CCNP On June 9th - 2019, Cisco made an announcement of deleting and replacing ALL their CCNP Level "Exams". saying exams instead of certificates, as the labels of most the Certificates remained the same (except for CCNP RS, who got replaced with CCNP Enterprise)
New Criteria for becoming CCNP:
The new Exams as they are linked to the Cisco Certificate Network Professional certificate came with new criteria of becoming "Certified". now you will need to pass ONLY 2 exams and you will get granted the CCNP certificate, rather than needing a minimum of 3-4 exams in the previous system.
The new system requires 2 isolated parts to fulfill before you become certified: 1- A Technology Core Exam, which plays a role in engaging you in 2 paths of certs. (The CCNP & The CCIE). - and that will be: - Enterprise, Security, Service Provider, Collaboration, Data Center, and the newly established DEVNET & CyberOps 2- A Technology Concentration Exam, every domain of the 7 mentioned in Point "1", has 1-7 different technologies to concentrate on.
This will be kind of having a Master's degree in engineering, you consider some general topics, and focus on some others. maybe research as well on that specific topic, in the end, you will be A "Master" in a general title, with a little specification mentioned in your master certificate referring to that research/project you did. And CCNA is no longer a prerequisite for any CCNP, as a matter of fact, no exam now requires prerequisites, just jump in to whatever exam you want to take, and you'll get a badge for it.
Notice:
Also, one of the points not to forget about, the old CCDP has been completely removed, leaving you to start learning network designing with either the CCDE directly, OR, the newly established ENSLD exam, that participates in the domain of Enterprise. which also you can use it plus the Enterprise Core exam (CCNP ENCOR) to get the CCNP Enterprise Badge!
CCIE from CCNP:
Now one of the lines specified above mentions "plays a role in engaging you in 2 paths of certs. (The CCNP & The CCIE)" how and why exactly?. it is not a CCIE Enterprise blog, yet these "Core" exams now do replace the old "CCIE Written" exams as well, so one exam will make you in front of: A- taking a concentration and becoming a Cisco Certified Network Professional B- taking a LAB exam and becoming a CCIE C- make use of that Core exam for both A & B
To Consider:
Cisco's official page for the CCNP level Certificates, alongside with the involved exams, agenda, and announcements. Also, you can visit Orhan Ergun IT Courses for courses to check the available CCNP courses there, based on the criteria and methodology we follow:
- Self-Paced videos based 100% on the official exam agenda/blueprints
- Workbooks for you alone to practice and verify the practical skills
- LAB files for these workbooks practice LABs
- A special study group with all the other students to keep up with them + the instructors
Enjoy, and get Certified.