CCNP Sec vs Specialist

I was just randomly cruising the cisco website, and saw mention of the Specialist tracks, including security. My question is how do these relate to the CCNP Security courses. It appears its supposed to come after CCNA Security. Has anyone completed these, and how have they benefited your career?

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Ivanjam

The Specialist track sounds like a Cisco sales gimmick to boost Partner performance. The bottom line: if you pass SECURE, you get the Cisco IOS Security Specialist. If you pass both SECURE and VPN, you also get the Cisco VPN Security Specialist certification, etc, etc... Nice titles that no doubt bolster the credibility of the usual sales pitch in the eyes of potential customers: "Oh, you need a new VPN solution? We have on staff our very own Cisco Certified VPN Specialist who will take care of your every need" certainly sounds better than "We have a guy with CCNP: Security working for us"

I certainly do hope that when I finally pass ROUTE and SWITCH, I'll be rewarded with the shiny new titles of Cisco Routing Specialist and Cisco Switching Specialist, respectively.

wintermute000

They're just little sub-certs. Not many people have heard of them in my experience. As Ivan says you pass certain CCNP SEC modules and get the sub cert for that module or combination of modules.
Its no use being an FIrewall specialist then having to explain to people you're not a VPN specialist so can't do a VPN.... just go hard and get the full thing

Master Of Puppets

Or you could get the full thing and still use all the individual titles along with it. That would sound super hacker-like

SephStorm

lol. I figured it was additional knowledge on to of or supplementing the CCNP Sec courses.

veritas_libertas

Actually there is a difference between the Specialist and Professional certifications. If you certify as a specialist vs. professional/associate you are required to re-certify on ALL OF THE EXAMS within the certification every two years. If you certify at the Professional level than every three years for you have to take ONE EXAM at ANY 642-XXX Professional-level.

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