Discover how VMware Lab Platform solves the problem of delivering quality, hands-on software training when your students are all remote. This article explores the key features and benefits of the end-to-end digital learning platform.
The exponential growth in remote work is causing a rethink of how software vendors deliver training programs. As we explored in our previous article, face-to-face, hands-on lessons are no longer possible. Here, we look at how VMware Lab Platform solves this problem – giving software vendors and educators a powerful new way to get their course content out to students, no costly lab infrastructure or complex management required.
What is VMware Lab Platform?
VMware Lab Platform enables the swift delivery of hands-on lab content to anyone, anywhere, at cloud scale. The end-to-end digital learning environment takes care of the entire technology stack within the SaaS offering – including infrastructure, provisioning, user management and entitlement, lab lifecycle, manual delivery, and creation.
With VMware Lab Platform looking after all these behind-the-scenes tasks – and ensuring lab environments are fully available and ready to go for new students at any time – software vendors and subject matter experts can focus on creating quality content and supporting their learners as they progress through courses.
What types of learning are possible?
Recognizing that everyone learns in different ways – and some subject matters are better suited to instructor-led sessions than others – the VMware Lab Platform is capable of delivering a wide range of learning methods, including:
- On-demand
- Instructor-led
- Live lab hosted events
- Shared cyber range training
- Software demo and evaluation / POC environments
As well as virtual labs, lessons can include video content, social media access and more; and, with support for 12 languages, you can truly deliver classes globally.
Flexible user experience and cloud delivery options
VMware Lab Platform is complementary to most leading Learning Management Systems (LMS) and is Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) compliant for education technology – giving you more control over user experience, without additional work at your end to upload your training programs and content into the system. The platform also comes with a rich set of APIs, making it easy to create any kind of user experience you can imagine.
Another advantage? With VMware Lab Platform, you can choose to extend your own cloud infrastructure or use a hybrid model using VMware to host your lab environments, giving you flexibility for even the most complex labs use cases.
Via the platform, users can log in, browse your catalogs of labs, and enroll in whichever they choose. They then get live, virtual access to the appropriate operating system and software relevant to their course. Course managers can access real-time statistics and historical data, and detailed reports about users’ progress.
Key capabilities of VMware Lab Platform
- Access from anywhere
Training content is accessible universally, at any time, on most devices with a modern HTML5 browser. No installers or plugins are needed – users can train on anything that can be installed on an operating system. - A powerful virtual lab
Supports complex multi-VM configurations and almost all guest operating systems, with a true VM “console” for advanced uses. - Hybrid Cloud scale
From one lab to thousands of labs, you can deliver as many VMs as you need. Extend your own infrastructure to support even the most complex labs use cases. The event management module makes it easy to manage large scale events, too.
Getting started
VMware Lab Platform does offer a free 30-day trial. Reach out to [email protected] to get started today.
