The reason why you would want to do this, is that basically every business using SQL seriously does exactly this - we have several active/active active/passive clusters - some on hardware, some failing over to VM's, some SQL boxes soley on VM. Having a copy of your work environment at home to work on, try out stuff and basically learn keeps you at the top of your game. Buying Technet, WMWare workstation, a decent i7 machine and a large external drive will cost you loads less than a training course and you will learn so much more. Im currently working working towards my MCITP 2011 for when it finally comes out. And I did exactly the same for when the 2008 exams came out - which I got within a few weeks of the exams becoming available.

Again nice article Perry. Maybe when Ive nocked mine up you could give it a once over?

Cheers

P