We be taught from an early age that change is the one fixed in life. Generally we view change as one thing to be fearful about, one thing we should shift and alter for, and that the unknown might carry us…effectively, something. On the flip aspect, some change is nice, even wanted and refreshing (as anybody who places a brand new coat of paint on a home will attest). I suppose you may say that even your views on change can change. Particularly when you’ve gotten somebody so as to add context that explains how a selected change advantages you.
It’s my hope that this weblog collection will assist you do exactly that, as we face main adjustments centered on a subject close to and expensive to my coronary heart: the up to date Cisco Automation Certifications and their related examination subjects.
In case you missed the announcement in Might 2025, we’re renaming Cisco DevNet Certifications to Cisco Automation Certifications. On February 3, 2026, every certification stage (Affiliate, Skilled, and Skilled) will transition to the CCNA/CCNP/CCIE taxonomy that’s so acquainted to our studying neighborhood, companions, and employers. Learn the announcement.
As of February 3, 2026, the Cisco Licensed DevNet Affiliate and the Cisco Licensed DevNet Skilled will turn into generally known as the CCNA Automation and CCIE Automation certifications, respectively. Similar take a look at, new names. It’s that simple.
Nevertheless, after a lot thought and consideration, it was determined that the Cisco Licensed DevNet Skilled certification wanted greater than a reputation change. It wanted to align with at present’s job market.
CCNP Automation: Reimagining the DevNet Skilled Certification
We would have liked to align the CCNP Automation certification to check the abilities and necessities being seen available in the market at present from our prospects who’re using community automation engineers. A lot work was put into job position and process evaluation, in addition to figuring out the {qualifications} of a certified candidate.
In spite of everything that work was achieved, it was time to lock a bunch of subject material consultants from varied backgrounds and focus areas in a room to work out the examination subjects checklist, the three of which had been launched on the finish of July.
A brand new strategy to testing
All Cisco certification exams endure an replace and alter course of yearly. We alter solely as much as 10% of the examination subjects, and typically not even that a lot. However within the case of the CCNP Automation, we simply couldn’t make that quantity match with how the exams wanted to be reshaped.
When first launched, the Skilled-level DevNet exams had been centered very a lot on remodeling community engineers into people who had been comfy with writing purposes for community automation. These “community automation builders” wanted to be acquainted not solely with Cisco APIs and their features but in addition with the software program improvement lifecycle, software deployment, and platforms, and the way to ensure these purposes had been safe, accessible, resilient, and scalable.
What automation expertise do at present’s engineers want?
These expertise are nice to have in your base of data, however the market wanted one thing completely different. Engineers who’re comfy with automation frameworks and instruments and might:
- Create digital twins for pre- and post-change validations
- Leverage programmability ideas for operations and monitoring
- Comfy navigating the brand new world of AI
We would have liked to check a skillset that wasn’t “software developer who understands a little bit of networking,” however “community engineer with expertise in network-specific automation frameworks to implement an end-to-end answer.”
Lofty targets, however I really feel that our new examination subjects hit all these areas (I could also be just a bit biased, since I used to be a type of people locked in that room for hours).
Cisco Automation Certification examination subjects at the moment are accessible!
Obtain examination subjects
So, what did we modify within the AUTOCOR?
In-Scope Platforms
On the high of the Examination Matters PDF, particular in-scope platforms are referred to as out.
- This reduces repetition within the examination subjects.
- Focuses on the platforms you need to research for.
- Offers boundaries for the scope, so that you don’t want to check each single Cisco product.
Preserve these platforms in thoughts as you progress by means of every of the domains.
Area Adjustments
- The examination moved from 5 domains of research to 4.
- This will increase the examination weight on the primary two domains: Community Automation and Infrastructure as Code.
- These sections shall be acquainted to community automation professionals, however with a modified focus.
- Fairly than testing on single-platform APIs, every process within the Community Automation part is concentrated on a answer that includes an automation instrument, akin to Ansible, Terraform, or Python.
In some situations, not all platforms might be configured for every process (like utilizing NETCONF for ACI). This wasn’t an oversight; as a community automation skilled, you’ll be checked out as somebody to assist information an enterprise in direction of a correct answer and toolset, so you need to know and perceive limitations and capabilities in addition to how one can accomplish a aim utilizing automation.
Infrastructure as Code part
Whereas instruments like Git are nonetheless necessary, once more, the main focus has shifted in direction of utilizing a CI/CD pipeline and GitOps to deploy community automation options, both in opposition to actual {hardware} or leveraging a digital twin simulation instrument.
Professionals want to know:
- CI/CD processes.
- Cisco Modeling Labs.
- Community sources of fact (for pulling information into pipelines for variables, configuration, and so on.).
The main focus is on the answer slightly than particular person elements.
Operations part
The emphasis is on how one can hold an automation answer purposeful previous preliminary testing and deployment. To do that, key areas embrace:
- Safety and secret administration (passwords, API keys).
- Guaranteeing deployed automation options stay purposeful by means of network-centric testing.
- Utilizing model-driven telemetry on varied platforms to enhance community observability.
Consider, although, that the safety/secret administration (like passwords and API keys), certificates administration, and logging solely pertain to the community units or the automation answer being examined on, not on the complete software stack (which is one thing an software developer would care about).
We’re trimming the subjects to house in on that community automation engineer persona and testing it by means of actionable expertise.
The change all of us knew was coming: AI
No fashionable engineer will be capable to perform with out some understanding of AI, its impression on our business, and how one can safely and successfully use its capabilities. Community automation engineers received’t be any exception to this, both. Nevertheless, we wished the examination subjects to be crafted in such a means that introduced tangible, priceless expertise and AI purposes to the take a look at, and I really feel like we hit the mark with these.
We wished the candidates to know the implications behind utilizing AI for his or her roles, together with:
- Ways in which AI might trigger hurt to a corporation, together with IP theft, information sovereignty, and simply “code that doesn’t work.”
- Likewise, community automation engineers ought to be capable to work out when options will work and when they’re simply plain made up.
- This reinforces the usage of AI as a instrument and assistant, slightly than outsourcing all the pieces to a mannequin; if one thing breaks at 3 a.m., “AI made it” received’t be an appropriate excuse to your leaders.
- The sensible purposes of AI within the networks.
- With the short rise of mannequin context protocol (MCP) servers getting used as conduits and extensions to LLMs for community automation, it was a no brainer to incorporate a Pythonic framework of MCP server improvement as a process merchandise.
We additionally wished to ensure that our engineers might assemble an AI agent that might enable them to naturally speak to an LLM and carry out some type of community automation, presumably even utilizing a number of MCP servers.
Whereas we perceive the world of AI is quickly evolving, we felt that the abilities examined by these examination subjects shall be wanted and utilized by our prospects and learners, and can turn into a part of the baseline data that any community automation engineer ought to know.
Does this modification my DEVCOR research?
With such a serious rewrite of an examination, the reply to this query will all the time be “sure”. Whereas we all know that this might doubtlessly interrupt your research, hopefully, the extra context and reasoning why we made this modification will assist you really feel extra assured and cozy with making that change. Additionally, bear in mind that you’ve till February 2, 2026, to take and cross the present DEVCOR examination, so should you really feel that you simply’re shut, proceed shifting on to get that cross earlier than then.
For those who do have to vary your research, although, all will not be misplaced. Lots of the ideas that exist inside DEVCOR, like API utilization, git instructions, use of Python, Ansible, and Terraform, and understanding Cisco platforms, will all come in useful in AUTOCOR. Your research shall be accelerated with these ideas, so you may concentrate on making use of these ideas in an entire automation answer.
Upleveling your automation pondering
You’ll additionally be capable to uplevel your automation pondering and conversations, not simply understanding the how, however the why, which can profit you in your skilled profession. Lastly, when you don’t wish to overlook all the pieces you realized about software improvement and the related lifecycle, you received’t be required to recollect it on the brand new examination.
It is a change, however this can be a change for the higher. I’ll even be placing out the same breakdown of the ENAUTO 2.0, in addition to the brand new DCNAUTO (I contributed to all three exams), with the intention to really feel comfy with these adjustments as effectively.
Lastly, I promise that I’ll change one thing concerning the following elements of this collection: I promise to not use the phrase “change” practically as a lot as I did right here. 😉
As all the time, you’ll find me on LinkedIn or X (previously Twitter) when you have any questions concerning this or every other examination. Completely satisfied finding out!
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