Compare Project Ares vs. VLAB Works

At ACI Learning, we don’t just teach IT and cybersecurity—we prepare you to thrive in the real world. Our training is hands-on, outcome-focused, and built to give you the practical skills that matter most, from immersive labs and certification prep to expert-led lessons by pros who’ve been in your shoes. Whether you’re leading a team or leveling up your own career, myACI—our dynamic training platform—turns learning into doing. It’s where knowledge meets performance. With virtual labs, engaging video content, and gamified elements like skill points and microcredentials, learners stay motivated and career-ready. Managers get powerful dashboards and reporting tools to track progress and align training with business goals. Trusted by companies around the world, myACI also offers Marketplace access to expand learning beyond IT and cyber. Scalable, flexible, and built for today’s learners, ACI Learning helps you grow your people, boost retention, and show the ROI of every training dollar.

CBT Nuggets has been a leader in on-demand IT training for more than 25 years. Subscribers have 24/7 access to training from trusted vendors like Cisco, Microsoft, AWS, and more. Our training library also offers office productivity courses for project managers, and end user courses on security best practices, Microsoft Office, and more. The CBT Nuggets training team has years of experience in their respective fields — these are certified experts in fields like networking, wireless, cybersecurity, data analytics, AI and machine learning, and more. Many CBT Nuggets courses map to IT certification exams, which are an excellent resource for those who want to become certified. As an on-the-job resource, CBT Nuggets training breaks down tricky technical topics into specific skills. Teams and training admins can assign videos to employees and track their progress. Whatever your goal, CBT Nuggets provides the training needed to be successful in your job.

FirstWave’s NMIS is a network management system that provides fault, performance, configuration management, performance graphs, and threshold alerts. Business rules allow for highly specific notification policies that can be used with multiple notification methods. FirstWave also enables partners, including some of the world’s largest telcos and managed service providers (MSPs), to protect their customers from cyber-attacks, while rapidly growing cybersecurity services revenues at scale. FirstWave provides a comprehensive end-to-end solution for network discovery, management, and cybersecurity for its partners globally.

ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform provides extensive application control with features like ring-fencing and selective elevation, ensuring meticulous execution management. Offering learning mode and extensive support, it integrates threat detection and activity monitoring to enhance compliance, reduce costs, and bolster cybersecurity through alerts and approvals. Despite its strengths, there are areas for improvement in training flexibility, policy updates, and interface enhancements, along with challenges in handling non-digitally signed software. Deployed across environments, it works well with existing cybersecurity instruments for real-time threat prevention.

Adaptive Security is OpenAI’s investment for AI cyber threats. The company was founded in 2024 by serial entrepreneurs Brian Long and Andrew Jones. Adaptive has raised $50M+ from investors like OpenAI, a16z and executives at Google Cloud, Fidelity, Plaid, Shopify, and other leading companies. Adaptive protects customers from AI-powered cyber threats like deepfakes, vishing, smishing, and email spear phishing with its next-generation security awareness training and AI phishing simulation platform. With Adaptive, security teams can prepare employees for advanced threats with incredible, highly customized training content that is personalized for employee role and access levels, features open-source intelligence about their company, and includes amazing deepfakes of their own executives. Customers can measure the success of their training program over time with AI-powered phishing simulations. Hyper-realistic deepfake, voice, SMS, and email phishing tests assess risk levels across all threat vectors. Adaptive simulations are powered by an AI open-source intelligence engine that gives clients visibility into how their company's digital footprint can be leveraged by cybercriminals. Today, Adaptive’s customers include leading global organizations like Figma, The Dallas Mavericks, BMC Software, and Stone Point Capital. The company has a world class NPS score of 94, among the highest in cybersecurity.

A10 Defend Threat Control is a SaaS component within the A10 suite. It offers a DDoS attack map in real-time and a proactive, detailed list DDoS weapons. A10 Defend Threat control is unlike other tools that are available today, which provide convenience but at the expense of false positives or false negatives. It provides insights into attackers and victims, analytics and vectors, trends and other characteristics. This helps organizations establish a stronger security posture by providing actionable insights that block malicious IPs who can launch DDoS attacks.

The HYPERSECURE Platform by DriveLock is designed to fortify IT systems against cyber threats. Just as securing your home is a given, protecting business-critical data and endpoints should be seamless. DriveLock’s advanced security solutions ensure full lifecycle data protection, combining state-of-the-art technology with deep industry expertise. Unlike traditional security models that rely on patching vulnerabilities, the DriveLock Zero Trust Platform proactively prevents unauthorized access. With centralized policy enforcement, only authorized users and endpoints gain access to essential data and applications—strictly adhering to the never trust, always verify principle.

Cynet equips MSPs and MSSPs with a fully managed, all-in-one cybersecurity platform that brings together essential security functions in a single, user-friendly solution. By consolidating these capabilities, Cynet simplifies cybersecurity management, reduces complexity, and lowers costs, eliminating the need for multiple vendors and integrations. With multi-layered breach protection, Cynet delivers robust security for endpoints, networks, and SaaS/Cloud environments, ensuring comprehensive defense against evolving threats. Its advanced automation enhances incident response, enabling swift detection, prevention, and resolution. Supported by a 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC), Cynet’s CyOps team provides continuous monitoring and expert guidance to keep client environments secure. Partnering with Cynet allows you to deliver cutting-edge, proactive cybersecurity services while improving operational efficiency. See how Cynet can redefine your security offerings and empower your clients today.

Criminal IP is a cyber threat intelligence search engine that detects vulnerabilities in personal and corporate cyber assets in real time and allows users to take preemptive actions. Coming from the idea that individuals and businesses would be able to boost their cyber security by obtaining information about accessing IP addresses in advance, Criminal IP's extensive data of over 4.2 billion IP addresses and counting to provide threat-relevant information about malicious IP addresses, malicious links, phishing websites, certificates, industrial control systems, IoTs, servers, CCTVs, etc. Using Criminal IP’s four key features (Asset Search, Domain Search, Exploit Search, and Image Search), you can search for IP risk scores and vulnerabilities related to searched IP addresses and domains, vulnerabilities for each service, and assets that are open to cyber attacks in image forms, in respective order.

Safeguard your personal information with top-tier encryption designed for military use, while enjoying unrestricted access to global websites and streaming services. Hotspot Shield ensures your connection is encrypted and maintains a strict no-logs policy, effectively protecting your identity and sensitive data from potential hackers and cyber threats. Boasting servers in over 80 countries and more than 35 cities, our unique Hydra protocol enhances your VPN experience, delivering swift and secure connections ideal for gaming, streaming, downloading, P2P sharing, and beyond. Experience the peace of mind that comes with knowing your online activities are safe and private. Take control of your digital presence today!