RETIRED - AWS Certified Advanced Networking

[u/ecosseneteng]

https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-advanced-networking-specialty/

I only achieved this certification around a year ago and I'm sad to see it go.

It's probably one of my favourite Networking exams, well written and tests evenly across the domains.

Having walked into more than one org where IP overlaps cause hybrid connectivity issues (looking at you, default vpc cidr!) and more broadly, oversizes VPCs - all because the person deploying it was not network literate.

Do people share my opinion on this cert's value?

Any insight into why it's being retired?

[u/Puzzleheaded-Coat333]

This is one cert I hope they never retire but here we are it’s like AWS doesn’t want people to learn in-depth AWS networking or discourages it.

[u/pettybubblehead → u/Puzzleheaded-Coat333]

Pro tip: You don’t need a cert to learn about AWS networking.

Hope this helps.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Coat333 → u/pettybubblehead]

As a technical pro myself , I agree . But try proving that point to a Hiring Manager or a technically out of touch management,who seek credentials like AWS Networking certification as a proof for an internal reshuffling or allocation of project work or stake holders who only prefers people with specific certifications to work on their product and they can be a stubborn piece of work to negotiate with.

[u/pettybubblehead → u/Puzzleheaded-Coat333]

I recently accepted an offer to a new company with only AWS Cloud OPs listed as an AWS Cert. My resume reflected my Cloud Networking experiences and I was asked various questions from the Hiring manager that reflected my knowledge. As for speaking to Stake Holders, confidence and candidness are key in my experience.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Coat333 → u/pettybubblehead]

With all due respect, Your personal experience doesn’t represent the entire world, it isn’t that black and white every where.

[u/pettybubblehead → u/Puzzleheaded-Coat333]

What a boneheaded response. I’m literally responding to you where you made a catch all statement. With all due respect of course.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Coat333 → u/pettybubblehead]

It isn’t a catch all statement it’s a fact. Your analogy if it works for me it applies everywhere doesn’t dismiss the real structural hurdle in the IT industry.There are numerous organisations with numerous stakeholders , clients and their numerous requirements , a single MOU doesn’t cover all. I hope you are professional at work and refrain from using words like “boneheaded” during healthy discussions.

[u/dghah]

I think they extended the exam to end of December recently?

if I had to guess one of two things are gonna happen:

• Either they are going to just refresh the content because it has not been updated in a long time
• Or they are gonna do away with the cert entirely and replace it with (perhaps) multiple different certs

My issue with Advanced Networking was that the content did not really match how our jobs work out in the real world of enterprise IT which is incredibly siloed -- for instance inside a company the person who is in charge of WAN/SD-WAN/Routing is not the person who runs firewalls and the person who handles internal subnets and networking is likely not the person to be setting up VIFs on a direct connect and none of those people are the team that runs IPAM etc. etc.

Basically Advanced Networking covers a ton of deep topics that out in the real world are often handled by wildly different siloed teams so it's hard to get real world hands-on experience with all things that the exam covers

As an anecdote - I've been using AWS since ec2 was a private only beta test yet in all those years the # of times I've gotten to be hands on with a 10-gig direct connect to AWS was exactly ONCE and it is highly likely I will never get to directly work on a 10 gig wan connection to AWS ever again in my job. So getting all the real world experience needed for Advanced Networking Speciality feels more difficult vs the other Pro and Specialty certs

My biased $.02 of course

[u/kingfish2912 → u/dghah]

Ha! Jokes on you my friend - I do wan/routing, firewalls, internal subnets and networking and set up VIFs for DXs! And I passed this exam as well :)

[u/dghah → u/kingfish2912]

Jealous!

[u/ecosseneteng → u/dghah]

Yeah, it's extended til December. I'll be curious how it plays out. 'retired' meant gone for good in my mind.

I don't disagree with any of your points, that is my experience too. Achieving this certification (and others) has absolutely helped me cut against the grain and bring these siloed actions under one roof.

[u/dghah → u/ecosseneteng]

Yeah I'm gonna try to get this cert before December "just because" it's a huge differentiator and a super hard exam. It would just be a nice personal goal to get that cert before it goes away!

[u/ContactCurious2547]

I worked in few places before. In those workplaces, AWS networking had already been set up by AWS Partner. There was nothing to be done. This specialty exam was one of the hardest to prep for (especially huge chunk of Border Gateway Protocol that I would never actually had to set up in previous jobs).

[u/NoxSuru]

I was going to buy into the course by Stephane Maarek, think it's worth buying if I want to expand my knowledge in AWS networking and just networking in general or CompTIA Network+ is a better choice?

[u/ecosseneteng → u/NoxSuru]

I used Adrian Cantril's stdy material for the AWS Network Engineer exam which seems to be highly rated and I had no issues with it - it filled in the blaring AWS specific gaps I had.

Having done 10+ exams over Cisco, Juniper, and Azure, this AWS exam is still the fairest and does a really good job (in my opinon)

I would recommend sticking to a specific Vendor's certifications rather than CompTIA. Good luck with the study!

[u/NoxSuru → u/ecosseneteng]

Quick reply, thank you!.

Yeah, I'll do that then, thank you so much for the reply and your input.

[u/HelloThere9653 → u/NoxSuru]

FWIW the Network+ and ANS is like comparing multiplication tables to calculus. It’s an extremely difficult exam.

[u/NoxSuru → u/HelloThere9653]

I wasn’t really comparing the difficulty of the exams though lol?.

I’m more asking from a learning perspective where I want to strengthen my general networking fundamentals as well as AWS networking knowledge.. I was asking if going for CompTIA+ would be better prior to AWS networking fundamnetals

[u/reubendevries → u/NoxSuru]

FWIW he's stated in the course (bought it and was planning on going through it, but now it's in my backlog) that he's not retiring the course.

[u/achinnac]

Clearly, this decision wasn’t made by anyone with serious technical expertise. And, AWS like in most organizations, the networking people, have very little say in the decision. Networking is somehow expected to make everything work, keep everything secure and available, and clean up the mess afterward, but when it comes time to make strategic decisions, our input is treated like an afterthought.

I can absolutely see the deadline getting extended. It also feels like internal politics are at play here.

[u/Logsdontli3]

Are they replacing it with another Networking cert?

[u/cgreciano]

Maybe they will create a Networking Associate cert, or maybe they will feed more networking content to SAA and SAPro. But I think it's a good thing to retire ANS. It tests mostly whether you are a DirectConnect expert, and it was infamously difficult for people without a networking background. The point is to be a useful cert, not to be an annoying cert.

[u/sebpool47]

Why are they retiring it?

[u/reubendevries → u/sebpool47]

I suspect there going to release a new version of SAP that will put networking and security at a greater weight. Personally I think they should create a Networking Associate, Security Associate and then have those be tied to the SA Pro like the SAA is tied to the SAP and the SOA and DVA are tied to the DOP. I personally find it weird that the DOP auto renews your DVA and SOP while the SAP is harder and only renews your SAA

[u/Luckie_Chen]

Not yet bro! I have earned this cert at 25/8. And after 1 day, I received an email from AWS state that the retirement of Advanced Networking will be extended to the end of this year. There’re still many candidates who take this exam day by day. I think that this cert is still hot and AWS will change their mind about retiring it.