CARY – INE announced this week that it has bought Pentester Academy, provider of a cloud-based “hands-on lab platform.”

The deal will “accelerate” the company’s scenario-based training tools, INE said in a statement, including training for cybersecurity, networking, data science, DevOps, and cloud computing.

“We are supercharging that experience by opening the door to a virtual arcade of game-changing interactive labs across Cyber Security, Cloud, Networking, and DevOps,” said INE’s CEO Richard McLain. “The cloud-based labs are cutting-edge, competitive, immersive, and unlike anything on the market.”

The Pentester Academy platform already contains more than 2,200 hands-on labs with more than 1,500 videos, as well as bootcamp-style programs, the company noted in a statement.

Those programs will be offered along with INE’s current course offerings, which the company noted included more than 18,000 on-demand videos, plus study guides, quizzes, projects, workbooks, and certification courses.

The result, according to the company, is that the deal will now provide the platform for “students from both platforms and all skill sets to continue accelerating their IT careers.”

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One key area of focus, both for INE and for Pentester Academy, is cybersecurity training.  Pentester Academy was founded by Vivek Ramachandran, who serves in an honorary role as a Microsoft Regional Director for Cybersecurity.

Ramachandran noted in a statement that the company’s focus for a decade was to become “a pioneer of online Cyber Security training.”

Ramachandran said that the deal with INE was a natural partnership.