Hi Matt
You can get ESXi for free, also seems to be called vSphere Hypervisor now.. probably best you do some research into virtualisation in general if you aren't familiar with VMware.
Most new deployments I do of CUCM etc are based on VMware so it's useful to know.
Immediate benefits to you for a lab are that you can run multiple CUCMs, UCCX etc on a single piece of hardware, and it doesn't have to meet the exacting specs that Cisco provide (you create a virtual machine with a suitable spec and that's all the CUCM install 'sees'). It also means less problems in future when Cisco age out some hardware platforms; typically less of a problem on a virtualised setup, and you can always replace your hardware with whatever is newer but still cheap.
Aaron
Aaron
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