Hi There,
There is a query online on which to do first between Cisco CCNA and MTCNA. And why Cisco CCNA runs for longer time than MTCNA which goes for few days.

Mikrotik is a tool that you use in the trade, as you enter the expert levels. It requires stronger NW foundations to handle the many features it offers. Its references are not the easiest for the newbie

A Small Analogy

If you have a farm and you want to learn how to farm, you pick a jembe and start digging

Since you are learning the ropes of digging you will need to learn abit on how to hold the jembe, rate of digging, when and where to dig etc.

This part you are acquiring your education and you do not put pressure on yourself for a bumper harvest, since you are still training. Once you have some experience, its expected you can do a set number of volume

Then you exercise until you are competent enough and then you have your style of digging and preferences as well

So CCNA and MTCNA.

CCNA gives you a good grounding on NW terms, technologies, what goes where and general theme of how Networks run

Then after some time of using the kit you realise that many clients are after reliable excellent service and not really what is offering the service.

To be blunt, if it was offered via WITCHCRAFT and you didnt make them aware it, they wouldnt care. As long as service is excellent, that is all they care.

Here is where other NW products come in. Mikrotik for feature rich kernels without any complex acquisition and pricing models that Ciscos and the lot have etc. Juniper as well for being a price cheaper that Ciscos

Now Ciscos have a bigger economic ecosystem to maintain that is why its a ""better" product. In the real world though with SMEs where value is more important than brand marquee. The SME market space is quite broad in these parts of the world, Africa

So The cheaper the service can be acquired the better. The Ciscos on the other hand play well in the Big enterprise market because you need a bigger support engineer base because of scales involved. Again this depends on where in the world you are working. In Asia, Mikrotik are respected, In the US, Cisco have a bigger presence, In Africa as well we have a chunk on Cisco installed capacity. Mikrotik install base is increasing with more MUMs, and training going on. I trained under Hamed Farnoudi

The COMPENSATION of your knowledge should be as a result of how you use it, not acquiring it. Remember there are too many CCNAs out here and to be sifted as a better of the breed, you have to have SKILL not just paper! For example, I have configured more of Ciscos than many of the Certified CCNA/Ps, without having acquired CCXX certs. Linux teaches you the foundational lessons better than most. So Cisco looks quite a simplistic CLI to work with.


So start CCNA becasue it has more material to read on then do the MTCNA which is more complex as it require prior NW insights. Learn Linux to be able to understand the ecosytems of this day IT Infrastructure.

Real World Engineering

For an Engineer or Network Consultant, the practicalities of a lean budget, good service, good fee, future referals and keeping the client happy you require to handle these parts of an ASSIGNMENT with skill and not meetings to explain networking and system jargon why this or that didnt work

Linux to me is the start of all proper system and network admin and design lessons and its cheap to acquire and hardens you for the real world properly. Also where to seek help, how to interact with experts, how to use the forums, how to quantify good or bad advice etc. Mikrotik forums for example require abit of expertise to digest the advice and suggestion given.....etc In short the diagnostic skills, diligence and discpline required will be of much use out here.


Mikrotik uses a moded *nix, the higher end Cisco Nexus is just moded *nix. Checkpoint another moded *nix.

Kit we use: Mikrotik, Juniper, Checkpoint, Untangle, Linux homebrews, Cisco, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, Sun, HP etc.
Daily Experience: Design, Log to this and that CLI, configure, Document and handover.
Small CV: We run About 100 geographically spaced system and network nodes with up to 3000 unique users in the Enterprise and SME market somewhere in the Sub sahara, Integrated to networks using APN/GSM networks accessed by 10 Million plus users for various network needs, ERP,IPRS, Vendor Customised service etc, with techies as far as India, the US, Europe, and within Africa.
Confession: I have decommissioned more Ciscos from the Network because of Cost Of Ownership plus high feature and maintenance licences fees than I can count with blessing of Mikrotik 1XXX routers in the Enterprise market. SME market, we just use Mikrotik or home brew Linux or some online Turn Key linux distros. But for better hardware support, we use Mikrotik.

Certs: MTCNA,MTCWE

NB: First sent comments on another blog, nairaland but thought its better it stays home. What do you think?