As you may have already heard, Cisco is making some major changes to their certification tracks, which was announced at Cisco Live on Monday June 10, 2019. If you’ve already started working toward any current CCNP certification, you’re still on track. You have until February 23, 2020 to complete your certification, and in the new program, you’ll receive credit for work you’ve already completed.

Here are the current list of CCNP certifications, set to expire next February:

• CCNP Routing and Switching
• CCNP Collaboration
• CCNP Wireless
• CCNP Data Center
• CCNP Security
• CCNP Service Provider
• CCDP

Here are the new CCNP certifications that will begin next February:

• CCNP Enterprise
• CCNP Collaboration
• CCNP Data Center
• CCNP Security
• CCNP Service Provider
• Cisco Certified DevNet Professional

Notice the absence of CCNP Routing and Switching, CCNP Wireless, and CCDP. These will all be retired, and will instead offer multiple paths to achieving the new CCNP Enterprise certification, along with new Specialist Certifications based on which of the three tracks you choose to go down. To further clarify this, Cisco has provided a migration tool for their professional exam tracks, which you can access here: CCNP Migration Tool.

It is critical to note that if you pass the full exam path for any CCNP track before the February deadline, you will be granted the equivalent certification under the new program. For example, if you pass the current CCNP ROUTE, CCNP SWITCH, and CCNP TSHOOT before February 24, you will receive the new CCNP Enterprise certification, plus the appropriate Specialist certifications (see the migration tool for more info on those) as outlined by Cisco.

If you are starting fresh under the new CCNP program, each CCNP certification requires only two exams: one core exam and one concentration exam of your choice. To see what this looks like for your particular concentration, visit Cisco’s Professional Level certification page here: Cisco Professional Certification Updates.

The core exams in each technology track also serve as qualifying exams for CCIE lab exams. This means there will be no more written CCIE exams necessary before the lab attempt. For example, if you have a current CCNP in Routing and Switching, after the February deadline, you will be granted the CCNP Enterprise certification, along with the CCNP Certified Specialist – Enterprise Core certification. The CCNP Certified Specialist – Enterprise Core (300-401) is a prerequisite for the new CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure, in place of a written lab exam.

If you’ve been pursuing your Cisco CCNP Certification, RIGHT NOW is the best time to enroll in any of our upcoming training and certification courses.

thinQtank® Learning is offering an industry unique nine-day training camp in which students can receive the Cisco CCNP Routing and Switching certification. As with all of our Cisco Training Experiences – exams are delivered in the classroom.

When: September 7 – 15, 2019
Where: Sterling VA and Live Online

When: October 30 – November 7, 2019
Where: Sterling VA and Live Online