Microsoft is retiring the TechNet Subscription service

Paully's5.0

Limp Gawd
Joined
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398
Got an the email today. Discontinued as of August 31, 2013.

Kinda blows, thoughts?

I can't justify the MSDN cost...ugh.
 
Same here. The only thing I was using it for lately was experimenting with Server 2008 as domain and dhcp server on my home network. I guess I'll should start learning about Samba domains in preparation for the switchover.
 
I just got it too. Really blows. I enjoyed tinkering with servers and stuff, guess they're going to be happy with less money from me. I renewed every year, i'm not likely to get a new OS every year though...what a bunch of dopes...
 
wow stinks, but i am sure we all know how many people use the keys in ways they are not supposed to....seems kind of fast and early to cancel it..

what about all keys in use? i just got a 1 year subscription, do they plan to re-reimburse me?
 
Just got off of the phone with Technet support, I renewed this morning. I was told that the service will continue until all subscriptions are completed. They will discontinue sales on August 31, 2013. This really stinks. There is no way I can afford MSDN.
 
Same, cant afford MSDN, been a loyal technet subscriber since technet came out, posting on the forums and helping other people out when I can. I buy everything I use "for real" such as Windows 8 and Microsoft Office separately.

This will just drive us to finding less than legitimate means to test stuff like server OS's at home, something that we have no reason to buy a real license for, and seeing as how they dont issue a tinkerer's license for any of their software I don't see any other avenue that makes sense.
 
Yeah, kind of sucks but then this service has been used in ways it was not intended and I'm surprised it's lasted this long. But Microsoft generally has looked the other way because they historically would rather you use Microsoft tech even if it wasn't exactly kosher than use competing products.
 
wow stinks, but i am sure we all know how many people use the keys in ways they are not supposed to....seems kind of fast and early to cancel it..

what about all keys in use? i just got a 1 year subscription, do they plan to re-reimburse me?

They're supporting all existing subscriptions including the ones bought up till the sales cutoff point till they finish. The August date is only when they'll stop selling subscriptions.
 
I've been using it to keep myself educated for my career. I do industrial automation and we are involved in servers, visualization and all that now. Lately I have been reveriting to using the trial edition of the software, and re-arm the trail when it expires. Works for what need I guess....

I need to chat with the boss and IT about volume licensing, since it's all for my career/job maybe I can go that route instead.
 
FYI,

Claimed Technet keys still work correctly after your subscription has lapsed. So I'm guessing they will honor that same system when it is shut down. Better go grab all the ISO's (and keys!) you think you will need for the forseeable future.
 
Boy, MS really does not want us little guys to use their products. I use my subscription in a small business environment to test patches and updates before rolling them out to production. Kinda hard to do that on time-limited software. An MSDN subscription is going to be way too cost prohibitive.

Oh well, the world is moving to platform agnostic cloud-based services anyway, so I probably won't miss them that much.
 
Well fuck, glad I just renewed so I'll be covered through the shutdown next year at least. They've been doing everything they can to neuter the program over the past two years, but it still was my number 1 go-to for testing anything new. I wouldn't know nearly half as much as I do about MS products without it, yet they continue to kill everything redeeming about MS. I know assholes have been abusing the program forever, but for the legitimate techies there was nothing better (well except MSDN but that's was too expensive for your solo/small business type),

Are they trying to kill themselves? Between the Win 8 fiasco and the Xbox firestorm, they seem to be doing everything possible to piss off their customer base.
 
they probably decided that they want all software to be bought as a service, and so selling a cheap service to get all software was backwards for them

they want to get you back at $10/month for each app
 
Looks like one last year of updates. My current subscription, started years back, is set to expire end of this month. Don't know how they expect folks to learn the technology.
 
Microsoft seems very intent on alienating its user-base this year.

Agreed. It seems like they have completely lost touch and are living inside their own echo chamber. It just seems odd that at a time when you need IT pros to evangelize your products, you choose instead of alienate and exclude them.
 
It's not that bad. You can download almost any piece of software from microsoft and install it and run for a couple months. You can ream the operating systems and extend the trials longer.

If you're really using it for a test lab, you should be able to still test. I know it will be a pain to rebuild, but it doesn't make it impossible.
 
Idiots. At a time when they need to be cultivating technical friends with so many alternatives available. I wonder how many people will look to Open Source technology going forward as a result of this.
 
It is humorous to me, I just got a call last week asking me to renew. I will await to see if they call again, I'm due to renew July 19.
 
This is really a kick in the nuts to the little guys. It seems like M$ doesn't care about them. Big business has been using msdn all along anyway.
 
its bloody annoying. I use technet in order to test products I end up deploying and supporting for customers. I'm looking at the Microsoft Partner Program and Action Pack subscriptions. But it doesn't have licenses for older OS's and lots of my customers use, xp, win7, win2k3 etc.
 
They're doing it for one reason more than any other: abuse.

For the past few years, scammers and others have been buying up Technet subscriptions - especially years ago when you got 10 Product Keys per product (save for Server related OSes which only provided 2) - and selling off the keys on eBay and craigslist in mass quantities, making profits from doing so, then using some of the profits to buy even more Technet subs and so on.

The only solution to this was to basically come to the pretty tough decision of simply getting rid of Technet subs completely, so once again it's a situation where a few dumbass bastards ruin it for pretty much everyone with a legit usage for the service.
 
Seems like too many people abused the system, blame those assholes.

It is very disappointing though. Like everyone else, I used it to keep up on the latest products, and test migrations/upgrades before rolling them out at work.
 
Yey less competition for me. I am a Silver Partner although I pay 2k a year, also action pack includes Technet.

One of the customers I fired (liability)because of not paying MS SPLA licensing is getting audited by BSA. Its like leasing a car you fail to pay expect to have repo man come to your door. This was also a huge problem with doing the same. All MS needed to do is required to be an MSP to get it. Just like VMWare does with VCP.
Oh well suck to be them but they will be shelling out a lot of money.
 
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It seems to me that Microsoft is cutting it's own throat by eliminating the Technet subscription service. Where are IT professionals going to get the software they need (at a low price) to train themselves, and deploy their services to the industry who uses Microsoft products? It seems like they are making it difficult and more expensive for IT professionals to support their customer base.

Not a good thing for a lot of IT people.

It's always the few who ruin it for the rest!
 
Ok, this sucks. Since it doesn't appear to have been asked: What alternatives exist for TechNet?

MS mentioned MSDN ($699.00) and the product trials.
Wrench00 mentioned a silver partnership (any idea on cost/requirements?)

What else is there?
 
Ok, this sucks. Since it doesn't appear to have been asked: What alternatives exist for TechNet?

MS mentioned MSDN ($699.00) and the product trials.
Wrench00 mentioned a silver partnership (any idea on cost/requirements?)

What else is there?

I think it depends on what you used TechNet for. My understanding is MS wants us to move to 1) using their time-limited (but free) trial versions), 2) Move up to MSDN (way more expensive), 3) Use Azure to spin up your own VM's for testing.

What I like(d) about TechNet is that you can replicate the platform and version infrastructure your customer may be using. Need to plan a migration strategy from Server 2003 and XP to server 2012 and Windows 8 for a customer? No problem, I can setup a testbed for that.

I'm not sure if you will still have the same type of access to older versions of software with their trial versions or with Azure.
 
What else is there?

Linux.

Seriously (sorta). One of the reasons MS got so big is because windows was so readily available to people in the IT industry to learn/use. Even with the "abuse" people were still learning/using it, and when it comes time to buy something in the enterprise, the IT folks will want what they know. When people no longer have access to run something for any real length of time they'll ultimately switch to something else.

The trend won't happen overnight, but this is just another example of why MS is really out of touch anymore. Seems every major business decision coming out of them the last few years renders them a little less relevant.
 
Linux.

Seriously (sorta). One of the reasons MS got so big is because windows was so readily available to people in the IT industry to learn/use. Even with the "abuse" people were still learning/using it, and when it comes time to buy something in the enterprise, the IT folks will want what they know. When people no longer have access to run something for any real length of time they'll ultimately switch to something else.

The trend won't happen overnight, but this is just another example of why MS is really out of touch anymore. Seems every major business decision coming out of them the last few years renders them a little less relevant.

Moving an enterprise from a Windows platform and it's deep integration with Active Directory for security and collaboration is just not going to happen. Enterprises are completely hooked right now on products like Exchange, Office and SharePoint, products which for the most part won't function without Windows Server infrastructure.

Here are my thoughts: I think large enterprise is where MS is concentrating it's desktop centric efforts right now, which leaves no room for the small independent IT people like us.
They have probably come to the conclusion that the kind of customers we support are going to be happy with tablets, Gmail for mail, and the Cloud for storage and backups, they have no need for on-site servers or complex network infrastructures anymore, so selling TechNet subscriptions to people like us isn't going to be profitable or worthwhile when they can make significantly more selling MSDN subscriptions of large enterprises.
 
Ok, this sucks. Since it doesn't appear to have been asked: What alternatives exist for TechNet?

MS mentioned MSDN ($699.00) and the product trials.
Wrench00 mentioned a silver partnership (any idea on cost/requirements?)

What else is there?

to be a Silver partner is not cheap or easy. 2k a year.
If you buy action pack for the 380 dollars you get technet.
 
Microsoft is moving towards subscription cloud services. My guess is that something similar to Technet will be announced, with tiered pricing like MSDN, but all of the software keys will be linked to a single Microsoft account (that is to say, they won't activate unless activated by that account owner). I'm envisioning something similar to Adobe's Creative Cloud and like their own Office 365. Given how they're already linking Windows 8 accounts to Microsoft's cloud services, this seems like the next logical step to me. My guess is that they're moving towards an Apple-like system with a single central account and everything being purchased and linked through it.

In other words, Microsoft think they have found their next golden goose and this time they're caging it up as best as possible as they see it as a way to kill off the piracy and duplicated systems problems they have right now.
 
Microsoft is moving towards subscription cloud services. My guess is that something similar to Technet will be announced, with tiered pricing like MSDN, but all of the software keys will be linked to a single Microsoft account (that is to say, they won't activate unless activated by that account owner). I'm envisioning something similar to Adobe's Creative Cloud and like their own Office 365. Given how they're already linking Windows 8 accounts to Microsoft's cloud services, this seems like the next logical step to me. My guess is that they're moving towards an Apple-like system with a single central account and everything being purchased and linked through it.

In other words, Microsoft think they have found their next golden goose and this time they're caging it up as best as possible as they see it as a way to kill off the piracy and duplicated systems problems they have right now.

If they do enough of this more and more people will move away from MS. Essentially MS is saying fuck you little guy you don't mean shit we are gone steal your bread and butter and the years of loyal service of selling our shit means nothing. I hope to go some one comes up with a nice package for replacing MS stuff. Frustrating getting fucked by the company you pay money too. Also people are not so willing to go to the cloud its a fucking tough sell. Canadians don't trust Americans companies, actually let me correct myself people don't trust any one and they don't want to give up control of their information and where it stored. Also People don't like being told what to do when they pay for something. Don't put things into the cloud that you wouldn't want your mother to see.
I would have an easier time selling stuff if they would have a financially backed SLA. ie. You loose our info, you transfer it to a country we don't want to deal with, your service is interrupted, etc.. we can sue the shit out of you for damages.

There is a lot of price gouging by MS. Their licensing is getting out of hand.
 
Moving an enterprise from a Windows platform and it's deep integration with Active Directory for security and collaboration is just not going to happen. Enterprises are completely hooked right now on products like Exchange, Office and SharePoint, products which for the most part won't function without Windows Server infrastructure.

Here are my thoughts: I think large enterprise is where MS is concentrating it's desktop centric efforts right now, which leaves no room for the small independent IT people like us.
They have probably come to the conclusion that the kind of customers we support are going to be happy with tablets, Gmail for mail, and the Cloud for storage and backups, they have no need for on-site servers or complex network infrastructures anymore, so selling TechNet subscriptions to people like us isn't going to be profitable or worthwhile when they can make significantly more selling MSDN subscriptions of large enterprises.

Microsoft's biggest threats are web apps. Microsoft is in big trouble once the app becomes detached from the OS. Someone at work showed be a web app called Prezi. It's basically a web based Powerpoint.
 
If they do enough of this more and more people will move away from MS. Essentially MS is saying fuck you little guy you don't mean shit we are gone steal your bread and butter and the years of loyal service of selling our shit means nothing. I hope to go some one comes up with a nice package for replacing MS stuff. Frustrating getting fucked by the company you pay money too. Also people are not so willing to go to the cloud its a fucking tough sell. Canadians don't trust Americans companies, actually let me correct myself people don't trust any one and they don't want to give up control of their information and where it stored. Also People don't like being told what to do when they pay for something. Don't put things into the cloud that you wouldn't want your mother to see.
I would have an easier time selling stuff if they would have a financially backed SLA. ie. You loose our info, you transfer it to a country we don't want to deal with, your service is interrupted, etc.. we can sue the shit out of you for damages.

There is a lot of price gouging by MS. Their licensing is getting out of hand.

The cloud is a tough sell. No matter what the advantages are, some people hate getting banged for a monthly nut every month.

Someone has to win partners away from Microsoft by allowing them to get a larger cut of the monthly cloud revenue. If email is $4 a month, then the partner gets $2 a user per month for the life of the service. Microsoft offers some ridiculous amount for Office 365.
 
The cloud is a tough sell. No matter what the advantages are, some people hate getting banged for a monthly nut every month.

Someone has to win partners away from Microsoft by allowing them to get a larger cut of the monthly cloud revenue. If email is $4 a month, then the partner gets $2 a user per month for the life of the service. Microsoft offers some ridiculous amount for Office 365.

Its also more expensive then having it in house over the long run.
The payout from Microsoft is not that much. To make a living you would need Thousands of subscribers.

The residuals blow 4% and initial sales of 12% is fucking pitiful (I know they were offering 23% at a point in time 2.5k subs). You want even get that until you hit 150 subscribers. This is shit and the amount of time your going to spend trying to sell this your not going to make any fucking money. To prepare the sales material to go on the pitch, presentation, travel time, you make NOTHING, you will actually loose money. You want to entice us make it the initial sale is at least 50% Its pitiful peanuts. I couldn't make a living off this shit. I spend the time doing the calls, implementing it, paying for the Partnership, training and Certifications so microsoft can have a stupid grunt do all the work while they sit with a thumb up their ass collecting money. Fucking Frustrating.

So lets say you sell 12k worth of subs. Thats not that much only about 60 users.
You make about 1200 dollars plus 480 per year. I only manage about 800 users. Even if I were to convince every single customer I couldn't pay my rent for a whole year. In a SMB environment the cloud is not a money maker for me.

My Microsoft Partnership cost is 2k a year.
 
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Its also more expensive then having it in house over the long run.
The payout from Microsoft is not that much. To make a living you would need Thousands of subscribers.

The residuals blow 4% and initial sales of 12% is fucking pitiful (I know they were offering 23% at a point in time 2.5k subs). You want even get that until you hit 150 subscribers. This is shit and the amount of time your going to spend trying to sell this your not going to make any fucking money. To prepare the sales material to go on the pitch, presentation, travel time, you make NOTHING, you will actually loose money. You want to entice us make it the initial sale is at least 50% Its pitiful peanuts. I couldn't make a living off this shit. I spend the time doing the calls, implementing it, paying for the Partnership, training and Certifications so microsoft can have a stupid grunt do all the work while they sit with a thumb up their ass collecting money. Fucking Frustrating.

So lets say you sell 12k worth of subs. Thats not that much only about 60 users.
You make about 1200 dollars plus 480 per year. I only manage about 800 users. Even if I were to convince every single customer I couldn't pay my rent for a whole year. In a SMB environment the cloud is not a money maker for me.

My Microsoft Partnership cost is 2k a year.

The cloud can make you money if you have your own cloud. I'm talking about hosting the whole environment, not just email.

The problem is most people don't have the skill-set to pull it off. You need to know the virtualization, storage, networking, Citrix/RDS, etc to make it all work.
 
M$ is probably pissed over the relatively small amount of Windows 8 keys that were claimed so far by TechNet subscribers. ;)
 
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