Non-Cisco certifications that may be useful for networking.

[merxvell]

What non-cisco certifications are worth pursuing either in order to stand out or have multi-vendor support? Asking because I went to a CMNA training today and a lot of people there had CCNP, some JNCIA, extreme networking certification, CEH, Microsoft certifications, comptia, and one LFCS cert. So my question is what are some beneficial certifications that may not be Cisco based or even network based that help get a career in the field or make a resume stand out?

[deanwebb]

Juniper certs definitely have a good value.

Are you looking at strict networking, or are you also considering security? Because in security, just about every vendor cert is worth having.

[merxvell]

Juniper certs definitely have a good value.

Are you looking at strict networking, or are you also considering security? Because in security, just about every vendor cert is worth having.

I'd say that I'm also considering security. It interests me but I'm unsure what an average day or workflow for security would be, what's required, and best lab practices.

[wintermute000]

AWS, Azure, VMware, CWNx (if you're a wireless specialist), Palo, Red Hat, there's a big old world out there. 
I wouldn't bother with any specialist/niche vendors unless you have a requirement to work on their gear.The Comptia stuff is hilarious and only good for your first helpdesk job thats it.

[icecream-guy]

Juniper certs definitely have a good value.

Are you looking at strict networking, or are you also considering security? Because in security, just about every vendor cert is worth having.

I'd say that I'm also considering security. It interests me but I'm unsure what an average day or workflow for security would be, what's required, and best lab practices.

for me, firewalls, firewalls,  access requests, pretty much all day long, as we support over 200.  then troubleshooting
when the customer doesn't know WTF they are asking for when it doesn't work because they requested the wrong thing or didn't know which src/dest/port/protocol. Don't have much time for much else.

[merxvell]

Juniper certs definitely have a good value.

Are you looking at strict networking, or are you also considering security? Because in security, just about every vendor cert is worth having.

I'd say that I'm also considering security. It interests me but I'm unsure what an average day or workflow for security would be, what's required, and best lab practices.

for me, firewalls, firewalls,  access requests, pretty much all day long, as we support over 200.  then troubleshooting
when the customer doesn't know WTF they are asking for when it doesn't work because they requested the wrong thing or didn't know which src/dest/port/protocol. Don't have much time for much else.

Any suggested courses for someone who wants to get into the field?? Right now i have a cisco asa (forget model right now as im not home) but any suggested labs or courses would be a godsend.


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[deanwebb]

Sooooo... security... that's my area.

You have your R&S, which is very important. You must know the basics, and congrats on having those taken care of.

One of the easiest ways to get security experience would be to work at a medium-sized firm and eagerly volunteer for security projects. You'll get to work with a vendor's tools and learn to love or hate those, as appropriate. You'll also likely get training and an exam credit for that vendor's product, which will translate into a vendor cert if you take advantage. That's how I got FSCA, Tufin CSE, and TippingPoint ASE. I got my FSCE because I'm working for $VENDOR, and that's just expected of all its customer-facing engineers and architects.

What will be more important is experience doing (X) kinds of projects and having experience working in or with operations, engineering, compliance, and governance teams. While at the most basic level security is just readin' logs and typin' firewall rules, it very quickly gets into areas where you're bringing information to decision-makers and then working with them to get decisions made about what to do. Big areas of security on a network side include segmentation, NAC, visibility, firewall auditing, config management and patch management, syslog analysis, vulnerability scanning, firewall/IPS/proxy maintenance, and netflow analysis. Lots of areas to get into and if you volunteer for that stuff, you'll likely get to do it if nobody else wants to do it.

Lots of people look at security projects as undesirable, so if you choose to do the dirty jobs, you'll be getting that experience faster. Nobody likes to get tapped for the NAC project, for example, so I got volunteered for it. Now I'm specialized in that area and enjoying a career with $VENDOR.

[merxvell]

So I actually asked my boss about security stuff he said it would be good to get into but since we don't deal with that there isn't much where I currently work. Any potential online labs or anything like that to get my feet wet?

[deanwebb]

www.peerlyst.com is another site I'm active on, and there's loads of good security information there.

[config t]

AWS, Azure, VMware, CWNx (if you're a wireless specialist), Palo, Red Hat, there's a big old world out there. 
I wouldn't bother with any specialist/niche vendors unless you have a requirement to work on their gear.The Comptia stuff is hilarious and only good for your first helpdesk job thats it.

You once told me, "Nobody ever got fired for knowing Linux." And that s*** stuck in my head.

[icecream-guy]

The Comptia stuff is hilarious and only good for your first helpdesk job thats it.

Not True, there are US government contracts require comptia before even getting your foot in the door for an interview.
What that tells about, the quality of candidates remains to be seen.   

That happened to me,  I told them I have CCNP, way above comptia, but they were insistent.  so no interview, no job for me.

[merxvell]

Not True, there are US government contracts require comptia before even getting your foot in the door for an interview.
What that tells about, the quality of candidates remains to be seen.   

That happened to me,  I told them I have CCNP, way above comptia, but they were insistent.  so no interview, no job for me.

great, that's what I thought so might be useful to lab for a week or 2 and just take it since I got the NA recently. Can't be that much different right?

[icecream-guy]

Not True, there are US government contracts require comptia before even getting your foot in the door for an interview.
What that tells about, the quality of candidates remains to be seen.   

That happened to me,  I told them I have CCNP, way above comptia, but they were insistent.  so no interview, no job for me.

great, that's what I thought so might be useful to lab for a week or 2 and just take it since I got the NA recently. Can't be that much different right?

no, it was useful to take a few years ago before they implemented term limits,  back then once a Comptia, always a Comptia, with no recert.
now there is recert.

[Otanx]

For government DOD 8570 is the driving factor. Basically anyone that has admin access to any IT system has a role in securing that device(s), and must prove they have knowledge of security. The link below is the official matrix, but not sure if the link will work. If you Google 8570 you will find it. Just make sure you are using the new list (should have CySA+ on it). The IAT is for technicians/engineers, IAM is Management, IASAE is senior engineering/architecture. The CSSP ones are if you work for a cyber security group specifically instead of just IT. In the Air Force this would be the I-NOSC or one of the reginal NOSCs.

You can see from that why the CISSP is so popular. It covers IAT, IAM, IASAE. However, it isn't a begining certification.

https://public.cyber.mil/cwmp/dod-approved-8570-baseline-certifications/

-Otanx

[deanwebb]

My CCNP-Security expired in 2016, but I did not renew because the new tests were so Cisco-centric, and I really didn't want my career to be tied to those solutions.