New: Palo Alto Networks Firewall

No matter how hard we try, there's always going to be threats to our networks and data. That's why it's never a bad idea to learn as many preventative measures as you can. Start watching Scott Morris' recently released "Palo Alto Networks Firewall" course to learn an increasingly popular firewall technology. During this 34-video course, Scott walks you through the ins and outs of Palo Alto Networks firewall technology, including security polices, interfaces, and more!

We caught up with Scott to get some of his thoughts on his new course, including how to get the most out of it

Q: Why should companies train their IT professionals in this technology? What value does it bring? That very much depends on what type of company we are talking about! Consulting groups should always be looking to expand their employees' skill sets as it leads to a distinct improvement in customer satisfaction and billable work! And potentially new markets as well. For enterprises, this will vary greatly based on their network design. Palo Alto Networks is very much increasing their foothold into the firewall market, so we are seeing more and more implementations of this equipment. It is always better to have an understanding of how things function before the day that you actually need to support them!

New technologies are never anything to be afraid of. So let's learn together how to better support users and applications in a secure fashion!

Q: From a student-perspective, what did you keep in mind when creating this course? Well, as always, I try to keep in mind that everyone comes from a different starting point, and may have a different ending point in mind as well. All of the technology that I work with, my goal is to get people to a level of understanding where they will be both comfortable and successful in implementing the necessary pieces in a functional environment. It's one thing just to rattle off network trivia and be able to spout useless facts. It's another to actually be faced with an implementation task, be able to figure it out, and achieve the appropriate solution! If we can't actually USE the skills we are learning, what is the point?

Q: Any outside-of-the-box tips for students to get the most out of your course? As always, practice, practice, practice. Within the various Nuggets, I do describe how to obtain the VM version and to set up your own environment to enhance your learning capabilities. Watching videos and/or reading information without any actual hands-on/brain-engaged activities will quickly lead to losing any learned skills. I'm all about keeping the information learned in a handy, accessible format for future success!

Q: What's one real-world application someone can expect to use, thanks to this course? The ability to ascertain their own security needs and implement a basic Palo Alto Networks firewall into their environment! Obviously, mileage may vary, so don't expect to have every single complicated scenario successfully solved. But the building blocks are here and we can keep adding to it. For many common environments, students will absolutely be able to feel comfortable in implementation.

Q: What was your favorite Nugget to create? Oooh! That's always a tough one! They are all fun to do! I enjoy what I'm doing. I guess I'd have to say the last one (as in the one I created last) because that marked the end of this course and its release to the public in a fully available setting.

Q: What roadblocks did you come across when creating this training and how did you overcome them? Hehehe! What is life without roadblocks, right? For me, the roadblocks came inside my virtual environment. I may have been overshooting in terms of some of the examples I wanted to lay out, but in the end, I overloaded my ESXi server and it wasn't happy with me. So midcourse, I upgraded my VM hardware fairly significantly. In doing that, I got to learn ALL the fun and exciting nuances about how NOT to transfer VM licenses.

Nothing insurmountable, but it just led to a couple of long days.

Q: What's the ONE thing you hope learners take away from this training? I always hope to expand peoples' capabilities and abilities! But more importantly, I hope that people feel GOOD about the information, and comfortable with their knowledge. That means that I have successfully done something to help the learner(s) be successful!

Start watching this course today!

Pssst-need some more convincing? Here's Scott's five reasons YOU should learn Palo Alto tech.