There are many reasons why someone would want to build a virtualization lab. Two of the most common reasons are the following:

• Exam study: Before you apply for an exam, you need to test everything and be entirely sure about how different components interact. You also need to be confident with the different configuration options and have an awareness of how to perform different tasks.
• Hands-on learning: One of the most common reasons for running a lab is to be able to gain real hands-on experience. You can, of course, read books or watch videos about different components of VMware vSphere, but being able to configure and maintain the environment by yourself is an essential skill.

If you don't wish to run your own lab, there are other options. We'll take a look at a few of these in the following sections.