Windows Products - Replacement for Technet

[mason736]

Last year I changed jobs, and moved into Management Consulting, from my in-industry IT Director role. One of the perks of my role in the old company was that the company paid for a MSDN account for me to use for personal use and testing in my home lab.

Not that i have left, and they did a true up, I lost access to the MSDN account. Since Microsoft did away with the TechNet subscriber access program, is there an alternatives that gives professionals access to the software for demo and evaluation purposes?


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[William]

Technet Evaluation Center

All are free to download and use but have a limited demo time sadly.
I need to redo my MSDN account at some point, its not cheap tho

 

[manxam]

Purchase a Microsoft action pack. Not QUITE as full featured as a Technet subscription but you do get 5x O365 E3 licenses and $100 monthly azure credit thrown in.

Regularly $500 per year but using the coupon "actionpackcloudfirst" you'll get 50% off.

 

[cheezehead]

There are a couple of ways, beyond the two already mentioned.

Depending on how big your org is but if your already paying for visual studio, there is an MSDN upgrade available under certain agreements.

Ever think about going back to school? Students have a lot of free licensing options available, each school is different in terms of how long accounts stay live. Often a 2-credit comp sci course every other semester is enough to keep your account "live". If the right agreements are in place O365 is free, MSDN, VMware for education, and many more potentially. The limitation here is use case, while it's very unlikely you'd be audited a lot of the licensing is free or greatly reduced but cannot used legally for commercial purposes.

Looking at working extra hours? pickup a part-time gig at someplace that gives MSDN to employees.

 

[mason736]

There are a couple of ways, beyond the two already mentioned.

Depending on how big your org is but if your already paying for visual studio, there is an MSDN upgrade available under certain agreements.

Ever think about going back to school? Students have a lot of free licensing options available, each school is different in terms of how long accounts stay live. Often a 2-credit comp sci course every other semester is enough to keep your account "live". If the right agreements are in place O365 is free, MSDN, VMware for education, and many more potentially. The limitation here is use case, while it's very unlikely you'd be audited a lot of the licensing is free or greatly reduced but cannot used legally for commercial purposes.

Looking at working extra hours? pickup a part-time gig at someplace that gives MSDN to employees.

Thanks for the advice. At this point in my career, I already have 2 masters degrees, I doubt the wife would like me going back for a third . I wonder if I could use one of my alumni.edu accounts for the dreamspark account.


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[cheezehead]

Thanks for the advice. At this point in my career, I already have 2 masters degrees, I doubt the wife would like me going back for a third . I wonder if I could use one of my alumni.edu accounts for the dreamspark account.

Possibly, some only check for a .edu email address while others want a current copy of course schedule/transcript at times.

 

[Tom5051]

I'm in the same boat but not currently employed so I haven't been able to upgrade to server 2016 and exchange 2016.
Wish there was a cheaper way to get server licensing for home or lab use.