Your job may still have the same title. The skills it calls for are changing.
Part of my job is watching what people are trying to learn before the rest of the industry catches up to why. For the last couple of years, behavioral trends among learners and organizations, along with evolving infrastructure requirements, have been telling a pretty clear story.
Networking, security, and AI
Throughout the Learn with Cisco organization and our certification community, I’m hearing about security professionals picking up network skills, network engineers building AI operations skills, and IT teams taking on questions that once belonged entirely to operational technology (OT), and the other way around.
Here’s the lesson I’ve taken from this shift: networking, security, and AI are becoming more connected. You don’t need to be an expert in all three, but understanding how they work together can make you more effective in your role. You can’t build real expertise in one without bumping into the others. In the last year, most of my conversations about skilling have centered on those topics and on how to get the best, most secure outcome from these new capabilities.
What learners are already asking for
Behavioral trends among learners back up what we’re hearing.
We’re seeing a surge of learners using our training to bridge this divide, moving between network and security courses and looking for more hands-on practice. They’re showing us that they’re already making these connections.
Organically, our learners are pointing the way forward: a clear interest in bridging network and security skills, and a very real need to build hands-on experience.
They’re not necessarily changing careers. They’re building the skills their current work increasingly requires.
Where IT and OT security intersect
That’s especially true where IT and OT intersect. When it comes to cybersecurity, OT environments have some specificities. Availability and safety come first, and practices such as routine patching or active scanning may be impractical, or may risk disrupting critical equipment, including programmable logic controllers (PLCs).
Learners are responding to these changing demands, even when job descriptions and org charts haven’t caught up. They’re coming to us for practical skills to keep their environments running and secure.
To support these changing skill needs, Cisco announced two updates:
- A new Cisco OT Security Practitioner certification
- A new release of Cisco Modeling Labs
While these announcements serve different purposes, they point to the same underlying shift: helping learners build skills that reflect how their work is changing.
New Cisco OT Security Practitioner certification
Cisco is introducing the Cisco OT Security Practitioner certification for early-career professionals entering the field of operational technology security. If you support industrial networks, or want to move into that work, this is an announcement worth exploring.
OT doesn’t play by IT rules. Cisco Talos found that nearly 40 percent of the 100 most-targeted vulnerabilities in 2025 affected end-of-life devices*.
OT doesn’t play by IT rules. Cisco Talos found that nearly 40 percent of the 100 most-targeted vulnerabilities in 2025 affected end-of-life devices*.
Operational technologies (OT) serve as the backbone for critical infrastructure, including power grids, transportation networks, and manufacturing facilities. Many of these environments rely on legacy systems that have reached end-of-life and sometimes have poor cybersecurity controls.
As organizations accelerate their digital transformation, they are looking for OT security practitioners. Implementing robust, specialized controls is essential to modernize operations, mitigate risk, and meet increasingly stringent cybersecurity regulatory requirements.
Cisco Cyber Vision, a dedicated cybersecurity product for the OT space, is woven into the network fabric itself, serving two strategic objectives: it transforms the industrial network into a cyber defense system, and it provides IT security tools with the granular OT context required to protect the global enterprise.
This is a part of our industry that adopts innovation fast as a means to keep a competitive edge. And as industries look to AI to enhance operations and boost productivity, they need to adopt more IT technologies. This shift is fueling demand for new skills that Cisco can support.
Practical OT security skills
Building on recent updates to Cisco Security training and certifications, this certification focuses on practical OT security skills: segmenting industrial networks, monitoring ICS traffic, and responding to incidents on the plant floor.
Who the OT Security Practitioner certification is for
This new certification gives OT practitioners, IT professionals moving into industrial environments, and students a real, hands-on entry point. It provides a pathway to understand how industrial networks, connected devices, automation, ICS, and cybersecurity work together. It’s one that didn’t exist at this level before.
Within a few years, I predict that this will stop being a specialty skill and become an expectation, the same way programmability skills quietly became table stakes for network engineers.
How to start learning OT
I’ve spent years working in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) space, learning about IT functions and OT roles. Like an oracle for the future, it has often given me an early look at how technology changes the work people do, from programmability to AI-enabled automation on the factory floor.
But you don’t have to work on a factory floor to start learning about OT. Begin by understanding how industrial devices, operating requirements, and security priorities differ from those in a typical IT environment.
OT Security Practitioner training and exam dates
OT Security Practitioner training is scheduled for release in Cisco U. on November 5, 2026, and through Cisco Networking Academy in January 2027.
The OT Security Practitioner exam will go live for testing on February 3, 2027, ahead of Cisco Live London. Exam topics are now available.
Learn more about the OT Security Practitioner certification
Put connected skills into practice with Cisco Modeling Labs 2.11
Certifications help you define what to learn. Hands-on practice helps you apply it. Cisco Modeling Labs gives you a place to build, test, and troubleshoot as you expand your skills.
What’s new in CML 2.11
The latest release, CML 2.11, launching November 11, 2026, adds a handful of updates that support certification preparation and more efficient lab management:
- Kali Linux support, so learners can use an attacker or tester node to trigger network alerts and validate Cisco defenses while prepping for the CCNP Security core exam (350-701 SCOR)
- Single Sign-On integration with OIDC, OAuth2, and SAML, helping align lab access with enterprise identity practices and with identity management concepts covered in the CCNP Enterprise core exam (350-401 ENCOR)
- Cluster support for wireless nodes, making it easier to simulate larger wireless architectures, ideal prep for the CCNP Enterprise Wireless Design (ENWLSD) and Implementation (ENWLSI) exams
- A Download All Labs feature to back up, migrate, or audit large lab collections in one operation, perfect for anyone managing a heavy CCIE study load
Why the lab environment matters
None of this is flashy, but these practical improvements really do matter. You can’t build practical skills if your lab doesn’t reflect what you’ll actually be working with.
A useful lab environment gives you room to explore unfamiliar tools, test your assumptions, and work through problems before you encounter them on the job.
Build a training strategy for the whole environment
There are many ways to structure a training plan. The most useful starting point is the environment you support and the problems you need to solve.
Two updates, one connected skills path
That’s the bigger picture behind the new Cisco OT Security Practitioner certification and Cisco Modeling Labs 2.11. Together, they connect certification paths and hands-on practice to work that increasingly crosses traditional boundaries.
Start with the skill gap closest to your role
You don’t have to learn everything at once. Start with the skill gap closest to your role: understanding your environment, securing it, or practicing how it behaves. Then build from there.
Which skill are you looking to build next, and what’s driving that choice? Let us know in the comments.
* Inside the Talos 2025 Year in Review
