RangeForce

RangeForce
Name	RangeForce
Type	Private
Industry	Cybersecurity training
Founded	2015
Headquarters	Minneapolis, Minnesota
Key people	Rob Schmitz
Products	Cyber Range, Hands-on Labs, Battle Rooms

RangeForce

RangeForce is a private company that provides cloud-based cybersecurity training and exercise platforms designed to simulate cyber incidents for defensive organizations. The company delivers hands-on, gamified training in virtual environments that mirror enterprise networks, supporting practitioner skill development across incident response, threat hunting, and blue team operations. RangeForce's offerings integrate learning management, scenario orchestration, and analytics to help organizations measure workforce proficiency and readiness.

History

RangeForce was founded in 2015 in Minneapolis, Minnesota by cybersecurity practitioners who sought to scale practical cybersecurity exercises beyond traditional classroom and tabletop formats. Early growth coincided with rising demand for workforce upskilling driven by incidents such as the Equifax data breach and regulatory attention stemming from frameworks like the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. The company expanded its product line and global reach through partnerships with managed security providers and government organizations, and announced successive funding rounds that supported engineering and content development. RangeForce has participated in industry events such as RSA Conference and collaborated with standards bodies and training consortia to align exercises with competencies recognized by professional certifications including (ISC)² CISSP and CompTIA Security+.

Products and Services

RangeForce offers a cloud-native cyber range and an array of interactive lab modules delivered as a subscription service. Core products include scenario-based Battle Rooms that emulate realistic incident response and blue team tasks, skill paths mapped to job roles, and a learning management system that tracks individual and team performance. The platform supports role-based exercises for positions recognized by SANS Institute curricula and integrates with external assessment frameworks used by organizations like ISACA and European Union Agency for Cybersecurity. Professional services include curriculum customization, simulation design for red team/blue team exercises, and tabletop-to-live conversion for incident response playbooks used by enterprises such as large financial institutions and critical infrastructure operators.

Technology and Platform

The RangeForce platform is built on cloud virtualization and container orchestration technologies to provision ephemeral environments that replicate enterprise stacks, including Windows Server domains, Linux services, and common enterprise applications. The orchestration layer leverages APIs and infrastructure-as-code approaches similar to those used by cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure to dynamically instantiate lab topologies. Telemetry collection integrates with security tools and standards like MITRE ATT&CK for mapping adversary techniques within exercises, while analytics and reporting use data warehousing and visualization paradigms akin to solutions from Splunk and Elastic (company). The platform supports multi-tenant deployment models for managed service providers and isolated environments for public sector clients working under compliance regimes from agencies like Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Training Curriculum and Methodologies

RangeForce designs curricula around competency-based learning and scenario-driven practice that aligns with professional frameworks used by entities such as NIST and certification vendors including GIAC. Lessons combine guided labs, timed challenges, and team-based Battle Rooms to develop skills in areas like endpoint detection, log analysis, and hunt techniques. Instructional design draws on adult learning principles promoted by institutions like Harvard University's professional development programs and utilizes assessment strategies similar to those recommended by IEEE for technical skill validation. Course maps are organized into skill paths for roles such as security analyst, incident responder, and SOC manager, and content is frequently updated to reflect emerging adversary behaviors documented in reports from organizations like Mandiant and CrowdStrike.

Customers and Partnerships

RangeForce serves a customer base spanning enterprises, managed security service providers, educational institutions, and government agencies. Notable sectors include finance, healthcare, and critical infrastructure operators regulated under constructs like HIPAA and regional directives influenced by GDPR. Strategic partnerships have been formed with security training organizations and technology vendors to integrate lab content with threat intelligence from providers such as Recorded Future and orchestration platforms from firms like ServiceNow. RangeForce alliances with academic programs and workforce development initiatives aim to bridge talent pipelines feeding certification tracks offered by CompTIA and (ISC)².

Funding and Corporate Structure

RangeForce is privately held and has raised venture financing to support product development, global sales, and content creation. Investors include venture capital firms and strategic backers with portfolios spanning cybersecurity and enterprise software, similar to investors that support companies like Lookout and Tanium. Corporate governance typically involves a board of directors drawn from executives with backgrounds at firms such as McAfee, Symantec, and notable technology accelerators. The company operates engineering, curriculum, and professional services teams from its headquarters in Minneapolis and remote locations, and it participates in industry consortia and public–private initiatives aimed at workforce development in cybersecurity.

Category:Cybersecurity companies Category:Companies established in 2015 Category:Training organizations