Practice on working systems, before it counts.
The labs for every Skydome Learning course run in Skydome Lab, the test environment where Skydome Consulting models networks, security and collaboration systems, on premises and in the cloud.
- Place a test call and capture it at the gateway
- Read the trace and find the last message that was answered
- Capture on both sides of the firewall and compare
- Correct the rule, repeat the call, record the result
Why the lab matters more than the slides
An engineer who has only watched a procedure will hesitate the first time they perform it, and the first time is usually during a change window. A lab moves that first time into the course.
It also allows the part of the job that cannot be rehearsed in production: failure. In a lab the link can drop, the rule can be wrong and the call can fail, as many times as it takes to learn to find the cause.
How lab access works
The same for on-site and live online courses.
We build the lab for the course
Once the outline is agreed, we assemble the systems the course needs and rehearse every exercise on them.
Attendees receive access
Before the first session, each attendee is sent what they need to reach the lab from the classroom or from home.
Every topic ends in an exercise
The instructor explains a task, then every attendee carries it out. Exercises include faults to find, with no answer on the slide.
The lab stays up for the course
Attendees can repeat an exercise between sessions. When the course ends, the lab is reset.
What a lab can contain
We assemble what the course calls for from the systems in Skydome Lab.
- Networks, modeled and real
- Routed and switched networks, wide-area links and wireless, built from physical and virtual devices. With network modeling platforms such as Cisco Modeling Labs (CML) and EVE-NG, a lab can be a campus, a set of branches or a data center.
- Security
- Firewalls, remote-access and site-to-site VPN, and segmentation policy, including Cisco and Palo Alto Networks platforms.
- On-premises systems
- Servers, call control, gateways and session border controllers, connected the way an enterprise connects them.
- Cloud systems
- Cloud platforms and the links between them and on-premises networks, for courses on hybrid designs and migrations.
- Voice and collaboration
- Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco CUBE, AudioCodes and Ribbon session border controllers, carrier SIP trunks, and Webex Calling, Zoom Phone and Microsoft Teams.
A lab that looks like your network
For a custom course, the lab can follow your own environment: the same kinds of device, a topology like yours, your naming, and the change your team is about to make. Engineers rehearse the work they will do, on something that behaves like the system they will do it to.
We build these models from what you choose to share with us. Production data and real credentials stay out of the lab.
Using a lab system
For anyone attending a course.
- Access is by invitation
- Lab systems are for the attendees of a course. Access details are sent to each attendee and are not to be shared.
- Use test data
- Do not upload production captures, customer records or real credentials to a lab system unless we have agreed that with you in writing.
- Expect resets
- Labs are rebuilt between courses and sometimes during one. Keep your own copy of anything you want to take away.
Tell us what your team needs to practice.
Describe the team, what they run, and what is changing. An instructor will read it and reply with questions or an outline.
Or call 854-260-2732