PQ Show 021 – Cisco Data Center Certs With Tony Bourke

11 January 2013 by 4 Comments

Ethan Banks and Tony Bourke discuss the Cisco Data Center certifications, focusing on the CCNA & CCNP tracks. We take a look at what the tracks cover, who the right candidates are for these tracks, and how to prep. Inevitably, a few rabbit trails are followed as we pontificate about FCoE adoption or lack thereof, Tony’s progress in the CCIE DC track, the value of having Cisco DC certs but no VMware certs, the technology collision in the modern data center as job responsibilities change, and whether or not these tracks are too Cisco-focused.

Oh. And isn’t it about time we move to performance-based testing via challenge labs instead of multiple-choice questions at the professional level certs?

Links

Tony’s Blog

CCNA Data Center Track

CCNP Data Center Track

NX-OS and Cisco Nexus Switching: Next-Generation Data Center Architectures - book

Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS): A Complete Reference Guide to the Cisco Data Center Virtualization Server Architecture, 2nd Edition – book coming in July 2013

 

cabling-disaster

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:08 — 25.8MB)

Filed Under: Podcasts, Priority Queue Tagged With: , , , , , ,
About Ethan Banks

Ethan Banks, CCIE #20655, is a hands-on networking practitioner who has designed, built and maintained networks for higher education, state government, financial institutions, and technology corporations. Ethan is a host of the Packet Pushers Podcast, which has seen over one million unique downloads, and today reaches a global audience of over ten thousand listeners. Also a writer, Ethan covers network engineering and the networking industry for a variety of IT publications. He is also the editor for the independent community of bloggers at PacketPushers.net. Follow @ecbanks.

  • -L

    Everyone should put specialization on their resume who has it, talk about it, and pump it up so it does have that “brand value.” because if you did pass the exams legitimately then you know a lot about it (at least enough if not more to pass the exam, do it in real life, etc. right?), and should be considered a specialist. Someone that knows the brandname of CCNP Security for example, may not know that it means you know IPS, ASA, IOS, etc… I think they are cool and wouldn’t knock it!

  • returnofthemus

    Would have to agree with the previous comment, I don’t think it was a case that Cisco were being lazy, its obvious there was no point them trying to reinvent the wheel and for that I think you actually have to commend them.

    All of their CCNP certifications are more or less a bunch tests huddled together, the difference being that with the DC you now actually get a choice! The case in point here being, should I go ‘CCNP Service Provider’ or ‘CCNP Service Provider Operations???

    Also overlooked was that the Specialist DC designations have changed requiring an (Design and Implement exam) or (Implement and troubleshoot exam), previously there was no troubleshoot option. While Specialisations may not carry the same weight as the CCNP/CCIE, what they can demonstrate is a focus, which in my view sort of renders the CCNA DC a complete waste of time to all, but those with the least knowledge or no concept of what a DC actually is.

    Interesting that one the questions raised was with regards to Juniper and yes there is a ‘Juniper Networks Certified Specialist – QFabric’ you also have a Brocade Certified Ethernet Fabric Engineer, as well as a Certified Professional Data Center track. In addition IBM has Certified Specialist exams for its Systems Networking and Pure System, I won’t be commiting myself to the CCIE Data Center just yet!

  • http://twitter.com/tbourke tbourke

    I say lazy because 6 CCNP DC level exams are very product specific. The CCNP R&S tests I took (I never finished that track) while Cisco centric, also covered networking better in general. Fundamentals were covered such as STP (ugg), OSPF, etc.

    In contrast, the CCNA DC test felt much more technology-centric, though again, it’s a Cisco cert so of course it’s Cisco-centric. They were quality questions, covering fundamentals really well, and I can’t think of a question where I was like “WTF”.

    Cisco doesn’t have the best track record with the quality of the specialization certs. The DCUCI exam for example (and its precurser, DCNI-2) had a lot of bugs in the test. They’ve cleaned it up some, but even in v5 of DCUCI there was one question where all the answers involved a completely different technology. Fortunately, it was obvious what they were looking for.

    Sometimes it feels like they’re just pumping out more and more tests. I would personally like to see more focus on quality tests, and adding challenge labs to more than just CCIE.

    • returnofthemus

      Part of the reason I think Cisco has got it spot on!

      With 60-70% of the route/switch market you’d expect them to be able to teach you a thing or two, even EIGRP if you’re that way inclined, however they do not own the data center.

      So for me, if they are teaching the fundamentals in a technology-centric way at CCNA , then this very much falls into line with their other foundational level exams.

      From what I’ve seen on the CCNP DC blueprints, I’d term them as role-based with a focus on Cisco data center products, offering the flexibility to choose what you learn either Unified Fabric or UCS, which I think is a much better approach, especially for those that are unlikely to ever see a UCS in their environment.

      Where I would agree, Andy Gremett didn’t do a very good job, but that shouldn’t detract from there being some excellent study material and now Antonella is on the case there is a much improved structure. Personally, I value the courses and course material more than the actual exams themselves.