cisco’s CCVP (Cisco Certified Voice Professional) certification is one of the hottest
certifications in the industry, and with growth in IP telephony projected at double digit rates
through 2012, it will only grow in popularity.
“The voice professional is clearly going to emerge as a dedicated job
role as the demand for specialists in that technology grows over the
next five years,” said Christine Yoshida, Senior Manager of
Learning@Cisco’s Product Management Team. “It’s a great career
track for anyone in the networking industry.
Cisco recently updated the CCVP exams and the courses that support the certification track.
“When we looked at the job roles, we realized that voice professionals were not just
installing new gear every day. They are operating live systems, maintaining and
troubleshooting real time networks,” said Mary Ng, Unified Communications Portfolio
Marketing Manager. “So all of the exams are more real world oriented and involve a large
number of simulations that require multiple configurations.”
Integration of more hands-on labs with extensive simulations is a significant part of the
courseware upgrades. Students work on live networks at Cisco learning partner sites,
performing configurations and other lab activities that mirror situations encountered on
corporate networks. As students work through the lab exercises they receive feedback
informing them if there are problems with the configuration. The student has to
troubleshoot the system to determine where the problem is.
“The exams are designed to require relevant work experience and
analytical thinking to pass and the courses provide a safe
environment where students can learn before they go live on their
network,” said Ng. “You can’t just memorize a lot of material and
pass the exam. The exams are designed to test procedural
knowledge and validate that a CCVP can install, troubleshoot and
maintain an IP telephony network.”
CCVP Certification Tracks
Getting to the CCVP can be confusing, though. The first
requirement is the associate level CCNA certification. Then, five
additional certification exams are required to attain the professional
CCVP certification. There are two paths to the CCVP and the recent
refresh affected both paths – in different ways.
The Cisco Unified Call Manager 4.1 is the path for the legacy Windows based platform. The
Cisco Unified Communications Manager 6.0 is the path for IP voice professionals working
with the newer Linux based platform. Each path requires five exams, but some of the exams
are different.
“We chose to maintain the Call Manager path because we didn’t want to simply leave our
nstalled base,” said Ng. We realize that smaller companies migrate slower than larger ones.
But if customers want to take advantage of the enhanced features of the new platform, they
will have to upgrade.”
In the Unified Call Manager track, CVOICE has been
upgraded from 5.0 to 6.0 and the exam has changed
from 642-432 to 642-436. QoS is the next exam in the
series and both the course and exam have been
updated, although the exam retains its 642-642
designation. The GWGK course and exam, 642-653,
remain the same in the call manager path as do the
CIPT 1 4.1 and CIPT2 4.1 courses. CIPT 4.1 has a
combo exam, 642-444, covering both courses.
Those following the Call Manager path have had the
option of taking the CIPT1 5.0 / CIPT2 5.0 combo
exam, 643-445, rather than the CIPT 4.1 exam. This option is being phased out and the
grace period to qualify with the 5.0 exam will end on July 26, 2008.
The TUC 642-426 exam is the last exam in the Call Manager path. Both the course and the
exam have been refreshed.
So the new path to the CCVP Unified Call Manager 4.1 is:
Course Exam
CVOICE 6.0 Exam 642-436
QoS Exam 642-642
CIPT1 4.1 Exam 642-644
CIPT2 4.1 Exam 642-644
TUC Exam 642-426
The Cisco Unified Communications Manager path leads off with the new CVOICE 6.0 course
and exam 642-436 followed by the refreshed QoS course and exam. However, it diverges
from the Call Manager path by eliminating the GWGK exam. The information in the GWGK
course and exam has been incorporated into the CIPT1 6.0 and CIPT2 6.0 courses which
have separate exams. CIPT1 6.0 supports the 642-446 exam and CIPT2 6.0 supports the
642-456 exam.
The refreshed TUC course and exam complete the Unified Communications Manager track.
The new path to the CCVP Unified Communications Manager is:
Course Exam
CVOICE 6.0 Exam 642-436
QoS Exam 642-642
CIPT1 6.0 Exam 642-446
CIPT2 6.0 Exam 642-456
TUC Exam 642-426
Each track requires five exams, but the material is organized differently and the exams are
handled differently. There is a combo CIPT 4.1 exam and a separate GWGK exam in the Call
Manager path. There is no GWGK exam in the Communications Manager path, but there are
two CIPT 6.0 exams.
So What’s New?
The most significant new material covers the mobility features of the new Unified
Communications platform. “This is the first refresh that includes converged mobile voice,”
said Ng. “The mobility features introduce a new level of productivity that our customers can
provide in the workplace. The new course material
covers these features, some of which are quite
advanced,” she said.
One example is Mobile Connect. If you have a call on
your cell phone as you enter the building, you can
hang up your cell phone, pick up the handset at your
desk and continue your conversation. “Since it’s server
based your call is live until you push the off button,”
Ng said.
Cisco expects mobility features to be a key driver in migration to the Unified Call Manager
6.0 platform. “You still have the toll free call savings, which was the initial driver five or six
years ago,” Ng said, “but the increased productivity of converged mobile voice is going to
drive the technology forward.”
Other new or enhanced topics include operational tasks for managing single-site, centralized
and multi-site network deployments, PSTN, VOIP, signaling protocols and the Cisco Unified
Border Element (CUBE). Also covered are enhanced dial plans, SIP gateways, Call Admission
Control (CAC) and connections via VOIP trunks.
Unified Communications is the Future
Research at Cisco showed that eighty percent of companies worldwide are conducting IP
telephony trials and over 21,000 TDM phones are replaced with Cisco phones every
business day. Seventy percent of Fortune 500 companies use Cisco Unified Communications
solutions. VOIP is clearly going to be a high growth area in networking over the next five
years and the CCVP certification offers IT professionals the opportunity to validate their
ability to operate, troubleshoot and maintain IP telephony networks for prospective
employers and customers.
