MSDN Universal Subscription

asp:review

MSDN Universal Subscription

What Are You Waiting For?

By Mike Riley

On the eve of the release of Microsoft s most advanced andeagerly anticipated development environment yet, an earnest question presentsitself to .NET developers seeking the most cost-effective licensing option forVisual Studio 2005. While local desktop application and basic ASP.NET Webdevelopers may consider Microsoft s VS.NET 2005 Standard Edition, those whoconsider themselves enterprise architects committed to the Microsoft platformwill be eyeing the more powerful enterprise-class editions. Pricing on thesecome at a cost, but this cost can be mitigated if progressive developers actquickly and take Microsoft up on its current MSDN Universal Subscription offer.In addition to all the bits that this subscription level provides, Microsoft willalso provide new subscribers with the ultimate top of the line VS offering,Visual Studio.NET 2005 Team System edition, as soon as it is released. Thatmeans within hours of Microsoft s RTM sign-off, MSDN Universal subscribers willhave the immediate ability to download this culmination of Microsoft IDEexperience.

Figure 1: The MSDN subscription pagelists all the assets available for retrieval from the Web site, as well as thespecifically generated license keys required to install them.

Upon the release of this new edition of Visual Studio,MSDN subscriptions will be marketed like an add-on to the IDE rather than astandalone product. As such, it will also change the dynamics of the benefitsincluded in the subscription and how its services will be consumed in thefuture. Such service enhancements for this expanded and more expensive futureincarnation will be offered to existing Universal subscribers at no additionalcost. Microsoft is essentially rewarding those customers who commit to VS.NET2005 via purchasing the MSDN Universal Subscription before the final RTM bitsare signed off on.

For those developers who haven t been exposed to the levelof knowledge, the access to Microsoft s operating system and (specific parts oftheir) enterprise application library, and the interactive access to theproduct managers and programmers of these tools, MSDN Universal Subscriptionhas a lot to get excited about. In addition to the plethora of operatingsystems and applications available on over 10 DVDs, there s quite a lot ofvalue packed into the membership package. The welcome kit includes acomprehensive set of CD-ROMs or DVDs (depending on the media format requested),a handy disc wallet with dividers to organize those stacks of media, a flashymembership card featuring the all-important membership ID, and a number ofadd-in offers and welcome notices. While the media provides archived access tothe world of Microsoft, those developers who prefer more immediate access tothe bits, especially when those bits are frequently updated or have beenreleased just after a physical media shipment cycle, the Microsoft FileTransfer Manager provides remarkably fast and reliable downloads direct to desktop;these downloads can be queued for a multi-gigabyte overnight download session.

Figure 2: The Microsoft FileTransfer Manager provides a fast, easy to use download queue that can delivernew releases faster than any physical media shipment could hope to achieve.

Although the Universal subscription offers a compellingvalue proposition, there remain a few areas requiring minor improvements. First,MSDN currently only posts a generic RSS feed of MSDN-related announcements. Withthe momentum continuing to build around RSS feeds, Microsoft should provide afeed per topic or technology, similar to the way they provide individualnewsgroups for such areas of focus. Speaking of the membership access to thenewsgroups, questions posted on them could take up to 48 hours to get aresponse; this can be especially nerve-racking once the four phone supportincidents that are part of the subscription base are consumed. However, thesecriticisms are inconsequential to the exceedingly positive advantages thisheavyweight subscription package offers to its customers.

MSDN Universal Subscription, soon to morph into the moreexpensive Visual Studio 2005 Team System with MSDN Premium subscription, is anamazing bargain while supplies last. Serious .NET developers who do notcurrently have MSDN Universal-level subscriptions should take advantage now ofthis compelling offer to purchase this extensive collection of Microsoftdevelopment-related services and technologies as soon as possible. In additionto receiving Microsoft s pinnacle .NET IDE upon release, the package is thebest, if not only, way to economically gain access to the platforms upon whicha dominant number of corporations build their business.

MikeRiley is anadvanced computing professional specializing in emerging technologies and newdevelopment trends. He also is a contributing editor for asp.netPRO. Readers may contact Mike at mailto:[email protected].

Rating:

Web Site: http://msdn.microsoft.com/howtobuy/subscribers/msdnuniversal/default.aspx

Price: US$2,799