Cisco CCNA certifications: general review

Certification: Cisco CCNA - Cisco Certified Network Associate

The CCNA certification is now a staple of the IT networking world is believed to retain its value more than any certifications available in the industry right now. The most important reason why so is the procedure of the exam and the process through which the candidate has to go through in order to achieve the certification successfully. Other than that, the certification is revised and updated with the latest technology and thus keeps its worth and value intact. There are three levels of this certification; entry, associate, and professional/expert level. The candidates who apply for this certification exam are tested for different skills and concepts based on Cisco networking products and services. CCNA exam is the foundation level exam that verifies and validates skill related to troubleshooting, configuration, installation and operation issues of Cisco services and products.

This certification exam is highly recognized in the industry because of the high set exam standard. The power of this certification can be based upon the fact that most industries today working under Cisco network services have had this certification as a must requirement for several job positions in the industry. CCNA exam was designed to test and verify the skills and concepts of individuals regarding the advance and current technologies and network solutions.

The CCNA exam allows the candidates to save recognition and a safe position in the network industry. It promises a good raise in salary with higher and more valuable increments like promotions. Among a long list of job roles for which a CCNA professional can apply for, following are the most internationally available job positions candidates can opt for through this certification exam:

- Network engineers

- Network support engineers

- Network administrators

- Security administrators

- Network professionals

- Routing and switching specialists

- Network technician

- Network Designer/expert

The basic purpose of this certification is to provide the candidate with the required skills and knowledge regarding the concepts and subjects of network technologies. This exam validates the ability of a candidate to operate, install, configure and troubleshoot Cisco networking services for small to medium sized industries. These candidates are able to explore and work on different network technologies. Among a vast range of topics and subjects this exam covers, following are the most important skills it covers:

- Selection of the right network devices

- Identification, recognition and operation of different IP networks and network protocols

- verification and configuration of DHCP,ACL, EIGRP, OSPF and dynamic and static routing

- verification and configuration of VLANs

- configuration, identification and verification of WAN technologies

- Resolving the network errors

- operation and configuration of IPv6 and IPv4 scheme

CCNA exam opens a path for different destinations in network industry. The networking field that is vast, can be fully explored after attaining this certification exam. Cisco ccna exam as covers a vast range of topics then provides different pathways to the individuals. Following are the pathways available of CCNA exam:

• CCNA Data Center,
• CCNA Security,
• CCNA Service Provider
• CCNA switching and routing
• CCNA Service Provider Operations,
• CCNA Video
• CCNA wireless
• CCNA Voice,

The Cisco CCNA have no formal or designed pre requisites that the candidates need to fulfill before applying for this exam. Any candidate is eligible for the exam. However, the Cisco experts recommend, according to the tough and challenging success rate that the individuals should have some experience in the networking field before opting for this certification exam.

Required exams: Just like there are no pre requisites, there are no pre exams required for CCNA. The candidates will not be required to go through a pre examination session. However, candidates with no job experience earlier will have to sit for a Cisco based written exam to get this certification.

Required courses: There are no necessary courses that an individual should opt for before taking this exam. However, it is recommended that the candidates should go for the hands on lab practice session designed by Cisco or take the ICND part 1 and 2 training sessions.

Study materials: Cisco has designed several learning platforms for the interested individuals. For the CCNA exam, there are various books, articles, practice tests and training materials available by Cisco. Cisco also provides E learning and training video sessions for improved learning experience. There are practice labs designed so that the candidate may practice all the procedures practically for better understanding and clarity of concepts. Other than that, there are topic wise books and articles available online.