This learning path provides a comprehensive introduction to Cisco Catalyst Center, guiding network professionals through the platform's core features and advanced capabilities. Learners will start by understanding the hierarchical design model and how it supports scalable management and policy deployment. The course covers device discovery, inventory management, and provisioning workflows, enabling consistent network configuration and automation. It also addresses software image upgrades, lifecycle management, including End-of-Life (EoX) insights, and essential system administration tasks. A significant portion is dedicated to Software-Defined Access (SDA) fabric design, including control and border nodes, as well as implementing secure, policy-driven segmentation through micro-segmentation using Scalable Group Tags (SGTs). By the end, participants will be equipped to deploy, operate, and optimize Cisco Catalyst Center in modern enterprise environments.

Explore Cisco's XDR allowing it's users to correlate data across several vendors and vectors providing a wholistic view of ones environment. Throughout this learning path and corresponding lab you will learn the fundamentals of the Cisco XDR components and tools that allow SOC analysts visibility and context into advanced threats! We will take you through an introduction and operation of the XDR console as well as automation. Let's get started!

Learn the basics about network security and how next-generation firewalls (NGFW) fits into a secure environment. Establish baseline knowledge around the Cisco Secure Firewall to better understand the tools and techniques used to secure the most important part of your networks. You will have the opportunity to explore these concepts, tools, and practices through this NGFW Learning Path. So Let's jump in!

Previously, the Cisco day 2 operations suite of MSO, NAE, NIR, and NIA ran separately on computing as a .ova in vSphere or on the APIC as an application. The architecture never allowed for sharing data between the apps or correlations with errors and telemetry views of packet loss. With the roadmap moving, we had applications and a shared data lake for all applications to draw from and correlate between application errors, changes to the policy, and deep flow telemetry, all visual as an epoch. For all the applications to run and have sharable databases, Cisco NEXUS Dashboard (ND) was created. The ND platform allows all the Cisco Day 2 apps and third-party applications to run on a single appliance. Secondly, the ND has to be an expandable CPU and storage-intensive platform; today, the platform can scale with 3 master nodes and 4 worker nodes with the apps and their data residing on the ND cluster. As ND matures, more ND servers can join the cluster, and they can be separated regionally if within TTL requirements to distribute applications and provide DR strategies.