Ultiblob Learning · career paths on real infrastructure

The console is the classroom.

  1. 01Learn the skills.
  2. 02Practice in real infrastructure.
  3. 03Build evidence.
  4. 04Demonstrate what you can do.

Career paths built from courses and hands-on labs on real virtual machines in Ultiblob's private cloud. You read the runbook, then you do the work — on systems provisioned for you, reached from your browser.

Explore the Infrastructure Pathway: IT support to platform engineering pathRead what we will not promise first
A learner seen from behind at a desk, working in a console window on a single large monitor.

state

Ready

health: healthy · access window open

  1. Requested0 s
  2. Workspace17 s
  3. Provisioning…
  4. Ready4 min 32 s
  5. Console+1.3 s
  6. Released7 s
Resting on the ready state.

New here? Start here

Three steps from your first visit to your first lab.

You do not need an account to look around. Everything below is free until you decide to enrol in a path.

  1. 01

    Pick a career path

    A path is a set of courses in the order to take them, from a stated starting level to a stated outcome. Every path page shows its courses, its lessons, which courses include a hosted lab, the time it takes and the price, before you sign in.

  2. 02

    Read lesson 1 of any course, free

    Open a course and read its first lesson without paying. You will see how a lesson is laid out, how its checks work, and whether the exercises run on a machine we provision for you or on your own computer.

  3. 03

    Enrol once, then follow the path

    One payment opens every course in the path. Your learning home always shows the next lesson; labs launch from the course page and open a console in your browser; a certificate of completion is issued when a course's requirements are met.

What the levels mean

Beginner
No prior experience with the subject is assumed. You need a computer, a browser and the will to type.
Intermediate
You have completed the beginner course on the same path, or already do this work and want to do it properly.
Advanced
You run this in production, or have finished the intermediate courses, and want the design and recovery skills.
Expert
Hardening, failure drills and the decisions a senior engineer is asked to defend.

Inside a path the courses are already in order, so you never have to choose a level yourself: start at the first course and keep going.

Start with Infrastructure Pathway: IT support to platform engineeringBrowse courses

Choose a path

Who do you want to become?

Each path is a sequence of courses and labs, published only when its content is ready. Start with the reference path; others follow as they are released.

All career paths
Three learners at a lab table with laptops and a server on a cart.
No experience neededCertificate4 labs

Infrastructure Pathway: IT support to platform engineering

Ten courses from resetting a password on a helpdesk to running hybrid infrastructure: Windows troubleshooting, networking, Active Directory and PowerShell, Linux, Python scripting, virtualization, Ansible, CI/CD, Azure Local, and platform engineering. Four of the ten include a hosted lab on a real virtual machine.

Courses
10 courses
Lessons
100 lessons
Content time
130 h 10 min

Infrastructure · Software

$299.00introductory price

Three learners at a lab table with laptops and a server on a cart.
No experience neededCertificate1 lab

AI Applications Pathway: Python and SQL to secure deployment

Seven courses from your first Python script to an AI application you can defend in review: Python, SQL, APIs, data preparation, retrieval-based applications, evaluation, and secure deployment and monitoring. Most of the work is done in an editor on your own machine; one course includes a hosted lab.

Courses
7 courses
Lessons
70 lessons
Content time
105 h 10 min

Software · Analytics · Ai

$249.00introductory price

Three learners at a lab table with laptops and a server on a cart.
No experience neededCertificate3 labs

Analytics Pathway: SQL to analytics engineering

Six courses from your first SQL query to the transformation layer an analytics team runs on: SQL, Python for analysis, Power BI reporting, dimensional modeling, dbt pipelines, and data engineering foundations. Three of the six include a hosted lab on a real virtual machine.

Courses
6 courses
Lessons
60 lessons
Content time
82 h 55 min

Analytics · Database

$199.00introductory price

Three learners at a lab table with laptops and a server on a cart.
No experience neededCertificate4 labs

Database Pathway: SQL foundations to data architecture

Six courses that take you from your first SELECT statement to the architecture behind a production data platform: SQL, SQL Server administration, recovery and performance, dimensional modeling, data engineering, and data architecture. Four of the six include a hosted lab on a real virtual machine.

Courses
6 courses
Lessons
60 lessons
Content time
95 h 55 min

Analytics · Database

$199.00introductory price

Three learners at a lab table with laptops and a server on a cart.
No experience neededCertificate5 labs

Defensive Security Pathway: networking and Linux to security engineering

Seven courses from reading a packet capture to engineering the detections a security team runs on: networking, Linux administration, SOC investigation, incident response, detection engineering, security engineering, and the attacker's side of web security. Five of the seven include a hosted lab on a real virtual machine.

Courses
7 courses
Lessons
70 lessons
Content time
106 h 55 min

Infrastructure · Security

$249.00introductory price

Three learners at a lab table with laptops and a server on a cart.
No experience neededCertificate1 lab

Software Pathway: Python to system design

Eight courses from your first Python script to designing a system that has to stay up: Python, Git and containers, APIs and SQL, automated testing, Kubernetes, web security, and system design. Most of the work is done in an editor on your own machine; one course includes a hosted lab.

Courses
8 courses
Lessons
80 lessons
Content time
106 h 20 min

Software · Analytics · Security

$249.00introductory price

How Ultiblob training is different

Read, then do.

Six things happen on every path. The middle two are what a video course cannot give you.

  1. A learner reading a lesson on a tablet beside a keyboard and notebook.
    01

    Learn

    Structured courses with guided lessons, in the order the work actually happens.

  2. Hands typing at a server-room crash cart console.
    02

    Practice

    Launch real infrastructure labs — virtual machines provisioned for you — instead of watching someone else's screen.

  3. A learner walking a mentor through a diagram on a whiteboard.
    03

    Prove

    Complete the course assessment where one exists, and the capstone work where a path defines one.

  4. A desk with a checklist of completed items on screen and in a notebook.
    04

    Build evidence

    Every completed lesson, lab session and assessment is recorded against your account.

  5. A learner holding a folder with a completion document.
    05

    Earn

    Receive an Ultiblob-issued certificate of completion when a course's requirements are met — verifiable by serial.

  6. An engineer walking onto an operations floor with wide monitors.
    06

    Advance

    Move on to the next path as paths are published. We publish a path only when its content is ready.

Inside a lab

You administer the machine. We provision it.

When you launch a lab, the platform creates a private network for you, clones the course's virtual machines from our templates on the Ultiblob cluster in Flint, Michigan, and opens a console in your browser. When you release the lab, the machines are destroyed and your grant stays, so you can launch again while your access window is open.

Workspace
17 s
private network and pool, measured on production
First VM ready
4 min 32 s
Ubuntu 24.04 template, 2 vCPU / 4 GB
Console
in-browser
noVNC over a single-use ticket; no VPN
Access window
per course
shown on the lab page with a countdown

A VM console needs a keyboard and a wide screen — labs are best run from a desktop browser. Reading, progress and lab controls work on a phone.

Rack servers in the Ultiblob private cloud cluster with status lights.

state

Ready

health: healthy · access window open

  1. Requested0 s
  2. Workspace17 s
  3. Provisioning…
  4. Ready4 min 32 s
  5. Console+1.3 s
  6. Released7 s
Resting on the ready state.

Before you decide

What we will not promise

  • A job, a salary, or an employer introduction. We teach and we let you practise; we do not place people.
  • Accreditation. An Ultiblob certificate records what you completed here. It is not an industry certification.
  • Statistics we have not measured. You will not find completion rates, placement rates or student counts on this site until they exist and are audited.

We would rather lose you here than mislead you.

See the Infrastructure Pathway: IT support to platform engineering pathBrowse courses