Why Should You Have a Microsoft TechNet Plus Subscription?

The best way to learn and get experience with a product is to actually get your hands dirty with the technology. This includes setting up and running through the most common tasks with the product.

Whether you’re building an evaluation or learning lab, getting your hands on the latest Microsoft products can be a pain going from page to page on the website. And of course not all of their products are offered for trial subscriptions.

Not only that, but a large majority of Microsoft products require some network infrastructure in place to work, such as Active Directory Domain Services and DNS at the very least. Because of this it is often easier to configure and test network infrastructure that is actually permanent and won’t expire after a certain number of days.

This can cause problems if you take a break in your studies and come back to find the servers non-functioning, thus wasting your valuable training time by updating or re-imaging servers.

TechNet Plus to the Rescue!

Luckily, Microsoft has given us an option to fix this at a relatively inexpensive price.

A TechNet Plus subscription gives you access to almost the entire Microsoft software catalog using licensed versions of the software. The license of course only grants you the use of the software for evaluation purposes and you cannot use the software in a production environment — but for training and evaluation this is the perfect solution.

By having a license key you can activate the software online with Microsoft and not have to worry about it expiring, allowing you to create a permanent test lab that you can really use to give yourself some hands on experience.

Now even without a Plus subscription, you need to be reading the TechNet site if you are serious about staying on the cutting edge of Microsoft products. It hosts the technical libraries and the blogs of some of the most knowledgeable people including MVP awardees.

As you can see from the screen shot they cram a lot of information onto the home page.

Let’s take a look at where you go for your license keys. If you look in the upper right corner of the screen you will see a section that says My TechNet Subscription – Subscription Benefits: and you will see several options.

We’re going to go ahead and click on Downloads and Product Keys – Technet Plus Direct (Retail) which will take us to a page where we can choose what products we want to download and request a license key.

As you can see the interface is very clean, I am going to select the Exchange 2007 Server but notice there is quite a bit of software available.

As the screenshot illustrates, the product families are listed in the left pane, and then when you select one the software available for download shows in the center pane.

The software comes in .iso format so you can either mount them in a virtual machine or burn them to a DVD. You can also request license keys (each key is good for 10 activations in most cases) in this panel and come back and get them once they are assigned.

Now just so you know, these license keys are still valid even if you stop being a TechNet Plus subscriber, so once you get your network setup it will be good even if you cancel your subscription.

But Wait There’s More …

Much like the late night infomercial, Microsoft did not stop there in adding value to the TechNet Plus subscription. You will also get the following:

• 2 Complimentary Support Incidents – Now this might not seem like a big deal, but these are worth $259 per issues, if you had to purchase them. These incidents aren’t like calling the local cable company and being told to reboot the system; they really take ownership of the issue and work with you until its completion. I have even had Microsoft give me software patches written just for my own systems through a support incident.
• Unlimited Managed Newsgroup Support – This is another very cool extra. They have you associate your newsgroup email with your TechNet Plus account so when you post on the Microsoft managed newsgroups someone from Microsoft will respond within 24 hours. This is a great place to ask a quick question or try to figure out a feature. If you are really down or having a major issue though I would use a support incident.
• E-Learning Courses – I will admit they don’t overwhelm you with this option, but if they put out a new release of a product they also sometimes give you an E-Learning course to help get you up to speed.
• TechNet Magazine – a great read for technical information, I particularly like the fact that they have been keeping the issues focused on one product or subject, so all the articles really help ramp up your knowledge.

There are a few other features that come with a TechNet Plus subscription, but I really think these highlight the ones that are most often used.

So What’s It Going To Cost Me?

Well in true Microsoft fashion you have two options to work with when subscribing:

• TechNet Plus Direct – This is the one I subscribe to; it allows access to all the software via online downloads, the other benefits listed above and this is the most affordable with the normal yearly subscription price being $349 for new subscriptions and $249 for renewals.
• TechNet Plus Single User – All the benefits of the TechNet Plus Direct subscription plus you get everything sent to you via DVD so you can use it without having an Internet connection up and running. The cost of this service is a yearly rate of $599 for new subscriptions and $499 for renewals.

See For Yourself!

I can’t emphasize how much working with the software can help expand your learning curve beyond just watching CBT courses and reading training books.

The only downside of TechNet Plus as I see it is the fact that the Firefox browser doesn’t work in the subscription areas, and I find it annoying to have to switch browsers, but that’s the only thing I can really complain about.

Using a TechNet Plus subscription and virtualization technology you can make a network that is as small or large with all kinds of applications running to help you get hands on experience.

For a very minimal price you will have access to everything you need except for the hardware.

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