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The Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) is a credential that takes square aim at platforms and products from a leading networking equipment vendor found in the majority of communications and Internet service providers, not to mention enterprises and businesses of all sizes, as well as government, research and academia. It's hard to go wrong by earning Cisco certification nowadays, and the CCNP is its leading mid-range credential across a wide variety of specialties.

The Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) is a required stepping-stone to the CCNP. What usually comes after the CCNP for most networking professionals could be another CCNP (different specialty), one or more Cisco Specialist certifications, or the evergreen and advanced Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) -- which is also available in numerous specializations, in parallel with CCNA and CCNP credentials.

Table 2: CCNP Facts & Figures

Red Hat is a major presence in many data centers nowadays, particularly amidst various cloud service providers, communications and Internet providers, and private cloud operations at many levels of scale and complexity. The Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) has long been a desirable IT certification for those who work with Linux in an enterprise or high-volume production environment, and has always included substantial networking component. RHCE remains both interesting and desirable for practicing and prospective network administrators who work with Linux on a day-to-day basis.

As a prerequisite for the RHCE, candidates must first obtain the Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) certification. The single exam for the RHCSA credential is $250 USD, which will bring the total exam fees for the RHCE credential to $650 USD.

Table 3: RHCE Facts & Figures

There aren't that many entry-level networking IT certifications around, probably because CompTIA's Network+ credential more or less owns this particular certification niche. Many IT and certification pundits, including us, believe the Network+ to be an important early check-box element in any savvy IT professional's basic certification portfolio. If you're just starting out, this is a cert for you.

CompTIA Network+ is also a vendor-neutral certification and a stepping stone to a number of more advanced networking credentials. Some vendor-specific certification programs even include it as a prerequisite.

Table 4: Network+ Facts & Figures

Certainly the unparalleled networking certification today is and remains the Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE), which comes in a wide range of specialties. The annual production of CCIEs remains small enough that Cisco still claims it could hire all of them itself, with demand and appreciation for this difficult and rewarding certification still extremely high. Over the past few years, the Storage Networking credential gave way to the Collaboration specialty, and the Data Center credential was introduced.


Although the road to obtaining the CCIE is long and hard, it will be well worth the effort, time and money spent. This is a credential that will open doors to plenty of job opportunities and high salaries.

Table 5: CCIE Facts & Figures

Outside of the top 6 networking certifications, there are lots of other choices for networking professionals to investigate and pursue. Many major networking vendors, including Juniper,Brocade, Alcatel-Lucent, F5 and even HP, offer networking focused credentials that ascend all the way to advanced or expert level credentials. Serious network professionals will also want to check out the certifications offered by Avaya, Citrix and Extreme Networks.

If you don't see something you like in our short list of the leading networking certs, that doesn't mean there's nothing else to choose from, by any means. As you explore your options, take a look at some of our networking-related certification and career options: