Microsoft drops the bomb about TechNet Subscriptions

2nd July 2013 0 By Simon

Microsoft dropped the bomb last night about the retiring of the TechNet Subscription service from the 31st of August 2013 with the added news that subscribers may still activate purchased subscriptions up until the 30th of September 2013.

I for one have been a big champion for the yearly subscription service from Microsoft and in fact have petitioned VMware to bring back their VMTN offering a while ago so this announcement comes as a big disappointment Sad smile

What Microsoft are advising is the following alternatives.

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Speaking to a few colleagues over the last couple of hours and I find that we all feel that this is a poor alternative to TechNet, especially as some of us do in fact run Windows infrastructure in our home labs that last longer than 180 days (my domain controller has stayed the same for years).

To make matters worse (and in light of the news last night) I also discovered that Microsoft have a limit on the number of serial numbers you can claim in a day, try and get more than you’re allowed and you will be prompted with this error.

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So you can’t even fully populate your keys in one go and need to spend days at a time doing this.

Microsoft, this really is a big mistake Sad smile