Introduction
Cisco announced a huge overall in their certification track in 2020. One of the biggest changes was around the CCNA certification. At this point, we’ll touch on the difference between the old CCNA and the new CCNA. The new exam will be available on February 24, 2020.
What is the goal of the new CCNA?
The goal of the CCNA Foundations is to help create a solid technical foundation for new IT professionals with one associate-level certification. Up to this point, the CCNA certification had multiple tracks – Route/Switch, Data Center, Security, Collaboration, Wireless, etc. In my opinion, that caused some confusion for those entering the field on where to start first.
In my experience, there was a lot of networking knowledge that Cisco expected you to have when taking one of the specialized CCNA tracks. That really made the CCNA Route/Switch a prerequisite for the other CCNA certifications.
With the new certification track. IT professionals can build a solid foundation with the CCNA and then branch off for more specialized knowledge when they move towards the CCNP track and eventually towards the CCIE.
In today’s IT world, most employers expect some level of foundational knowledge across different disciplines and this makes more sense from a learning standpoint.
In addition to being broader in overall topics. The new CCNA also adds newer more relevant Cisco technology as well as industry trends like programmability.
What if I have been studying for the old CCNA?
If you have been studying the old CCNA Route/Switch exam (Exam 200-125) then keep going. Most of the material is still very relevant.
If you pass exam 200-125 before Feb 24th, 2020 you will not only get the old CCNA Route/Switch Certification but will get the new CCNA Foundations certification with an Enterprise Infrastructure badge.
In addition, you will be that much closer to getting your CCNP Enterprise Architecture which will replace the CCNP Route/Switch. This applies to those that have been studying for at least 3 to 6 months as of this writing.
The same goes for CCNA Data Center, Security, and any other track. Keep studying and take the exam before the Feb 24th deadline and you’ll get both certifications and a badge that denotes the track you followed.
However, if you are just starting out I would focus on the new CCNA track at this point. No reason to start learning the older material. New study material is already available.
Exam Topics (Overview)
First, let’s explore how the new CCNA 200-301 exam stacks up against the old CCNA 200-125 exam. I am comparing it to the Route/Switch exam because not only is it the most popular track but its the exam that in my opinion is the most similar to the new CCNA Foundations.
What has been added:
- Fabric Networking
- Overlay
- Underlay
- DNA Center
- SDA
- Security Fundamentals
- DHCP Snooping
- DARP
- Wireless Fundamentals
- Automation Fundamentals
- Ansible
- Puppet
- Chef
- APIs Fundamentals
- Data Structures
- REST
- JSON
- XML
What has been removed:
- LAN Fundamentals
- OSI
- VTP
- IOS Licensing and Upgrades
- Routing Fundamentals (
- RIP
- EIGRP
- eBGP
- WAN Fundamentals
- Serial
- PPP
- MPLS
- Metro Ethernet
In a nutshell, the new CCNA Foundations exam has removed a lot of legacy technology from the overall certification track or moved the more advanced topics to the CCNP Enterprise Infrastructure track.
A lot of new topics around security, wireless, fabric-based networking, automation, and APIs have been added to help train the network engineer for the future. It should be interesting to see what the exam is like when it comes out.
