Indira Group of Institutes Achieves 40% Savings with Secure and Scalable Virtual Learning Solution on AWS

Indira Group of Institutes, founded in Pune, India in 1994, is a multidisciplinary educational institution focused on students’ holistic development. With 15 colleges and over 15,000 students, Indira Group of Institutes offers programs in management, IT, communications, acting, engineering, pharmacy, architecture, science, aviation, and commerce.

Indira Group of Institutes recently introduced cybersecurity courses, which required students to practice their skills in computer labs across various campuses. To support this, the institution sought to provide a secure, simulated environment where students could practice cybersecurity techniques, including hacking. Santosh Kumar, chief technology officer at Indira Group of Institutes, explains, “For hands-on practical sessions, using physical computers to simulate attacks is challenging because it could put our internal IT network at risk.” Indira Group of Institutes also needed virtual computer labs to accommodate the growing demand for off-campus education. Kumar adds, “We needed a cloud lab solution to provide scalable, flexible access to resources, enhance learning, reduce costs, and transcend geographical barriers.”

Indira Group of Institutes, which hosts its learning management system and 13 college websites on Amazon Web Services (AWS), chose to work with Operisoft, an AWS Partner, to create a new AWS-based virtual lab solution. Operisoft, which provides data analytics, migration projects, and generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) solutions for global customers, had already worked with Indira Group of Institutes on previous cloud projects. “Operisoft has a great technical team, and we trusted them to successfully implement our vision for virtual labs on the cloud,” Kumar says.

Operisoft helped Indira Group of Institutes create and implement a solution called Cloud Labs using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) and Amazon AppStream 2.0, which provides secure and scalable access to non-persistent desktops and applications from anywhere. With Cloud Labs, 200 mechanical and electrical engineering students at the Indira College of Engineering & Management can virtually access six different labs with 20 installed applications. The solution provides separate environments, meaning students can perform computer labs from home or any off-campus location.

To meet the institution’s cybersecurity education requirements, Operisoft implemented a Cybersecurity Lab on AWS, providing 500 students at the Indira College of Commerce and Science secure remote access to courses within an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC). On the lab, students can use testing tools like Kali Linux to simulate and stop cyberattacks. Jay Joshi, alliances manager at Operisoft, explains, “We created a virtual lab on AWS where students can practice attacking a machine and applying multiple defense strategies from anywhere, replicating the physical lab experience.” The solution enhances security by preventing students from experimenting on the internal Indira Group of Institutes network.

Indira Group of Institutes can now deliver a fully virtual educational experience, so students gain computer and cybersecurity training without the need for a physical classroom or lab environment. Iqbal Ajmeri, director of engineering services at Operisoft, comments, “This provides a better learning experience while giving students the practical hands-on learning they need.” Indira Group of Institutes has also simplified IT management because the Operisoft solution is automatically deployed and can be deleted once each student’s training session is over.

In addition, the Operisoft solution has reduced costs for the institution, which no longer has to procure and manage physical servers to support computer labs. “Previously, we had to upgrade our computers every three years,” Kumar says. “Now, all we need to do is change instance configurations, and we’re done. We’re seeing cost savings of up to 40 percent per year by using Operisoft Cloud Labs on AWS.”

The scalability of the Operisoft solution also makes it easier for Indira Group of Institutes to accommodate more students in cybersecurity and computer lab courses. “The number of students taking courses is very dynamic,” Kumar explains. “For example, there might be 20 students in practical cybersecurity courses one day and 200 students the next day—and we can quickly scale to support this increase with Operisoft and AWS.”

Indira Group of Institutes and Operisoft are now working on additional projects, including moving the school’s enterprise resource planning system to AWS and storing CCTV camera footage on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). Kumar states, “We’re looking forward to expanding our computer labs to other programs, and we’re confident Operisoft and AWS will help us meet our needs in the future.”