Cisco’s new elite architect certification

Shamus McGillicuddy — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:14:02 +0000

Cisco Systems announced this week its new Cisco Certified Architect (CCA) program. This new elite certification is meant to sit above Cisco’s CCIE and CCDE certifications and comes with a price tag of $15,000. Cisco channel partners, particularly those who are going after large accounts, might want to have someone on staff with a CCA. However, the certification will be highly elite and rare for now – Cisco only expects to certify a few dozen individuals over the next few years.

Zeus Kerravala, group vice president at Yankee Group, told me the CCA will eventually become a differentiator in the channel community.

“In order for some consulting firms to bid projects, you have to have X number of CCIE’s on staff,” he said. “Once this [CCA] has been out there a couple years you’ll start to see it included in RFPs, too.”

Changing the Channel: Networking VAR news » Cisco Certification

Cisco’s new elite architect certification