Access hands-on labs for free via the internet

This resource has been around for some time, but it's something I forgot about until recently. There are a ton of virtual machine labs that you can access from a browser. This is a great way to either try out some technology scenarios, do some "just in time" training, or give a quick demo to colleagues, customers etc. There's nothing to set up, and no installation is required (apart from an ActiveX control on your PC). As well as your own fully functioning lab for a given product, you get a downloadable manual to walk you through key scenarios plus a 90-minute block of time for each scenario module.

I used this the other day to very quickly show a customer how BitLocker can be implemented and managed on Vista using group policy - no need to fire up a VM from my laptop, I was able to have the customer run through the scenario themselves from their own computer at a time that suited them.

Some of the products covered are Vista, Office, Exchange, SQL, MIIS, ISA, MOSS and Biztalk. There are quite a few others too. The link is https://www.microsoft.com/events/vlabs/default.mspx.