Ouch!!
Just renewed my Technet subscription last month. The cheapest MSDN is €750 up front and €535 per year thereafter. Bit of a hike but something I might consider. Or just build and license as many server 2012 R2 instances as I can before my subs goes dark! The main reason I subscribed is to have a legal licensed copy of windows for long term labs, save me rebuilding every other week. I think this is mainly a move by Microsoft to bludgeon piracy, but that's just my opinion. With nothing equivalent out there from VMware or others it narrows the field and makes me consider alternatives, leverage work to pay for it or look at appliances which don't use windows. I've been using the vCenter appliance for labs more recently and found it very suitable for that purpose. Guess I'll revert to SQL Express, easy option in my opinion. I think the timing is good in that new network and storage appliances are on the way and Microsoft will be just one choice among many for certain features before long.....
Mike