Certification Goals for 2023

[deanwebb]

Getting AWS certs before year-end if I can. Working on CCP now and there are SO MANY AWS products offered, most of the practice test I'm working on is just matching up the right product to the right function and knowing what each of the other three answers involve... there are so many AWS database products alone, it's insane.

[deanwebb]

Talking to a developer has REALLY helped me to understand what and why all the AWS services are behind the networking stuff. That was a huge help.

[config t]

For the first time in awhile I actually got most of my goals this year. Renewed both CISSP, and CCNP. The CCNP was close I didn't end up with enough credits from Cisco Live, and had to do some online training through U.Cisco to get the last few. The CPEs didn't actually get processed until after the CCNP expired, but they date them to when you took it, and it reactivated. I was a little worried for awhile. I also passed the CCNA-DevNet test. It wasn't too hard.

Now to figure out 2024 goals.

-Otanx

Close call. I had a buddy who lost 2x CCNP by neglecting to renew in time. Guy got it all back though, amazingly. My CCNP is up for renewal next May and I am debating on if I want to keep it at this point. A large part of me says yes even knowing it will be expensive.

[Otanx]

Depending on how many credits you need there are 28 free ones on u.cisco.com. The DEVNAE and SDWFND trainings are free. Just have to take the time to do it.

-Otanx

[icecream-guy]

For the first time in awhile I actually got most of my goals this year. Renewed both CISSP, and CCNP. The CCNP was close I didn't end up with enough credits from Cisco Live, and had to do some online training through U.Cisco to get the last few. The CPEs didn't actually get processed until after the CCNP expired, but they date them to when you took it, and it reactivated. I was a little worried for awhile. I also passed the CCNA-DevNet test. It wasn't too hard.

Now to figure out 2024 goals.

-Otanx

Close call. I had a buddy who lost 2x CCNP by neglecting to renew in time. Guy got it all back though, amazingly. My CCNP is up for renewal next May and I am debating on if I want to keep it at this point. A large part of me says yes even knowing it will be expensive.

if you use it, it is worth keeping,  I had mine, moved into network security 5 yrs ago. It kept alive due to pandemic, but once that was over,  I have little need to set local preferences, in BGP, or trying to figure out why my spanning-tree is not working, etc.  never mind the 9300's and their bridge group virtual interfaces, bundle interfaces and integrated routing and bridging, need to understand for security, but implementation, No.

[config t]

if you use it, it is worth keeping,  I had mine, moved into network security 5 yrs ago. It kept alive due to pandemic, but once that was over,  I have little need to set local preferences, in BGP, or trying to figure out why my spanning-tree is not working, etc.  never mind the 9300's and their bridge group virtual interfaces, bundle interfaces and integrated routing and bridging, need to understand for security, but implementation, No.

That's the thing, I just don't do it day-to-day anymore. It would be a side project taking my attention away from cloud sec stuff and things.

Going to have to update my resume: CCNP - but expire 

[deanwebb]

Mine is CCNP but expire, as well.

[icecream-guy]

Mine is CCNP but expire, as well.

for all my expired certs, I just put in cert name, start date, end date.
-  Cisco Certified Specialist - Enterprise Core certificate, 05/2010 – 01/2023
-  Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS) CNSS 4011 Recognition. 02/2011 – 01/2023
-  Information Systems Security (INFOSEC) Professional Recognition, 02/2011 – 01/2023
-  Cisco ASA Specialist 04/2014 - 04/2016
-  Cisco Certified Internetwork Professional 08/2011 - 08/2014

I also went to the Cisco Cert site and updated resume with certs that I didn't know I had like Cisco Certified Specialist - Enterprise Core


for the current ones, or ones that never expire just since date
-  Certified under the AlgoSec Security Administrators (CASA), since 03/2020
-  Certified under the Splunk Certified Power User 6.x Program, since 06/2018
-  Certified under the Splunk Certified User 6.x Program, since 05/2018
-  IPv6 Forum Gold Network Engineer Certification, since 07/2012

[config t]

I still have the old lifetime Sec+ but nobody seems to care. Pay and CEU or fu.

[deanwebb]

Some genius figured out that they could get a revenue stream instead of being just nice.

[config t]

A little late, but I took the FSCE practical exam yesterday. Definitely a time-management exam. Should have results in a day or two.

[deanwebb]

Good job! Hope you passed it!

[config t]

I did not. Ultimately I was not as prepared as I needed to be. My understanding of policy creation and flow needs attention and unfortunately policy is weighted the most heavily on the exam. I also wasted a bunch of time troubleshooting around a fat-fingered domain credential 

Giving it another go in a couple weeks.

[deanwebb]

Policy is the heart of Forescout, knowing what a broken policy looks like is key to fixing customer issues when they make broken policies because they are just guessing at things.

[config t]

Crushed it this time. I want to do RHCA next since Forescout is shifting from CentOS back to red hat. I need to focus on zscaler for employer reasons though.