Yeah, I kinda guessed that you were talking about something completely different.
The kind of server you are talking about obviously can not be hosted on a local virtual machine. imho that kind of stuff should be hosted in some data center on a stable server. As it contains many of your most valuable assets and losing access (even temporarily) to it could hinder your ability to work, it should have relatively high availability and general reliability.
The kind of server I, and what I believe the article, were talking about is on the other hand convenient to host locally. It's a machine where you can freely test your code or try out some new stuff. This way you don't need to risk your "main" server unnecessarily with your testing.
As VMs are practically free, you can have them everywhere and as many as you wish. On your workstation, desktop at home, or on your laptop on the road, each can have it's own testing VM. And every project you are working on can have it's own testing VM too, so there is no risk of them interfering each other in any way.
The kind of server you are talking about obviously can not be hosted on a local virtual machine. imho that kind of stuff should be hosted in some data center on a stable server. As it contains many of your most valuable assets and losing access (even temporarily) to it could hinder your ability to work, it should have relatively high availability and general reliability.
The kind of server I, and what I believe the article, were talking about is on the other hand convenient to host locally. It's a machine where you can freely test your code or try out some new stuff. This way you don't need to risk your "main" server unnecessarily with your testing.
As VMs are practically free, you can have them everywhere and as many as you wish. On your workstation, desktop at home, or on your laptop on the road, each can have it's own testing VM. And every project you are working on can have it's own testing VM too, so there is no risk of them interfering each other in any way.