ACE Professional study guide
ACE Professional · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The ACE Professional credential - the Arista Certified Engineer Professional - is a professional-level certification for network engineers who design, operate, and troubleshoot modern data center and campus networks built on Arista's cloud networking portfolio. It is aimed at practitioners with hands-on experience who want to validate depth beyond entry-level configuration: engineers moving into design roles, consultants scoping cloud and campus migrations, and operators responsible for routing scale, automation, and telemetry-driven visibility. This independent study page organizes preparation around four equally weighted domains: Cloud Networking, Cloud-Grade Routing, Cognitive Campus Workspaces, and Network Observability and Telemetry, each contributing 25 percent of the blueprint. That balance signals what the exam rewards: breadth across data center fabrics, routing architecture, campus and wireless workspaces, and streaming telemetry rather than specialization in a single product family. The ACE Professional study guide has 4 sections and about 1,266 words.
01Cloud Networking: Connectivity, Segmentation, and Hybrid Design
Cloud networking replaces static VLAN-and-trunk thinking with declarative constructs: virtual networks (VPCs/VNets), subnets, route tables, security groups, network ACLs, and gateways. A candidate must be fluent in the difference between stateful security groups (connection-tracked, allow-only) and stateless ACLs (evaluated per packet, need both directions).
332 words, about 2 min02Cloud-Grade Routing: Control Plane, Convergence, and Segmentation
Cloud-grade routing blends familiar protocols with overlay control planes. Candidates should understand underlay versus overlay: the physical/IP underlay provides reachability, while the overlay (VXLAN/GENEVE, EVPN control plane) carries tenant or segment identity.
323 words, about 2 min03Cognitive Campus Workspaces: Assurance-Driven User Experience
A cognitive campus shifts operations from device-centric to experience-centric. Candidates must understand the telemetry foundation: streaming telemetry from switches and access points, client onboarding analytics, and AI/ML-driven baselining that flags anomalies rather than static thresholds.
304 words, about 2 min04Network Observability and Telemetry: From Counters to Answers
Observability answers questions you did not predefine; monitoring answers questions you did. Candidates must distinguish the three pillars - metrics, logs, and traces - and know where network telemetry fits.
307 words, about 2 min