Azure Lab Services

Welcome to a new era of lab building and delivery with Skillable, a cutting edge Lab Platform with all the tools you need to create impactful learning experiences.

As you begin to transition off of Azure Lab Services, we've made every effort to ensure the transition process to our platform is as effortless as possible. With our rich documentation, we aim to guide you through each step of the process and ensure a smooth transition.

Skillable & Azure Lab Services Compatibility

Moving to a new product comes with a number of Challenges. Understanding this, we have strived to make the flow of documentation you may need to follow as close to the original Azure Lab Services documentation as possible. With Skillable Studio, freedom and flexibility are at the core of our platform - you will notice there are very few (if any) settings or configurations you are accustomed to that you cannot achieve.

To make your transition as frictionless as possible, we have provided a script you can execute in Cloud Shell to retrieve an easy import into Skillable Studio as well as the option to export only the important data elements of your Azure labs to manually recreate, in the event you experience an issue with the automated export.

Uninterrupted operations are important to your business, possibly vital. Our primary objective is to ensure there is no disruptions to users. With the combination of Microsoft's retirement period and Skillable's ability to harness your own subscriptions, a seamless transition is fully achievable.

Learn more about how Azure Lab Services compares to Skillable

Skillable Transition Process

As you begin to transition your labs Skillable's services, you will identify a number of pre-existing workflows you must account for. This documentation will help guide you through the process and begin the transition today. Your transition to Skillable can best be broken down into three categories as defined in the following diagram:

Setup & Onboarding (One-Time)

Setup & onboarding tasks are any initial actions necessary to determine your path forward with Skillable and set the stage for your continued success with the product. Once complete, you will be ready to return back to a standard working rhythm of creating new labs and delivering them to your users.

1. Understand Support Offerings
   The first decision to make is what support offering you'd like, Skillable supports a few options, both of which can be supplemented by paid services engagements if desired. There is no direct cost for either support plan (both are free), but Advanced Support will be dependent upon delivery volume.

   Standard Support	Dedicated Support
   This plan is designed for those who prefer a Self-Paced approach and deliver a lower volume of labs. It includes access to comprehensive documentation and a free 24/7 help desk. Optional paid services engagements are available for additional support. This plan requires automatic monthly payments via a credit card.	This plan offers more personalized support, particularly useful if you anticipate delivering a high volume of labs, over 250 students per year. This includes invoiced monthly payments using methods other than credit cards. Customers will have a dedicated account executive and potentially a customer success manager to monitor and optimize the health of their account.

2. Determine Subscription(s) to Use
   The next decision to make is what Azure subscriptions to use. Generally, Skillable recommends using their subscriptions. However, transitioning from Azure lab services it may be beneficial to use your own subscriptions so that you have full control and access into your customized images and compute gallery.

   Bring Your Own Subscriptions

   Use Skillable's Subscriptions

   This option allows you to deploy all virtual machines (VMs) into your own subscriptions. You can use images from the Azure Marketplace or your own Compute Gallery. For cost factors, you pay Azure directly for all compute costs at your company’s Azure rates. Additionally, there is a flat per-hour rate for Skillable’s orchestration engine. This option provides the highest level of flexibility and control over your subscription and cost management.

   With this option, all VMs are deployed into Skillable-owned subscriptions and you can use images only from the Azure Marketplace. For cost factors, you pay Skillable for all Azure compute costs at their Azure rates plus a 20% management fee. There is also a flat per-hour rate for Skillable’s orchestration engine and a one-time setup fee. This option simplifies subscription management, security, and billing by consolidating through Skillable.

3. Transition Existing Labs
   Now onto the exciting part, actually transitioning your labs! There are 2 techniques to do this, and depending on your circumstances both may be necessary. Both techniques harness Azure Cloud Shell to minimize the level of effort required.

   Manual Import	Quick Import
   The manual import technique requires identifying the important data elements in your Azure labs and manually creating labs in Skillable Studio utilizing those data points.	The quick import technique allows you to download a CSV and series of .zip files that you may then upload into Skillable Studio to create a Skillable lab using those same data points.

4. Configure Delivery Platform

   Skillable supports a variety of delivery platforms, from it’s own Training Management System (our) to broad frameworks like LTI and REST API. The Skillable TMS is available for free to any transitioning Azure Lab Services customers without a learning platform of their own - but if you already have a learning destination, consider integrating labs and creating a more seamless experience!

   Skillable TMS	Your Learning Platform
   Skillable offers a full-featured Training Management System that is engineered from the ground up with a focus on labs. It enables delivering complete courses with labs, documents, videos, and other resources for your learners in both self-paced and instructor-led formats.	Integrate with the LMS/LXP of your choice, or your own custom learning portal using LTI 1.3 or Rest API Endpoints. For LMS/LXPs that do not support LTI or API integrations, download SCORM Modules that let your learners launch directly into a lab.

Create & Configure Labs (Recurring)

With the initial decision making and lab transitions complete, you are now ready to continue building additional labs.
In many ways the action of creating labs never ends, it is cyclical. Whether it comes to updating labs that have aged or making brand new ones to support or teach new scenarios - a Skillable lab is comprised of 4 fundamental components: the lab software environment, instructions, skill validation activities, and cost controls.

1. Create Lab Environment

   The environment is the most vital of all components of a lab. This is the virtual machine or other cloud components that comprise the software and scenario the user is learning.

2. Create Instructions Set(s)

   Instruction sets are what tell the user what to do within the lab. Some scenarios (like sandboxes) are very intentionally light on instructions while others may provide learners with specific tasks to accomplish or steps to take.

3. (Optional) Create Skills Validation Activities

   Skills Validation Activities come in Multiple Choice Question (MCQ), Short Answer, and Automated varieties. They all serve a purpose of validating a learner has the knowledge the lab is intending to teach, but automated activities go to the next level and validate not only that they know, but that they can DO.

4. Configure Cost Controls

   Once you know exactly what your scenario looks like and what the learner is anticipated to do, you can start applying cost controls. Cost controls include timers like how long the learner is allowed in the lab and idle time outs as well as full access controls around what they can or cannot do in Microsoft Azure.

Deliver & Access Labs (Recurring)

Once you have built some labs, it’s time to get your learners hands-on! Whether you are using Skillable’s Training Management System (TMS), another LMS/LXP, or a custom platform of your own design - the general workflow is the same. You first make your labs available outside of Skillable Studio & present them in your learning destination, then deliver those labs to your learners, and lastly evaluate if they are doing well and having the outcomes you desire.

1. Publish Labs & Create Courses

   Publishing labs is the action of making them available outside of Skillable Studio, our lab authoring platform, and visible by your learning destination. Then is the process of configuring them (in a course or something else) directly in that platform, with custom API integrations this may be more automated - but if you are using an LMS/LXP this may be an action you have to take for every lab.

2. Deliver Classes or Self-paced

   Once the labs are available in your learning destination, your learners need to access them! This may be via classes or a more self-paced mechanism that allows learners to pick and choose what to do and when to do it.

3. Evaluate Outcomes & Refine Courses

   After your labs/courses have been taken, you can begin evaluating how much your learners are enjoying them. From there you can decide to leave things exactly they as they are, or refine and improve them in any way you see fit.