Cisco updated their CCNA Routing & Switching Certification - Here’s everything you need to know:

What is the CCNA Routing & Switching?
The Routing & Switching certification aims to teach you the knowledge and skills needed to install, operate and troubleshoot a small-to-medium enterprise branch network as well as the basic network security and complex connections. The course is made up of ICND1 (CCENT) and ICND2 (CCNA), which collectively equate to the CCNA.   

Why has the CCNA Routing & Switching Certification been updated?
Although characteristic of Cisco to update their leading courses every four to five years, Pim Leemans, Cisco instructor, suggests there are additional reasons behind the revamp. “The way we learn has been changing a lot in previous years. Unlike before there will be less theory and more learning by just doing”. Cisco reflect these changes in learning through the introduction of Discovery and Challenge Labs, which teach and test students through practical tasks. Cisco state that the developments of the Routing & Switching certification also aims to meet the advancements in technology and better empower IT professionals with “the understanding of software defined networking (SDN) and the integration of virtualised resources utilised in Enterprise network architectures”.

What do the changes look like?  

 Aside from the changes in the exam numbers, the content of the Routing & Switching certification has changed.

Changes from ICND1 v2.0 to ICND1 v3.0:
Pim Leemans describes the largest changes within ICND1 as the treatment of RIP as the only routing protocol and subjects on device management being moved from ICND2 to ICND1.  

Key topics removed or moved to ICND2:

• OSPF (single area) and other OSPF topics were moved to ICND2 since RIP is used to introduce CCENT candidates to IP routing protocols.
• Dual Stack was removed as there are multiple IPv4 and IPv6 transition technologies being used.
• Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF) has been removed.  

Key topics added:

• High level knowledge of the impact and interactions of infrastructure components, such as:
• Firewalls
• Access Points
• Wireless Controllers
• An awareness of the Collapsed Core architecture instead of the traditional three-tier architectures. This effectively joins Distribution and Core into a single tier with Access as a second tier.  
• Required to configure and verify IPv6 Stateless Address Auto Configuration (SLAAC).
• Added Anycast to the list of IPv6 addressing types.
• Required to have knowledge of Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP). An L2 discovery protocol used in addition to Cisco Discovery Protocol.
• RIPv2 for IPv4 serves as a primary focus for routing protocols.
• Added requirements to understand DNS and DHCP related connectivity issues.
• Understanding of Syslog message logging for device monitoring.
• Skills and knowledge for backing up and restoring device configurations.