CCDE and Cisco certs in general...

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I'm completely new to the Cisco world and while I begin my studies from the bottom up, with an MCSE and CCNA being my future goals, I took a quick scour over the Cisco site at their certification requirements.

The whole 'valid for three years' thing I find is pretty ludicrous. For example, say you were to go for a CCIE or CCDE. After 8 excruciating hours doing your pt2 lab to get certified you pass, hooray! Then in three years all that hard work, and above all the expense of doing those particular exams hardly seems to me to make perfect sense.

Do Cisco regularly change their exam objectives? Is this why certification is valid only for three years?

I can understand in a way that, for example, you earn a CCNA and have the desire/intention of moving up the Cisco certification ladder, the three year validation would persuade candidates to continue learning to acheive the next cert. Other than that though, to me anyway, the CCDE et al seems like a bit of an extravagance considering the time and expense required to acheive it.

 

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That's a valid point, and certainly worth considering. Personally, i would think that if you get to the level of CCIE/CCDE then you would have enough knowledge, skills and experience not to really worry about recertifying every three years. I'm doing my CCNA & CCNP this year (well at least I plan to anyway!) but only because my employer wants me to - otherwise I wouldn't bother with it. Their certification programme seems like a rip-off to me and always has.

 

That's the impression I get too.

Is the CCENT worth even going for or is that a waste of time? I ask because I thought the CCENT may be geared similarly to the CompTIA A+ in that if you pass the CCENT exam it counts as credit to the CCNA. This is not the case as from what I can see the CCNA requires the candidate to pass two new exams, there is no mention of the CCENT counting as core credit towards anything other than professional level certification. Which in turn makes no sense because to take a professional Cisco cert, a CCNA is a prerequisite therefor rendering your CCENT useless.

I definitely get the cashcow feeling the closer I look at Cisco certification...

 

I think you being a little unfair to the CCENT because it only has been introduced to the market now. Maybe in 5 years the CCENT will be a standard helpdesk cert you need. Cisco revamped their CCNA and if you going to be going down the two exam route like I am then you shouldnt be worrying too much about the CCENT-CCNA thing cause at the end of the day you aiming for the CCNA.

 

Valid point. I just think right now the CCENT holds no real value. If it counted as a credit towards CCNA I could see it as having some credibility. As you say though, in the future it may become staple to a helpdesk role or something similar.

My main gripe though is with the 3 year validity of their certifications. I find that ridiculous re: the reasons I outlined in my original post.

 

Well i can see it in the future being the prerequisite for the CCNA...

 

If you've got the experience, the 3-year recertification requirement isn't that arduous... in fact, it's pretty easy.

I have to renew my CCNP every 3 years. Know what I have to do to renew it? Pass a single 642-level exam. Doesn't even have to be in the same track as the CCNP. And likely, if I'm learning and certifying on new things anyway, it'll stay renewed without me even having to try to.

The CCENT isn't anywhere NEAR the level of the A+ exam. Although it's Cisco's "bottom-level" cert, it's nowhere near an "entry-level" certification for entry-level techs. Why is this? Because entry-level techs aren't going to need to know how to configure or upgrade Cisco gear, configure RIP, implement port security, or configure NAT, DNS, or DHCP in a large business environment.

To get the CCNA, you can either pass a single CCNA exam, or you can pass two separate exams, one of which gives you the CCENT along the way.

Hey, if you don't want to certify on Cisco's supposed "cash cow", then don't. Nobody's forcing you to. But you'll be less competition for others who do certify on it.

 

That's what's confused me. If by passing the CCNA you earn a CCENT, how come if you choose to take the CCENT first and pass it doesn't count as credit to a CCNA?

I will go ahead in the future and attempt to get a Cisco certification, however I still don't entirely agree with the 3 year renewal requirement. As I stated before, I guess it is not so bad for those aiming to move up the Cisco ladder, or those wanting to stay at a lower exam cost level but I feel for the poor folk doing top level exams. 8 hours of labs and a hefty price tag every three years is not fun!

 

The CCENT is credit towards the CCNA... infact it is the first half of the CCNA. Previously you could do the CCNA Intro and then the CCNA ICND exam to get the CCNA
This is similar, but you get a qualification from doing the first exam, where as the old CCNA way you didnt get anything until you passed the 2 exams

Re-certification is important after 3 years. Look at how the old and new CCNA differ, the main 2 points being the requirement to understand Wireless networks and DSL, and not having to know about ISDN

And you can bet in 3 years time technology will have changed again (maybe IPv6 will be commonplace), so your 3 year old CCNA will not really represent the technology an employer needs you to implement.

Its a good way to ensure a qualification is always including the newest possible technology, and the people who hold it are aware of these technologies

 

Thats not quite right.. the CCENT is passing the ICDN1 and not the Intro.. its part of the new track from Cisco. Apparently the exams are much harder now - anyone want to confirm or argue that? I just heard sorry cant find the source but i read it somewhere along the lines....

 

You don't earn a CCENT by passing the single CCNA exam. There's only one way to get the CCENT: by passing the ICND1 exam. After you pass ICND1, passing ICND2 will get you the CCNA. Thus, in that way, the CCENT *does* count as credit to a CCNA, if you take the two-exam path to the CCNA.

You'll likely feel differently about the 3 year renewal after you get some experience, when it's not so difficult to recertify because you're using the knowledge already, and your future employer will likely pay for you to get the recert.

The CCIE doesn't require renewal every 3 years... it requires renewal every TWO years. But recertification isn't as bad as you're thinking; you have to pass only the written exam every two years: link - thus, it's not $1700, it's just a few hundred.