Network Technologies bring possibilities and scope that further accompany growth to an individual’s career which happens to fulfill the demand for professional skills that patron or an employer is looking for nowadays. A fact is known by everybody in Networking. To keep up with the industry demand, the company has upgraded their well-known CCNA program earlier this year. It is now called as CCNA Routing and Switching which as per Cisco, incorporates and shows all the latest networking trends.

Well! The first question that strikes to anyone who’s been planning to CCNA is – What is CCNA R&S ?

CCNA R&S is an entry level or associate level certification by Cisco system that proves your ability & expertise in medium-size routed and switched networks. It makes a candidate proficient in expanded skill set, including and is not limited to the network infrastructure knowledge (mainly routing and switching), as well as wireless access, security and connectivity with the usage of WAN. It also shadows a higher emphasis on the IP technology.

The brand new CCNA R&S Certification by Cisco targets network professionals who have just entered the league, who have 1-3 years of experience in the kindred domain, and has no prerequisites.

Since Cisco updated this certification program, requisite CCNA exams have been updated as well (this did not come as a surprise actually because Cisco will be liable to update their exam tracks every few years). The following exams have expired: 640-802, 640-816, 640-822 on 30 September 2013. Hence, you may not take them anymore to achieve the CCNA certification.

On the contrary, from October, the new CCNA Routing & Switching Program needs candidates to have a passing score on Cisco 200-120 CCNA exam (Cisco Certified Network Associate Exam) OR consolidated passing scores on 100-101 ICND1 and 200-101 ICND2 exams (Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices, Parts 1 and 2). Incidentally, clearing the ICND1 exam also allows the Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician commonly abbreviated as CCENT certification.

Technology oriented aspects have been kept under their respective tests alongside Cisco’s updated initial level exams like voice is covered in only CCNA Voice and wireless is covered only in CCNA Wireless. To cover more R&S topics, the advantage of aforementioned topics have been removed.

The topics that have been covered under the new update are as follows: – -IPv6 including OSPFv3 and EIGRP for IPv6 -The First Hop Redundancy Protocols (FHRP) that also has Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP), Virtual Router Redundancy -VRRP (protocol) and Gateway Load Balancing Protocol (GLBP) -Recovery of Password -IOS Software Licensing -Network Time Protocol -Syslog and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) -Netflow

Simultaneous to these topic updates, you should anticipate some amount of troubleshooting to be there in the exam, and most probably more than it used to cover previously.

Preparing for any test can bring you stress and make you nervous, supporting the statement Cisco’s CCNAs are no exception. Irrespective of the number of hours you might have spent studying, it won’t be of much use if you’re tired or distracted or unwilling. The best thing you can do to prepare is to get plenty of sleep and go into your exams as relaxed and confident as you can be.

All the best!

To know more about CCNA certification you may visit Network Bulls CCNA routing and switching page .