It’s time for another IT certification review sharing content. This content is unique because this is the most satisfying mid-professional-level certification exam I have ever achieved with the help of 591Cert. I am talking about Arista certified engineer or Arista ACE-L3 Cloud journeyman.
What is the Arista network?
It’s a computer network company based in Silicon Valley, Santa Clara, California. They offer various solutions but gain popularity from their Data center and Ethernet switches, designed to be Low Latency and built for Programmability, Automation, and SDN solutions. All their Switches run on an extensible OSO or EOS operating system. The OS runs on a Linux kernel. Many data centers, popular apps, and cloud service providers use Arista’s products. After Arista, Microsoft created this hyper-scale Cloud networking blueprint, which would be around the mid of 2010. Other Cloud Giants became Arista’s customers as well, such as Rackspace, Facebook, Netflix, and many more. The cloud as we know it today would only exist at the scale it does with the technological improvement on switches.
Arista Certification Program
Arista revamped its certification program last in 2021. We had before, ACE stood for Arisa certified engineer – Associate, and this has been retired. You can no longer take this exam. The new certification program consists of ACE- still Arista certified engineer but this time multi-levels, from Level 1 to seven. There are also specialist certifications that we will talk about in another blog. So, for those already an ACE Associate, it will be automatically converted to ACE level 2 Cloud Associate.
Let’s talk about Arista ACE-L3. Most Arista certification exams are Hands-On labs. These are Level 1 to Level 5 and other specializations as well. These are virtual/remote Labs. It’s unlike CCIE, where you must go to the exam location. There is no certification prerequisite. You don’t need ACE Level 1 or 2 to attend the Arista ACE-L3 exam. But here is the catch you can only take the exam when you hear ILT (instructor-led class training). It makes sense because 591 Lab has delivered lots of training in CHINA.
Again, if you follow the class training, you automatically get a shot on the exam. Here’s another good part: if you participated in the training, you would get three weeks of lab access and support. Is there any other alternative way besides the ILT, which is so expensive? There is another way you can also take the exam when you purchase at least the academy or core preparation packages. This self-paced training package includes digital books, course materials, videos, tutorials, lab access, etc. We will discuss this in another blog in reasonable detail, so stay tuned to our blogs.
Exam experience
Arista certified engineer or Arista ACE-L3 is a 4 hours Hands-On lab exam, all remotely, and there is a proctor that will guide you, but he will not monitor you. It’s not liked the Kubernetes certification exam. The exam is an open book; yes, bring everything like notes, materials, configuration examples, configuration templates, and everything you need to pass the exam. Now the actual exam is based on the training you attended. And obviously, it’s not the same lab exercises. It’s a little different and a little tricky. Now, scheduling the exam is not via Pearson VUE or Prometric. You book the exam via SDN Pros, the training arm of Arista Networks. Once booked, they will send you a link via email, and you will get the exam details.
Preparation time
I’ve been working with Arista Switches for over seven years. Again, I was one of the first certified instructors in 2015. So, I’m already familiar with the technology. I spent most of my preparation on those technologies that were new to me, such as Cloud Vision portal, EVPN, MPBGP, Multi-Homing, etc. It took me here three to four weeks of preparation.
Benefits
Here’s the thing: only a few top-tier Network vendors like Arista are designed for large data centers and Cloud Network environments. We’re not talking about cheap Network infrastructure here. We’re discussing Facebook, Google Cloud, Azure, and Netflix. So, if you want to work with these huge companies, you should get this certification. Again, the exam is intense in the Samsung lab. And if you pass and obtain the certificate, you are damn good. The certification exam covers advanced networking, minimal programmability, automation and SDN or software-defined networking in a spine and leaf architecture.
Ultimate Secret for Passing the Exam
I will reveal my ultimate Secret in passing the exam. Well, it’s not a secret. Since you are given three weeks of lab access when you attend the ILT- the instructor-led training. It would help if you took advantage of this opportunity. It would help if you did more and more lab experiments, played a run, created many different network scenarios, practised BGP, practised EVPN, and on the exam itself, they provided you with this question task. Spend some understanding of these questions, and we have a piece of paper and pencil, then draw the topology and prepare the related materials like configuration samples, documents, etc.
Verdict
Now let’s make a verdict.
Exam content: I’ll give it five. Think about Advanced Data Center networking, software-defined networking or SDN, VXLAN and EVPN. Obviously, relevant to current technology. I will also give it five. We are talking about the brand used by FAANG companies, such as Facebook, Netflix, Microsoft, Azure, and Google. Value for money: I will also give it five. Some people would say it’s expensive. ILT can be costly but come on; you can do self-paced.
Market demand: I will be fair since this certification program is relatively new, and only a few companies are using Arista switches, for which I’ll give it a four-star rating. Do you agree with my ratings? For further reading, you may check out our https://591cert.com/how-to-get-arista-networks-ace-certified-tips-and-resources-to-pass
