F5 NGINX Enhances and Scales Product Education with Instruqt’s Hands-on Labs

Customer Overview

F5 NGINX delivers cloud-native, Kubernetes-friendly open-source and enterprise solutions that drive mission-critical apps and APIs with scalability, visibility, security, and governance.

Based in San Francisco, F5 NGINX’s customers include Adobe, CapitalOne, Groupon, ING, and Zendesk. Its rich ecosystem includes cloud provider partners like AWS, Google Cloud, Red Hat, and Microsoft Azure.

Challenge

F5 NGINX's product marketing team faced challenges in providing hands-on, scalable, and engaging user training environments. Manual processes, like creating lab environments, managing logins, and troubleshooting issues, consumed valuable time and resources. Additionally, NGINX needed a solution catering to users new to Kubernetes and those more experienced and ready to experiment.

Solution

The team discovered Instruqt through a peer recommendation, and Instruqt's cloud-native compatibility aligned perfectly with F5 NGINX's needs. Instruqt proved to be the ideal solution for F5 NGINX, offering several key benefits:

• Ease of setup - Instruqt flexible platform makes setting up demos and labs quick, reducing the time spent on numerous technical configurations and permissions and allowing for easy content updates.‍
• Self-service capability - The F5 NGINX team could build their labs in Instruqt’s intuitive platform without extensive support.‍
• Detailed reporting and analytics - Instruqt's granular performance tracking capabilities help the team identify where participants excelled or struggled, providing valuable insights for content improvement and optimization. ‍
• Accessibility - Instruqt's web-based platform eliminates the need for users to download or install software, creating a more frictionless learning experience for users.

Results

F5 NGINX saw numerous benefits after integrating Instruqt into their training and marketing efforts:

• Increased participation - The team noted higher engagement during webinars and workshops, with participants more actively involved in hands-on learning.
• Enhanced product education - By creating an immersive learning experience with Instruqt’s labs, F5 NGINX improved product education through higher retention and adoption amongst its users.
• Better use of resources - Instruqt's platform allowed F5 NGINX to efficiently scale their hands-on training efforts, eliminating individual, time-consuming manual setups.

F5 NGINX continues to use Instruqt for hands-on demos at industry events and aims to expand its training labs across its product portfolio, including NGINX Open Source (both within and outside Kubernetes environments).

Editor’s note: This case study was updated and republished in 2024 and reflects F5 NGINX’s Instruqt implementation at the time of its original publication.