The Ideal CCSP Candidate

Just to give you some idea of what an ideal CCSP candidate is like, here is some background about the CCSP and how it developed. Don't worry if you didn't come to it by the same path ; where you differ is simply where you'll have more work to do. The CCSP is relatively new and might be regarded as an extension of Cisco's previous CCNP Security Specialist certification. The latter required that the candidate have already earned a CCNP and then passed four exams on Cisco's security products. When Cisco decided to add a full-blown security professional-level certification, the CCSP, to its lineup, it added the "Cisco SAFE Implementation" (CSI) examthis examto the list of requirements. The CSI exam requires you to know how to design a secured network and then how to implement it using the appropriate Cisco productsthe products that are the subject of the other four CCSP exams.

Therefore, the ideal CCSP candidate will have already earned a CCNP before beginning the exams leading to the CCSP. Furthermore, the ideal candidate for this exam would have already taken the other four product-centric exams. The SAFE Implementation Exam really ties all the product pieces together in the implementation part of the exam.

However, Cisco does not require anyone to take any of its exams in any particular order, except that you must pass the CCIE written exam to schedule the lab exam. For all other certifications, you may take the exams in any order that works for you. Therefore, this book does not assume that you have the more extensive knowledge of Cisco networking devices that a CCNP has, nor that you have necessarily taken any of the other four product-centric exams. If you have, parts of this book will seem like a review. Good. If it has been some time since you took those exams, the review will freshen your skills and knowledge of those products with the material you need to recall for this exam.