Juniper Networks is a multinational IT company that designs, develops, and markets services and products for high-performance networks. It also designs networking products including switches, routers, and related software for effective network management. Juniper's product portfolio aligns broadly with the network requirements of national governments, global service providers, research organizations, cloud service providers, public sector organizations, and other leading innovators such as Ricoh, Gap Inc., and Aston Martin.
Juniper is currently headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
Technologies
Juniper's product portfolio spans various technology areas such as Networking, Security, Cloud Operator, Service provider, WLAN as well as Software and SaaS. As such, under the Juniper brand, you can find firewalls, routers, Junos OS, Apstra System, switches, alongside various security services. In addition, this provider offers many effective solutions for education, healthcare, government, energy, media, and retail.
Certification Program
In the formal certification market, the Juniper Networks Certification Program (JNCP) is a multi-tiered program that includes both written and lab-based qualifying exams. The main purpose of this offering is to develop and validate the skills of various Juniper products among network professionals. This is especially true since Juniper Certified Professionals have seen a 34% increase in productivity based on survey results.
At the moment, the JNCP includes 8 certification tracks, each of which involves passing the appropriate exams to obtain official certificates at various levels. Let's take a closer look.
- Automation and DevOps track includes Associate and Specialist level certifications – JNCIA-DevOps and JNCIS-DevOps respectively.
- Cloud track covers all 4 available levels – JNCIA-Cloud (Associate), JNCIS-Cloud (Specialist), JNCIP-Cloud (Professional), and JNCIE-Cloud (Expert).
- Data Center track is also available at all accreditation levels – JNCIA-Junos (Associate), JNCIS-ENT (Specialist), JNCIP-DC (Professional), and JNCIE-DC (Expert).
- Design track suggests starting with the initial JNCDA accreditation, and choosing from the available JNCDS-DC (Data Center Design), JNCDS-SEC (Security Design), or JNCDS-SP (Service Provider Design) specializations at the Specialist level.
- Enterprise Routing and Switching track offers qualifications for all 4 levels of experience and skills – JNCIA-Junos (Associate), JNCIS-ENT (Specialist), JNCIP-ENT (Professional), and JNCIE-ENT (Expert).
- Mist AI track only offers entry-level and intermediate-level accreditation – JNCIA-MistAI and JNCIS-MistAI, respectively.
- Security track is available to candidates at various levels – Associate (JNCIA-SEC), Specialist (JNCIS-SEC), Professional (JNCIP-SEC), and Expert (JNCIE-SEC).
- Service Provider Routing and Switching track is also a tiered accreditation program – JNCIA-Junos (Associate), JNCIS-SP (Specialist), JNCIP-SP (Professional), and JNCIE-SP (Expert).
Note, that Juniper certifications are valid for three years.
Training
Each track involves preparatory training, which is also available through Juniper. In this way, you can take advantage of various educational options. Firstly, there are private, instructor-led classes for groups of up to 16 students, either on a standard program or on demand from the audience. Secondly, there are on-demand courses that cover a variety of self-paced, eLearning modules as well as laboratory exercises. And thirdly, there are open enrollment classes, which are offered in conjunction with Juniper Networks Authorized Education Partners for general audiences.