Cisco recently retired their CCNA Voice and CCNP Voice tracks, and have replaced those telephony-centric tracks with the new CCNA Collaboration and CCNP Collaboration tracks. While these tracks do cover traditional IP telephony concepts, the big difference is video.

The name Collaboration stems from how people can more effectively collaborate with one another if they interact using both voice and video, and depending on your budget, this collaboration experience can be extremely immersive (e.g. Cisco’s TelePresence solution).

Early next year, I’ll be releasing a series of CCNA Collaboration training videos. However, if this track interests you, this blog post will get you started.

The first bit of interesting news is that there are no prerequisites! Yep, you read that right. You do not have to have a CCNA in Routing and Switching to earn your CCNA in Collaboration. However, you do have to pass two exams:

• Exam #1: 210-060 (CICD: Implementing Cisco Collaboration Devices)
• Exam #2: 210-065 (CIVND: Implementing Cisco Video Network Devices, Parts 1 and 2)

Here are the broad topic areas for each of these exams:

Exam #1: 210-060

• Components of a Cisco Unified Communications Solution
• Add Users and Devices to a Call Agent (i.e. a Cisco Unified Communications Manager server or a Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express router)
• Voice Messaging and Presence (i.e. Cisco Unity Connection server and Cisco IM and Presence server)
• Monitoring and Maintaining a Cisco Unified Communications Solution
• Troubleshooting a Cisco Unified Communications Solution

Exam #2: 210-065

• Video Theory
• Video Endpoints (e.g. video products, functions, and environmental recommendations)
• Troubleshooting Endpoints
• Conferencing Options

Notice that the 210-060 exam focuses more on the topics traditionally found in CCNA Voice exams. However, the 210-065 exam concentrates heavily on video.

For a more detailed listing of the topics covered in each exam, you can check out the exam blueprints by clicking the links below:

Blueprint for Exam #1: 210-060

Blueprint for Exam #2: 210-065

Also, Cisco Press is going to be releasing a CCNA Collaboration Library (containing two books, one for the 210-060 exam and one for the 210-065 exam). You can preorder these books by clicking HERE.

All the best in your studies!

Kevin Wallace, CCIEx2 (R/S and Collaboration) #7945, CCSI 20061

If you enjoyed this article, you might also want to subscribe to my podcast:

iTunes: http://kwtrain.com/podcast

RSS: http://kwtrain.com/rss