I have.
It's very different.
Three become one.
CCCS R81.20 is not just an update from CCCS R81, it is a mix of CCCS and CNSE-Azure and CNSE-AWS.
It is mostly made up of the content of the CNSE courses (Cloud Network Security Expert), with the labs updates to R81.20.
The two expert courses are retiring/EOL (no longer available) from the end of this month (Dec. 2024) because of the intermediate course (CCCS) absorbing them and thereby changing the CloudGuard Network Security training drastically.
The 'Framework for cloud' theory is gone (dropped from the CCCS course), probably to make room for the extended courseware content. Chapter 1 (now Module 1) is very light weight now.
To prepare for the exam you need to have the (new) CCCS R81.20 courseware, or you could use the two CNSE books, if you had those.
I've done all 4 exams and the new one is a melting together of the two CNSE's with a sprinkling of CCCS R81 (to cover what little was carried over from CCCS R81 into the CCCS R81.20).
Basically the CCCS R81 course's labs are gone (no more single gateway deployment) and it's the CNSE labs.
CCCS R81 - Labs
- Deploy SMS in Azure.
- Deploy single SG in Azure (with the LBs and Web vNets and all the rules and peerings).
- Deploy single SG in AWS, managed by the same SMS (with the web servers etc in AWS). That's on day 2.
CCCS R81.20 - Labs
- Student chooses one CSP (Azure or AWS) to do the course labs (over the 2-day course duration).
Both CSP labs are in the one CCCS R81.20 book but there is only time for students to do one CSP labs.
- Deploy SMS in chosen CSP
- Deploy VMSS/Auto Scaling CG SGs (with the LBs and Web vNets and all the rules and peerings).
- Deploy HA Cluster (Peer vNets in Azure - VPN connect VPCs in AWS). Again, done on day 2.
There is still the Adaptive Policy and coverage of CloudGuard Controller.
It is a first for Check Point - to have students choose between two platforms and have students carrying out labs at the same time but potentially on different CSP platforms.
Current CCCS:
https://training-certifications.checkpoint.com/#/courses/Cloud%20Specialist%20R81.20%20(CCCS)
https://www.checkpoint.com/resources/items/certified-cloud-specialist-cccs-r8120-course-overview
Soon to be retired CNSEs:
https://training-certifications.checkpoint.com/#/courses/Cloud%20Network%20Security%20Expert%20for%2...
https://training-certifications.checkpoint.com/#/courses/Cloud%20Network%20Security%20Expert%20for%2...
Hope that helps.
