Certification Overview

The bearer of the PCNSA certificate has demonstrated the ability to work on firewalls based on the Palo Alto platform. This designation is valuable for two fundamental reasons. First, the world is becoming digitalized very rapidly. Experts are needed to make these channels more secure to prevent theft of valuable information or other vital details that may prove harmful to an organization. A PCNSA certified specialist is believed to have the necessary skills to ward off those cutting-edge cyber threats. This leads us to the second reason why the PCNSA is a valuable certificate. The certification vendor, Palo Alto Networks, is a global leader in cybersecurity. Consequently, validation from them is highly valued in the industry. Being a PCNSA certified individual, in this case, indicates that you have real-world mastery of the Palo Alto Next-Generation PAN-OS® 10.0 platform in any environment. As a PCNSA certified professional, you are permitted to print the certification badge on your business cards to show that you are Palo Alto certified. This badge would undoubtedly increase your job opportunities. Note that the certificate expires two years from when you passed the PCNSA exam, after which you can recertify. The use of the logo on business cards or personal display materials is valid only for the period you have an active certification status. By the way, the market for Palo Alto Networks jobs in the Network and Security field is booming, making PCNSA certified professionals highly-sought after so take a step towards a thriving career!

Exam Topics

The PCNSA exam measures your abilities in deploying, configuring, and operating the Palo Alto Networks product portfolio components, understanding the unique features of the Palo Alto Networks product portfolio, as well as understanding security and networking policies utilized by PAN-OS software. All the technical skills evaluated by the certification test are grouped into six domains that have different weights in the exam content. The specific abilities included in these topics are outlined below:

• Identifying Users (12%)

  In the framework of this area, the students need to prove that they are able to define the proper approach to map IP addresses to usernames depending on a scenario; define the proper User-ID agent to deploy depending on a scenario; define how the firewall maps usernames to user groups; define User-ID configuration options depending on a graphic.

• Deployment Optimization (4%)

  This topic covers skills in determining the advantages as well as differences between BPA and Heatmap reports.

• Palo Alto Networks Cybersecurity Portfolio Core (22%)

  This objective covers one’s skills in defining the Palo Alto Networks cybersecurity portfolio components; defining the single-pass parallel processing architecture components & operations; implementing the Zero Trust security model and explaining how it refers to traffic moving via your network; defining stages within the cyberattack lifecycle as well as firewall mitigations deterring attacks.

• Securing Traffic (18%)

  This subject area requires your competencies in defining and implementing the proper security profile depending on a risk scenario; defining the difference between security profile actions & security policy actions; defining how to configure security profiles depending on a network scenario; determining the firewall’s defense from protocol-based and packet- attacks; defining how the firewall can utilize the Cloud DNS database to regulate traffic on the basis of domains; finding how the firewall can utilize the PAN-DB database to regulate traffic on the basis of websites; describing how to regulate access to particular URLs with the help of custom URL filtering types.

• Traffic Visibility (20%)

  This section requires the individuals’ skills in selecting the proper application-based security policy regulations depending on a scenario; customizing application groups or application filters depending on a scenario; defining the function of application features as indicated in the App-ID database; searching the potential effect of App-ID upgrades on the current security policy regulations; finding the techniques to improve security policies; defining the features utilized to facilitate the creation of App-ID policy.

• Simply Passing Traffic (24%)

  Within this domain, the test takers should demonstrate that they are capable of defining and customizing firewall management interfaces; defining the methods to handle firewall configurations; displaying and scheduling dynamic upgrades; customizing account administration internal & external services; designing the proper security zones depending on a network diagram; defining and customizing firewall interfaces; defining stages to design and customize a virtual router depending on a scenario; defining the function of particular security rule types; defining and customizing security policy logging options, actions, match conditions; defining and applying the appropriate NAT solution depending on a scenario.

How to study the PCNSA Exam

There are two main types of resources for preparation of certification exams first there are the study guides and the books that are detailed and suitable for building knowledge from ground up then there are video tutorial and lectures that can somehow ease the pain of through study and are comparatively less boring for some candidates yet these demand time and concentration from the learner. Smart Candidates who want to build a solid foundation in all exam topics and related technologies usually combine video lectures with study guides to reap the benefits of both but there is one crucial preparation tool as often overlooked by most candidates the practice exams. Practice exams are built to make students comfortable with the real exam environment. Statistics have shown that most students fail not due to that preparation but due to exam anxiety the fear of the unknown. itPass4sure expert team recommends you to prepare some notes on these topics along with it don't forget to practice Palo Alto Networks PCNSA exam dumps which have been written by our expert team, Both these will help you a lot to clear this exam with good marks.

Reference: https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/services/education/certification#pcnsa