8 network observability certifications to boost IT operations skills

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The traditional boundaries of network management are dissolving. As enterprises lean deeper into hybrid cloud, edge computing, and AI-powered automation, it is no longer enough to monitor uptime or ping a failing router. Network operations teams need end-to-end visibility across dynamic, distributed environments—on-premises and in the cloud.

Network observability platforms promise to give network teams visibility into all the moving parts across these complex hybrid environments. Gartner defines observability platforms as “products that ingest telemetry (operational data) from a variety of sources including, but not limited to, logs, metrics, events, and traces. They are used to understand the health performance, and behavior of applications, services, and infrastructure.” Observability data provides insights into how network, application, and server components are performing, and platforms alert network teams when degradations could negatively impact end-user or customer experience.

With the growing demand for observability intelligence across complex environments comes a rising need for network professionals who can not only deploy and maintain observability tools but also interpret, troubleshoot, and optimize sophisticated systems in real time. Observability certifications validate network professionals’ skills with the technologies, inform them how to apply observability data in real-world scenarios, and ensure they can tackle the platforms with the most current expertise.

Here we share the details of a handful of certifications that provide education on telemetry, traffic analysis, performance monitoring, and anomaly detection for today’s complex, hybrid network environments.

Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)

  • Overview: CCNP certifications, such as Enterprise, Data Center, or Service Provider, will equip network engineers with the skills and knowledge to design, implement, and troubleshoot complex network infrastructure, including several of the aspects that directly contribute to observability. Examples include understanding network protocols, security configurations, and automation—all of which are essential for gaining insights into network performance and behavior.
  • Target professional: Network engineers, network administrators, systems engineers, network architects, infrastructure engineers, and IT operations professionals looking to validate their skills and knowledge in a specific area of Cisco technology.
  • Key skills: Advanced routing, WAN technologies, security, automation, virtualization, IT connectivity, VPN services, infrastructure design, wireless networks, and network assurance.
  • Exam specifics: The CCNP consists of two exams, a core exam and a concentration exam of the candidate’s choice in areas such as security, wireless, or data center, for instance. Candidates have up to 120 minutes to complete the exam, which can feature approximately 102-120 questions. The core exam costs $400, and the concentration exam costs $300.
  • Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites, but Cisco recommends that individuals have three to five years of experience implementing enterprise networking solutions.

Datadog Certification

  • Overview: Datadog Fundamentals is the company’s foundational certification offering that tests core knowledge to use the Datadog platform effectively. It covers in basic computer fundamentals, infrastructure deployment with Datadog, networking and Datadog Agent configuration, data collection, troubleshooting the Datadog Agent, and data visualization and utilization.
  • Target professional: DevOps engineers, systems administrators, site reliability engineers (SRE), cloud architects, and technical team leaders who want to demonstrate their proficiency in Datadog’s platform and best practices for observability and monitoring.
  • Key skills: Understanding the principles of observability and how to use Datadog to achieve it as well as infrastructure monitoring, application performance monitoring, log management, data visualization, tagging, monitoring, alerting, troubleshooting, data collection, cloud monitoring, networking and agent configuration.
  • Exam specifics: Each certification exam consists of 90 multiple-choice questions, and it costs $100 to take the exam. Candidates are given two hours to complete the exam.
  • Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites for taking the exam, and it is open to everyone. Datadog offers learning paths to help professionals prepare for the exam.

Dynatrace Advanced Observability Specialist Certification

  • Overview: The intermediate-level Dynatrace Advanced Observability Specialist Certification focuses on professionals who require an in-depth knowledge of end-to-end observability of their cloud and application environments, including security. It introduces advanced concepts of various cloud monitoring technologies, networking, virtualizations, and containerized environments.
  • Target professional: SREs, DevOps engineers, cloud architects, performance engineers, and IT operations professionals.
  • Key skills: Implementing end-to-end observability in cloud and application environments, including security aspects, and utilizing Dynatrace components such as ActiveGate, App Engine, Automation Engine, Custom/Dynatrace API, Dynatrace UI, synthetics, extensions, permissions and policies.
  • Exam specifics: The online proctored exam costs approximately $550. The exact number of questions or duration of the exam has not been publicly disclosed.
  • Prerequisites: Candidates should have hands-on experience with Dynatrace and a foundational understanding of observability concepts. Dynatrace recommends candidates complete training modules through Dynatrace University.

Elastic Certified Observability Engineer

  • Overview: The Elastic Certified Observability Engineer certification is designed for professionals working with the Elastic Stack to manage observability pipelines for infrastructure, applications, and services. The certification validates an individual’s ability to implement observability solutions using the Elastic Stack, which is a suite of open-source tools used for data collection, analysis, and visualization.
  • Target professional: SREs, data architects, software engineers, system administrators, software developers, and other IT professionals who need to implement observability solutions.
  • Key skills: Configuring and using Elastic Agent for data collection, creating and managing dashboards in Kibana, setting up alerts for critical metrics, and structuring and processing data using ingest pipelines. The certification covers topics such as uptime, metrics, logging, and APM data, allowing engineers to monitor, analyze, and derive actionable insights from real-time logs, metrics and application performance data.
  • Exam specifics: The exam consists of between 10 and 15 practical, performance-based tasks that candidates are given 180 minutes (3 hours) to complete. The exam cost is $500 per attempt.
  • Prerequisites: There are no set prerequisites, but it is highly recommended that candidates take the Elastic Observability Engineer training course prior to the taking the exam. Practical experience with Elastic Stack is also recommended.

New Relic Certified Performance Engineer-Professional (PEP)

  • Overview: The vendor-specific New Relic PEP cert validates that a professional is proficient in monitoring New Relic observability and performance optimization of digital products and services. It covers the platform capabilities and data, backend application performance, client-side performance, and infrastructure and cloud performance.
  • Target professional: Performance engineers, SREs, DevOps professionals, and observability-focused architects with two or more years of experience in performance analysis and optimization using New Relic monitoring and performance management tools. The candidate should also be familiar with software development, systems monitoring, and infrastructure management.
  • Key skills: Designing and implementing observability strategies with New Relic, implementing telemetry data across APM, infrastructure, logs, and real-user monitoring sources, troubleshooting complex performance issues, leveraging dashboards, alerts, and synthetics to monitor system health, and applying best practices for performance optimization in dynamic environments.
  • Exam specifics: The exam has 60 questions, costs $175, and is timed at 60 minutes.
  • Prerequisites: Candidates should have prior experience with New Relic, and it is recommended that they have completed an associate-level certification.

SolarWinds Certified Professional (SCP)

  • Overview: The SolarWinds Certified Professional (SCP) certifies a candidate’s ability to deploy, configure, and manage SolarWinds products to monitor, analyze, and troubleshoot networks, servers, and applications.
  • Target professional: Network engineers, system administrators, managed service providers, and IT operations professionals who use SolarWinds products and want to demonstrate their skills in managing network, systems, applications, and/or security and compliance issues. The program is designed for individuals with at least one year of experience in a technical role related to network, systems, or application management, and six months of experience using SolarWinds products.
  • Key skills: Monitoring network devices, servers, and applications using SolarWinds tools, creating performance baselines and SLAs, designing efficient alert systems and dashboards, identifying bottlenecks using real-time and historical data, and integrating different SolarWinds modules the Hybrid Cloud Observability platform.
  • Exam specifics: The exam contains 75 multiple-choice questions and can also feature simulated tasks, is timed at 90 minutes, and costs $200.
  • Prerequisites: There are no mandatory prerequisites, but SolarWinds recommends more than 6 months of hands-on experience with specific product the candidate is testing for such as Network Performance Monitor (NPM), Server & Application Monitor (SAM), Network Traffic Analyzer (NTA), and Database Performance Analyzer (DPA).

Splunk Core Certified Power User/Admin

  • Overview: The Splunk Core Certified Power User/Admin validates the ability to use Splunk for operational visibility, making it key for professionals working in IT operations, security monitoring, or business analytics.
  • Target professional: Systems administrators, data analysts, IT managers, security professionals, DevOps practitioners, and other professionals who are responsible for managing Splunk deployments and user roles. Also recommended for users who create and use searches, reports, and dashboards in Splunk.  
  • Key skills: Navigating Splunk’s user interface, using basic search commands, creating and sharing knowledge objects such as event types, tags, and aliases, using fields, lookups, and workflow actions to enrich data, and building interactive dashboards and visualizations.
  • Exam specifics: The exam includes 65 multiple-choice questions, costs $130 per exam attempt, and is timed at 60 minutes. Pearson VUE conducts the exam.
  • Prerequisites: While there are no prerequisites, it is recommended that candidates have completed the Splunk 1 and 2 courses or equivalent hands-on experience.

ThousandEyes-Cisco Enterprise Network Assurance (ENNA) Certification

  • Overview: Cisco introduced the Enterprise Network Assurance Specialist certification as part of the CCNP Enterprise certification, which is designed to meet the industry’s need for skills in digital experience monitoring and assurance. The ThousandEyes Assurance platform is integral to the ENNA v1.0 exam, demonstrating how assurance enhances network visibility and proactive monitoring.
  • Target professional: Monitoring solution engineers, network operations engineer, helpdesk administrator/support engineer, network operations center (NOC) engineer, SREs, network architects, cloud architects, application owners, implementation engineers, and platform engineers.
  • Key skills: Understanding the foundation of network setup and integration, gaining skills in setting up and optimizing data collection tools, developing the ability to analyze network data to pinpoint and resolve issues, and mastering the creation of alert systems to maintain network health.
  • Exam specifics: The exam is administered through Pearson VUE, consists of between 60 and 70 multiple-choice questions, costs $300, and is timed at 90 minutes.
  • Prerequisites: It is recommended that examcandidates have basic scripting or automation skills as well as a strong grasp of fundamental networking concepts such as the OSI model, IT addressing, subnetting, and routing/switching basics. Hands-on experience with Cisco infrastructure and experience using platforms such as ThousandEyes, Cisco Catalyst Center, Cisco SD-WAN, or Meraki is also recommended.

Source:: Network World