerosxx

You certainly can do both. They complement each other well IF you're going to be working with both. If you're not going to be working with Cisco equipment and not doing network design, the highest I'd go with Cisco is the CCENT. If you're not working with Microsoft, not much point to any of those certs.

nicklauscombs

downloaddan wrote:

Cant you do both? like work with Cisco networking equipment ie: routers, switches, firewalls
AND use Microsoft Software??
and Is Cisco Networking more for Telecommunication side of things?

You can do both and a lot of times systems and network job roles overlap especially in small to medium sized businesses, most people who really want to specialize and get deep in a technology choose one path but like I said if you have the determination you could definitely specialize in both

downloaddan

darkerosxx wrote:

You certainly can do both. They complement each other well IF you're going to be working with both. If you're not going to be working with Cisco equipment and not doing network design, the highest I'd go with Cisco is the CCENT. If you're not working with Microsoft, not much point to any of those certs.

I thought that Microsoft where the Main players in the Industry
after all doesn’t EVERY ONE use Microsoft Windows Systems?

Apart from people who use Apple macs Obviously

nicklauscombs

downloaddan wrote:

darkerosxx wrote:

You certainly can do both. They complement each other well IF you're going to be working with both. If you're not going to be working with Cisco equipment and not doing network design, the highest I'd go with Cisco is the CCENT. If you're not working with Microsoft, not much point to any of those certs.

I thought that Microsoft where the Main players in the Industry
after all doesn’t EVERY ONE use Microsoft Windows Systems?

Apart from people who use Apple macs Obviously

It's true Microsoft is everywhere but for networking I think cisco has something like 80% market share. So both Microsoft and Cisco are good choices for certification paths.

If you want to work on servers and system administration go windows or linux , if you want to work on network hardware ie routers, switches, firewalls, etc... go cisco.

IT Man

To piggy back off of what nicklauscombs said, when I was on helpdesk, I worked for a small company and we only had two admins. One was network and the other was system but many times, the network admin was building and configuring servers while the system admin was configuring routers and switches. I think they do go together very well which is why I have a few MCP certs myself but I don't see myself going any higher then the MCSA since I want to work in Cisco equipement primarily.

darkerosxx

downloaddan wrote:

darkerosxx wrote:

You certainly can do both. They complement each other well IF you're going to be working with both. If you're not going to be working with Cisco equipment and not doing network design, the highest I'd go with Cisco is the CCENT. If you're not working with Microsoft, not much point to any of those certs.

I thought that Microsoft where the Main players in the Industry
after all doesn’t EVERY ONE use Microsoft Windows Systems?

Apart from people who use Apple macs Obviously

Microsoft is one of the main players, not THE main player. Many large businesses and small businesses don't use Microsoft at all.