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.

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N-315: Cisco Secure Virtual Private Networks

Course Overview:

This course is designed for students who intend to work with virtual private networks (VPNs) using IPSec. The course includes detailed coverage of the VPN 3000 Concentrator, a scalable remote access platform that offers encryption, high availability, and superior performance. This class is an invaluable theory and configuration guide for the VPN 3000 series of products, with its thorough coverage of concentrators, hardware clients, and software clients.

Attendees to N-315: Cisco Secure Virtual Private Networks will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Dates/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 5 days

Course Objectives:

  • Network Security & Virtual Private Network Technologies Cisco VPN 3000 Concentrator Series Hardware Overview
  • Routing on the VPN 3000
  • Configuring the Cisco VPN 3000 for Remote Access Using Pre-shared Keys
  • Configuring the Cisco VPN 3000 for Remote Access Using Digital Certificates
  • The Cisco VPN Client Firewall Feature
  • Configuring the Cisco 3002 Hardware Client for Remote Access
  • Configuring the Cisco 3002 Hardware Client for User & Unit Authentication
  • Configuring Cisco VPN Clients for Backup Server, Load Balancing & Reverse Route Injection
  • Configuring the Cisco 3000 Concentrator for IPSec over TCP & UDP
  • Configuring LAN-to-LAN VPNs on the Cisco 3000
  • Network Monitoring & Administration Troubleshooting

Prerequisites:

  • Students who attend this advanced course must have experience in configuring Cisco IOS software
  • CCNA certification
  • Basic knowledge of the Windows operations system
  • Familiarity with the networking & security terms & concepts

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CL-218: Introduction to Cloud Infrastructure and Operations Bootcamp

 

Course Overview:

This bootcamp is a customized course for Cloud Essentials+ and Cloud+ that leverages 8 days to provide greater value than just the delivery of two separate courses. The 8 days of instruction prepare the student for the CCSP course.

TechNow has Identified overlap and uses time saved to:

  • Introduce hands-on skills (Open Source and AWS)
  • Go more in-depth on theory using hands-on to reinforce concepts
  • Do exam prep with practice questions

This course covers the knowledge and skills required to understand standard Cloud terminologies/methodologies, to implement, maintain, and deliver cloud technologies and infrastructures (e.g. server, network, storage, and virtualization technologies), and to understand aspects of IT security and use of industry best practices related to cloud implementations and the application of virtualization.

This bootcamp helps prepare students for 2 certifications, CompTIA Clouds Essentials+ and CompTIA Cloud+.  After this course students will also be prepared to continue their education by taking CL-315: CCSP – Certified Cloud Security Professional Preparation Seminar .

TechNow has worked worldwide enterprise infrastructures for over 20 years and has developed demos and labs to exemplify the techniques required to demonstrate cloud technologies and to effectively manage security in the cloud environment.

TechNow is a CompTIA partner and uses official CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ and CompTIA Cloud+ curriculum.

Attendees to CL-218: Introduction to Cloud Infrastructure and Operations Bootcamp will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Date/Locations:

No Events

Course Duration: 8 days

Course Objectives:

  • Learn the fundamental concepts of cloud computing
  • Learn the business aspects and impacts of cloud computing
  • Differentiate the types of cloud solutions and the adoptions measures for each
  • Identify the technical challenges and the mitigation measures involved in cloud computing
  • Identify the technical challenges and the mitigation measures involved in cloud computing
  • Identify the steps to successfully adopt cloud services
  • Identify the basic concepts of ITIL and describe how the ITIL framework is useful in the implementation of cloud computing in an organization
  • Identify the possible risks involved in cloud computing and the risk mitigation measures, and you will also identify the potential cost considerations for the implementation of cloud and its strategic benefits
  • Prepare to deploy cloud solutions
  • Deploy a pilot project
  • Test a pilot project deployment
  • Design a secure network for cloud deployment
  • Determine CPU and memory sizing for cloud deployments
  • Plan Identity and Access Management for cloud deployments
  • Analyze workload characteristics to ensure successful migration to the cloud
  • Secure systems to meet access requirements
  • Maintain cloud systems
  • Implement backup, restore, and business continuity measures
  • Analyze cloud systems for required performance
  • Analyze cloud systems for anomalies and growth forecasting
  • Troubleshoot deployment, capacity, automation, and orchestration issues
  • Troubleshoot connectivity issues
  • Troubleshoot security issues

Course Prerequisites:

  • Security+, Network+ or equivalent experience
  • Managing or administering at least one of UNIX, Windows, Databases, networking, or security

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