Certification Goals for 2016... What Are Yours?

[Reggle]

Both. I personally want to get better at Linux, and although I don't require a certification I do touch Linux a lot more on my current job.

[deanwebb]

Both. I personally want to get better at Linux, and although I don't require a certification I do touch Linux a lot more on my current job.

I might get one, as well... I had to run a few commands on a Linux-based appliance and now, suddenly, I'm the team "Linux expert".

[wintermute000]

The inability of Microsoft tards to grok Linux is hilarious AND profitable for those with >3 brain cells and access to Google. When I learnt Linux I remember having to dual boot back into Windows to read instructions to how to bloody compile the wireless driver just to get online, modern distributions / appliances are a cakewalk

[config t]

Somebody with the name config t may have recently been hired by an undisclosed company to help integrate networks and be the on-site support engineer for a swathe of southwest asia.

I've been learning as much Brocade as possible. So far it's about 90% similar to Cisco and I am rather enjoying it. All open source!

[wintermute000]

Brocade have great bang/buck for core R&S products last time I looked. They're also big enough of a name so managers don't get the 'but its not cisco' shakes too bad.


Reggle, I know the RHCE is regarded as difficult, where is the RHCSA? CCNA-ish or CCNP-ish? And is it just a written exam or labbed?

[Reggle]

Reggle, I know the RHCE is regarded as difficult, where is the RHCSA? CCNA-ish or CCNP-ish? And is it just a written exam or labbed?

As soon as I've given it a go, I'll let you know.

[Chev Chellios]

I failed to achieve my goals this year but have just accepted a new job. I will be starting the new year eager and raring to go- hoping to get the MCSA 2012 or CCNA depending on time and resources- the new place apparently values training it's staff, a luxury I haven't previously had in my IT roles without teaching myself 

[1KrazyFool]

From last year's thread:

Working on CCIE R&S. Hope to make an attempt around October or so. I'll also need to re-up my written, I passed the v4 written over 18 months ago.

No attempt made, and failed the v5 written in June at Cisco Live. Moving this year took a big toll and time and motivation. Have recently started getting back into the swing of studying, but not at a fast enough pace. 

I need to re-cert my CCNP, etc. by June so I'll be taking some test later this spring. Hopefully another shot at the written if I can manage to study enough. Otherwise I'll cheat and do one of the current CCNP R&S exams.

[icecream-guy]

Otherwise I'll cheat and do one of the current CCNP R&S exams.

it ain't cheating, I'm going to do one (probably switch, as I hate the idea of the troubleshooting one) next year myself.
Seems like all the other tests are too UCS oriented, or delve into appliances that I can't get my hands on, or exams with no proper certification books.  blueprints seem too vague if you ask me.

[wintermute000]

You guys will clear the TS without breaking a sweat. Our resident wireless guru who has been doing nothing but wireless deployments for the last 3 years (i.e. zero route/switch aside from fiddling with the odd switch setting and/or 802.1x) cleared it in 15 minutes with no studying, and yes, it was purely to re-cert his CCNP R&S lol.


so cannot be motivated to study..... been meaning to crack on with CWNA but I keep getting to chapter 7 (out of 30), getting bored, not reading for a week, then I have to re-read it again as all the stupid numbers and math fade from my brain. Don't even mention the CCNP DC stuff.

[deanwebb]

Heck, I might even do TSHOOT to re-cert... My son is working on his CCENT/CCNA, so it might be fun to study that alongside him.

Also working toward CISSP, but CCNP-Security re-cert has the July deadline...

[DanC]

Not sure if it's the same version but TSHOOT was by far the easiest of the NP when I did it.

I've taken a interest in security recently but not sure that CCNP-SEC will carry much weight in a technical security role other than somewhere that is purely Cisco. It seems to me that big companies look for strong skills across multi-vendor firewall platforms (Cisco / PA / Checkpoint) but also want SIEM and Pen Test / Vulnerability skills... I'm struggling to see where I'd learn that kind of stuff without raw experience.

[wintermute000]

Pen Test is a lot of coding. You'd need a dev/hacking background to be good. Its a very different specialisation from straight up security. Aside from multi-vendor firewall and IPS/NGFW, I'd take a look at identity and wireless provisioning (ISE/Clearpass and dot1x) as well as PKI.
Also never hurts to be good at IPSEC and DMVPN

[DanC]

Pen Test is a lot of coding. You'd need a dev/hacking background to be good. Its a very different specialisation from straight up security. Aside from multi-vendor firewall and IPS/NGFW, I'd take a look at identity and wireless provisioning (ISE/Clearpass and dot1x) as well as PKI.
Also never hurts to be good at IPSEC and DMVPN

Yeah, good points! I made a similar point to the Mrs before deliberating what to study next year (not that she was listening lol)... I have 3 exams for the CCNP-SEC to go, 2 of them being reasonably useful career wise (ISE and VPN), the other (IPS) not as useful as it's all been replaced by SourceFire.

I just get the feeling that to get into a decent role doing security you need to be a lot more than a one trick Cisco pony... Kind of makes you wonder whether it's worth doing. It's like the CCIE SEC's, you don't hear a lot about those folks, maybe that's because there aren't many or they are just secretive lol

[deanwebb]

CCNP-Sec has some good basics, but, yeah, CCIE-Sec doesn't make much sense outside of consulting. Security typically involves using more than one vendor, but Cisco wants to be a wall-to-wall solution... I don't need other vendor certs in my current role, but I do like to have them because I'm into extra letters. I can use them as a shorthand notation for my experience with a product, which is what matters most.