General review of Top Cisco CCNP certifications

Certification: Cisco CCNP Enterprise - CCNP Enterprise

Certification overview

Cisco academy is world's most renowned IT certification organization which has more than 1 million trainees so far. It is recognized and valued in more than 160 countries. Holding one of their certificates opens the door to the international business in IT sector. Holding Cisco certificate means that the potential employee has passed all required programmes and is capable of performing certain tasks related to the certification.

One of the groups of certifications is called CCNP training. It stands for Cisco Certified Network Professional. There are different programmes within the CCNP training group:

- CCNP Data Center

- CCNP Routing and Switching

- CCNP Security

- CCNP Service Provider

- CCNP Service Provider Operations

- CCNP Voice

- CCNP Wireless.

CCNP Data Center is perfect for the following groups:

- Design and implementation architects

- Installation and maintenance engineers

- Technology architects.

CCNP Routing and Switching is deisgned for enterprise network engineers.

CCNP Security programme is perfect prgramme for routers, switches and network devices security specialists or those aiming to get experience in this field.

CCNP Service Provider programme is for:

- Infrastructure engineers

- Network engineers

- Service provider engineers.

CCNP Service Provider Operations training is the best programme for IT specialists working on isolating network provider operations problems.

CCNP Voice is designed for:

- Engineers working in the voice technology sector

- Those aiming to develop skills in accordance with hectic voice technology and convergence technology.

CCNP Wireless is good for:

- Engineers dealing with design and implementing of wireless networks,

- Engineers dealing with security and operating wireless netwroks,

- Engineers working on mobility infrastructures.

Cisco has provided a number of activities and features that will help trainees get good education and pass the exams successfully, such as CCNP video training. More than 50 % of examinees have claimed that hectic schedule and lack of time is an obstacle. Therefore, Cisco CCNP training has made CCNP online training available for candidates who already work.

Required Exams

The exams required for getting the Cisco CCNP Data Center are:

- 642-999 DCUCI

- 642-997 DCUFI

- 642-998 DCUCD

- 642-996 DCUFD

For CCNP Routing and Switching, required exams are:

- 2 exams for routing

- 2 exams for switching

- 2 exams for troubleshooting.

For CCNP Security, required exams are:

- SENSS exam,

- SITCS exam,

- SISAS exam,

- SIMOS exam.

For CCNP Service Provider the required exams are:

- SPROUTE exam,

- SPADVROUTE exam,

- SPCORE exam,

- SPEDGE exam.

For CCNP Service Provider Operations, there are 4 required exams. Those are:

- OFCN exam,

- MSPRP exam,

- MSPVM exam,

- MSPQS exam.

For CCNP Voice, trainee has to pass 5 associated exams:

- CVOICE exam,

- CIPT1 exam,

- CIPT 2 exam,

- TVOICE exam,

- CAPPS exam.

CCPN Wireless trainee has to pass the following associated exams:

- CUWSS exam,

- IUWVN exam,

- IUWMS exam,

- IAUWS exam.

Required Courses

For CCNP Data Center the following courses are required:

- Implementing Cisco Data Center Unified Computing

- Designing Cisco Data Center Unified Fabric.

- Implementing Cisco Data Center Unified Computing.

The required courses for CCNP Routing and Switching are:

- Implementing Cisco IP routing (vol 1 and 2),

- Implementing Cisco IP switched networks (vol 1 and 2)

- Troubleshooting and maintaining Cisco networks (vol 1 and 2).

Required courses for CCNP Security are the following:

- Implementing Cisco Secure Access Solutions

- Implementing Cisco Threat Control Solutions

- Implementing Cisco Edge network security solution

- Implementing Cisco Secure Mobility solutions

For CCNP Service Provider, recommended courses are:

- Deploying Cisco Service Provider Network Routing

- Deploying Cisco Service Provider Advanced Network Routing

- Implementing Cisco Service Provider Next-Generation Core Network Services

- Implementing Cisco Service Provider Next-Generation Edge Network Services

For CCNP Secure Provider operations required courses are:

- Operational fundations

- Maintaining cisco service provider routing protocols

- Maintaining cisco service provider VPNs and MPLS networks

- Maintaining cisco provider quality of service

For CCNP Voice, required courses are:

- Implementing Cisco Voice Communications and QoS

- Implementing Cisco Unified Communications Manager (vol 1 and 2)

- Troubleshooting Cisco Unified Communications

- Integrating Cisco Unified Communications Applications.

For CCNP Wireless those are:

- Conducting unified site survey,

- Implementing Unified wireless voice networks

- Implementing Unified wirelessmobility services

- Implementing advanced cisco unified wireless security.

Study material

The study material for all CCNP trainings are books, according to different courses. For example, for Data Center, the basic learning material is the CCNP Data Center Route Understanding which can be found on the official page of Cisco. Additionally, there are many other resources, such as online CCNP training materials, which include CCNP training videos and sample tests provided for all courses from the CCNP category.