Retirement of CCIP Certification
rwestphal
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Beginning October 29, 2012, Cisco CCIP certification will be retired and Cisco will no longer issue new certifications. Individuals interested in pursuing a professional-level Cisco Service Provider certification are encouraged to obtain the new Cisco CCNP Service Provider certification. The CCNP Service Provider certification program is a job role-based certification for delivering a scalable, optimized network capable of rapid expansion and introduction of new services and other customer requirements for service providers.
More here: https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-14595
More here: https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-14595
Comments
If they had material/certification kits for the SP then I'd probably do it instead, but they don't.
Where are you seeing these exams? I'm looking at Cisco's site and it shows SPNG1 and SPNG2 exams needed for this certification.
Never mind.... I was looking at CCNA SP....
They've never had certification guides for the BGP or MPLS exams either.
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MPLS and BGP was part of the BSCI.
QOS was covered in ONT.
The old CCNP was pretty boss an covered many topics, that lead into the other specializations like wireless, security and voice.
But now it's squarely focused on the routing/switching path, which is fine too.
(The CCIP or CCNP Service Provider, of course is intended to provide the other half of the picture.)
An old-school CCNP like me learned BGP in its entirety.
I've passed each of these written exams that hit BGP: BSCI, CCIE, BGP, then ROUTE. I do remember when I hit ROUTE thinking, "Wow, this coverage of BGP is really light. No RRs or confederations." I know I knew them well even before the BGP exam. I thought the BSCI had covered it, but maybe I learned it for the CCIE exam.
By 'finish up', do you mean try to sit the exams before July or just do the study part and skip the exam part?
Trying to figure out a new plan myself as well.
Current goal: Dunno
I disagree. The MPLS/BGP depth needed for SP is much different than Enterprise.
I'm sure. IS-IS in a service provider network is surely different than Enterprise. It also seems one needs experience with IOS-XR.
Seems like an expensive certification and the only way to really get training is through a Cisco course. There is no Cisco Press, INE or Boson option available at the moment, but I'm sure that will change.
And like somnipotent, I will continue down this road since it will provide great info toward CCIE R&S.
Coincidentally, INE has courseware and labs for CCIE Service Provider.
So where does CCIP fits? They shouldnt have killed CCIP. Cisco wasted the money of the people that paid to take those tests.
How was the money wasted? People with the cert will have a path to get the NP SP. People who are in the process of getting the cert have a path to get the NP SP. I'm not following you on how any money has been wasted.
Certifications are not degrees--certifications expire.
I'll likely continue on my way to CCIP, and in three years there should be better training materials for CCNP-SP if I'm not working on my CCIE SP. I've barely started, but three months is plenty of time to nail off two exams.
I think the point he was trying to make is that the folks who had already done it were considered done. Just need to recert and you're good to go.
By removing it entirely, it may present the need for folks with it to go back and acquire the new cert. So I understand that side of it.
OTOH, since most folks had no clue what the CCIP actually was, it's not like the HR weenies are going to be like 'pish posh, your CCIP is out of date, go get a CCNP SP!' The rebrand to CCNP SP will probably make the cert more marketable than it has been.
I doubt I'll even bother with it though. If I want a service provider cert, I'll just do CCIE SP after I finish R&S and that will be that, although more likely than not, I'm going down the Juniper path once I'm done with R&S
I'm going to skip the exams and just study for the pure benefit of absorbing the knowledge. I did notice, however, that the BGP/MPLS/QoS topics are now nestled within the Service Provider OPs cert... but honestly, I don't feel like sticking around an ISP NOC environment any longer than I have to so it's not really a track i'm interested in. I requested a voucher for CCNA Security today so I can get that out of the way. It was my intention anyway of going the Security route anyway, especially since there are Security topics within the CCIE R&S blueprint.
IT doesn't remain stagnant, so you would've had to reinvest in taking one of the CCNP SP exams eventually. The great thing about Cisco is they promote upward movement, so you either should've pursued another professional track or an IE. Doing that recertifies all of your Cisco certs.
Announcing this now gives whoever was planning to take the test enough time to obtain the cert.
Again, there is a path to convert. The relevance of the cert has dwindled, and speaking as someone who has it, I can't say I'm really bothered. If it's easy enough to convert, I'll do it, if not, oh well. I don't see it as being a waste other than the fact that no employers really give a **** about it, lol.
My point is that cisco wasted the people that pay to take the CCIP test especially if Cisco knew they were going to kill it. They might as well tell us dont get other certs and just read the book. Dont get me wrong, Im bashing cisco not the cert.
I dont really care about ISP as I care about RS and security but its good to learn other technologies just in case Im going to need it.
I haven't been in the Cisco game for too long, but I was there when they went from CCNPv5 to 6, and I didn't feel like it was of my time or money. It went from four topics to two and a quarter (TSHOOT is not really "new" topics). There's nothing different in this case.
I don't work with an ISP, so I don't know what the demand was for the cert, but the same can be said for a lot of vendor certs. It's just part of the game. I have CompTIA CASP, Server+, Conergence+ and a few others. All of them are pretty worthless. Don't buy into the "Gotta Catch Them All mentality." CCNA, CCNP, CCNP Voice and the CCIEs are the most sought after/requested certs. CCDP, CCNP Security, CCIP, CCNP Service Provider and Data Center just aren't as marketable.
Take the news with a grain of salt, and if we're a cert you were studying for, you have ample time to pursue it, if not then keep it moving.
Well, the conversion path is to pass 2 of the 4 exams, SPCORE and SPEDGE. SPCORE is basically the new version of the QoS exam, and SPEDGE is basically the new version of the MPLS exam.
Like you, I'm not terribly bothered, the CCIP was dated. The CCNP SP is basically the same content (Routing, BGP, QoS, MPLS), but you also need to know how to do it on IOS-XR.
I think that's a good idea, as IOS-XR is becoming a more prevalent platform, especially in the service provider world. We've actually got very few platforms left running straight Router IOS, nearly everything has been replaced with an XR platform or a Juniper box. So it's a good move on Cisco's part to push technology that's actually in use.
The ***** is going to be getting training for it, if you don't already work for an SP, then getting access to the platform to practice on is going to be difficult. Doesn't make the cert impossible, just means a whole lot of memorization as opposed to hands on.
Well it also depends on the persons motivation for going after CCIP.
I did CCIP for one reason and one reason only - all of the technology contained within are tested for in the CCIE R&S lab. I just looked at studying for the cert as lab prep. I suspect I'm not alone. The cert was essentially just resume filler to make me look better.
With the new CCNP SP, if I was looking to pursue CCIE SP, I'd do the same thing, go for CCNP SP prior to the CCIE. If I had no plans to pursue CCIE R&S, I might be a little more pissed off about this, but the honest truth of the matter is that once I pass the R&S lab, all my other Cisco certs are essentially irrelevant, the only thing anyone is going to pay any attention to is the CCIE number on my resume.