Browser-based SOC analyst labs that tier-2 engineering colleges can run in class
TL;DR Rangewright gives engineering colleges outside the big metros a ready-made defensive security lab. Students triage alerts, hunt through logs and contain fake attacks in a browser, as teams, during class hours. Colleges pay per student per year, and employers get verified skill scores, which is the real reason a college would buy.
Indian employers keep saying they can't find people who can actually do the work. In DSCI's 2026 survey, 73% of enterprises reported a shortage of skilled candidates and 63% said applicants lack hands-on skills, and 84% need one to six months to fill a security role[1]. ISC2's India study found 97% of teams report at least one skills gap, and the gap is now more about skills than headcount[2].
Meanwhile most college cyber courses are taught from slides. A student in Nagpur or Salem can pass a security elective without ever reading a real firewall log or writing a detection rule. That's the problem in one line.
Rangewright is a browser lab built for the work entry-level hires actually do in a security operations centre - reading alerts, separating noise from attacks, tracing a phishing email to a compromised laptop and writing up an incident in time to meet CERT-In's six-hour reporting rule[3]. Each lab runs on cloud machines the college doesn't have to maintain.
The game layer is team defence. A class splits into squads that defend a simulated company for a 90-minute session while the platform throws attacks at them. Scores reward correct calls and penalise noise. A faculty dashboard maps each lab to the syllabus so it can count toward internal marks.
The seed called for immersive learning, and I dropped virtual reality. Headsets cost more than these colleges can spend and the skill is reading screens, not walking around a 3D room. Immersion here means realistic logs, live pressure and a team clock.
The college pays, from its lab or training-and-placement budget, and the students are the users. Employers and staffing firms are a second payer for access to verified scores. For reference, one popular global lab platform charges individuals €10.50 a month billed annually (about ₹1,140)[4], which plenty of Indian students skip. Rangewright would price per student per year at a level a college can recover through a lab fee.
Hiring demand has moved from headcount to hands-on skill, according to ISC2's September 2026 India data[2]. CERT-In's six-hour reporting and 180-day log rules force Indian companies to run real monitoring[3], and that creates entry-level analyst jobs. Cloud lab costs have also fallen enough that a college needs only browsers and internet.
There is no public figure for what Indian colleges spend on cyber labs. The demand side is firmer, with 63% of enterprises citing weak hands-on skills in candidates[1]. Will students practise? Global platforms say yes - one claims more than 9 million learners and 800 organisations[4]. Treat that as an adjacent signal, not your market.
One global hacking-lab platform sells a university programme with 1,000+ labs, CTF tools and professor dashboards, priced on request[5]. Another sells to individuals and businesses[4]. Both lean toward offensive skills and students who already pay in dollars.
The gap is a defensive, SOC-first lab priced and supported for Indian tier-2 colleges, with faculty help and scores employers care about.
| Difficulty | Moderate (35/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹55–95 L |
| Time to launch | 6–9 months |
The hardest technical part is realistic attack traffic and logs that grade themselves. The hardest business part is college sales, because decisions follow the academic calendar, faculty need training and placement results take a full year to show. Budget for a long first year.
No licence is needed to sell labs to colleges. Credits and student data need some care.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't let AI award final marks or decide what employers see. Faculty and students should control both.
Want to work out the AI layer for Rangewright? Talk to Yash →
Here's what can go south -
I think this is worth a shot for a founder who has worked in a SOC and has taught. If you're hoping to sell a content library without supporting faculty then it isn't for you. Prove one thing first - that three employers will interview students on the strength of a Rangewright score.
Plan for roughly ₹55–95 L, most of it on building the labs, cloud machines and faculty support.
No licence. Credit-bearing courses need each college's approval, and you need DPDP consent for minors, plus company registration and GST.
Yes. Colleges in many countries struggle to give students hands-on SOC practice. Check local student data rules and how credits are approved.
The free Rangewright validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the rules checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for colleges and employers, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Rangewright or something close to it? The make-or-break work is getting employers to trust the scores, because that is what colleges are really buying. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.