My 2 Cents to the TechNet Subscription

5 minute read

If you have been to my blog before, you probably own or at least know what a TechNet subscription is. And you probably have heard about that Microsoft recently announced that they are retiring this offering.

So far the responses within broader IT community towards this are overwhelming.

Personally, I believe there is a very healthy IT community for various Microsoft technologies. People (including those MVP’s) help each other out, share their knowledge and experiences. That’s why I felt that I have learned a lot from the community and decided to start this blog 3 years ago to contribute something back to this wonderful community. Microsoft, on the other hand, has provided wonderful breeding beds for us IT Pros. We, as IT Pros, for an reasonable annual subscription fee, are able to access Microsoft’s software products without any limitations and then are able to to apply what we’ve learnt into our work, effectively making Microsoft more successful.

Although the real reason for killing TechNet subscription is unknown, from talking to people around me, some people think it’s because of software piracy, others think it’s Microsoft trying to push their cloud offering. Regardless if any of these two guesses are correct, I think Microsoft is plain stupid and arrogant!

A friend of mine told me he has personally seen companies using TechNet license keys in production environment. I agree, this is not right, Microsoft has the rights to protect their intellectual properties. But please, don’t punish all of us because there is one (or few) rotten apples in the bucket! People misuse not only software, but also many other things! For example, especially in US of A, there have been many incidents that someone misused weapons in wrong places at wrong time and as the result, many people lost their lives. This is a far more serious issue than software piracy. You don’t see US government ban people from buying and using guns do you! 12 years ago, I lived and worked in USA for a year (internship as part of my university degree). When I was living there, I was told many many times, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. In my opinion, same theory applies here. Killing TechNet is not going to stop those people from using pirated software. They can either get a MSDN subscription and continue on, or download and crack the software from news groups or bit torrent sites. Only because the TechNet subscriptions are being misused by someone doesn’t mean it should be canned!

I agree, cloud computing has a great potential, this is why I have spent a lot of time and got the MCSE Private Cloud certification. But I still think it serves different purposes than having a private lab on premises. No matter what cloud is it, they are all hosted on physical hardware (aka fabric). At moment, I have 4 physical computers in my lab and there are around 40 VMs running on these physical computers. I don’t even want to work out the cost of having them hosted in Azure because I just can’t afford the cost! In addition, there are things that I just can’t test / evaluate in a public cloud environment. One of my colleagues gave me a copy of Cisco Nexus 1000V virtual switch to try in my lab. Maybe one of those decision- makers in Microsoft can advise me how am I supposed to install this using your Azure subscription? In China, where I come from, there’s an old saying: if you hold the sand to tight, you will lose them between your fingers. We all know Cloud computing has a lot of potentials, but please, don’t push it too hard, you will push your customers away!

When I looked at the alternatives suggested by Microsoft, I thought they are taking a piss out of us IT Pros. Please, I’m not a 2 year old, don’t treat me like an idiot!

Here’s what Microsoft has suggested:

TechNet Evaluation Center

like I said earlier, with around 40 VMs and 4 physicals in my lab, it is impossible for me to rebuild them every 30-180 days. Life is too short to keep rebuilding your labs every 30-180 days!

TechNet Virtual Labs and MS Virtual Academy

I might as well just read the “PC for dummies” guide and hope I can progress my career in IT? Speaking with real life experience, My employer owns one of the biggest System Center environments within the region (according to Microsoft), we have invested heavily in OpsMgr. We approached Microsoft and asked them where can we send people to learn Management Pack authoring in Australia. The answer is there is nowhere you can go. So Microsoft or its partner don’t even offer a paid instructor-led training down here, and you are hoping people can learn from your level 100-200 labs online? For those who read my blogs regularly, you know I write management packs and publish them here, free of charge. Without my TechNet subscription, I couldn’t even start learning MP authoring by myself in the first place!

If doing online simulations is good enough to perform your job, those two Korean pilots from Asiana probably wouldn’t crash the plane in San Francisco?!

MSDN Subscriptions

Well, I run the following products in my lab:

  • Windows Server
  • Windows Client (7, 8)
  • SQL Server
  • System Center Suite (everything except DPM)

In order to use all of these products, I will need either a “Visual Studio Premium with MSDN” or “Visual Studio Ultimate with MSDN” subscriptions. and Here’s the costs of these 2 subscriptions in Australia:

image

Hey, If I’m a millionaire, I wouldn’t even be writing this article. To renew my TechNet subscription, I pay around $400 AUD every year and I always renew when there’s a discount promotion code. But if this whole thing is because of Software Piracy, what difference does it make if you make everyone to pay 10 times more than what they used to? People will probably buy a subscription and sell the keys on eBay to get the money back!

TechNet Forums

So I suppose “All theories no practice” is a good thing then?

Come on, Microsoft, you make mistakes every now and then (i.e. Windows Vista, XBox One, Start button in Windows 8). It seems you’ve managed to correct your mistakes eventually. I really hope you soon realise canning TechNet subscription is a stupid mistake before it’s too late! I’m not a business man, but I know that if you have a large customer base, and your products are used by more people, the profit will come. That’s why Toyota makes more money than Ferrari! very simple theory!

Lastly, for the readers, if you care and agree with me, please sign this petition:

http://www.change.org/petitions/create-an-affordable-alternative-to-msdn-subscriptions-comparable-to-technet

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