Microsoft has announced the retirement of the TechNet Subscriptions service

[theheyes]

I know there are a few with TechNet subscriptions on here so this is worth posting:

Microsoft is retiring the TechNet Subscriptions service to focus on growing its free offerings, including evaluation resources through the TechNet Evaluation Center, expert-led learning through the Microsoft Virtual Academy, and community-moderated technical support through the TechNet Forums to better meet the needs of the growing IT professional community.

The last day to purchase a TechNet Subscription through the TechNet Subscriptions website is August 31, 2013. Subscribers may activate purchased subscriptions through September 30, 2013.

Microsoft will continue to honor all existing TechNet Subscriptions. Subscribers with active accounts may continue to access program benefits until their current subscription period concludes.

http://technet.microsoft.com/subscriptions/ms772427

I hope the free offerings are significantly beefed up in lieu of this.

 

[JackRegan]

Cost of a new MSDN subscription currently stands at £590.66 or renewal £421.66 means a big increase.

 

[Jas1975]

Got the email too - however not convinced with the links in the email - sure its legit?

Edit - forget that - just seen the technet page...... gutted.

 

[JackRegan]

Got the email too - however not convinced with the links in the email?

I thought it was junk at first until I logged into my TechNet account and read

"We have announced important changes to TechNet Subscriptions. Please visit our homepage for additional details"

 

[bulldog147]

steve ballmer can go to hell nightmare. why should we paying msdn? greedy git!

I am glad I switch to open source linux.

I hope microsoft going out of business sooner or later for the better!

 

[Jas1975]

Hmmmm so Technet gave IT professionals everything for a couple of hundred quid. To get the MSDN equivilent will cost thousands :

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/buy/buy.aspx

Really can't understand why they've done this.

 

[derfderfley]

Hmmmm so Technet gave IT professionals everything for a couple of hundred quid. To get the MSDN equivilent will cost thousands :

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/buy/buy.aspx

Really can't understand why they've done this.

To raise the barrier for people who want to be MS certified?

And the irony after years of trying finally got work to pay for a technet sub (so I'm not paying out of my own pocket, to use for testing solutions for customers at work) and it gets pulled

 

[stealthgeek]

they say its to reduce piracy, but who here is going to pay the £1000's for an MSDN sub....?

Not many, I bet.

 

[jake108]

Got the email. To say this pretty much kills the idea of evaluating Microsoft products which may take more time to build and deploy than their current evaluations allows.

"As IT trends and business dynamics have evolved, so has Microsoft’s set of offerings for IT professionals who are looking to learn, evaluate and deploy Microsoft technologies and services."

What really irks me is the thought of a MSDN subscription which cannot under the current model be used for evaluations unless you are developing software. Imagine a future software Audit after it closes and evaluating under a MSDN license or their time specific evaluations (which may or may not be granted)... That would be fun under a Microsoft audit.

 

[Destination]

I just resubscribed.
pondering if old keys will continue to function fully as they used to when subscription expires next year.
Much evaluation still to be done.

 

[stoofa]

TechNet was being used by people in the home to activate numerous home machines - something TechNet was never designed to do.
People thought they were going the license legal route - but they were no more legal than simply downloading a pirate copy.

If you want to evaluate software then most MS products will be available for free to anybody with 90 days if evaluation time.
This should be more than enough time to complete evaluation and decide if you want to roll something out or not.
If you are doing longer term evaluation then you are most likely working for a larger firm where roll-outs take a lot longer and you'll almost certainly find that from next year the MSDN subscriptions will fully cover these setup's.

So in conclusion:
Small business users will have free access to 90 day evaluations
Large business will have access to software for evaluation via MSDN
Home users will no longer be able to "think" they are license legal buy buying TechNet for home for all of their devices.

Don't really see where there are any issues.

 

[Saundie]

Got the email. To say this pretty much kills the idea of evaluating Microsoft products which may take more time to build and deploy than their current evaluations allows.

"As IT trends and business dynamics have evolved, so has Microsoft’s set of offerings for IT professionals who are looking to learn, evaluate and deploy Microsoft technologies and services."

What really irks me is the thought of a MSDN subscription which cannot under the current model be used for evaluations unless you are developing software. Imagine a future software Audit after it closes and evaluating under a MSDN license or their time specific evaluations (which may or may not be granted)... That would be fun under a Microsoft audit.

I was also under the impression that you couldn't use an MSDN subscription for evaluation purposes, and I am almost certain that it was the case at some point. This must have changed at some stage, as Microsoft list both evaluation and development as acceptable under the MSDN terms. Also, if you look at the MSDN licensing terms it states that "When software development projects are nearing completion, an MSDN subscription license also allows your end users to access the software to perform acceptance tests on your programs". That would certainly seem to cover you for using MSDN licenses for post-development user acceptability testing and evaluation.

As somebody who has relied on a TechNet subscription to access software for study purposes, I was initially very surprised when I saw that Microsoft were terminating the product. I suppose as long as Microsoft are pro-active in offering evaluation versions of their latest releases then losing Technet isn't such a big deal after all. I have grown accustomed to being able to grab whatever software it is that I want to have a look at - for example, when I was studying for the 70-681 exam having access to SCCM was very helpful. Now that I actually look, it turns out that an evaluation of SCCM 2007 R2 was available anyway, so in that instance I didn't actually need a Technet subscription. Still, there is software available via Technet for which Microsoft don't offer an evaluation - MDOP is the first one that springs to my mind.

 

[MasterPlan1]

One saving grace is, the keys don't time bomb. So you can essentially go on a spree the day before your expiration and have everything which is there at that moment in time for good.

 

[Jakus]

One saving grace is, the keys don't time bomb. So you can essentially go on a spree the day before your expiration and have everything which is there at that moment in time for good.

Thought they changed this last year with keys expiring with contract ?

Funny, I actually did not renew my Technet this year, I just don't seem to get the time to play around with the software so much nowadays and not so happy with the direction windows OS has taken !

 

[d_brennen]

Meh, Microsoft can do one

 

[GodAtum]

whre can i buy win 7 ultimate then?

 

[PAz]

Got the email. To say this pretty much kills the idea of evaluating Microsoft products which may take more time to build and deploy than their current evaluations allows.

Most evaluations are 90 - 180 days. That's quite a lot of time to build POC / evaluation environments...

 

[Glaucus]

So in conclusion:
Small business users will have free access to 90 day evaluations
Large business will have access to software for evaluation via MSDN
Home users will no longer be able to "think" they are license legal buy buying TechNet for home for all of their devices.

Don't really see where there are any issues.

Ditto, people panicking again, nothing more.
I don't see the issue, it's odd how no one has responded to your post, to busy slating/panicking probably.

 

[gazza0371]

Short Sighted

Ditto, people panicking again, nothing more.
I don't see the issue, it's odd how no one has responded to your post, to busy slating/panicking probably.

There IS a major issue here - firstly the subtle difference between £200 odd for Technet and £5000 for the equivalent (in terms of products available) MSDN. Speak to the people who pay the bills in a company and see if they are happy about that ("Now, remind me, what additional benefit are you gaining for the addition £4800" I can hear them asking quite rightly, followed by a swift "No")

Secondly - Evaluation is one thing, but what about testing patches in a non-Production environment? Sure you can build a POC in 90 days, but are you supposed to keep rebuilding it every couple of months to match you Prod environment in order to test the latest waterfall of MS patches????? I haven't checked this out, but assume that the evals are limited in terms of the number of server licenses you can get in one go, therefore probably limiting the ability to build complex environments for testing.

There is a shed load of stuff in MSDN that is completely irrelevant to systems integrators and operational teams, for which Technet was perfect, and affordable , but now apparently we either have to pay 20 times the price or spend a week or so every couple of months to rebuild labs for testing?

If MS were concerned about piracy they could have simply removed or severely limited the number of consumer type licenses available on Technet (i.e. Windows 7/8, Office products, etc), which is what most of the Technet abusers would want to get their mitts on - anyone who needs to install a load of servers (like myself) could live with that and would almost certainly be using Technet for valid reasons and in the end for the benefit of MS as it makes their products look better and more stable.

Short sighted by MS at best, shooting self in foot more likely.

 

[theheyes]

I'm wondering whether, in part, the plan is to nudge people towards Azure. If you get a lot of IT Pro's spinning up free test VMs the service almost sells itself.