How many JNCIEs are there? It seems like such a simple question but it depends on what you mean and how you want to measure it.
Firstly, let’s look at the question and what it means. Do you want to know:
- How many active JNCIEs there are?
- How many JNCIEs there are in total (number of certified people across all tracks)?
- What is the highest current number in a given track?
Next, let us look at the complicating factors
- Juniper number each JNCIE track separately, each starting at 1
- People may be certified in more than one track and have multiple JNCIE numbers
- Not all information is public, nor is it nicely collated together in just one or two places.
- Not everyone blogs, tweets, or otherwise declares their JNCIE details to the world.
For me, the information I’m usually interested in is what number JNCIE we are up to in a given track and how quickly the number is increasing. This helps to set goals of achieving a number lower than a particular threshold I might choose.
How many active JNCIEs are there?
Only Juniper know this, and they do not appear to be sharing the details.
How many JNCIEs are there in total?
This is again something I suspect only Juniper knows. With the lack of clarity around how many people with multiple JNCIEs there are I’m not convinced there is an easy way to answer this question.
What is the highest JNCIE number in a given track, and how fast are they increasing?
This is the question I find most interesting. It is not easy to find numbers for all five tracks on the same date, or even in the same month. Therefore the numbers below are all approximations based on what details I could verify and a bit of an educated guess.
JNCIE-SP: 3190 in November 2023.
JNCIE-SEC: 440 in July 2022.
JNCIE-ENT: 920 in November 2023.
JNCIE-DC: 544 in September 2023.
JNCIE-Cloud: 46 in June 2023. Note: JNCIE-Cloud is now EoL and no longer offered.
| Cert | Number at Start of 2017 (approximate) | Increase in 2017 (approximate) | Increase in 2018 (approximate) | Increase in 2019 (approximate) | Increase in 2020 (approximate) | Increase in 2021 (approximate) | Increase in 2022 (approximate) | Increase in 2023 (approximate) | Estimated Certs as at November 2023 |
| JNCIE-SP | 2580 | 170 | 130 | 121 | 22 | 29 | 53 | 90 | 3195 |
| JNCIE-SEC | 290 | 50 | 70 | 21 | 2 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| JNCIE-ENT | 600 | 90 | 85 | 92 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 24 | 925 |
| JNCIE-DC | 0 | 56 | 150 | 142 | 32 | 85 | 65 | 25 | 550 |
| JNCIE-Cloud | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 7 | 14 | 6 | 48 |
Note: Due to difficulty finding information, the JNCIE-SEC details in 2021, 2022, and 2023 have not been populated.
Note: JNCIE-Cloud was made end of life in June 2023 and the exam is no longer available.
Conclusions
So what can we conclude from the table above?
Firstly – The number of certifications took a big dive in the 2020 and 2021 years, which is most likely due to Covid and the inability to sit in-person lab exams. Juniper has since introduced remote lab sessions. I think we will see the numbers increasing toward pre-pandemic levels over 2023 as it becomes easier to take lab tests.
The -DC track at the moment seems to be the star performer here. It does have the benefit of being one of the newer certs, and when it launched in 2017 I suspect a lot of people were trying to get in early both for bragging rights of a low number and to complete all four tracks available at the time. I think the DC track currently is also very relevant to the market. The numbers for 2023 have dropped off a bit, it will be interesting to see if it has a similar increase in 2024.
The -SP track is still showing fairly solid numbers. It has been around the longest of the five tracks, and I think it continues to do well based on Juniper’s market in the SP/ISP space. It seems to have had a resurgence in 2023, which is interesting.
The -ENT track is still doing OK. It has been around for a while now, so I think most people who had a strong interest in it will have taken it already. I think the numbers here will improve over the 2022/2023 years, but I expect the -DC track numbers will overtake it in the next 2 or 3 years.
The -SEC track is the worst performer. I assume this is largely driven by how individual candidates perceive its relevance to their careers. From what little I can find, it appears to be seeing single digit increases per year.
The -Cloud track is interesting. It is still quite new, having been introduced in 2020. I suspect there is still interest from those wanting to become a 5 x JNCIE, but I’m a little unsure how well this particular track ties into the Juniper story. Again – this was made end of life in 2023.
Looking at the bigger picture, I find it interesting how few JNCIE certs have been issued overall. The JNCIE-SP cert has effectively been running since the early 2000s if you include its time as the -M certification, and it is only just past the 3000 mark. The security (-SEC) and the enterprise tracks (-ENT, formerly -ER) both have some of their earliest certifications in mid to late 2011, although the enterprise track seemed to grow quicker at the start.
If you simply add up all the certification numbers, then as of the end of 2022 it will be about 5000 across all five tracks.
Why aren’t there more JNCIEs
I feel that Juniper could increase their JNCIE level certification numbers if they had actual study guides like the old JNCIP-M and JNCIE-M books by Harry Reynolds. I still refer back to my hard copies of these books from time to time. The move to the more generic books such as JUNOS Enterprise Routing, JUNOS Enterprise Switching, or JUNOS Security just didn’t fill the same need.
Juniper does provide the JNCIE level bootcamp courses, which is a great option, but it doesn’t seem like you can buy courseware from their website anymore, which used to be incredibly helpful if you only wanted the courseware to read and not attend the actual course.
Writing a certification or study guide is a rather large undertaking and one that can become a wasted effort in short order if the underlying certification changes, but other vendors seem to make it work still. Perhaps the market for Juniper certification books just isn’t big enough.
On the other hand, maybe I’m mistaken about the need for a study guide. It is now easier than ever to get Juniper certified. The vMX, vSRX, and vQFX are all options there weren’t available when I did mine, nor were the bootcamps or third-party options. Juniper has continued to make more resources available for free or close to free – the old fast track program, the old Junos Genius, and the various learning bytes, day one guides, the this week series, and lab access.
Note that the Junos Genious website has been retired and learning material is now available at https://learningportal.juniper.net/juniper/default.aspx including free courses and discount vouchers for many of the JNCIA and JNCIS level certifications.