Cost-Effective Alternatives

Cloud Hosting

Deploy lab in cloud for better performance:

AWS:

• Use spot instances for cost savings

• Store snapshots in S3

• Estimate: $100-200/month

Azure:

• Use trial credits

• Good for hybrid AD scenarios

• Estimate: $150-250/month

DigitalOcean/Vultr:

• Cheaper than AWS/Azure

• Estimate: $50-100/month

Dedicated Hardware

Buy used server hardware:

• Dell PowerEdge R720 (~$300-500 used)

• 64-128GB RAM

• Run Proxmox or ESXi as hypervisor

• One-time cost, unlimited usage

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