If you are working toward a Cisco Certification in the Voice technologies track, you need to be aware of some major changes. On Thursday we posted a blog article about these changes. Here is a quick overview:
- The CCNA Voice certification has been updated with new content and a new exam titled ICOMM v8.0 640-461.
- The CCVP certification has been re-branded as the CCNP Voice and all five exams have also been updated.
Today we are going to focus on the new CCNA Voice exam, whose full title is, “Introducing Cisco Voice and Unified Communications Administration (ICOMM v8.0) 640-461 exam”.
The old CCNA Voice certification had two exam options. A candidate could either take the IIUC 640-460 exam or the CVOICE 642-436 exam. A candidate only needed to pass one of these exams to earn a CCNA Voice certification. Now, a candidate has another option, the new ICOMM v8.0 640-461 exam. Eventually, the ICOMM v8.0 640-461 will be the ONLY exam a person can take to earn the CCNA Voice. Beginning March 1, 2011 the IUC 640-460 and CVOICE 642-436 will no longer be offered. But until that date, CCNA Voice candidates can take any one of these three exams to earn their CCNA Voice.
The new CCNA Voice exam title now has the word “Administration” in it. This is, of course, to represent the new exam’s focus on administrative topics. These topics include:
- Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM)
- CUCM Express
- Cisco Unity Connection
- Cisco Unified Presence
The certification is well suited for people in IT who have voice administration roles. Additionally, the new ICOMM v8.0 640-461 requires more hands on practice, particularly with the CUCM, Unity Connection, and Unified Presence topics. A minor change to note is the new ICOMM v8.0 640-461 is currently only offered in English. The Cisco website has not yet published a release date for the ICOMM v8.0 in other languages. The old IIUC 640-460 exam is offered in English, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Korean, French and Spanish.
The eventual elimination of CVOICE 642-436 for the CCNA Voice does affect candidates who then wish to go on to CCNP Voice (previously called CCVP). Earning a CCNA Voice is a prerequisite to earning the CCNP Voice. The old CCNA Voice candidates were able to take the CVOICE v6.0, get their CCNA Voice certification from passing ONLY the CVOICE v6.0 and then use that passing score as one of their pre-requisites for the CCNP Voice (CVOICE is one of the five exams needed to become CCNP Voice certified). So, if a CCNA candidate chose to take the CVOICE instead of the IIUC, they would only need to take four more exams to become a CCNP Voice. Come March 1, 2011 CCNA Voice candidates will have no choice but to take the ICOMM v8.0 640-461 (the CVOICE option will be eliminated). Thus, to become a CCNP Voice after March 1, 2011 you will have to take a total of six exams, the ICOMM v8.0 to be CCNA Voice certified and then five exams, including CVOICE v8.0, to be CCNP Voice certified.
You can read more about these changes at the Cisco Learning Network website.
You can also watch this Learning@CISCO video for more information.
PrepLogic offers a variety of Cisco certification training, including LearnSmart Video CCNA training and LearnSmart Video CCNA Voice Training.
