Header from the Data Center Specialist certs page

By no small coincidence, the items of particular interest relate to these credentials:

• Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Design Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Support Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Networking Infrastructure Design Specialist
• Cisco Data Center Networking Infrastructure Support Specialist

[Note: Cisco specialist credentials generally map to job roles, so the Design elements cover the often more senior design- and planning-related people who perform such work, where the Support elements cover those who play an operational or deploy/maintain role.]

As far as I can tell, the Unified Computing system (UCS B and C, plus Cisco UCS Manager 1.3, to be specific) maps into the SaaS (or at least,  a Web-based applications services) entry, where the Networking Infrastructure piece (with a focus on Nexus Series devices) maps into IaaS in similar fashion. The Cisco staff told me that they’d already updated their storage elements for Data Centers recently, and there doesn’t seem to be a platform play, per se, in the current collection of Cisco Data Center offerings (and thus, neither are there PaaS elements in the Cisco Learning catalog).

For more information, please visit the newly-updated Data Center Specialist Certifications page at The Cisco Learning Network site. Exams will begin to be available beginning June 15, 2011 through Pearson VUE, and training courses are available now through the Cisco Learning Network Store.