Cybersecurity Home Labs - Getting Started in 2025! Lessons learned from 25 years - good, bad, ugly!

Having a home lab is essential for cybersecurity and learning technology. In this 2 hour session we’ll go over different types of home labs, and the pros/cons of each one. Learn how to build the best home lab for YOU and what YOU want to learn. We’ll be looking at cost, functionality, and maintenance levels of each option. Don’t spend huge amounts of money to build a lab to compete with strangers on r/homelab just to have it collect dust or purchase you’ll regret. Neil Desai has spent 25 years in cybersecurity. He has worked on the defensive/engineering side his entire career. Having grown up with the cybersecurity space gives him a unique perspective. Website: https://leveleffect.com Discord:   / discord   Twitch:   / leveleffect   Newsletter & Blog: https://news.leveleffect.com/ LinkedIn:   / leveleffect   Neil socials:   / neildesai1024   https://x.com/0x617075 Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Welcome & Introduction 00:01:34 - Introducing Guest Neil Desai 00:04:12 - Live Demo Transition 00:04:50 - Home Lab Overview & Demo 00:05:16 - Neil’s Home Lab Journey 00:07:02 - Rethinking Lab Goals & Design 00:09:23 - Working “In” vs “On” Your Lab 00:13:03 - Hardware Costs & Energy Considerations 00:18:13 - Virtualization & Cloud Options 00:22:21 - Cloud Pricing Breakdown (AWS, Azure, GCP) 00:29:18 - Azure & Google Cloud VM Setup 00:31:04 - AWS Cloud Lab Setup & RDP Configuration 00:42:25 - Managing Cloud Costs & Data Transfer 00:46:08 - Lab Automation with Ludus 00:48:41 - Defining Learning Goals for Your Lab 00:57:27 - Using Snapshots to Safeguard Your Lab 01:28:51 - Cloud vs Local Home Lab Considerations 01:44:04 - Documenting Your Home Lab & Q&A 01:56:42 - End of Stream & Closing Remarks