Developers stand up to keep Microsoft TechNet alive

Two weeks ago, Microsoft announced it was putting the TechNet subscription program out to pasture: Effective Aug. 31, nobody will be able to buy a TechNet subscription, and a year later the infrastructure disappears entirely. Independent IT consultants and developers in particular are screaming bloody murder. Some small-business consultants feel this is just another indication that Microsoft wants to sell directly to small businesses — Office 365 being exhibit No. 1 — and they take the demise of TechNet as another blow to the chops.

Microsoft has countered by offering IT professionals 180-day free evaluation copies of all of the TechNet software, but that doesn’t assuage working pros. Ronny Pot, for example, says, “For IT pros, TechNet is the only affordable way to keep a home lab for testing purposes. It is undoable to rebuild the lab every 180 days or buy an MSDN subscription for these prices. A lab environment is needed for testing and learning purposes.”

Independent IT consultant Cody Skidmore isn’t going to take it lying down. He’s started a petition on Change.org that, respectfully, asks Microsoft to “Continue TechNet or create an affordable alternative to MSDN subscriptions.” At this moment, he has a little less than 4,000 signatures, and the number’s growing quickly.

He’s serious. “Don’t assume Microsoft will backpedal. They may try placating us. Instead we must demonstrate our resolve.”

Hannah Breeze at CRN in the United Kingdom took up the mantle with Janet Gibbons, Microsoft’s U.K. director for partner strategy and programs. “I think we have heard from partners that the [180 day] Internal Use Rights from a developers’ perspective is not long enough,” she said. “I am sure we will listen to that and make a decision as to if we will change that period of time or not.The reason for the change is that many of the resources in TechNet were available online anyway. The explosion of online and the fact you can find out info so easily from anywhere [meant] we no longer felt it was appropriate to sell it. The product just naturally came to the end of its life.”

Gibbons, of course, is painting a Microsoft party line on a volatile subject. While the TechNet forums — open to everyone — are and will continue to be a major source of information for IT pros of all stripes, TechNet includes more than the forums. Subscribers get two free phone support incidents, which can cost a bundle if purchased separately. Subscribers also have a guaranteed 24-hour response from a Microsoft support engineer when posting questions to a monitored forum. Many of us download the latest beta “preview” releases from TechNet, instead of resorting to torrents. That’s all gone, or at least going, along with the uninterrupted testing platforms so many of us have deployed.

TechNet’s recent history has me wondering whose hand is at the throttle. Three years ago, in June 2010, the folks at TechNet slashed the price of the Standard package, from $349 to $199, with renewals at $149 per year.

Then in September 2010, TechNet reduced the number of product keys from 10 per product to five (each key can validate 10 or so copies of the software). That really wasn’t much of a concern for people using the program the way it was intended. In March 2012, Microsoft cut the number of keys again, to two (for Standard) or three (for Professional) per product, explaining:

We are acting to protect the value of your subscription. If we did not act to prevent abuse of subscriptions we would eventually have to either limit the products available in a subscription or raise the price of your subscription. We believe that this is the best compromise to continue to deliver the highest value to you while limiting abuse at the same time.

That was a little over a year ago.

Four months ago, WinBeta reported:

If you have yourself a TechNet Subscription, you’ll soon be able to gain access to the new Office 365 suite released by Microsoft a couple of months ago. Microsoft says they are “committed to providing IT professionals with access to Microsoft software & services for evaluation purposes, and we are actively working to provide our subscribers with a full year subscription of Office 365….” TechNet Subscribers can download and activate a full version of Office 2013 from the subscriber benefits portal. The Office 365 subscription will last 1 year, it is unknown if it will be renewed along with your TechNet subscription.

In the past three years, we’ve seen a drastic reduction in the price of a TechNet subscription, a reduction in the number of keys offered, and a new product — Office 365 — added to the bounty. You have to wonder who’s making the decisions.

The petition site says, “Currently, the only comparable MSDN subscription costs $6,120.” While much depends on how, precisely, you define “comparable,” many IT professionals, developers, admins, consultants, and the like could make do with a Windows-only MSDN subscription for $699 ($499 renewal), or a Windows, SQL Server, and Visual Studio subscription for $1,199 ($799 remewal) — heady prices, those. If you want Office and Visual Studio Premium, along with various developer accounts, you’re staring down the barrel of a $6,119 expense — with a paltry $2,569 annual renewal fee.

If you want a TechNet subscription that lasts until July of next year, Microsoft’s order site still works. But if you want your subscription to continue for years to come, sign the petition and let your friends know about it — and hope that the powers that be understand how important it is to keep independent consultants, admins working at home, and other IT professionals up on Microsoft products.

Why couldn’t Microsoft tighten the requirements for a TechNet subscription, cut back on keys again if necessary, and let those of us who provide the enormous web of Microsoft support go about our licensed ways?

This story, “Developers stand up to keep Microsoft TechNet alive,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.