Besides Articles, Books, and RSS, here are a few other training materials that I have found very useful.

 

• Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) : Want a complete walk through on a core technology (like Hyper-V, SCCM, Windows Server)? Then MVA will be a great starting point! Each technology track (class) contains reading material, video, and hands-on labs. Microsoft has done a great job of pulling many different types of learning material into a central place.

 

• TechNet Virtual Labs: If you are more of a “dive in and figure it out kind of person”, TechNet Virtual Labs are for you. Each lab provides you with objectives and an entire virtual environment for testing. If you get stuck on setting something up, tutorials are also available. As a bonus, I often uses the labs to verify default configurations between a production environment.

 

• Free eBooks: Microsoft releases a lot of eBooks or eBook samples for free! Because I haven’t read all of them, they aren’t listed on my Top Books page. Either way, this is a great (free) resource. 4Sysops also has a great eBook collection.