Cisco Unique Certification Program 2022: What Will It Offer?

At these days, doing business by means of cloud and advanced networking technologies is the norm. Therefore, more and more companies are dependent on basic software and networking hardware vendors, such as Cisco.

And if you are a networking specialist who is looking to build a successful career, you should consider pursuing the Cisco certification. The bottom line is that Cisco-qualified professionals have proven to be competent enough to work with these networking products. It also gives them a competitive advantage in a crowded labor market.

The Cisco Renewed Accreditation Overview

It’s no secret that Cisco certification is leading the way in the IT industry. And even now, given the pandemic, this vendor continues to update and develop its tiered accreditation program, which focuses on network engineers and administrators in automation, security, networking, and development.

The latest changes have affected the basic structure of the certification path, as previously only CCT (Entry), CCNA (Associate), CCNP (Professional), and/or CCIE (Expert) certificates could be obtained. Now, however, the Cisco Certified Specialist designation is also offered to candidates as an intermediate step on the path to CCNP or CCIE accreditation. This Cisco qualification level allows the candidate’s unique experience to be demonstrated and helps him to choose a narrower specialization in technology areas such as Service Provider, Collaboration, DevNet, Security, CyberOps, Data Center, or Manufacturing.

The Highest Level Of The Cisco DevNet Certification

Of the upcoming innovations, it is worth noting the expansion of the DevNet qualification path. As you know, DevNet is a Cisco developer community and program focused on fostering technological and industrial transformation on Cisco platforms. This Cisco qualification track is relatively new. And until recently, the DevNet accreditation set covered software development, automation, Internet of Things, network infrastructure, and Webex skills at three levels – Associate, Specialist, and Professional.

But not long ago, Cisco announced an upcoming opportunity for candidates to prove their expert level of skills and knowledge regarding secure automation tools, programmability, and automation. As such, in 2022, it will be possible to earn the Cisco Certified DevNet Expert certificate, which will be available after passing two specific exams. The first one is the qualifying exam, coded 350-901 DEVCOR, which is designed to assess the applicant’s expertise in software design and development, as well as the effective use of Cisco platforms, automation, application deployment, infrastructure, and APIs.

However, not until May 2, 2022, will another test be available, the DevNet Expert-level lab, which will measure professional’s practical skills in planning, designing, testing, developing, deploying, and maintaining effective automation solutions in a variety of software-defined network environments over the course of 8 hours. And based on preliminary information, the following sections will be covered in this evaluation:

• Software Design, Development, and Deployment including designing solutions based on different types of clouds, defining a deployment strategy to reduce risk, using Git during development, and troubleshooting CI / CD pipeline issues.
• Infrastructure as Code including the creation of scalable solutions, NETCONF filter, and the basic Cisco NSO service package, as well as the use of the new REST API.
• Network Programmability and Automation that includes scripting with help of Python libraries, Cisco IOS XE network appliance application configuration and deployment, as well as telemetry solution development.
• Containers together with creating a Docker image, packaging solutions through Docker Compose and Kubernetes, alongside working with a Docker host.
• Security including the use of OWASP secure encryption methods, certificate signing request (CSR) using OpenSSL, as well as the use of tokens, secret management system, and OAuth2+.

The target audience for this exam are automation pros, the DevNet certified professional level individuals, network architects, automation team leaders, automation engineers with 5-7 years of hands-on experience in developing and optimizing NetDevOps solutions and technologies.

To cover the entire software development lifecycle, the exam lasts 8 hours and consists of 2 modules – Design (3 hours), as well as Development, Deployment Testing, and Maintenance (5 hours). Both modules are fixed in time and will be taken in strict sequence mentioned above. Candidates can register for their exam three months in advance of their desired date, given that the test will first be launched in May 2022.

It is worth noting that the developers of the Cisco certification program claim that this new exam is the only one of its kind because it includes a completely new approach to network design, automation, and software development. Meanwhile, the presence of a Cisco DevNet certified expert in the team gives the manager the confidence that he has the right person to lead the new generation IT team.

One of the things to understand is that NetDevOps has been growing indefatigably in the US in recent years, which implies the need for organizations to have qualified and savvy professionals on staff. Thus, by meeting the conditions for admission to the new lab exam and earning the Cisco Certified DevNet Expert certificate, candidates can qualify for roles such as:

• Cloud Engineer
• Cloud Developer
• DevOps Engineer
• NetDevOps Engineer
• Network Architect
• Network Engineer
• Network Automation Engineer

So Where Do You Start?

As you can imagine, this is a great time for professional development in the NetDevOps field. And the Cisco DevNet multilevel certification journey is the perfect way to do that. You can go ahead and prepare for the Cisco Certified DevNet Expert accreditation because now applicants don’t need lower-level accreditations to qualify for the exams. You only need to have the required experience and the willingness to pass the two mandatory evaluation steps.

Yes, as mentioned, the lab exam is in development. But already now you can take the qualifying exam and start preparing for the next stage. Especially since you can find a complete list of exam topics on the Cisco website, as well as study materials and resources where you can find the most up-to-date information. Everything is in your hands. Go for it.