Cisco 300-720 or SESA (i.e., Securing Email with Cisco Email Security Appliance) endows highly prized opportunities to IT security professionals who want to mature as Cisco security doyens and augment market worthwhile begetting remarkable career growth. It is one of the six concentration exam choices that any CCNP Security certification aspirant has to conquer.

Certification Sketch

CCNP Security has gone through some modifications recently and has become a viable means to lance one’s career in the highly commanded security domain. Using the help of one core exam, 350-701, and one concentration exam, it verifies an intermediate-level understanding of routers, Cisco firewalls, VPNs, AAA technologies, and the like. Because of such broad coverage of knowledge areas, CCNP Security certified individuals are in huge demand in the industry. This professional-level certificate is what one needs to seize rewarding positions in the enterprises.

Ideal Audience and Certification Requirements

If you are willing to be a part of the IT industry as a security engineer, security administrator, security architect, or operation engineer, consider investing precious time and efforts in earning the CCNP Security validation.

Though CCNP Security is a professional-level accreditation, it sets the aspirants free from the compulsion of earning any related associated-level certificate first. You can directly aim at it. However, you are still required to know all the topics included in the exam syllabus. Also, it is recommended by the vendor to have a minimum of three to five years of industry exposure in the exam domains and real-world implementation of security solutions. So, clearly, this path is not for industry beginners but for mid-level IT enthusiasts who are looking for a way to curb the mid-career crises.

Other than these, earning this Cisco certification is doable only if the candidate passes two exams. The mentioned 350-701 SCOR test checks one’s basic skills related to network and cloud security, protected network access, and more. Then, it is time to choose one of the six concentration exams, which focus on a particular technology, and you can select the one that suits your area of professional interest. Note that passing the concentration assessment alone will grant you a specialty certificate. For instance, by acing the 300-720 exam, you will be given the Cisco Certified Specialist – Email Content Security certification.

Profile of 300-720 Exam

Cisco 300-720 is a 90-minute long proctored exam conducted in a secure ecosystem. One can take it either online or in an offline mode. English is the only available exam language for this exam. It is conducted by Pearson VUE, so interested candidates have to visit the Cisco website for registration and pay a fee of $300 that is legit for one attempt and is non-refundable. Also, it can’t be transferred to someone else’s name. Hence, make a move only if you’re double sure. However, if you have some Cisco Learning Credits then you can redeem them against the exam fee.

After passing the 300-720 exam and obtaining the Cisco certifications, note that they are valid for 3 years. To enjoy the certification benefits before they expire for the specialist-level validation you need to earn 40 CE credits, while for the professional-level certification you need to gain 80 CE credits or pass one concentration exam of the professional-level and gain 40 CE credits. These are the requirements for updating your certification. All these efforts should be made before the validity period ends.

Topics Covered by 300-720

The Cisco 300-720 exam explores a wide variety of topics that are compiled into the six major domains. Generally, the concepts included in the syllabus cover spam control, email security and encryption along with authentication, ways to prevent data loss, how to bring the message filters into action, effective email administration, understanding the SMTP functionality, the configuration of quarantine methods, and such. All in all, it makes you an email security expert, infused with notable and workable expertise of the related domains.

Acing the Exam with the Best Study Materials

There is no reason to deny the fact that the Cisco 300-720 exam is demanding, considering the fee and the cost of learning resources. Still, this is not a reason to worry as it only asks you to be attentive when choosing the materials, you are going to refer to. Moreover, below, you’ll find a list of tried and tested study resources that will not make you regret the purchase. So, here are some of the great choices to make.

• Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Troubleshooting Guide by Cisco

  Available on the Cisco’s official website, this guide is going to be highly beneficial for Cisco 300-720 aspirants as it covers a major exam domain in detail. It helps one to better understand the specifics of Cisco CRS version 4.x and Cisco CallManager version 4.x. By reading it, the applicants will learn how to upload and delete licenses, delete upgrade profiles that are failed, repeat server setup and cluster setup, clear archive flags, and handle troubleshooting tasks, to name a few topics. The material is supplemented with a bunch of images, code examples, and reference links to assist you in improving your understanding of the topics covered.

• Securing Email with Cisco Email Security Appliance (SESA) v3.1

  Whether it’s 300-720 SESA or any other IT certification exam, the training course is the best pal of the candidate as it explains the domains in the most impressive manner and imparts a good understanding. For the 300-720 test, the best bet is SESA v3.1.

  It is a 4-day long training course, available in live instructor-led, virtual instructor-led, and e-learning mode. All these delivery modes offer learning via hands-on lab sessions and lectures. The participants can expect a better hold over gaining leading career skills in email protection, threat challenges, LDAP queries, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), email encryption, and other topics covered in 300-720.

  Other than making you 300-720 exam-ready, this training course will help you earn the 24 Cisco CE credits that can be used for the recertification. This training course will cost you $800 and let you have a free trial as well. Once purchased, the training course can be accessed for 180-days.

Ending Notes

By passing the Cisco 300-720 exam, you can become a Cisco Email Security specialist and aim higher to the CCNP Security certification. It’s like hitting two birds with one stone. However, don’t ever try to consider this exam journey to be an easy one. It is an uphill struggle that can be sorted out up to a great extent by joining the official training course, using the right books, and studying detailed guides.