Your thoughts on the new Fortinet certification path - Network Security Expert

[neonbit]

Hi guys, Not sure if anyone' s noticed, but it seems that Fortinet will be moving away from the FCNSA and FCNSP certification levels, and going towards an eight level ' NSE' cert. More details can be found here: http://www.fortinet.com/sites/default/files/basicfiles/NSE-Learning-Path.pdf To go-to the next certification level, you would need to hold all the previous ones. So to reach NSE-6 for example, you would need to be NSE-5 certified. The levels in a nutshell are: NSE-1: Completed FCNSA on-line material NSE-2: Passing FCNSA exam NSE-3: Achieving ' Silver' status on the Fortinet forums NSE-4: Passing FCNSP exam NSE-5: Attending FortiManager & FortiAnalyzer training and pass the exams NSE-6: Attending the FortiOS Troubleshooting course and pass the exam NSE-7: Achieving ' Gold' status on the Fortinet forums NSE-8: Pass an oral and practical exam (that has yet to be created) I personally think it' s a great idea and the courses/exams required are perhaps the most useful for FortiGate engineers (finally gives me an excuse to do the Troubleshooting course!). The requirement to be active on the forums is a nice touch too; and although it will probably mean a few more ' filler' type posts, the more people that will be engaged and reading the forums the better it is for all of us in the Fortinet community. Was hoping to get your thoughts on the new certification levels and their requirements. Do you think it' s a move in the right direction or an unnecessary change?

[baitken]

The forum participation requirement to me is a bit strange. Seems to me that they are trying to put less resources into TAC and push everyone towards getting assistance from the forums first instead. Echoing an earlier comment, how do we go about linking our forum account with our training account? Could be part of the application process where someone will manually check the forum for the handle the applicant submits? Blair

[Toni_Sulosalmi]

Personally I think that forcing to have a training for Fortimanager and Fortianalyzer is really stupid. They are separate products and should not be part of the whole certification path. Not everybody needs or even wants to use these devices/software (there are better alternatives...). Understanding what these products do is a another thing and could be part of FCNSP etc.. Also forcing to post on forums is silly, we are not working for Fortinet and therefore it is strange that this is mandatory. I do understand the idea behind it, but it should not be forced. Are Fortinet TAC engineers forced to contribute to this forum?

[JukkaH]

Toni Sulosalmi, well said! Those few steps on NSE path are totally needless and this forum thing is just somewhere deep... And who will notice/know the difference with NSE1 or NSE8 engineer? I would rather say that NSE1 is better because of the priority ONE! ;)

[jorge9090]

In my humble opinion it has its goods and bads, i like how they introduced the Silver/Gold Status in the Forums, but i don' t see the point of the Practice/Oral Exam requiered to be NSE8, not everybody can afford taking an exam that probably would be only applied in the US.

[FortiBrian]

I completed the exams for NSE1 and got that certificate. Where do I put in my FCNSA number to get NCS2? Where can I find the requirements to reach Silver status n this forum? Thanks!!

[oheigl]

You need to have 61 posts to reach silver status. (At least that' s what I see when I sort the member list for total posts)

ORIGINAL: Brian Jackson I completed the exams for NSE1 and got that certificate. Where do I put in my FCNSA number to get NCS2? Where can I find the requirements to reach Silver status n this forum? Thanks!!

[abc987]

A new learning path? http://www.fortinet.com/sites/default/files/basicfiles/NSE-Learning-Path.pdf No forum?

[FortiBrian]

Thanks. Looks like I have a ways to go to reach 61.

[Paul_Dean]

The FCNSA and FCNSP bundles are free to partners at the moment as is the NSE1 bundle. FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer courses will be on the Learning Center, possibly free too. The exams for those courses will be on the LC too. I don' t know if there will be a charge for the exams. It may be that we have to invest some time rather than $1,000s to move up the NSE path up to level 4/5 at least. For NSE6 there' s a classroom to attend: The troubleshooting class is only offered in a classroom setting and the exam for this class will be published on FortiOS v5.2 in early Q4 2014. People who complete either v5.0 or 5.2 of this class will be eligible to take the exam once it is published. It seems they are trying to make the certification more worthwhile, making people invest time into becoming an expert rather than quickly studying for and passing exams. This is a good thing.

[hklb]

We can leave this forum, we don' t need to be gold member to be NSE6 ;) It' s look like fortinet change the requierement http://www.fortinet.com/sites/default/files/basicfiles/NSE-Learning-Path.pdf