Observations of Instructor Led Training with Real Hardware

TechNow has heard many students talk about virtualized/remote training that TechNow Does Not Do.  While training our most recent offering of PA-215: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Essentials FastTrack a student told his story of how he endend up in our course.  His story we have heard for other technologies like Cisco, VMware, BlueCoat and other products.

A large percentage of training is moving to the virtualized/remote lab environments.  Students are asked to use some variant of remote access software and remote into the training company's lab environment. Our student in our Palo Alto Networks Firewall course informed us that he went to a very costly offering of that course from the vendor and was not able to perform any labs.  There were either network connectivity issues, or issues with the remote access software, or other problems.  The whole training experience was very frustrating and not productive.

We keep our labs open to students if they would like after hours, or before hours access.  Repeatedly going through a lab engrains that knowledge for later recall.  Touching hardware is so critical in understanding the problems that arise when a cable comes loose, or a cable gets plugged in the wrong port.  There are other scenarios such as just pulling the power cable, or turning off a power strip, or accidently overwriting a configuration.  These disaster scenarious requires hands-on physical access to hardware.  Preventing and recovering from disasters is what it's all about, and that requires hands-on, instructor led, real hardware.

Palo Alto Networks Firewall Training Course Lab

Working with the TechNow lab for the PA-215: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Essentials FastTrack course has been nothing less than a techie's idea of fun.  When students come in we are immediatly configuring the Cisco 3750 switches for access ports, VLANS, and trunks.  We then cable the switch to the Palo Alto Networks Firewall.  Each student gets their own Palo Alto Firewall Pod of hardware and software.  What we find as fun is the VLAN environment, with an array of virtual machines hosted on an ESXi server that can really exercise the abilities of the Palo Alto Firewall.  The DMZ VLAN hosts virtual machines that support enterprise services and also potentialy vulnerable web services.  The Trust VLAN has Windows and Linux clients.  The UnTrust VLAN has Web services and a VM of Kali. The hardware Firewall is additionally connected to a Management VLAN.  All those VLANs are trunked into an ESXi server where the student also has a VM-Series Palo Alto Networks Firewall for High Availability.  

After configuring all the trunking, VLANs, and network interfaces we learn about the firewall and configure it for the lab environment.  Using Metasploitable and Kali/Metasploit nefarious penetration attempts are executed.  Using packet captures, custom APP-ID's  and custom signatures are generated.  Custom logging and reporting are created to similate and enterprise and assist the desired Incident Response.  It is always fun in a training environment to learn all about the controls available in a product, even though specific controls may not be used in the operational environment.  In the end we have a good understanding of the Palo Alto Networks Firewall.

PM-224: PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® Prep Course

Course Overview:

This course is developed for those individuals seeking to pass the Project Management Institute’s PMI-ACP Exam. PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® is one of the newest certifications offered by PMI and is expected to become the industry standard certification for agile over the next few years. The PMI-ACP® certification clearly illustrates to colleagues, organizations or even potential employers that students are ready and able to lead in this new age of product development, management, and delivery.

While preparing you for the exam, you will explore various approaches to agility including Scrum, Kanban, Lean, Extreme Programming (XP), and Test-Driven Development (TDD). By the end of the course, you’ll have mastered the practices and techniques that Agile practitioners use to improve team performance, resolve problems and engage in continuous process improvements and be equipped with job-ready skills.

This course provides students with 21 contact hours in agile practices to help attain the Project Management Institute (PMI)® credential.  PMI® and PMI-ACP® are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

Attendees to PM-224: PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) Prep Course will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

 

Dates/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 3 Days

Course Objectives:

  • Agile Principles and Mindset
  • Value-driven delivery
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Team performance
  • Adaptive planning
  • Problem detection and Resolution
  • Continuous Improvement

Prerequisites:

  • Secondary degree
  • 21 contact hours of training in agile practices
  • 12 months of general project experience within the last 5 years. A current PMP® or PgMP® will satisfy this requirement but is not required to apply for the PMI-ACP
  • 8 months of agile project experience within the last 3 years

 

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TN-835: Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC) Preparation Seminar

Course Overview:

Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC), is for professionals responsible for an organization's risk management program.  Students looking to acquire CRISC qualify themselves as IT security analyst, security engineer architect, information assurance program manager and senior IT auditor.  CRISC certified professionals manage risk, design and oversee response measures, monitor systems for risk, and ensure the organization's risk management strategies are met.

The CRISC exam will primarily align with the terminology and concepts described in The Risk IT Framework, The Risk IT Practioner Guide, and COBIT 5.  This will include applications in the evaluation and monitoring of IT-based risk, as well as the design and implementation of IS controls. 

The CRISC exam covers four domains that are periodically updated to reflect the changing needs of the profession:

  • Domain 1: Risk Identification 
  • Domain 2: Risk Assessment
  • Domain 3: Risk Response and Mitigation
  • Domain 4: Risk and Control Monitoring and Reporting

This course is designed to assist in your exam preparation for the CRISC exam.

Attendees to TN-835: Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC) Seminar will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Dates/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 5 Days

Course Objectives:

  • Risk IT Framework—Purpose and Principles
  • Essentials of Risk Governance, Evaluation, and Response
  • Risk and Opportunity Management Using CobiT, Val IT and Risk IT
  • The Risk IT Framework Process Model Overview
  • Managing Risk in Practice—The Practitioner Guide Overview
  • Overview of the Risk IT Framework Process Model 
  • The Risk IT Framework

Prerequisites:

A minimum of at least three (3) years of cumulative work experience performing the tasks of a CRISC professional across at least three (3) CRISC domains is required for certification. There are no substitutions or experience waivers.

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User: tracycampbell

Instructor comments: Dave had great command of the class and the flow of information. The lessons seem relevant to the exam and the course material should assist greatly with passing. As a bonus, his breakdown of PKI helped with my current job requirements.

Facilities comments: The Home2Suites by Hilton was FANTASTIC!

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PM-325: Project Management Professional (PMP) Exam Preparation

Course Overview:

This course is developed for those individuals seeking to pass the Project Management Institute’s PMP certification exam, as well as any individual who has attended any Project Management Certification program in the past and needs to brush up on the material needed to pass the PMP exam.

Attendees to PM-325: Project Management Professional (PMP) Exam Preparation will receive official PMI (Project Management Institute) course materials and expert instruction from an official PMI Instructor.

TechNow Inc. is an official Authorized Training Partner of The Project Management Institute (PMI).

 

Dates/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 5 Days

Course Objectives:

  • Project Initiation
  • Examining the Project Management Framework
  • Examining the Project Management Processes
  • Implementing Project Integration Management
  • Managing the Project Scope
  • Introducing Project Time Management
  • Introducing Project Cost Management
  • Introducing Project Quality Management
  • Introducing Project Human Resource Management
  • Introducing Project Communications Management
  • Introducing Project Risk Management
  • Introducing Project Procurement Management
  • PMP Code of Professional Conduct

Prerequisites:

A Bachelor’s degree & 4,500 hours of project management experience over 3 years/36 months.

OR

7,500 hours of project management experience over 5 years/60 months (if NO degree).

AND

Complete & submit the PMP certification application directly to PMI

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