Microsoft’s Best Kept Secret For IT Professionals

On the desk next to me sits full, legal copies of the following Microsoft software:

• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Small Business Server 2008
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008
• Exchange 2007
• Microsoft MapPoint 2009
• Microsoft Home Server
• Internet Security Acceleration Server Standard 2006
• Windows Vista Business (both 64 and 32 bit)
• Windows Live OneCare
• Microsoft ForeFront
• Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007
• Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007
• Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007
• Microsoft Office Sharepoint 2007
• Microsoft Office Communicator Standard 2007
• Microsoft System Data Center Protection Manager 2007
• Microsoft System Center Essentials 2007
• Microsoft Visio Studio 2008
• (and way more…)

If you’re familiar with MSDN then this isn’t a big deal to you. But I didn’t pay a couple thousand dollars for this software. I pay $299/year. That’s for four different updates throughout the subscription, and all the licenses they give me are permanent even if I decide not to renew.

That’s full, permanent licenses to like $10K in Microsoft’s latest software, for $300.

The program is called the Microsoft Action Pack, and it’s designed for consultants to stay current on Microsoft’s latest products in order to be able to show them off to clients. Essentially, you can pass a couple of tests to become a Microsoft partner, and with that partnership comes the option to purchase this Action Pack subscription from them.

In short, if you have always wanted to mess with Microsoft’s latest offerings, but couldn’t pay for MSDN, this is the way to go.:

Links

[ Microsoft Action Pack Subscription | microsoft.com ]