MSDN License Fees and Empower ISV

The upcoming MSDN offerings will provide copies of Microsoft’s latest and greatest, including Visual Studio 2005, Windows Vista, Team System, et al. Unfortunately, the highest-level MSDN package is $10,000 (pricing chart). Which is huge. Huge enough to make development shops look at Subversion (instead of VSS) and other alternatives. Especially when you consider that if you have a QA department, all your testers need an MSDN license in order to test software built using MSDN-licensed tools (oh yes, it’s true).

One big way to get that software but save on licenses is to enroll in the Empower ISV program. For $375/year, you get 5 MSDN Universal licenses, plus a bunch of other stuff. The downside (?) is you have to actually build something using Microsoft tools, and the license is only good for a year. And you also have to take a stab at getting some people MS-certified.

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Written by Ben Strackany -- October 11, 2005

Ben worked for a variety of tech startups in Chicago before moving to Portland and starting DevelopmentNow in 2005. When he's not herding cats, stirring pots, and taking names, he enjoys drinking coffee while irritating the studio audience with bad puns.