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Chapter 1: All About the Cisco Certified Network Professional and Design Professional Certification
The CCIE certification didn't help the smaller integrators who were satisfying the small
business and home market; because of their size, the smaller integrators were not able to attain
any degree of discount. Cisco, however, needed their skills to continue to capture the small
business market, which was--and is--one of the largest markets in the internetworking arena
today.
What was needed by Cisco was a level of certification that was less rigorous than CCIE but that
would allow Cisco more granularity in judging the skills on staff at a partner company. So Cisco
created several additional certifications, CCNP and CCDP included.
Two categories of certifications were developed--one to certify implementation skills and the
other to certify design skills. Service companies need more implementation skills, and resellers
working in a pre-sales environment needed more design skills. So the CCNA and CCNP are
implementation-oriented certifications; whereas, the Cisco Certified Design Associate (CCDA)
and CCDP are design-oriented certifications.
Rather than just one level of certification besides CCIE, Cisco created two additional levels--
Associate and Professional. CCNA is more basic, and CCNP is the intermediate level between
CCNA and CCIE. Likewise, CCDA is more basic than CCDP.
Several certifications require other certifications as a prerequsite. For instance, CCNP
certification requires CCNA first. Also, CCDP requires both CCDA and CCNA certification.
CCIE, however, does not require any other certification prior to the written and lab tests. This
is mainly for historical reasons.
Cisco certifications have become a much needed commodity in the internetworking world as
companies scramble to position themselves with the latest e-commerce, e-business, and e-life
that is out there. Because Novell, Windows NT, Linux, or any other routed protocols generally
need to be routed somewhere, the integrators want a piece of that business as well. Because
Cisco cannot form a relationship with every new startup business, it looks for certified partners
to take on that responsibility. The CCNP and CCDP certifications are truly another win-win
situation for resellers, integrators, you, and Cisco.
The Remote Access Exam and the CCNP and CCDP
Certifications
The Remote Access exam proves mastery of the features used in larger corporate dial-in
facilities and Internet service provider (ISP) operations. Skills required for CCNP and CCDP
certifications include the ability to install, configure, operate, and troubleshoot remote access
devices in a complex WAN environment. Specifically, the remote access skills required ensure
that the CCNP or CCDP candidate can ensure minimal WAN costs to the customer or client
using the Cisco IOS features.