The cybersecurity industry faces a historic workforce challenge. The global cybersecurity workforce gap exceeds 4.8 million unfilled positions, with roughly 67% of organizations actively reporting severe staffing shortages. (StationX, May, 2026) With cybersecurity jobs projected to grow 33% this decade, colleges and universities must evolve rapidly to prepare the next generation of defenders.
IBM Cyber Campus, powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and platformed by Cloud Range and Cyviz, addresses the challenge. This cloud-powered solution combines the cybersecurity expertise of IBM with the global cloud infrastructure of AWS to deliver scalable, immersive cyber training experiences that mirror the pace and complexity of real-world defense.
Cybersecurity education that meets workforce realities
IBM and AWS, along with Cloud Range and Cyviz, share a common mission: building the cyber workforce required to secure the world’s critical systems. This collaboration brings together IBM’s decades of leadership in cybersecurity innovation with AWS infrastructure agility and reach.
The IBM Cyber Campus uses the AWS secure, elastic cloud infrastructure to enable institutions to deploy fully operational security operations center (SOC) training environments without costly hardware investments. In partnership with Cloud Range and Cyviz, IBM delivers an immersive, cloud-enabled learning experience that combines real-world incident response simulations, analytics-driven learning paths, and collaborative visualization environments aligned with NICE and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) frameworks. This education-to-workforce model establishes a training ground for advanced cybersecurity education, equipping students with hands-on experience defending live cyberattacks and accelerating the development of a skilled, job-ready cybersecurity talent pipeline.
Cloud-enabled learning without limits
IBM Cyber Campus was built to meet the demands of modern cybersecurity education at scale—a globally available platform capable of running multiple simultaneous labs, supporting entire classrooms concurrently and expanding instantly as enrollment grows. AWS delivers the foundational infrastructure that makes this possible:
- Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) work in concert to power the platform’s compute backbone. Amazon EKS orchestrates containerized lab environments across the cluster, and Amazon EC2 provides the underlying dedicated compute capacity that provisions isolated virtual machines for every student, enabling dozens of parallel, hands-on labs to run simultaneously without performance degradation or resource contention.
- Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) and Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) deliver a fully managed, layered storage foundation. Amazon EFS provides a shared file system accessible across all student sessions for lab materials and configurations, and Amazon EBS supplies high performance block storage attached directly to each compute instance for fast, consistent I/O during active exercises.
- AWS Auto Scaling enables the platform to dynamically adjust compute capacity in response to classroom demand—whether onboarding a single cohort or running institution-wide training events—eliminating over-provisioning costs while providing consistent performance at scale.
This architecture removes the need for on-premises infrastructure while preserving enterprise-grade security and operational control. Instructors gain a fully managed environment to design and deploy live, cloud-based SOC and incident-response simulations, enabling entire classrooms to experience cyber defense in action, simultaneously, at scale.
A workforce-ready learning model
IBM Cyber Campus fundamentally transforms how cybersecurity is taught in higher education. It doesn’t replace traditional labs that build foundational skills. The Cyber Campus extends learning beyond the lab environment to deliver career-level experience through live, cloud-powered environments where students practice, adapt, and perform like real cybersecurity professionals. Students train on the same enterprise tools—security information and event management (SIEM), intrusion detection systems (IDSs), and analytics platforms—used across the commercial and government sectors.
IBM Cyber Campus recently released the Range 2.0 platform, which delivers concurrent, cloud-powered cybersecurity training with unlimited scalability. It operates as a live, enterprise-grade SOC and includes an extensive commercial catalog of current cyberattack simulations. The scalable architecture supports unlimited simulations and unlimited learners, enabling continuous, parallel hands-on experiences across courses, institutions, educational systems, and states.
Expanding access to cyber education
The IBM Cyber Campus initiative is a strategy to strengthen economies by building cyber talent pipelines, enhancing local workforce readiness, and fostering innovative systems that attract investment and create jobs across industries. By combining IBM cybersecurity consulting, AWS elastic infrastructure, Cloud Range scenario technology, and Cyviz visualization environments, the Cyber Campus delivers a comprehensive, repeatable, cloud-based learning model for academic and workforce development programs worldwide.
For institutions, this model removes cost and complexity barriers. For employers, it builds stronger pipelines and job-ready talent. And for students, it opens the door to real-world cybersecurity experience—available anytime, anywhere, in the cloud.
The Full Sail University IBM cyber defense range powered by AWS and Cloud Range
Full Sail University, located in Winter Park, Florida, recently opened its IBM cyber defense range powered by AWS and Cloud Range. The range is a new campus facility that will help Full Sail’s emerging technologies students gain hands-on experience with the tools and techniques used by professionals in the cybersecurity industry.
In the cyber defense range, students in the Cybersecurity Bachelor of Science Completion Program and the Information Technology Bachelor’s program will experience a simulated cyber environment to safely practice defending networks, responding to cyber incidents and testing security tools without risk to live systems. They can participate in live attack-and-defense exercises, conduct incident response practices, and more. This live scenario training provides Full Sail students with the technical expertise, critical thinking, and collaborative capabilities required in today’s complex security environment.
Shaping the next generation of cyber defenders
IBM Cyber Campus continues to evolve by introducing new modules focused on AI, quantum security, and protection for operational technology (OT) and Internet of Things (IoT). Future initiatives will extend learning pathways into K12 settings, shaping early awareness and expanding diversity in cybersecurity.
“This collaboration modernizes cybersecurity education by giving students hands-on, orchestrated training,” said Shawn Reynolds, IBM Cyber Campus Offering Manager. “We’re transforming classrooms into live cyber ranges—building talent with the skills needed to help make the world more secure.”
Learn how AWS helps institutions build solutions that address cybersecurity education needs. Contact AWS today.
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