The Cisco certification program has been around for 26 years (it was founded in 1993). Many people are well aware of the engineering certification line CCNA, CCNP, CCIE. This year, the program was supplemented with certifications for developers, namely DevNet Associate, DevNet Specialist, DevNet Professional, DevNet Expert.
The DevNet program itself has existed in the company for more than five years. Details about the Cisco DevNet program have already been written on HabrΓ© in .
And so we have regarding new certifications:
- As with engineering certifications, there are four levels of DevNet certifications - Associate, Specialist, Professional, Expert.
- Engineering certifications are complemented by modules in the direction of automation / programming.
- Developer certifications have a module related to the basics of network programming
Let's take a look at each of the certifications, including the content and who it's aimed at.
Cisco DevNet Associate
Who is it aimed at:
For young professionals, namely junior specialists in positions from programmers and SRE / DevOps to testers and automation engineers.
Exam will include both the basics of application development (knowledge of how git works, the basics of python) and knowledge and skills in using the API of Cisco equipment / solutions.
As it was written earlier, certifications also include a module on the basics of network programming (15% of the total).
Cisco DevNet Specialist
Who is it aimed at:
Specialists with experience in one of the areas, from 3 to 5 years.
Developers with hands-on experience in developing and maintaining applications built on Cisco platforms.
In this certification, you can choose one or more of the following specializations, each specialization has a corresponding exam.
For programmers:
- Core
- DevOps
- IoT
- Webex
For Automation Professionals:
- Collaboration Automation
- Data Center Automation
- Enterprise Automation
- Security Automation
- Service Provider Automation
Core and DevOps specializations will have modules to test knowledge on CI/CD, Docker, 12-factor app principles, OWASP threats.
A Webex specialization related to Cisco Webex devices and solutions. Previously, many solutions in the field of unified communications moved under the general Webex brand, and Cisco Spark was also rebranded into Webex Teams. The direction includes modules for Webex Teams automation, customization, programming devices for collaboration (Webex Devices).
The IoT Specialization includes modules on Open Source IoT solutions, visualization and interpretation (including using Freeboard, Grafana, and Kibana).
certification exam DevNet Specialist: DevOps also includes topics such as: characteristics and concepts of build/deployment tools such as Jenkins, Drone or Travis CI; configuration management tools for automating infrastructure services such as Ansible, Puppet, Terraform, and Chef; Kubernetes (concepts, deploying applications in a cluster, using objects); determine the requirements (memory, disk I/O, network, CPU) needed to scale an application or service; methods for protecting the application and infrastructure during development and testing.
Below is a comparison table of some of the certifications that exist in the DevOps space. It may seem to you that the table compares objects of different characteristics, and it is). In fact, there are some IaaS services, open source projects and vendor oriented certifications.
The set of skills and knowledge that covers the scope of DevOps certainly also includes the ability to use many more different programs and tools. Many projects also have certifications such as Docker Certified Associate, Certified Jenkins Engineer, AppDynamics Certified, Red Hat Certified Specialist in Ansible, and many more.
Certifications for Automation Professionals
In the automation specializations there is a module on the basics of network programming (10% of the total volume of topics), which includes such topics as:
- Setting up a Linux/macOS/Windows workstation as a development environment
- the basics of the Python programming language
- Go
- using the REST API
- JSON parsing
- CI / CD
Cisco DevNet Professional
Who is it aimed at:
Specialists with experience in developing and implementing applications from 3 years; Experience with Cisco solutions and Python programming language.
It will be of interest to: developers who are switching to automation and DevOps; solution architects using the Cisco ecosystem; experienced network engineers who want to expand their skills, including application development and automation; infrastructure developers designing secure production environments.
The certification includes two exams:
- Basic exam, which is designed to confirm the professional skills of the developer
- A specialized exam in one of the areas: DevOps, IoT, Webex, Collaboration Automation, Data Center Automation, Enterprise Automation, Security Automation, Service Provider Automation. They are described in detail above in the description of the Cisco DevNet Specialist certification.
The core exam includes the following topics:
- Software development and design
- Understanding and Using the API
- Cisco Platforms
- Application deployment and security
- Infrastructure and automation
The βSoftware Development and Designβ module includes topics from the βFundamentals of Network Programmingβ module, and is also supplemented by the following topics: application development fundamentals (architectural patterns, choosing database types based on application requirements, diagnosing application problems, evaluating application architecture taking into account various parameters); integrations with Webex Teams (including knowledge of the Webex Teams SDK, OAuth, etc.); token authentication in the Firepower Management Center; in-depth knowledge of git (git server, branching, resolve conflicts, etc.).
In the βInfrastructure and Automationβ module, there will also be tasks and questions regarding the configuration of network parameters using the Ansible playbook, Puppet manifest.
Cisco DevNet Expert
The highest certification is aimed at professionals, programmers, engineers who have advanced skills and knowledge described in previous certifications. These individuals must also be skilled at deploying off-the-shelf applications that use the Cisco API.
Detailed information regarding certification will be provided later.
Detailed information is already available for each of the Cisco DevNet certifications. Exams will be available in February 2020. Exam preparation resources are available now
PS
New technologies form new requirements for the knowledge and competencies of specialists. Even now, the level of development of equipment and solutions makes it possible to automate many processes, manage IT infrastructure using frameworks / scripts and programs written in a convenient programming language.
The knowledge and skills required to successfully pass the certification exams can be conditionally divided into the following categories:
- theoretical and practical aspects of various technologies and methods
- using the Cisco device and solution APIs
- work with open-source projects and frameworks
Each employee and person who was looking for specialists developed their own attitude to certification and its impact on promotion in the company or salary increase
I am sure that, other things being equal, having a professional certification in a specialized field will be considered as an advantage.
Source: habr.com