Cisco Certifications
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Cisco Certifications

Cisco Certification is one of the most respected certifications around the world. These certifications are broadly classified into five levels on the basis of expertise of the individual who is appearing for them. These levels include:

  1. Beginner
  2. Associate
  3. Professional
  4. Expert
  5. Architect.

Besides that, these can be organized into different paths as specified below:

  1. Routing and Switching
  2. Network
  3. Design
  4. Service provider
  5. Storage Networking
  6. Wireless
  7. Voice

If you want to enhance your expertise in networking, look no further than a Cisco Certification. You can Cisco Certification Training from any one of the countless numbers of Cisco certified training centers worldwide. Besides that, use of Internet based telecommunication is always on the rise, so there will be no dearth of requirement of experienced networking personnel in the coming future.

With both new and existing companies opening up their shops in all corners of the world, there is an ever increasing demand of networking equipments. This fuels the demand of qualified networking professionals wherever such equipments are being set up. If you want to take maximum benefit of this opportunity, Cisco Certification is what you need to get. With this certification, you will give yourself a great chance to compete with thousands of other professionals to grab a piece of the pie.

Advantages: Some of the advantages of going for Cisco Certification exams are provided here:

  1. Opening up of huge opportunities of professional growth.
  2. Getting a chance to work in large scale enterprises.
  3. Work towards creation of state-of-the-art technologies.
  4. Personal and professional satisfaction after working in a great organization and getting a high pay.

Cisco Certification Exams:

There are a number of Cisco certifications for each level of expertise. The validity of each one of these certifications such as CCNA, CCNP, CCNA Security and CCIP is three years. After this duration, every professional is required to either retake the certification exam or take an exam of higher expertise. The list of some of the Cisco certification exams is provided below:

1) Entry Level - Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician (CCENT): It is most suitable for individuals having basic knowledge of networking concepts. To earn this certification, every professional has to pass Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices Part 1 (ICND1) Exam(640-822 ICND1) exam.

2) Associate Level - CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate): After attaining this certification, a professional can handle various tasks related to networks in a medium level enterprise. These tasks include:

  • Installation
  • Configuration
  • Operation
  • Maintenance

To earn this certification, ICND1 640-822 and ICND2 640-816 exams need to be passed. Besides these, CCNA professionals can specialize in various paths including CCNA security, CCNA voice, Wireless, Routing and Switching etc. Related exams include IINS 640-553, 640-460 IUC, 640-822 ICND1 & 640-816 ICND2 respectively.

3) Professional: After clearing the Associate level certification, an individual can go for certifications such as 642-901 BSCI (Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks), 642-812 BCMSN for becoming a Cisco Certified Design professional or 642-533 IPS for becoming a Cisco Certified Security Professional.

4) Expert: There are dozens of other certifications such as Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE) which can be taken up after completion of a professional level certification.

Preparation: It is advised that you get trained with an expert Cisco certified trainer as this may raise your chances of clearing the exam. Further, it is a good idea to take up maximum number of mock exams in order to become familiarize with the exam. You would find clearing the exam pretty easy in case you have practical experience. This is because the exam structure is set up keeping the experience perspective in mind.