When CCIE encounters SDN

n the networking industry, the Cisco Certified Internet Professional (CCIE) is widely recognized as a sign of successful people and has many opportunities to earn high-paying jobs. But as software-defined networking (SDN) is committed to developing more automated networks, can CCIE or other traditional network certifications realize their value in the networking industry?

Cisco is also updating the CCIE Data center and CCNA Security programs to help IT practitioners stay focused on new technologies such as SDN, IoT, and Cloud. CCIE Data Center 2.0 will include end-to-end management of data centers, focusing on policy-based infrastructure, advanced virtualization, orchestration, and automation. The CCNA Security certification program will focus on end-to-end security issues.

The new value of CCIE

At Interop, a network of CCIE-certified network experts in New York, the network expert group discussed this issue. Some network experts believe that network experts such as CCIE and CCNP are still valuable, but as SDN becomes mainstream, they should expand their skills in the network.

Lori MacVittie, chief technology officer of F5 Networks, said: "The port is still a port, and the VLAN is still a VLAN. These basic knowledge is still related to it, but the situation has indeed changed, and the understanding of the API and tool interface of a specific device has become extremely important."

Wendell Odom published his views on these certifications on his social networking site CertSkills. He believes that traditional authentication is the basis for subsequent understanding of SDN. However, the development of the network and the direction of the enterprise require an incremental SDN authentication process. An example is Cisco.

Colin McNamara, chief cloud architect at Dimension Data's Nexus IS division, expressed his views on CCIE. The certifications that are often considered to be the highest level of excellence are now undergoing changes. The creation of new technologies and the problems encountered by CCIE have resulted in certification. Depreciation. He said: "As a cloud computing employee, I am not optimistic about CCIE certification. Most CCIE certifications have nothing to do with building a cloud or an open SDN application. I hope my certificate is still valuable, but it is for me. Nothing to use."

MacVittie said that the value of CCIE depends on the industry and geographic location of the certification staff. For example, in the Midwest, CCIE is still very important. She said: "There must be some measures to let those involved in the certification know some knowledge about the network, which is definitely more valuable than the network that passers-by said. Therefore, the value of CCIE is still there."

Natalie Timms, a former CCIE project manager and independent consultant at Cisco, said she would still be asked by her employer about her work at CCIE during her consulting work. She said: "For some people, it may be just a checkbox, but it requires you to learn more."

career planning

Regardless of their attitude toward the value of CCIE, members of the panel expressed the need to expand their knowledge to keep up with the development of new technologies. Timms suggests understanding these basics and also needs to delve into some basic programming, such as Python.

Odom responded to his blog on his software-defined e-learning program in his blog, starting with traditional network authentication and OpenStack Neutron, as well as learning OpenFlow, the Mininet command line, and SDN controllers. He suggested choosing an SDN provider and looking at the certification project reference he provided for career planning. He also suggested that you can consider the SDN certification provided by the Open Network Foundation (ONF).

Because developers rely mainly on experience rather than certificates, McNamara recommends that network professionals need software development experience in software development teams, learn how to build different strategy models, and learn open source projects such as OpenStack. He said that the most important thing is: "Apply for a GitHub account and contribute the code above, which will become the resume of the contributor."

However, MacVittie pointed out that McNamara's cooperation with large technology companies has taken a detour. She said: "Most people will not be programmers. This is not the job they want to do. It is only a skill for them to understand the scripting language. But they don't know software development, and some people may not even understand the scripting language." She suggested that web professionals need to understand the API and know how they are built. Debug skills are also important, and she recommends learning tools like DevOps, Puppet, and Chef.

Odom said that SDN is a revolutionary technology anyway, highly affecting network builders and their attitude towards the network, which is extremely remarkable.