Latest Automating Cisco Collaboration Solutions CLAUTO Braindumps with Actual Questions

Best VoIP and Telephony Certifications 2019

Corporate voice and telephony services have transformed from traditional public-switched telephone networks (PSTNs) and private branch exchanges (PBXs) to voice over IP (VoIP) and IP PBXs, often combined with digital fax, videoconferencing, instant messaging and mobile communications. That means VoIP and telephony certifications now focus on digital communications, along with a good mix of IP networking protocols and methods to support such traffic and to maintain service quality.

In this article, we feature five solid VoIP and telephony certifications from Avaya, Certification Partners, Cisco, Digium (Asterisk) and Microsoft. Unified communications cover a lot of voice and telephony ground, and it adds video and other solutions to the lineup as well.

Salary is a significant consideration when deciding whether to pursue a VoIP and telephony certification. SimplyHired lists $106,149 as the average salary for a VoIP engineer, although Glassdoor‘s average for a VoIP engineer is noticeably lower at $83,772. Still, a salary just under $85,000 is a worthwhile goal in the industry, with a good growth path into more senior positions readily attainable.

To help determine our top five VoIP and telephony certifications, we performed an informal job board survey. That data indicates the number of job posts in which our featured certifications were mentioned on one specific day. The data should give you an idea of the relative popularity of each certification. [Interested in Business Phone Systems? Check out our top picks.]

Avaya is one of the leading solution providers of business communications and collaboration systems. As a spinoff of Lucent Technologies, itself an offspring of Bell Labs, Avaya’s roots are firmly planted in telephony. Certification solution tracks are currently offered in two concentrations: sales and sdesign, and services.

The Avaya Certified Implementation Specialist (ACIS) certification falls into the Services track and recognizes an individual’s ability to install, deploy, test and troubleshoot Avaya products at a beginning to intermediate skill level. Several credentials are available for the ACIS certification:

Candidates interested in the Sales and Design solution track should check out the Avaya Certified Design Specialist (ACDS), Avaya Professional Design Specialist (APDS) and the Avaya Professional Sales Specialist (APSS) certifications.

Note: Some Avaya credentials are available only to Avaya partners and associates, while others are open to all takers. See the Avaya Professional Credential Program Overview for details. Individuals not affiliated with a specific organization can create a “non-relationship” account on the Avaya Learning site to purchase a certification exam.

For most topics, Avaya recommends candidates have two years of experience in relevant technologies plus one more year implementing the core product. Each ACIS certification remains valid for two years.

Two years of experience in relevant technologies plus one year of experience in implementing the Avaya products recommended.

See the exam and training requirements for each credential. Visit the Credential Program web page, click the ACIS box twice in the Services Credentials category and then click on each ACIS credential listed on the right side of the page.

Cisco remains one of the world’s dominant IP telephony players. Its Collaboration certifications are available at associate, professional and expert levels, where our top-five pick is the mid-level Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP).

The Collaboration certification portfolio is geared toward network professionals and network engineers who work with voice and video, particularly Cisco Collaboration solutions. Targeted skills include configuring and implementing Cisco Collaboration solutions, planning and designing video network collaborations, and maintaining implemented solutions.

Candidates are required to pass four exams to earn the CCNP Collaboration credential. Training is optional but recommended. Candidates can expect to pay about $3,800 for live classroom or virtual courses.

Recertification is required every three years for CCNPs. To maintain this credential, holders must pass any current 642-XXX or 300-XXX professional-level exam, any CCIE written exam, any CCDE written or practical exam, or the Cisco Certified Architect (CCAr) interview and board review.

300-070: Implementing Cisco IP Telephony & Video, Part 1 (CIPTV1)

300-075: Implementing Cisco IP Telephony & Video, Part 2 (CIPTV2)

300-080: Troubleshooting Cisco IP Telephony & Video (CTCOLLAB)

300-085: Implementing Cisco Collaboration Application v1.0 (CAPPS)

Each exam: 75 minutes in length, 50-75 questions

The vendor-neutral CTP certification was developed by Certification Partners and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). It’s also endorsed by industry leaders such as Cisco, Avaya, Mitel, Toshiba and Vertical. Many of these leaders either accept the CTP as a stepping stone or prerequisite to their credential programs or recommend the CTP for training and preparation. Certification Partners maintains a complete list of endorsements from telecommunication leaders.

The CTP requires the successful completion of one exam that focuses on methods, concepts and best practices in the following areas:

Certification Partners also offers the Convergent Network Technologies (CCNT) certification, which aims at professionals who sell and support convergence services, as well as the CIW certifications in networking and security, web technologies and design and development. Candidates interested in working in the field of convergence who do not yet possess the requisite experience are advised to first obtain the CCNT credential and then gain the required experience.

Certification Partners does not require recertification to maintain the CTP.

Training strongly recommended.

Since its humble beginnings as an open source project in 1999, Asterisk has grown exponentially and become a well-recognized and respected framework for communication and conference servers, VoIP gateways and IP PBX systems. Asterisk can be found in more than 170 countries, powering more than 2 million servers worldwide. Per Digium (which maintains Asterisk in conjunction with the Asterisk community), Asterisk runs in most of the Fortune 1000 companies.

With such widespread popularity, it’s only natural that professionals with Asterisk skills are in demand. To meet industry needs, Digium offers several training courses (Asterisk Essentials, Fast Start and Advanced), as well as the Digium Certified Asterisk Professional (dCAP) and Digium Certified Asterisk Administrator (dCAA) certifications.

The dCAP targets experienced Asterisk professionals. Candidates are expected to possess real-world experience (typically a minimum of three to 24 months), in-depth knowledge of Linux (basic administration, manipulating files and modifying configuration files) and Asterisk experience (installation, Asterisk dial plan format and syntax, use of basic CLI commands and registration of VoIP devices). Other recommended skills include basic programming and scripting languages (Perl, Bash, C and/or C++, for example) and an understanding of VoIP protocols.

Candidates must pass a two-part exam, which consists of a written exam and a practical lab exam (in which you configure a PBX), to earn the credential. While there are no prerequisites, the Asterisk Advanced training course is highly recommended before attempting the exam.

Although the Digium website doesn’t specify recertification requirements, dCAP certification is granted for a “specific released, stable version of Asterisk.”

Microsoft rolled out several new MCSE certifications in 2016, including the MCSE: Productivity. Although this certification is geared toward enterprise-grade hybrid and cloud solutions for Microsoft Office, it allows candidates to specialize in any of several Microsoft technologies, including Skype for Business.

To obtain the MCSE: Productivity credential, candidates must first obtain the Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA): Office 365, MCSA: Windows Server 2012 or MCSA Windows Server 2016 certification. Then, they must pass an elective exam from an approved list. Currently, there are eight different exams to choose from. In addition, Microsoft recommends at least three years of experience.

The MCSE: Productivity credential doesn’t expire. However, credential holders are encouraged to re-earn the certification each year by passing another elective exam. Doing so indicates your desire to stay current on technologies and broaden your skillset, and you’ll post another entry to your certification transcript.

Three or more years of experience recommended

Exam 70-345: Designing and Deploying Microsoft Exchange Server 2016

Exam 70-339: Managing Microsoft SharePoint Server 2016

Exam 70-333: Deploying Enterprise Voice with Skype for Business 2015

Exam 70-334: Core Solutions of Microsoft Skype for Business 2015

Exam 70-331: Core Solutions of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013

Exam 70-332: Advanced Solutions of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013

Exam 70-341: Core Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013

Exam 70-342: Advanced Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013

The SIP School, a part of Vocale Ltd. in the U.K., offers a range of affordable, vendor-neutral VoIP and SIP certifications, including the SIP School VVoIP Professional (SSVVP). The SSVVP was on our top five list for the last few years but was replaced by the MCSE: Productivity in 2018, owing mainly to interest from employers.

The ZyXEL Certified Network Professional – VoIP (ZCNP VoIP) is another good certification, which is vendor-specific and therefore geared toward networking professionals who support ZyXEL products.

3CX offers a certification program for professionals who deploy, manage and support 3CX IP PBX systems. The 3CX credentials are offered in three tiers: basic, intermediate and advanced.

Lots of community colleges and universities offer network VoIP and telephony courses or certificate programs as well, such as Florida Community College, College of DuPage and Riverland Community College.

Google And Cisco Partner To Drive Collaboration Forward

One of Google's new dedicated pieces of videoconferencing hardware that interoperates directly with ... [+] Cisco's Webex platform is the Series One Desk 27.

As the demands and realities of hybrid work start to become more apparent, companies are beginning to face new issues. In particular, there’s growing recognition of the many challenges that organizations are going to face as they begin to integrate more combinations of in-house and remote workers. In short, things were much easier when virtually everyone was remote, but they’re about to get a lot harder.

A big part of the problem has to do with the existing installed base of videoconferencing equipment that companies have within their meeting and conference rooms. The vast majority of the equipment is dedicated and will only work with a single collaboration software package—in many cases, it’s for the quickly disappearing Skype platform.

Recognizing this challenge, Cisco and Google have come together in a major new partnership to offer interoperability for their respective conference room hardware and collaboration software tools. Specifically, as of Q4, you’ll be able to seamlessly join Cisco’s Webex meetings directly from Google Meet hardware (including some intriguing new options that were just introduced today). Conversely, you be able to join Google Meet meetings from Cisco’s line of Webex hardware.

On the one hand, it’s easy to argue that this type of collaboration for the sake of collaboration was absolutely essential, because using multiple videoconferencing tools has become the accepted norm. As the two companies pointed out in a pre-briefing on the announcement, even organizations that have picked one or the other as their corporate standard will almost certainly run into situations where customers and/or partners will be using a different platform. Having room-based hardware that only supports a single platform, therefore, is quickly becoming an untenable option.

The new interoperability announcement between CIsco and Google means that Cisco hardware devices ... [+] like the Webex DeskPro device will soon be able to connect directly to Google Meet meetings.

Still, it is impressive to see Google and Cisco overcome not only the technical hurdles necessary to make their systems interoperate, but the competitive challenges that these types of co-opetition arrangements inevitably raise. Of course, what we really need is hardware that can also integrate with Zoom and Microsoft Teams, but this is a very important first step towards cross-platform interoperability that I’m sure (or, at least, strongly hope!) will be replicated many times over in the coming months.

What’s particularly noteworthy about this announcement is that the companies moved well beyond simple sharing of audio and video streams. Cisco and Google worked to incorporate many critical hardware-based capabilities, including things like automatically muting of extraneous audio, blurring backgrounds, leveraging automatic camera zooming tools to the current speaker, and much more. Even more interestingly, on the software side, they thought through details like overlaying Webex-style controls during Google Meet meetings if you join from a Cisco device and vice versa if you join from a Google hardware device into a Webex meeting. They’ve also made the ability to join meetings with a single touch work seamlessly across either platform. While these details may seem somewhat subtle, they reflect how the companies want to leverage the comfort that their existing users have with their method of operation, while still offering the ability to connect to other platforms. In my mind, that’s a very nice touch.

On top of that, the companies were also able to integrate some of the native capabilities of one platform into another. For example, the voice-based assistants that each platform offers natively, such as Webex Voice Assistant and Hey Google, can be used while connecting to meetings on the other platform. To be sure, there’s more work to be done, especially in areas like leveraging add-on whiteboarding and other collaboration software tools that extend the capabilities of these platforms. Still, it’s clear that the two companies are dedicated to addressing issues over time.

Another interesting implication of this collaboration has to do with the overall philosophy and approach that will be needed to guarantee interoperability in the future. For a while, many in the industry have discussed the need to coordinate or federate communications across platforms at the server or cloud level. With this announcement, however, the focus is shifting towards an endpoint-based solution that can interoperate with existing server and cloud-based tools. How this ultimately works out remains to be seen, but it certainly does appear to be a significant step in a new direction.

As mentioned earlier, alongside this announcement, Google also debuted some new Google Meet hardware devices. The Google Series One Desk 27 is Google’s standalone hardware solution, incorporating a 27” high-resolution QVGA (2,560 x 1,440) touch-capable display, along with a 2,560 x 1,920 resolution webcam with a 100° field of view, built-in soundbar and adjustable stand. Priced at $1,999, the Desk 27 also features multiple USB-C ports, allowing it to also be utilized as a second monitor for a laptop or other PC. The company’s new integrated display room solution is the $6,999 Series One Board 65, which incorporates a 4K resolution 65” touch-capable display, a 4K, 12 MegaPixel camera, a stereo sound bar and similar USB-C connectivity. Both devices come with styli for easier whiteboarding support with the integrated JamBoard software, and include autoframing of the video, voice-based operation with Hey Google, and automatic noise removal, among other capabilities. All told, it’s an impressive set of offerings that puts Google on par with some of the best videoconferencing hardware from Cisco and Microsoft.

Leveraging multiple videoconferencing tools on PCs has become second nature for virtually everyone that has worked remotely, but as more employees start to return to the office, the need to make the room-based tools equally simple to interoperate across platforms is quickly going to become critical. As a result, it’s great to see Cisco and Google come together to take this important first step in improving hybrid work collaboration. While there are more companies that need to be involved and more work that needs to be done, this looks to be a great first effort.

Disclosure: TECHnalysis Research is a tech industry market research and consulting firm and, like all companies in that field, works with many technology vendors as clients, some of whom may be listed in this article.

Is Cisco Systems Stock Ready to Soar?