Cisco Systems is keeping pace with the growing popularity of
VoIP and converged networks by building new skill sets into its
midlevel certification program.
Cisco has expanded its CCNP (Cisco Certified Network
Professional) program -- its second-most-popular program behind
CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetworking Expert) -- so that it extends
beyond just core routing and switching. The certification now
encompasses applications such as voice, wireless and security.
"The program used to emphasize routing and switching, so the
major change is in recognition of a broader set of solutions:
security, voice and wireless," said Don Field, director of
certifications at Cisco. "We have significantly increased the
content in those three areas because that's the way companies are
buying, or will buy, our product. Having individuals with skills in
those areas, plus switching and routing, will help enterprises … to
have [network professionals] who can design, troubleshoot, etc., a
converged network."
While adding training in areas including converged networks,
quality of service, virtual private networks, and broadband
technologies, the CCNP program will continue to maintain its focus
on the advanced skills required to manage the routers and switches
that form the network core. The CCNP integrates next-generation
Cisco Integrated Services Routers, engineered to provide wire-speed
delivery of concurrent data, voice, video and wireless services
with optimized security. A CCNP certification now validates that a
network professional has the ability to install, configure and
troubleshoot converged local and wide area networks.
The program expansion is important because it reduces the
"implementation risk" associated with a lack of available skills,
according to Cushing Anderson, Framingham, Mass.-based IDC's
program director of learning, consulting and systems
integration.
"The best predictor of project success is project team skill,"
Anderson said. "So Cisco is reasonable in assuming that the more
networking professionals who are skilled in VoIP or wireless or
security, the more quickly technologies like VoIP will be
adopted."
IDC assumes that convergence is a permanent phenomenon and that
it will be increasingly adopted during the next decade. The company
predicts that by 2009 there will be 1.5 billion users of the
Internet, 3 billion users of the phone network, and 2.5 billion
mobile phone users. "The overlap among these users will be
massive," Anderson said.
Also, IDC anticipates that the number of IP telephones activated
will triple between 2006 and 2010. And the number of IP PBXs
shipped will double in the same period.
"Convergence impacts many levels of the IT infrastructure --
convergence of the telephone network and the Internet; of consumer
and enterprise technologies; and even of storage, routing and
processing in the data center," Anderson said. "Convergence of
voice, video and data communications is probably the most
dramatic."
The CCNP course and exam now include:
- BCMSN (642-812) Campus Switch Networks Wireless LAN
- BSCI (642-901) Routing Protocols at Campus Edge
- ISCW (642-825) Implementing Secure Converged WANs
- ONT (642-845) Optimized Converged Cisco Networks
CCNP integrates VoIP, wireless and security evenly into the
converged network certification, but Cisco also offers specific
certification training for network professionals wanting to delve
deeper into individual convergence technologies.
"Even though it's very exciting to have a significant increase
in VoIP, security and wireless content in a certification as
popular as CCNP," Field said, "we also have even more that we can
offer in each of those areas."