IT professionals specializing in networking have been in high demand for the past few years, but even the most experienced job seekers can benefit from specific certifications. Having at least one of the best networking certifications under one’s belt can add to their qualifications, securing a well-paid position in the field.
Those who undergo an entire certification process are fully equipped with everything necessary to excel in their professional positions. The programs are meant to teach candidates the skills and knowledge they need to navigate email, content, and spam filtering as well as virtual and physical switches and routers, among others. Having a certificate that indicates the candidate holds technical skills gives them an edge over non-certified job applicants.
The number of popular certification options and specialties from leading institutions in the IT industry can make it slightly difficult to choose which to pick, but a list of the top choices might help.
- CCNA
CCNA stands for Cisco Certified Network Associate which is a certification related to computer networks and is provided by Cisco. This course generally acts as the foundation for a network engineer to start. This course is going to teach you Network fundamentals, Network access, IP connectivity, IP services, Security fundamentals. Automation and Programmability. This course does not require any prerequisites as such but one-two year of experience implementing Cisco solutions is recommended by the company.
The job roles that one can expect after completing this course are Entry-level network engineer, Help desk technician, Network administrator, Network support technician, etc!
It may cost around Rs 25,000 in India.
- DevNet Associate
Cisco is an industry leader in the field of networking. So giving preference to Cisco’s certification makes sense as they are more likely to get one job since they are driving the industry.
Once you have the CCNA certification under your belt the next thing certification to do would be the DevNet associate. Why? Because the industry is evolving faster than ever and so it wants a candidate with networking knowledge in association with the knowledge of the development process. Similar to the previous certification this also does not hold any formal prerequisites but it is recommended for a candidate to have a few years of development experience.
This Cisco certification will cost around Rs 22,000 to Rs 25,000 in India.
- CCNP Enterprise
CNNP stands for Cisco Certified Network Personal. This certification is a level superior to the CCNA. It can be considered as the benchmark for the skills in networking. Again there are no formal prerequisites for this course but instead of beginners, this certification is mainly by professionals who have around three to five years of experience in the field of networking and implementing enterprise network solutions. In order to get this certification, there are two exams to be cleared. First is the Core exam which will mainly focus on enterprise infrastructure-related knowledge which will consist of the topics like architecture, security and automation. The second exam is the concentration one which will test a candidate on niche topics or industry-specific topics such as network design. SD-WAN etc.
In CNNP Enterprise certification the fee for the Core exam will be around Rs 35,000 and for the Concentration exam, it will range from Rs 25,000 to Rs 35,000.
- DevNet Profesional
As CNNP Enterprise stands a level above the CNNA similarly DevNet Profesional is a level up to the DevNet Associate certification. This certification is basically to become a master at coding industry-leading software products in addition to designing network applications. The three key focus points of this certification are going to be Application design, Software development and Automation. Similar to the previous certification this one also employs two exams to test the candidate. The Core exam tests the fundamental concepts used in the field of software development such as APIs, application deployment, infrastructure etc. The Concentration exam tests the candidate for the in-depth knowledge of certain chosen topics such as data centre automation, DevOps automation, Cloud, etc.
In the DevNet Professional certification, the Core exam fee is around Rs 30,000 and for the Concentration exam, it is Rs 22,000.
- CCIE
CCIE stands for Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert. CCIE also holds the position as the topmost certification in the field of networking. It falls in the category of expert certifications. There are various sub-classification to this certification offering targeting a specific audience such as CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure, CCIE Enterprise Wireless, CCIE Data Center, CCIE security CCIE Service Provider, etc.
For this certification, the exam fee is around Rs 1,20,000 for the core exam and Rs 35,000 for the Lab exam. In total, the CCIE certification may cost more than Rs 1,50,000.
For more information about all the listed certifications visit cisco.com.
