CCNP Data Center reading list 2020

As of February 24th, 2020, the old Cisco exams go bye-bye and we herald a new era of examinations. This is across every track. Some of these changes are quite welcome, such as CPE and the fact that three professional-level exams can renew a CCIE. So, for those of us looking to start studying now and continuing past this change, what options do we have for the CCNP Data center reading list?

Old style CCNP Data Center reading list

Currently, the exams are:
300-175 – DCUCI
300-165 – DCII
300-170 – DCVAI
300-160 – DCID
300-180 – DCIT.

In terms of official certification guides, there is zero out of five. I have commented before about how woeful Cisco is when it comes to OCG, so this comes as no surprise. There is one book available, for DCUCI, which is a DCUDI Quick Reference Guide and is pretty cheap on the Kindle. Therefore, we must turn to the long list of study references Cisco gives us.

DCUCI Study Material

We have two storage books listed:

Storage Networking Fundamentals: An Introduction to Storage Devices, Subsystems, Applications, Management, and File Systems (Vol 1)
Storage Networking Protocol Fundamentals (Vol 2)

The rest of the martial is either on their learning store ($$$$) or PDFs.

DCII Study Material

Here we start to see a very popular and important book start to appear (as well as the Storage Networking Fundamentals above):

Centers with VXLAN BGP EVPN: A Cisco NX-OS Perspective
The next book is another favorite (across all tracks); Cisco Access Control Security: AAA Administration Services

CCNP Data Center Essential reading

Definitely, definitely get these books:

Probably not so much the AAA book, it is fairly generic and just talks about TACACS mainly. Useful, but not essential.

So, does the new exams look to be better supported?

New style CCNP Data Center reading list

350-601 – DCCOR

We are off to a good start and have an DCCOR Official Certification Guide!

300-610 – DCID

Nothing.

300-615 – DCIT

Nothing.

300-620 – DCACI

Unsurprisingly, we do have an OCG for this (it is unsurprising as Cisco is pushing ACI heavily). CCNP Data Center Application Centric Infrastructure 300-620 DCACI Official Cert Guide.

300-625 – DSAN

Nothing.

300-635 – DCAUTO

Nothing.

So, two out of six here. Meh.

Stuart’s recommended CCNP Data Center reading list

There are lots of books around though, so here is a little list I have come up with. Some of these may be recommended for the CCNA, but I am skipping that and going straight to CCNP.