Cisco announced last week a refresh of the CCNA Data Center and CCNP Data Center certifications. The new versions of the exams bring some changes to align content with what is more relevant today. I’m studying for CCNA DC and liked the changes… but I will keep studying since I have until April 11th 2017 to pass any of the “old” exams.
If your goal is CCNP Data Center you have a bit more time, until 3rd of July 2017 to pass any of the exams. After the deadline if you are still not certified, have a look at the Migration Tool to make sure what combinations of the old and new exams will make you certified.
What changed?
To start, the exam codes. CCNA DC and CCNP DC still had the old codes starting with 640 and 642. The exam codes now follow the other ones starting with 200-XXX for CCNA and 300-XXX for CCNP.
https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/community/ccna-dc-certification-exam-topic-updates
https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/community/ccnp-dc-certification-exam-topic-updates
Content changes in general, it’s relevant to point out that the product and platform specific content (the most boring part of the exam) was removed. Thankfully! There is nothing worse than memorizing tables of features, licensing and switching capacities of different chassis and modules. Topics related to IOS were also removed. For network equipment, it’s all NX-OS now.
On the other end of the story, storage (Fiber Channel and FCoE), infrastructure security content was expanded. But the big news really, is the inclusion of cloud, automation, orchestration and Cisco ACI (Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure).
If you are ready to start studying, go over to the Cisco Learning Network (CLN) and have a look at the exam topics:
CCNA DC
- DCICN – Introducing Cisco Data Center Networking (200-150)
- DCICT – Introducing Cisco Data Center Technologies (200-155)
CCNP DC
- DCUCI – Implementing Cisco Data Center Unified Computing (300-175)
- DCII – Implementing Cisco Data Center Infrastructure (300-165)
- DCVAI – Implementing Cisco Data Center Virtualization and Automation (300-170)
- DCID – Designing Cisco Data Center Infrastructure (300-160)
- DCIT – Troubleshooting Cisco Data Center Infrastructure (300-180)
Which one will be next?
The clear indicator of the end-of-life for an exam seems to be the code. Who’s left to refresh? Service Provider, CCNA SP and CCNP SP (CCIE excluded from this analysis).
Let’s wait and see. We just have to stay tuned to the Cisco Learning Network news blog.
Enough writing… I’m going to study now!!!
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In the 200-150 exam, Chapter 1 seems to still expect you to heavily know the part numbers in the official cert guide, and the practice questions reflect that. How have they been removed?