About
Lumify Learn is a registered training organization (RTO) delivering online IT courses across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. As part of the Lumify Group—APAC’s largest vendor accreditation provider—Lumify Learn specializes in certificate and diploma-level qualifications as well as vendor-specific boot camps for IT professionals. With a mission to provide real-world skills and meet the accreditation requirements, Lumify Learn operates entirely online, catering to diverse time zones and student needs.
Learn more about Lumify Learn at https://lumifylearn.com/
Challenge
When COVID-19 accelerated the demand for online learning, Lumify Learn faced significant challenges scaling their infrastructure to meet the needs of a growing student base. Their initial solution relied on self-managed servers and student-owned hardware, which proved inadequate due to:
- Inconsistent student hardware capabilities impacting lab performance.
- Existing infrastructure was unable to handle increased concurrent users.
- The need for complex, real-world IT labs that weren’t supported by other platforms.
We needed to provide hands-on, practical IT training, but our infrastructure couldn’t keep up with demand.
Aline Kokotovic, Team Leader for Trainers, Lumify Learn.
Solution
Lumify Learn partnered with Heropa to deliver scalable, customizable virtual labs that met the rigorous requirements of their training programs.
- Flexibility: Support for complex, real-world scenarios using bare-metal servers, nested Hyper-V, and broken environments to simulate troubleshooting tasks.
- Seamless LMS Integration: Single sign-on functionality with Moodle allowed students to easily access labs.
- Scalability: Capacity to handle hundreds of concurrent users with zero performance degradation.
- Trainer Tools: Features like over-the-shoulder assistance, notes, and environment resets enabled trainers to monitor and support students effectively.
How we helped
Heropa enabled Lumify Learn to create highly dynamic and flexible training environments that cater to diverse student needs. Key aspects included:
- Tailored Labs for Real-World Scenarios: Heropa allowed Lumify Learn to design labs that mirrored real-world IT challenges, such as configuring load balancers, setting up Hyper-V virtual machines, and managing complex networking tasks. Students tackled practical issues like fixing broken environments, troubleshooting misconfigured servers, and resolving security vulnerabilities.
- Safe and Isolated Environments: Each student environment was completely isolated, ensuring that mistakes would only affect their own instance. This design gave students the confidence to experiment freely without fear of disrupting others or permanently damaging their progress. The ability to reset environments instantly further reinforced this sense of safety, allowing students to focus on learning and problem-solving.
- Set-and-Forget Lab Management: Once lab templates were created, trainers could rely on Heropa’s robust infrastructure to handle the rest. Labs would run automatically, with lifecycle policies managing suspension and deletion based on activity, reducing the administrative burden for trainers. This streamlined approach allowed trainers to revisit and update labs only when they wanted to introduce new scenarios.
- Trainer Oversight: Heropa’s over-the-shoulder assistance capabilities enabled trainers to monitor student progress in real time, identify where students were struggling, and provide targeted guidance. This oversight not only improved learning outcomes but also strengthened the relationship between students and instructors.
- Rapid Iteration for New Training Ideas: Trainers could experiment with new exercises and scenarios quickly and efficiently. For example, creating a virtual network of machines without connectivity or setting up environments with simulated load balancers provided students with unique challenges that enhanced their learning experience.
- Ease of Modification: Heropa’s platform allowed trainers to regularly update and customize labs, ensuring that exercises remained fresh and relevant. Instructors could introduce new configurations or issues, such as crypto-locked files or misconfigured DHCP and DNS settings, to keep students engaged.
Results
With Heropa, Lumify Learn achieved measurable improvements across their training programs:
- 15-20 average monthly graduates completing courses and finding IT roles.
- High engagement in technical units with completion times reduced to 2-3 weeks for practical assessments.
- Enhanced scalability: allowing up to five concurrent instances per student with no performance impact.
Heropa’s flexibility allows us to provide practical, hands-on IT training while giving students the confidence to learn without fear of breaking anything.
Aline Kokotovic
The ability to host concurrent users without degradation in performance proved transformative for Lumify Learn. Students could independently run resource-intensive environments, including multi-server setups and nested virtualization, which were previously impossible due to hardware limitations. Heropa’s scalable infrastructure allowed trainers to simulate high-performance scenarios like configuring load balancers, setting up virtual networks, and implementing security protocols—skills critical for IT professionals.
Outlook
Lumify Learn continues to innovate with Heropa, exploring new features such as:
- Direct access to disposable cloud accounts with cost guardrails.
- Expanded use of virtualized environments across AWS and Azure.
- Further customization of labs to meet evolving industry standards and student needs.
The platform’s flexibility ensures that Lumify Learn can adapt to future challenges, enabling the organization to test and deploy new training concepts quickly. This capability allows Lumify Learn to stay ahead of industry trends, ensuring students graduate with skills that meet current market demands.
The ability to scale and adapt labs to real-world scenarios sets Lumify Learn apart, and Heropa is central to that success.
Aline Kokotovic
Graduates per month completing certification & securing IT roles
15-20
Concurrent Instances per Student with no performance issues
5
Alignment to Government requirements
100%
The flexibility Heropa offers - whether it’s running Hyper-V, AWS, or Azure environments - is a game-changer for our IT training programs.
Aline Kokotovic
Trainer & Assessor, Lumify Learn
