I've actually been toying with the idea of getting a technet subscription. Right now, they are $250 for a year. At that price, I would have access to Windows 7 before it comes out, access to the full versions of Windows servers, Office, etc. And from what i understand, the licenses are perpetual, so when your 1 year is up, you can still use whatever apps you downloaded and used during the subscription.
With Win7 Ultimate costing $220 to uprade, $250 for technet is sounding pretty darn good.