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.

RH-295: Linux System Administration II

Course Overview:

Linux System Administration II course is for experienced administrators ready for advanced administration topics. This course provides students with hands-on experience working with more complex and integrated administration concepts, and builds upon the Part 1 course. Students will be instructed in essential  local Red Hat system administration skills including: Logical Volumes, Raid Management, and System Logging, SELinux and Virtual Machines.  The Linux System Administration II course will get you started in understanding network administration topics, including monitoring, routing, Firewall with iptables, and servers such as NFS, SAMBA, DNS, SMTP, HTTP, DHCP, and Kickstart.

Attendees to RH-295: Linux System Administration II will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Dates/Locations:

Date/Time Event
06/08/2026 - 06/12/2026
08:00 -16:00 		RH-295: Linux System Administration II
TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX
09/21/2026 - 09/25/2026
08:00 -16:00 		RH-295: Linux System Administration II
TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX

Duration: 5 days

Course Objectives:

  • Managing Logical Volumes and RAID
  • Network Routing, Filtering and Monitoring
  • Configuring File Sharing Across Platforms
  • Configuring Internet Services
  • Configuring Security
  • Configuring System Messaging
  • Using Name Services
  • Configuring Name Service Clients
  • Configuring Kickstart
  • Virtualization with KVM
  • Troubleshooting Boot Process

Prerequisites:

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CT-415: CompTIA SecAI+

CompTIA SecAI+ is the first certification in CompTIA’s expansion series, designed to help you secure, govern and responsibly integrate artificial intelligence into your cybersecurity operations. You’ll build the skills to defend AI systems, meet global compliance expectations and use AI to enhance threat detection, automation and innovation—so you can strengthen your expertise and help keep your organization’s systems and data secure.

SecAI+ helps you build practical AI security and automation skills on top of your existing expertise, so you can secure AI deployments, use AI‑assisted security tools with confidence, and stay ready for the next step in your cybersecurity career.

Course Objectives:

  • Apply AI concepts to strengthen your organization’s cybersecurity posture
  • Secure AI systems using advanced controls and protections to safeguard data, models, and infrastructure
  • Leverage AI technologies to automate workflows, accelerate incident response, and scale security operations
  • Navigate global GRC frameworks to ensure ethical and compliant AI adoption across industries
  • Defend against AI-driven threats like adversarial attacks, automated malware, and malicious use of generative AI
  • Integrate AI securely into DevSecOps pipelines and enterprise security strategies.

Dates/Locations:

No Events

Prerequisites: Recommended experience: 3–4 years in IT and 2+ years hands-on cybersecurity; Security+, CySA+, PenTest+, or equivalent recommended

SecAI+ (V1) exam objectives summary

     Basic AI concepts related to cybersecurity (17%)

  • Explain core AI principles and terminology: Machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, and automation.
  • Identify AI applications in security: Use cases for AI in threat detection, defense, and security operations. 
  • Recognize AI-driven threats: Automated phishing, polymorphic malware, adversarial machine learning, and malicious use of generative AI.

Securing AI systems (40%)

  • Implement security controls: Protect AI systems, data, and models using robust technical safeguards. 
  • Secure AI deployment environments: Apply best practices across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid infrastructures. 
  • Mitigate adversarial risks: Defend against attacks targeting AI models, data pipelines, and inference layers. 

AI-assisted security (24%)

  • Enhance detection and response: Use AI-driven tools to identify anomalies, detect threats, and accelerate incident remediation. 
  • Automate security workflows: Integrate AI for event triage, alert correlation, and response orchestration. 
  • Apply AI techniques in operations: Incorporate AI into threat modeling, behavior analysis, and continuous monitoring. 

AI governance, risk, and compliance (19%)

  • Understand regulatory frameworks: Identify global governance requirements and their implications for AI adoption. 
  • Integrate GRC into AI projects: Incorporate governance, risk management, and compliance practices throughout the AI lifecycle. 
  • Ensure responsible AI use: Apply ethical guidelines, legal standards, and industry frameworks such as GDPR and NIST AI RMF.

VM-325: VMware View: Install, Configure and Manage

Course Overview:

This hands-on training course builds your skills in the VMware ViewTM suite of products: VMware View Manager, VMware View Composer, and VMware® ThinAppTM.  Based on customer specification, this course can be based on View 4.x or 5.x, and ThinApp 4.x or 5.x releases.

Attendees to VM-325: VMware View: Install, Configure and Manage will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

At the end of this course, you should understand the features and operations of View and be able to:

  • Install and configure View components
  • Create and manage dedicated and floating desktop pools
  • Deploy and manage linked-clone virtual desktops
  • Configure and manage desktops that run in local mode
  • Configure secure access to desktops through a public network
  • Use ThinApp to package applications

Date/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 5 days

Course Objectives:

  • Module 1: Course Introduction
  • Module 2: Introduction to VMware View
  • Module 3: View Connection Server
  • Module 4: View Desktops
  • Module 5: View Client Options
  • Module 6: View Administratory
  • Module 7: Configuring and Managing Linked Clones
  • Module 8: Local-Mode Desktops
  • Module 9: Command-Line Tools and Backup Options
  • Module 10: Managing VMware View Security
  • Module 11: View Manager Performance and Scalability
  • Module 12: VMware® ThinAppTM

Prerequisites:

  • VM-315: VMware Infrastructure: Install, Configure and Manage
  • Experience in Microsoft Windows Active Directory Administration
  • Experience with VMware vSphereTM
  • Before attending the course, students must be able to perform the following tasks:
    • Create a template in VMware vCenterTM Server and deploy a virtual machine from it
    • Modify a template customization file
    • Open a virtual machine console in vCenter Server and access the guest operating system
    • Configure Active Directory services

 

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MS-10231: Designing a Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and 2013 Infrastructure

 

Course Overview:

This course is intended for IT Professionals who use Microsoft SharePoint 2010 in a team-based, medium-sized to large environment. While they may have implemented a SharePoint deployment, they have limited experience in designing a SharePoint infrastructure. They likely work as a senior administrator who acts as a technical lead over a team of administrators. Members of this audience should have at least 6 months experience with SharePoint 2010 (including pre-released versions of the product).

Attendees to MS-10231: Designing a Microsoft SharePoint 2010/2013 Infrastructure will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Date/Location:

No Events

Duration: 5 days

Course Objectives:

  • Designing a Logical Architecture
  • Planning Service Application Architecture
  • Planning for Performance and Capacity
  • Designing a Physical Architecture
  • Designing a Security Plan
  • Planning Authentication
  • Planning Managed Metadata
  • Planning Social Computing
  • Designing Enterprise Search Strategy
  • Planning Enterprise Content Management
  • Developing a Plan for Governance
  • Designing a Maintenance and Monitoring Plan

Prerequisites:

  • At least 2 years experience administering, deploying, managing, monitoring, upgrading, migrating, and designing SharePoint servers
  • At least one year’s experience of mapping business requirements to logical and physical technical design
  • Working knowledge of network design, including network security

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