DevOps, network automation and network automation are mature enough that big names in the industry can certify related skills. Cisco and Juniper are two of the most prominent names in network certifications. Juniper’s JNCIA, Juniper Networks Certified Internet Associate (DevOps) was launched in late 2018, and Cisco released their DevNet Associate certification earlier this year.
It’s not uncommon to ask which one is more difficult when competing vendors offer similar certs. Although it may seem like Cisco’s DevNet Associate exam is the easiest, we’ll take a closer view to help you understand why. We have tons of DevOps certification training available, no matter what path you choose.
Cisco DevNet Basics
The Cisco DevNet 200-901 DEVASC exam was launched February 24, 2020. The Cisco Certified DevNet Associate certificate is earned by passing the exam. The DevNet series of certs offers professional and specialist offerings beyond the associate level. We expect to see an expert offering in the future (comparable with the CCIE).
We’ll be focusing on the DevNet Associate to keep things apples-to-apples, as the JNCIA DevOps is also an associate level cert. DevNet Associate certifies IT professionals’ knowledge in software development and design, as it relates with Cisco platforms, APIs and infrastructure automation. This certification is an excellent option if you are interested in a career that combines software development and network infrastructure.
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Prerequisites: You do not need to have any formal qualifications in order to take the 200-901 DEVASC test.
Cisco recommends at least one year of experience in software development, focusing on Python programming.
Exam topics: Software Development and Design; Understanding and Using APIs, Cisco Platforms and Development; Application Deployment and Safety, Infrastructure and Automation and Network Fundamentals. (You can download the complete PDF list of topics and subtopics by clicking here).
Exam cost: $300 USD
Exam duration: 120 minutes
Recertification period: 3 years
JNCIA-DevOps The Basics
The JN0-220 exam will give you a JNCIA DevOps certification. Juniper offers an associate level with the JNCIS -DevOps, but no professional or expert level. In terms of topics and target audience, the JNCIA-DevOps cert is very similar to DevNet. IT professionals interested in networking and programming as it relates Juniper products might be interested.
Prerequisites: The JN0-220 does not require any formal requirements.
Juniper recommends the Introduction to Junos Platform Automation & DevOps course (IJAUT). It’s easy to see that the course covers Junos OS and REST APIs. Ansible, Python/PyEZ and NETCONF are all useful. Also, data formats such as YAML, JSON and XML are helpful.
Exam topics: Junos Automation Stack, DevOps Concepts and XML/NETCONF. Data Serialization, Ansible and Python are the high-level exam objective categories. The complete list can be viewed here.
Exam cost: $200 USD
Exam duration: 90 minutes
Recertification period: 3 years
Cisco DevNet vs JNCIA-DevOps: Difficulty
It seems that we have two identical certs from different vendors. To determine difficulty, we would like to look at pass rates. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough data to support this data-driven approach. Although quantifying difficulty is more subjective without pass/fail rates, there are still many things we can look at. Feedback from exam takers can be a great source of information.
JNCIA-DevOps is a long-standing topic that has generated a few conversations on the Internet. DevNet is also a relatively new topic, but there is plenty of discussion about it. Thi
