New Cyber Proficiency Center feature — Live Labs

At the core of our platform is a simple mission: to provide the most effective and comprehensive way to assess skills in cybersecurity and the broader IT landscape. Every aspect of our platform, from its features to the overall approach to competency evaluation, is dedicated to fulfilling this goal. A vast library of questions and tasks, unique content composition for each assessment, and a fully automated scoring system are just a few of the many features we build. Our assessments span a wide variety of formats, from theoretical to practical tasks, ensuring a well-rounded evaluation.

In keeping with the natural progression of our technology, we’ve expanded our capabilities to include live labs. These labs leverage virtual machines and containerized applications, allowing us to create an almost limitless range of practical tasks. This enables us to effectively measure real-world, hands-on skills in a dynamic and interactive environment.

When developing these live labs, we thoroughly researched potential technologies. After careful consideration, we realized that we didn’t require the extensive features of cyber range platforms. Instead, we aimed to build a solution that was both flexible and cost-efficient. Cloud computing was the obvious choice for its scalability and adaptability.

Initially, we considered OpenStack, but the overhead for maintenance and administration proved too high. So, we shifted our focus towards a more efficient approach.

We ultimately settled on a combination of cloud infrastructure and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaaC) solutions. Pulumi, a powerful IaaC tool that has gained significant popularity, caught our attention. The prototype we developed using Pulumi proved to be so convenient and versatile that we committed fully to this direction. One of Pulumi’s biggest advantages is its cloud-agnostic nature, allowing us the freedom to use any platform.

Although Pulumi offers flexibility, we still had to select a cloud provider for the initial stages of development. Fortunately, the choice was straightforward, as we are part of the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub program since June. Taking advantage of the free credits provided by Microsoft, we opted to build our live lab infrastructure using Microsoft Azure.

The first iteration of our Live Labs mechanism, powered by Pulumi and Azure, has exceeded expectations. Once a candidate clicks the “Start Lab Environment Now!” button during an assessment, the environment is ready for use in under two minutes. To ensure seamless access, we offer lab connectivity through either OpenVPN or WireguardVPN, depending on user preferences.

Each lab task is paired with a set of classic questions that guide candidates to perform specific actions on virtual machines. True to our platform’s core principle, all questions, including those within live labs, are scored automatically. This ensures a smooth and objective assessment process for both theoretical and practical tasks.

Ready to see it in action? You can test our Azure Live Labs right now! Visit our public instance and click the “Azure Live Lab (Easy)” button in the demo section here.

Experience the future of skills assessment, where practical knowledge meets cutting-edge technology.