LiveLabs for Cisco and Microsoft is a hosted training solution that allows students to build skills through hands-on exercises with real software and networking environments from the convenience of an Internet-connected web browser. LiveLabs bridge the gap between education and experience by putting the training curriculum to use in practical, real-world scenarios with live technology.
The IT Skills Gap
Today’s IT professional is being tasked with doing more with less. This requires deep functional expertise and broad experience, a challenge for any professional with the rapid changes in technology. Increasingly organizations are realizing that the gap between skills and project requirements is growing. Whether it is securing a network, migrating to Windows 2003, or designing an IT plan, hands-on experience plays a key role in running mission critical infrastructure. The challenge is providing IT professionals with solid training tools that help them install, configure, troubleshoot and maintain and run complex technology which is constantly changing.
LiveLabs Fill the Gap
LiveLabs for Cisco and Microsoft are considered the best learning tools in the industry today. Nowhere else can IT specialists get "OnDemand", live practical hands-on experience with production-level technology without owning their own equipment, or risking a real production system. Short of risking damage to a mission critical environment, there are not many alternatives for IT specialists to transfer course concepts into real use. In the context of real-world challenges, LiveLabs fulfills this need.
To date, LiveLabs have been securely delivered to over 110 countries in more than 500,000 individual sessions. LiveLabs for Cisco and Microsoft are designed for use by enterprises, learning organizations and individual IT professionals alike. By incorporating LiveLabs for Cisco and Microsoft into the services offered to your clients, you have the opportunity to add a new revenue stream, while making your offering more unique. Explore some of the features of LiveLabs for Cisco and Microsoft.
Why LiveLabs for Cisco and Microsoft make sense for your business:
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Raise revenue with highly-valued labs
- Expand market share by bundling existing product with new lab capabilities
- Improve client retention by providing more comprehensive, bundled solutions
- Satisfy client demand for more comprehensive training and blended solutions
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Reduce costs associated with training delivery
- Eliminate the costs of developing and maintaining your own hands-on training approach
- Standards compliant for easy integration with in-house (LMS) systems
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Reach new markets
- Classroom based vendors can extend their engagement with students by including a self-study lab component
- Enhance your image and brand by being one of the few vendors able to offer technically challenging and engaging labs
- Direct support for large client proposals, including assistance with presentations and demonstrations
Features of LiveLabs for Cisco and Microsoft
LiveLabs are designed for use by enterprises, learning organizations and individual IT professionals alike. They are used for hands-on learning, practice and review, for troubleshooting production systems, and for preparing for certification exams.
Rapid Unscheduled Access to Real IT Environments
Get browser-based access in seconds to hundreds of real network and software devices housed in the Toolwire Network Operations Center. The company's unique technology can quickly and dynamically allocate equipment for multiple users at any given time. With live environments, students have unlimited degrees of freedom to learn from their mistakes; instead of memorizing steps, students build and retain skills through practical, real-world, case-based exercises. Unlike simulations which track users down a narrow path and which never present a true representation of how technology actually functions, labs allows students many paths to success and provide real-world experience.
Best of all, since all equipment is dynamically allocated and configured, LiveLabs can offer the most challenging and comprehensive environments in the industry, accurately matching "real-world" production environments. As an example, our advanced Cisco labs provide access to an industry-leading topology of up to seven devices at a time.
Intuitive Exercises in a Learner-Friendly Interface
Lab sessions are designed with users in mind. The user interface provides a single window to access: the lab guide, all the devices in the live lab environment, lab management controls, and all pertinent help documentation. Easy navigation between these topic areas and lab devices translates into fewer obstacles to learning and higher lab utilization.
Practical Lab Guides for All Experience Levels
Unlike most lab guides which take a cookbook approach to instruction, LiveLabs' lab guides are unique in providing multiple levels of assistance, matching the lab challenge to the experience level of the user. Advanced users will enjoy the challenge of scenario-based lab guides complete with in-depth scenarios, "help-sheet" command lists and collapsible tutorial instructions. Novice users benefit from step-by-step details that build experience in a fast and productive manner and convey "best practices" for achieving the lab objectives.
Lab guides include:
- Lab Description and Goals
- Prerequisites
- Lab Assignment (Scenario, Notes and Conditions)
- Command List (Outline of specific commands required to complete the objectives)
- Recommended Approach (Step-by-step tutorial)
- Additional Resources (Links to outside reference material for concepts covered in the lab)
- Timing (General estimate for time required to complete objectives)
- Curriculum (Course content related to the lab objectives)
- Technology (Description of equipment that is provided to complete the lab)
Obtain Industry-Recognized Certifications
Over 15,000 LiveLab students have obtained certifications with the help of LiveLabs. LiveLab exercises are built around official course objectives from Cisco and Microsoft and map to the latest certification curriculum. As certifications move towards assessing mastery of skills rather than mastery of concepts, LiveLabs fill the void by putting required concepts to use in practical applications. LiveLabs users have the highest pass rates for Cisco (CCNA and CCNP) and Microsoft (MCSA and MCSE) certification.
LiveLabs for Cisco Routing and Switching
Access a full suite of over 90 hands-on lab exercises using live Cisco routers and switches supporting the CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) and CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional) Career Certifications. Each student can access, on demand, a dynamically configured network topology exactly matched to the lab to be studied - at anytime, from anywhere.
LiveLabs for Cisco Routing and Switching are available on a subscription basis to enable IT professionals to completely control real Cisco equipment, including:
- Layer-2 and layer-3 routing and switching
- Local area and wide area networks (LANs and WANs)
- Routing protocols (RIP, IGRP, EIGRP, OSPF, and BGP)
- Routed protocols (IP, IPX)
- Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS)
- Multilayer switching over high-speed Ethernet
- Remote-access networks
- Hardware maintenance and troubleshooting, and More.
LiveLabs for Cisco Routing and Switching cover topics associated with the following Cisco Career Certification Courses:
- Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices (ICND)
- Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks (BSCI)
- Building Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks (BCMSN)
- Building Cisco Remote Access Networks (BCRAN)
- Cisco Internetwork Troubleshooting (CIT)
Cisco uses LiveLabs in its Partner e-Learning Connection. In over 100 countries, more than 5,000 Cisco partner engineers have successfully reached certification using LiveLabs.
LiveLabs for Microsoft Windows 2000 and 2003
Access a suite over 150 different hands-on lab exercises using live servers supporting:
- Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)
- Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE)
- Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) course content.
These LiveLabs allow access to a full server environment, down through the operating system, with full administrative control.
LiveLabs for Microsoft are available on a subscription basis to enable IT professionals to completely control a real server, including the steps required to configure, modify, and manage server settings.
Toolwire also recently released SmartLabs and is the only provider for these unique, immersive case studies for Microsoft design and planning courses. SmartLabs allow IT professionals to develop strategic and analytical skills in the context of condensed, best-practice-based challenges.
