Cisco Adds 4 New Certifications

Big doings over at the Cisco certification department.

Cisco has announced four new certifications. They are:

• Cisco Certified Architect
• Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) Wireless
• Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Support Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Design Specialist

The Cisco Certified Architect is the highest level of the new certifications. Although it won't even be available until next January, the company did say it would require first holding the Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE) as a prerequisite. No formal training program yet exists, but candidates will have to defend their solutions before a review board.

The CCNP Wireless obviously trades on the growing popularity of wireless networks, even in the datacenter. Details are coming this July 24.

The two Data Center Unified Computing certifications revolve around Cisco's new cloud computing infrastructure, which it is calling the "Unified Computing System", or UCS. UCS was announced a few months ago and involves new Cisco-manufactured hardware servers that are pre-loaded with a virtualization stack.

Cisco says that courses and exams for the UCS credentials will be available by the end of this year.

It's obvious from these sketchy details that Cisco is significantly expanding its already impressive certification portfolio. Additional articles will be coming on all these new certifications in the coming months, so be sure to keep checking back for more.