The computer networking certification landscape in 2018 offered professionals an exceptional range of credentials designed to validate knowledge, demonstrate technical competence, and accelerate career growth across every level of networking expertise. From foundational entry-level credentials that introduced newcomers to core networking concepts through elite expert-level designations that recognized only the most accomplished professionals in the global networking community, the certification ecosystem provided structured pathways that transformed ambitious individuals into credentialed networking specialists capable of commanding strong salaries and meaningful career advancement. Organizations across every industry were investing heavily in networking infrastructure during this period, driven by accelerating cloud adoption, software-defined networking transitions, and the growing complexity of enterprise network environments that demanded increasingly sophisticated technical expertise. For networking professionals at every career stage, 2018 represented an excellent moment to invest in certification credentials that would distinguish them in a competitive job market and prepare them for the networking challenges that the rapidly evolving technology landscape was generating. This article examines the most valuable and widely recognized networking certifications available in 2018, providing the detailed analysis professionals needed to make informed decisions about where to direct their certification investment.
Why 2018 Was Certification Turning Point
The year 2018 occupied a particularly significant position in the evolution of networking certifications because several major certification vendors were actively updating their credential portfolios to reflect the fundamental changes transforming enterprise networking. Software-defined networking had moved from theoretical concept to practical deployment reality in many large enterprise environments, and certification programs were beginning to incorporate SDN knowledge requirements that reflected this shift. Cloud networking had emerged as a distinct discipline requiring knowledge that traditional networking certifications had not historically addressed, prompting both established vendors like Cisco and Juniper and cloud providers like Amazon and Microsoft to develop credentials specifically targeting cloud networking expertise. Network automation and programmability, driven by the growing adoption of tools like Ansible, Python scripting, and REST APIs in network operations, were beginning to appear in certification blueprints that had previously focused exclusively on protocol knowledge and device configuration.
This transitional moment in the certification landscape created both opportunities and challenges for networking professionals making certification decisions in 2018. The opportunity was that professionals who invested in credentials covering emerging technologies like SDN, cloud networking, and automation positioned themselves ahead of the majority of the networking workforce that had not yet developed expertise in these areas, creating a competitive advantage that translated into better job opportunities and stronger compensation. The challenge was that the pace of change made it more difficult to identify which credentials would retain their market value over a meaningful career horizon rather than becoming obsolete as technology continued to evolve. Professionals who understood the technology trends shaping the networking industry in 2018 were better equipped to make certification investments that would serve their careers for years rather than months, and the credentials examined in this article all demonstrated the characteristics of durability and market relevance that justified the investment they required.
Cisco CCNA Networking Associate Value
The Cisco Certified Network Associate certification stood in 2018 as the most recognized and widely pursued associate-level networking credential in the global job market, and its value to professionals beginning or advancing their networking careers was essentially unrivaled among vendor-specific credentials at this level. In 2018, CCNA existed in its pre-2020 form with multiple specialty tracks including CCNA Routing and Switching, CCNA Security, CCNA Wireless, CCNA Data Center, CCNA Cloud, CCNA Collaboration, CCNA CyberOps, and CCNA Service Provider. Each track validated knowledge in a specific networking discipline and required passing one or two examinations depending on the specific certification being pursued. This multi-track structure allowed professionals to choose the CCNA specialty most aligned with their career focus rather than pursuing a single generalist credential.
CCNA Routing and Switching remained the most pursued and most broadly valuable of all the CCNA tracks in 2018, serving as the foundational networking credential that hiring managers across industries recognized as the baseline qualification for junior and mid-level networking roles. The two examination path consisting of the ICND1 and ICND2 examinations, or the alternative single composite examination known as CCNAX, covered topics including network fundamentals, LAN switching technologies, routing technologies, WAN technologies, infrastructure services, infrastructure security, and infrastructure management. The depth of knowledge required to pass these examinations genuinely prepared candidates for the operational realities of enterprise networking environments, covering not just conceptual understanding but the configuration and troubleshooting skills needed to contribute productively in networking roles from the first day of employment. Employers in 2018 consistently treated CCNA Routing and Switching as a reliable signal of genuine networking competence that justified selecting a candidate for interview and ultimately for hire over competing candidates who lacked the credential.
Cisco CCNP Professional Level Advancement
The Cisco Certified Network Professional certification in its various 2018 incarnations represented the most significant step beyond associate-level credentials for networking professionals seeking to demonstrate advanced technical expertise and position themselves for senior engineering and architecture roles. CCNP Routing and Switching, the most widely pursued professional-level Cisco credential in 2018, required passing three separate examinations covering routing, switching, and troubleshooting respectively. The ROUTE examination addressed advanced routing protocol implementation and optimization including EIGRP, OSPF, BGP, and redistribution. The SWITCH examination covered advanced Layer 2 technologies including VLANs, spanning tree, EtherChannel, and multilayer switching. The TSHOOT examination assessed systematic troubleshooting methodology applied to complex network scenarios combining both routing and switching technologies.
The market value of CCNP in 2018 was substantial and reflected the genuine difficulty of earning the credential and the advanced knowledge it validated. Senior network engineer positions at large enterprises, system integrators, and managed service providers frequently listed CCNP as a preferred or required qualification, and the compensation premium associated with holding CCNP compared to CCNA alone was consistently significant across geographic markets and industry sectors. Beyond CCNP Routing and Switching, Cisco offered CCNP Security, CCNP Wireless, CCNP Data Center, CCNP Collaboration, and CCNP Service Provider tracks in 2018, each requiring a combination of examinations that validated specialty knowledge appropriate for professionals working in those specific networking domains. Professionals who held CCNP in any track demonstrated the commitment and technical depth that distinguished them from the much larger population of CCNA holders and the even larger population of professionals with only informal networking experience.
Cisco CCIE Expert Level Elite Status
The Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert certification occupied its customary position at the apex of the Cisco certification hierarchy in 2018, widely regarded as the most demanding and most respected technical networking credential available anywhere in the professional certification landscape. Earning CCIE required passing a written qualification examination followed by a grueling eight-hour hands-on lab examination conducted at one of Cisco’s dedicated lab facilities located in strategic locations around the world. The lab examination required candidates to configure, optimize, and troubleshoot complex multi-protocol network scenarios within a strict time constraint, with no access to the internet or external resources, evaluating not just theoretical knowledge but the hands-on technical fluency that only genuine deep experience could develop.
CCIE was available in multiple tracks in 2018 including Routing and Switching, Security, Wireless, Data Center, Collaboration, Service Provider, and the newly introduced CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure track that would officially launch in 2020 but was being developed during this period. The CCIE Routing and Switching track remained the most prestigious and most widely recognized of all CCIE designations in 2018, with fewer than sixty thousand professionals having earned it worldwide since its introduction decades earlier. This global rarity made CCIE holders exceptionally valuable in the job market, with many organizations specifically seeking CCIE-certified engineers for their most complex and critical networking projects. Compensation for CCIE holders in 2018 consistently ranked among the highest in the entire information technology profession, reflecting the combination of technical mastery, preparation investment, and professional commitment that the credential demanded and represented.
CompTIA Network Plus Vendor Neutral Choice
The CompTIA Network+ certification served in 2018 as the primary vendor-neutral networking credential at the entry level, offering professionals a broadly recognized qualification that validated foundational networking knowledge without alignment to any specific vendor’s technology ecosystem or product portfolio. The examination covered networking concepts including the OSI and TCP/IP models, network topologies, Ethernet standards, wireless networking, routing and switching fundamentals, network security basics, network troubleshooting methodology, and cloud and virtualization concepts. This broad coverage made Network+ valuable for professionals who worked in mixed-vendor environments or who wanted a foundational credential before committing to vendor-specific certifications that aligned with a specific employer’s technology choices.
Network+ held particular significance in 2018 in contexts where vendor-neutral qualifications were specifically required or preferred, including many government contracting positions where vendor neutrality was valued to avoid implicit endorsement of specific commercial products. The Department of Defense recognition of Network+ under its 8570 directive made the credential effectively mandatory for certain categories of federal IT positions, creating a guaranteed demand base that gave Network+ lasting market relevance beyond broader hiring cycles. Many organizations in 2018 used Network+ as a prerequisite for hiring in junior networking support roles, appreciating that it provided a standardized baseline of networking knowledge that reduced training time and improved the productivity of new hires who arrived with Network+ preparation already completed. The certification served as an excellent bridge between general IT credentials like CompTIA A+ and more specialized networking credentials like CCNA for candidates who wanted to build their networking knowledge progressively.
Juniper JNCIA and JNCIS Networking Credentials
Juniper Networks maintained a respected certification portfolio in 2018 that offered networking professionals a meaningful alternative to Cisco credentials, particularly for those working in or targeting environments where Juniper equipment was deployed extensively. Juniper’s presence was especially strong in service provider networks, large financial institution backbones, and data center environments where Junos OS and Juniper hardware had established deployment bases that competed effectively with Cisco’s offerings. The Juniper Networks Certified Associate Junos certification, known as JNCIA-Junos, served as the entry point to the Juniper certification framework and covered Junos OS fundamentals including architecture, user interface operation, initial configuration, interface configuration, secondary system configuration, operational monitoring and maintenance, routing fundamentals, and routing policy and firewall filters.
The Juniper Networks Certified Specialist credentials, available in enterprise routing and switching, service provider routing and switching, data center, and security tracks, represented the intermediate tier of the Juniper framework in 2018 and were valued particularly in environments where Juniper technology was the primary infrastructure platform. Professionals who held Juniper specialist credentials alongside or instead of Cisco professional-level credentials could differentiate themselves in markets where Juniper expertise was scarcer than Cisco expertise, commanding attention from employers who specifically needed Juniper knowledge that was difficult to find in the broader candidate population. The combination of Cisco and Juniper credentials was particularly attractive in 2018 for professionals targeting multi-vendor consulting roles, managed service provider positions serving clients with diverse technology environments, and network operations roles at large enterprises that operated both Cisco and Juniper equipment in different parts of their infrastructure.
Palo Alto Networks Security Certification
The network security certification space in 2018 was enriched by Palo Alto Networks’ growing certification portfolio, which reflected the company’s rapid market share expansion in the enterprise next-generation firewall segment. Palo Alto Networks had disrupted the traditional network security market with its application-aware, user-identity-based security platform that offered fundamentally more granular control and visibility than the port-based security models that had dominated enterprise network security for decades. The Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer certification validated the ability to configure, manage, and troubleshoot Palo Alto Networks security platforms, covering topics including platform architecture, initial configuration, security and NAT policy management, application identification and control, user identification, content inspection, VPN configuration, and high availability deployment.
The market value of Palo Alto Networks certifications in 2018 was growing rapidly in parallel with the company’s expanding market footprint. Organizations that had deployed or were deploying Palo Alto Networks firewalls actively sought engineers who could demonstrate specific competence with the platform, and the certification provided exactly this signal. For networking professionals with security responsibilities, adding a Palo Alto Networks certification to a foundation of Cisco networking credentials created a particularly compelling profile that addressed both the network infrastructure knowledge employers expected and the security platform expertise that was increasingly valued as network security became an inseparable dimension of network engineering rather than a separate specialty function. The growing adoption of Palo Alto Networks technology across industries ranging from financial services to healthcare to technology companies meant that this expertise had broad applicability rather than being limited to specific sectors.
Wireshark Network Analysis Certification
Network traffic analysis represented a specialized skill set that distinguished sophisticated networking professionals from those with only configuration and management knowledge, and in 2018 the Wireshark Certified Network Analyst certification offered a recognized credential for professionals who wanted to formally validate their packet analysis expertise. Wireshark, the open-source network protocol analyzer, was the dominant tool for network traffic capture and analysis in professional networking environments, used for troubleshooting network performance problems, analyzing security incidents, validating application behavior across the network, and documenting network communication patterns for compliance and forensic purposes. The certification examination tested deep knowledge of network protocols as revealed through packet-level analysis, requiring candidates to interpret captured traffic across dozens of protocols and identify normal versus anomalous behavior at the packet level.
The value of Wireshark certification in 2018 was most pronounced in roles where packet-level analysis was a regular operational requirement rather than an occasional troubleshooting activity. Network security analysts, network performance engineers, and senior network troubleshooting specialists in large enterprise environments found that Wireshark certification distinguished them from peers who could only work with higher-level management tools and dashboards. The credential also carried meaningful weight in consulting contexts where clients needed assurance that the professionals analyzing their network traffic had the necessary expertise to draw meaningful conclusions from complex packet captures rather than simply possessing the tool without the analytical skills to use it effectively. Professionals who combined traditional Cisco or Juniper networking credentials with Wireshark certification demonstrated a depth of network protocol knowledge that went beyond device configuration into genuine understanding of how network communications actually functioned at the packet level.
VMware NSX Network Virtualization Specialty
Network virtualization emerged as one of the most consequential technology shifts affecting enterprise networking in the years leading up to 2018, and VMware NSX had established itself as the leading platform for software-defined networking in enterprise data center environments. VMware’s certification portfolio covering NSX became increasingly valuable as more organizations deployed NSX to achieve network virtualization, micro-segmentation, and software-defined security within their data center infrastructure. The VMware Certified Professional certification covering Network Virtualization validated the ability to install, configure, and manage NSX environments, covering logical switching, logical routing, distributed firewall configuration, edge services gateway deployment, load balancing, VPN services, and integration with vSphere and third-party security platforms.
For networking professionals whose work intersected with data center infrastructure in 2018, VMware NSX certification provided access to a growing segment of the networking market where traditional networking expertise alone was insufficient. NSX deployments required understanding of both networking concepts and virtualization platforms, creating a knowledge intersection that many traditional network engineers had not developed and that many virtualization administrators had not developed from the opposite direction. Professionals who cultivated expertise in both domains and validated that expertise through VMware certification occupied a valuable position at this intersection that translated into strong demand and premium compensation. The trend toward software-defined data center architectures that was already well-established in 2018 suggested that NSX expertise would become increasingly valuable rather than decreasing over subsequent years, making the VMware certification investment particularly durable for professionals willing to make the knowledge acquisition commitment it required.
Amazon AWS Networking Specialty Emergence
The AWS Certified Advanced Networking Specialty certification had been introduced by Amazon Web Services in 2016 and by 2018 had established itself as a meaningful credential for networking professionals who needed to demonstrate cloud networking expertise alongside their traditional on-premises knowledge. The examination covered the design and implementation of hybrid cloud network architectures connecting on-premises environments to AWS, configuration of AWS networking services including VPC, Direct Connect, Route 53, Elastic Load Balancing, CloudFront, and AWS VPN, network security design within AWS environments, and optimization of network performance for cloud-based workloads. The technical depth of the specialty examination reflected genuine expertise in cloud networking rather than simply general familiarity with AWS services.
The strategic significance of AWS networking certification in 2018 reflected the rapid pace of enterprise cloud adoption that was reshaping how networking professionals thought about their domain. Organizations were no longer building networking infrastructure exclusively in their own data centers and branch offices but were increasingly extending their network architectures into AWS to support cloud-hosted applications, data analytics workloads, and disaster recovery environments. Network engineers who understood only traditional on-premises networking found themselves excluded from conversations about cloud connectivity architecture, VPC design, and hybrid network optimization that were becoming central to enterprise networking strategy. The AWS Networking Specialty credential in 2018 signaled that a candidate had invested in developing the cloud networking expertise needed to remain relevant as enterprise infrastructure increasingly spanned both on-premises and cloud environments, giving certified professionals access to opportunities that were effectively closed to those who had not made this knowledge investment.
Planning Your 2018 Certification Strategy
Building an effective certification strategy in 2018 required networking professionals to make deliberate decisions about sequencing, specialization, and the balance between vendor-specific depth and cross-platform breadth. The most effective certification pathways began with a strong foundational credential that established core networking knowledge before advancing to professional-level credentials that developed genuine depth in chosen specialization areas. For most candidates, this meant starting with CCNA Routing and Switching or CompTIA Network+ as the foundation before progressing to CCNP in a relevant specialty or pursuing cloud and emerging technology certifications that addressed the direction the networking industry was moving in 2018 and beyond.
Specialization decisions deserved careful consideration because the concentration of certification investment in a specific technology domain created cumulative expertise that grew more valuable over time compared to spreading certification efforts thinly across many different areas without developing genuine depth in any of them. Professionals who identified a specific career target such as enterprise network engineering, network security, data center networking, or cloud networking and then built a coherent credential portfolio aligned with that target consistently outperformed those who collected certifications without strategic direction. The technology trends visible in 2018 suggested that cloud networking, network automation, and network security would represent the highest-growth specializations over the following several years, and professionals who positioned their certification investments to capture those growth areas in 2018 were well-placed to benefit from the demand surge that followed as those technology areas continued maturing and enterprises accelerated their adoption of cloud and software-defined networking solutions.
Conclusion
The networking certifications available in 2018 represented some of the most valuable professional investments that networking professionals could make in their careers, providing recognized credentials that validated technical expertise, opened access to senior roles, and commanded compensation premiums that rewarded the knowledge and commitment those credentials required.
The landscape examined throughout this article, from the foundational accessibility of CompTIA Network+ and Cisco CCNA through the advanced technical depth of CCNP and the elite mastery represented by CCIE, alongside the emerging cloud networking credentials from AWS and the specialized security and virtualization credentials from Palo Alto Networks and VMware, together formed an ecosystem that accommodated networking professionals at every career stage and every specialization interest. What made 2018 a particularly significant moment for certification investment was the convergence of traditional networking expertise with emerging technology domains that were reshaping how enterprise networks were designed, deployed, and operated. Professionals who recognized this convergence and invested in credentials that bridged traditional networking knowledge with software-defined networking, cloud connectivity, and network automation expertise positioned themselves not just for the job market of 2018 but for the evolution of the networking profession through the years that followed.
The most enduring lesson from the 2018 certification landscape was that certifications delivered their greatest career value when pursued with genuine commitment to the underlying knowledge rather than simply as credentials to acquire and display. The networking professionals who extracted the most career benefit from their certifications in 2018 were those who used the certification preparation process to genuinely deepen their technical understanding, who applied the knowledge developed through preparation to the real networking challenges they encountered in their professional work, and who treated each certification as a foundation for continued learning rather than a destination. That orientation toward certification as a vehicle for genuine professional development rather than credential accumulation remains the most reliable path to long-term career success in networking, regardless of which specific year or which specific credentials form the beginning of the journey.
