First posted 1/1/2025
As always, opinions in this post are solely those of my own, and not necessarily those of any organization I am currently affiliated with or have been in the past.
Wow, where did 2024 go?!? Sure, I have some great newer YouTube & dayjob-related content over at the Everything Else, but I certainly didn’t get many kd9cpb.com posts completed in the past 365 days. Bad news first: 2025 will again be a slower-than-usual blogging content year too. Now the good news: that’s because I’m focused on renewing my CCNP and some other cool personal stuff to be revealed in future blog posts 🙂
I have until Sept 16 to get my 80 credit hours of CCNP Enterprise continuing education done. During my first CCNP renewal in 2022, there was at least one great blog post & good reddit conversation about strategies to obtain CCNP renewal at low cost, but much of that content is either gone or obsolete here in 2025. There’s plenty of community discussion on newer offerings such as Rev up to Recert and Cisco U which make CCNP renewal at low/no cost easier, but not many stories about which particular course combinations people are doing to renew on a budget. So I thought it’d be fun to write about my second go-around of CCNP renewal this year without spending too much money or going through the agony of sitting for proctored certification exams.
Credits 1-15: Rev up to Recert Python 2023 (Free)
I was crazy excited about the Rev up to Recert programs when I first heard about them in 2023, but I didn’t do the best job on actually completing the courses. That being said, I finally completed the Python course offered in 2023! As many of you know, it took me awhile to learn Python the first time, and it was awesome to sail through this course. Sadly because it’s been 20ish months since completing the course, I don’t really have much to write about it here, and I’m not sure if that course is even around anymore on Cisco U. But that’s fine, cause I have a lot to say about all other rounds of credits 🙂
Credits 16-39: Programming for Network Engineers (Free)
The Cisco Learning Network Post about this course got me super excited; it’s free, you get over a month to do it, and 24 continuing education points!!! I must say, this is the best course I’ve done since my initial CCNA/CCNP days in Cisco Network Academy from 2008-2012. There were a number of times I had to retake the tests because my brain didn’t remember the ins & outs of combining Python lists together, dictionary comprehension, and similar topics I don’t do on a regular basis. It was good to get a refresher; much like the recent IPv6 Buzz episodes that talk about the basics, it seems like I always pick up something new after reviewing a Python basics course. Aside from the admission cost, Cisco U is looking better than ever, and the completion certificate looks pretty too!
Credits 40-73: 802.1X and CSAU On Demand E-Learning ($337.50 on sale, $450 normal cost)
Learning@Cisco sent out some emails about a Cyber Monday sale, and they didn’t disappoint. I ended up grabbing 34 credit hours of classes thanks to the Introducing Automation for Cisco Solutions and Introduction to 802.1X Operations for Cisco Security Professionals offerings at a good discount. Both of these classes are super applicable to my day-to-day work (ok, well maybe I do a little more than introductory-level automation sometimes…), and it makes me happy that I can get nearly 3 dozen credit hours for this cheap. Had this not been an option, I’d probably opt for completing the Cisco ISE Certification test like I’ve been wanting to do for quite awhile for 40 credit hours. Only problem with taking the cert exam is I’d have to cram in all the ISE stuff I don’t use on a daily basis, and finding time to cram for exam content that doesn’t apply to my dayjob isn’t something I want to do at this time.
Credits 74-80: Whatever the next Rev Up to Recert is (Free)
While there isn’t anything announced quite yet, I’m optimistic that we’ll see at least one more free Rev Up to Recert offering between now and September 2025. That should get me well over the finish line on continuing education credits, and will result in spending about the same amount of money ($300ish) as a proctored certification exam to renew CCNP Enterprise. I’m really keeping my fingers crossed that the free course will be related to Cisco ISE or some flavor of network automation, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers, you can’t beat free!
Conclusion
Cisco is now exceeding my expectations with the CCNP Continuing Education program; I’ve gone from being upset about its creation to quite pleased with how it’s improved over the past 5 years. When the CE program first came out, I was annoyed that I couldn’t just keep retaking the CCNP Switch test every 3 years to stay current (I’m really good with CCNP-level switching topics!), and even more annoyed that CISSP did not count for continuing education points. Getting credits to apply was a very manual process, and finding low/no cost courses used to be challenging. All of that has changed thanks to Rev up to Recert, promotions like the Learning@Cisco Cyber Monday deals, and automated credit additions to ce.cisco.com once courses are done.
I’m looking forward to keeping that active Cisco certification streak which started in 2009 alive in my credential status page! Every year I’m tempted to stop paying CompTIA renewals and step off the Cisco certification renewal treadmill too. But I’ll probably stay on for at least another decade for the sake of being able to teach at community college or something someday. Who knows, maybe I will even do CISSP someday, but that’s a problem for after my CCNP renewal is complete at the very earliest…
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