The CCIE Times Are Changing

Today is the day CCIE changes. At least a little. The news just released is that some changes have taken place in the CCIE certification and re-authentication process. Some of them are positive. Some of them will lead to some insightful discussion. Let’s take a quick look at what’s going on and how it affects you. Note that these changes will not take effect until February 24, 2020, and will take about eight months.

Starting Your Engines

The first major change comes from the tests you are preparing for the lab. Historically, this is a written CCIE test. This is a test of knowledge to ensure that you are ready for a large laboratory. This is also a test for re-certifying your CCIE status.

With the new changes on February 24th, the old CCIE will disappear. The test to be used to identify candidates for the CCIE laboratory exam is a core technical test from the CCNP track. The core technology exam for each CCNP track has a dual purpose in the new Cisco certification program. If you want to take CCNP, you need core technical exams and other exams in a specific list. The core technology exam also qualified you to schedule CCIE lab attempts within 18 months.

This means CCNP will become more difficult now. instead of performing multiple tests by routing, switching, or speech, focus all these techniques on a long-term exam. The core technology test will also have more practical problems. If you are good at configuring the device, that would be great. But the number of personal exams will increase.

Keeping The Home Fires Burning

Now we have talked about the qualification to take part in the lab test and let’s discuss the change in re-certification. The real good news is that the continuing education program is expanding and more re-certification options are available.

CCIE has been asking you to re-authenticate every two years. However, if you miss the revalidation date, you have a "Grace period" of one year. Your CCIE status is paused, but you won’t lose your number until the one-year end. This grace period is informally referred to as the "penalty box" of several of the industry. Think of it as a time to focus on getting your certification up to date.

From February 24, 2020, this grace period is now officially recognized as an additional year of certification. The CCIE is now valid for 3 years and not 2 years. However, if you do not re-authenticate at the end of the third year, you will lose your phone number. There’s no grace period. This means that you need to re-authenticate within 3 years.

As to how to recertify, you now have some additional options. You can still re-authenticate with CE points. The amount is increased from 100 to 120 to reflect the additional year that CCIE is now re-certified. There is also a new method of re-authentication using the credit and test combination. You can take part in the core technology exam and re-authenticate with 40 CE marks. You can also pass the two-door expert exam and re-authenticate with 40 CE credits. This is a good way to learn new subject skills and learn new technologies. You can choose to pass an expert exam and re-certify in three years using 80CE credits. This change is huge for those who need re-certification. This is a very good choice for us today. Their mixed model provides great flexibility for those who take the exam but also participate in e-learning or in-class training.

The biggest change, however, is in the test-only option. Historically, all you needed to do is pass the CCIE written every two years to recertify. With the changes to the written exam used to qualify you to take the lab, that is no longer an option. As listed above, simply taking the Core Technologies exam is not enough. You must also take 40 CE credits.

So, which tests will recertify you? The first is the CCIE laboratory. If you take and pass the experimental exam during the re-certification period, you will be re-certified. You can also take three specialist examinations. The combination of the three will qualify you for re-certification. You can also take the core technical examination and other professional examinations to re-certify. This means that passing the tests required by CCNP will re-authenticate your CCIE. There is also an expert level exam that can re-certify what your CCIE-CCDE wrote. Because this project does not make any changes to the CCDE plan, the CCDE written test will still re-authenticate your CCIE.

In addition, your re-certification date no longer depends on your experiment date. Historically, your backtracking date is based on the date of your lab. Now, it will be the date when you pass the exam or submit the CE. The good news is that this means that all your certifications will be in line. Because your CCNA and CCNP dates have been three years, re-certifying your CCIE synchronizes all your certifications to the date on which you re-certified CCIE. This is a very popular change in the quality of life.

Another welcome change is that course fees will no longer be charged when CE credits are submitted. Once you’ve accumulated the right combinations, all you have to do is submit them. There is no charge of $300. Anyone who has been CCIE for 20 years or more will change a lot. If you choose to retire to pension status, you no longer have to pay for the course. You’ll always be CCIE. Even if you are an active CCIE, and you choose not to re-certify in 20 years, you will automatically join the Emeritus program.

Managing Change

So this is a big change. The single test will no longer re-authenticate your number. You will have to continue education through investment to expand your field of view. You will have to go to class or perform external studies on new topics such as wireless or security. This is an incentive for Cisco’s future. You can’t learn the same BGP and OSPF-related topics over and over again and want to maintain your authentication relevance.

This will benefit those who complain that the CCIE is not related to today’s IT world. Because you can learn about network automation and programmability from Cisco DevNet and thanks to CCIE re-certification, you have no reason to not bring yourself into the modern network architecture. You also have access to many new technologies such as SD-WAN, ACI, and so on. increase your knowledge to keep your CCIE status up-to-date

Yes, you will lose the ability to panic after two and a half years and, within the next three years, reset the single or twice test plugin. You also need to know your CCIE CE credits and your admission date. This means you can’t be lazy, just assume you need to re-known every odd or even a year. This means that there is no large amount of duck-filling, and your life will be more relaxed. But that means there’s no way in the past.

Tom’s Take

It is difficult to change. But this is inevitable. CCIE is the most respectable authentication in the field of network, and it is also one of the longest-lasting authentications in the field of IT. But that doesn’t mean it’s engraved on a stone because it’s just some way forever. CCIE must be changed to maintain relevance. This means forcing CCIE to remain relevant. The addition of continuing education works a few years ago was the biggest and best thing to happen in years. Expanding our ability to learn new technologies and make them eligible for re-certification is a huge gift. What we need to do is accept it and keep CCIE relevant. We need to keep the holders of these certifications relevant. Because the quickest way to fade out of obscurity is to keep them the way they’ve always been.