4 Best Palo Alto Certs for Network Engineers

This post is the second in a series on PCNSE Palo Alto Technologies, how its products are positioned in a network security environment, and how the company's certification program impacts career opportunities for certified engineers and technicians.

Organizations have a keen interest in cybersecurity and are in high demand for advanced network security products and services, as well as qualified and experienced engineers to design, develop and operate them. While traditional network vendors such as Cisco, Juniper Networks, and VMware continue to dominate enterprise networks, PCNSE Palo Alto Technologies makes its own claim.

Offering a variety of hardware, software, and cloud products, the company has replaced Cisco as a leader in network security. More and more PCNSE Palo Alto firewall solutions are becoming available that work with Cisco and non-Cisco networks. This isn't just about hardware-based networks. With the evolution of software-controlled networks using virtual private networks (VPNs) and software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN), we see the rise of software and cloud-controlled firewalls.

And PCNSE Palo Alto is leading the way with its Prisma Cloud and cloud access platform. In this changing network and security environment, organizations may expect security and networking experts to be familiar with both Palo Alto Networks technology and security solutions. This is the subject of this article. This is the scope of Palo Alto's certifications and is the most relevant certification for network engineers.

PCNSE Palo Alto's Certification Program

PCNSE Palo Alto's certification program provides cybersecurity professionals with role-based certification. Roles begin with an entry-level security officer, followed by a security administrator and then a security engineer. Unlike other vendor certification programs, PCNSE Palo Alto certificates do not specify the required certifications, skills, or experience. Each is independent and can be obtained by passing an online certification exam managed and supervised by Pearson VUE.

The certifications are as follows:

Role: Security Associate
Palo Alto Networks Certified Cybersecurity Entry-level Technician (PCCET)
Role: Security Administrator
Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Administrator (PCNSA)
Palo Alto Networks Certified Detection and Remediation Analyst (PCDRA)
Role: Security Engineer
Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer (PCNSE)
Prisma Certified Cloud Security Engineer (PCCSE)
Palo Alto Networks Certified Security Automation Engineer (PCSAE)

Why Earn PCNSE Palo Alto Certification?

If you're already working in the PCNSE Palo Alto business, it's easy to brush up your credentials with one or more Palo Alto certifications. Also, if your organization does not use Palo Alto, you can expand your potential opportunities by obtaining Palo Alto certification.

It's important to recognize that most people are working in a mixed environment where Palo Alto Firewall uses Cisco, VMware, Juniper, or perhaps a public cloud to protect their network. Therefore, if you are a network engineer or administrator, especially if you want to supplement your qualifications as a network provider, we recommend that you obtain a PCNSE Palo Alto Security certification.

PCNSE Palo Alto Certs for Net Engineers

This article focuses on Palo Alto's entry-level cyber security technician, network security administrator, network security engineer, and cloud security engineer certification. With the exception of entry engineers, each of these certifications requires at least 6 months of work experience with Palo Alto Firewall.

PCNSE Palo Alto Networks Certified Cybersecurity Entry-level Technician (PCCET)

PCCET certification is designed for professionals who have limited experience in the field of security but want to add cybersecurity to their portfolio. PCCET credentials prove that the owner understands:

Web 2.0 / 3.0 application and service types, cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS) security challenges, denial of service attacks, advanced persistent threats, perimeter-based network security, zero trust, and other cybersecurity foundations- Principles and architecture.
General principles of network and connectivity, including hubs, switches, router roles, network topology, network firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention, unified threat management, endpoint security, identity and access management, and next-generation firewalls.
Principles for protecting cloud technologies, including cloud services and delivery models, cloud security challenges, data security vulnerabilities, and hybrid data center security.
Elements of security operations, including key elements of effective security operations, security information, and event management (SIEM), security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR).

Cisco security certification paths do not have entry-level security certifications. Therefore, if you are a network engineer for a CCNA or CCNP company and want to gain cybersecurity credibility, start with the PCNSE Palo Alto PCCET Engineer Certificate before considering a more advanced Palo Alto or Cisco security qualification. If you work for the Juniper Networks Store, skip PCCET and go directly to the entry-level Juniper Networks Certified Associate, Security (JNCIA-SEC) certification.

PCNSE Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Administrator (PCNSA)

The second certification is a Certified Network Security Administrator. PCNSA is primarily targeted at security professionals responsible for deploying and managing the PCNSE Palo Alto Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) as part of an organization's cybersecurity system. Candidates for this certificate typically have 2-3 years of experience as a security administrator and 6 months of work experience in deploying and configuring the PCNSE Palo Alto Firewall. This certification verifies that the owner understands the following:

PCNSE Palo Alto's Next-Generation Firewall Strata portfolio (physical, virtual, and containerized appliances) and their single-path parallel processing architecture.
Device management and services such as firewall management interface, firewall configuration definition, dynamic update, security zone, and firewall interface configuration.
Manage objects such as creating address objects and services, using external dynamic lists, and configuring apps filters and groups.
Policy evaluation and management, including the use of application-based security policies, the configuration of security policy compliance conditions, and the implementation of appropriate Network Address Translation (NAT) policies.
Protect your traffic by creating security profiles, using traffic, threats, and data logs, and using cloud DNS security to facilitate domain-based traffic control.

The PCNSE Palo Alto Networks Security Administrator Certificate has a unique value for vendor-certified network engineers and administrators. For example, if your Cisco Security Operations Center (SOC) is using PCNSE Palo Alto's next-generation firewall, PCNSA is a great complement to Cisco's Cisco Certified Cyber Ops Associate or Cyber Ops Professional certification. On the Juniper Networks site, PCNSA is best complemented by Certified Security Associate (JNCIA-SEC) or Specialist (JNCIS-SEC) accreditation.

PCNSE Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer (PCNSE)

The third certification of a network engineer is Certified Network Security Engineer (PCNSE). This is an advanced certification for security professionals with 3-5 years of networking or cybersecurity experience and at least 6 months of PCNSE Palo Alto's next-generation firewall deployment and configuration experience.

Certification verifies that certified professionals have the knowledge and skills to design, deploy, operate, manage, and troubleshoot PCNSE Palo Alto's next-generation firewalls. Owning a PCNSE ensures that the recruitment manager understands that the certified individual understands:

Firewall planning and core concepts, including security components of PAN-OS software that enhance PCNSE Palo Alto's next-generation firewall.
Deploy and configure Palo Alto Firewall, including management and security profile configuration, zone protection setup, packet buffer protection and DoS protection, authorization, authentication, and device management, and wildfire malware analysis engine configuration.
Deploy and configure a firewall with a panoramic web-based centralized management system.
Firewall management and operation, including management and configuration of security log transfers, and establishment and operation of high availability features.
Troubleshoot firewall implementations such as site-to-site tunnels, physical interfaces, SSL decryption, routing, zone protection, packet buffer protection, and DoS protection.

Suitable for PCNSE if already certified as a security engineer by one of the network vendor programs. For example, Cisco's CCNP security complements the certification of PCNSE network security engineers. Even a Cisco security expert with a CCIE security badge is well worth the Palo Alto PCNSE certification. Similarly, there is a good agreement with PCNSE for Juniper Certified Professional (JNCIP-SEC) and Expert (JNCIE-SEC) network security engineers.

PCNSE Palo Alto Networks Prisma Certified Cloud Security Engineer (PCCSE)

The final choice for PCNSE Palo Alto Networks Engineer certification is the Prisma Certified Cloud Security Engineer (PCCSE). Prisma Cloud is PCNSE Palo Alto's cloud-native security platform. Prisma Cloud is used to protect users, apps, and data across public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and VMware.

PCCSE certification indicates that the owner has the skills and knowledge to integrate, deploy, and manage the Prisma Cloud security system, including Security as a Service (SaaS) Enterprise Edition and the customer's self-hosted Prisma Computer version. Authentication verifies that the owner understands the following:

Installation and updates, including deploying and managing the Prisma Cloud Compute Edition console and Policy Enforcement Defenders.
Set visibility, security, compliance, and data security for policies, alerts, notifications, and more, identify cloud account assets and integrate cloud accounts with data protection.
Use of cloud workload protection platform. Includes monitoring and protection of image, host, and serverless vulnerabilities, and enforcement of image/container, host, and container runtime compliance.
Deploy web applications and API security, including creating WAAS policies and app rules, configuring application firewall settings and exceptions, and using WAAS runtime auditing.
Introduced Dev SecOps Security. This includes configuring policies to scan Infrastructure-as-Code (IAC) templates for misconfigurations, and integrating these scans into the CI / CD pipeline.
Performs PrismaCloud management, including onboarding accounts, role-based access control (RBAC) configuration, and the use of cloud and computing APIs.

Cloud certification is a coveted product among recruitment managers due to the widespread adoption of cloud technology in organizations. Also, given the popularity of PCNSE Palo Alto, PCCSE is a highly coveted badge for candidates.

Like the other PCNSE Palo Alto certificates described so far, vendor network and security certificates work well with PCCSE. Depending on the technology used by your organization, Amazon's AWS Certified Security – Specialty, Juniper's Specialist Level Cloud Certificate (JNCIS-Cloud), Cisco's CCNP Enterprise, or Microsoft Associated Certified Azure Security Engineer Associate or Azure Network Consider a certificate such as an engineer.

Final Thoughts

PCNSE Palo Alto Firewall solutions, along with technologies from Cisco and other major vendors, have become a staple of enterprise networks. Not surprisingly, there are many values and career opportunities to certify from PCNSE Palo Alto and network and cloud providers such as Cisco, Juniper Networks, and AWS. This article describes how vendor certifications such as Cisco's CCNA Cyber Ops, Juniper's Certified Security Associates, and Azure's Network Engineer can complement Palo Alto's PCCET, PCNSA, PCNSE, and PCCSE certifications. did.

If you are already a Certified Network Engineer and would like to add PCNSE Palo Alto to your qualifications, check out Keith Barker's online Palo Alto training course. If you are new to cybersecurity, start with the Certified Cybersecurity Entry-level Technician (PCCET) course. You can then take a Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Administrator (PCNSA) or Certified Network Security Engineer (PCNSE) course, depending on your career plan.

Related Reading: How I Passed CISM Material In The First Time