Non-startup Microsoft ISV development, on the cheap?

Question

While there are a handful of great programs for ISV Startups (BizSpark, Emplower ISV, etc), the only option avaiable for non-startups seems to be Visual Studio w/ MSDN. It's not that expensive (I was quoted $10,080/yr for 8 developers), but I'm fairly sure that we'd be just as fine without it.

We need pretty standard dev workstations (Windows, Office, VS2008), a small handful of actual servers (app, file, domain, etc), and a whole bunch of "disposable" testing servers (used to test installation/usage of the software product).

Here's the plan:

• Action Pack ($300/yr, includes 10x Windows/Office licenses and 1x server licenses, etc)
• 8x Visual Studio 2008 Standard Upgrade, Retail (in the $150/ea range, no need to buy full version)
• 6x Server 2008 licenses, Retail (in the $500/ea range on eBay)
• Evaluation editions of Server (VHD or normal)
• Free Hyper-V Server to run evals

If my math serves me right, that's a cost of ~$4500 for the first year, and $300 for the following years. And not only that, we get all those cool plastic boxes.

The downside (as I see it) is that we have to recycle the "disposable" servers every 120 days (perhaps a good thing, so we can test our installations?) and we don't get every piece of software Microsoft makes (I have no idea what we'd do with it, though).

So I'm wondering... is this a crazy idea? Am I just being a complete cheapskate? Will this actually work?

Answer 1

I like the question. I've always found (Microsoft's) licensing information to be very hard to grok and the sales people arn't very helpfull either because they often say something in their sales pitch that makes me think they have no clue and I end up with a SQL server license of a couple of grand that doesn't quite support what I need

One potential problem I see: i've run into 120 day evaluation versions of software that were limited 120 days from release not from installation (often CTP's but also the XP vhd with IE6 for debugging purposes). So in that case you are dependent on MS releasing a new eval version within those 120 days. Are all temp products you need available in 120 days from instalation date?

Answer 2

From the Action Pack Subscription Licensing page:

The Microsoft Action Pack Subscription is designed for all businesses whose primary function is to... build solutions on the Microsoft platform

So I think you're fine as far as the terms of the license go.

I'm still a little worried about your virtual machine operating systems. You seem fine with using evaluation software for that, but consider this: it's possible for fresh installs to cease to be available. For example, if some hypothetical Windows Server 2011 comes out before you're ready to upgrade your production install of Windows Server 2008 R2, your evaluations may all expire and you'll discover that the 2008 versions are no longer available.

Answer 3

Sounds like a great idea to me. I think I would add is a 1 year subscription to TechNet for $349 and that way you don't have to use evaluation versions of the servers.

I just wonder how long it will be before M$ catches on to this way of doing things and rewords the upgrade rules

Answer 4

Have you considered the Certified Partner route. If you get a few of your devs to get MCP designations and then get the ISV competency you should be able to get sufficient points to get Certified status. The development and internal use licenses should come close to satisfying your requirements.

The annual partner fee is less than 2K/year.

Answer 5

How about starting a new company that qualifies for bizspark? (Joking, kind of)

Answer 6

Just some random questions:

Do all license agreements allow the software to be reinstalled permanently every 120 days?
As far as I know running evaluation software permanently, reinstalling it every X days is considered 'abusing' the evaluation license in my country and therefore counts as illegal usage.

Are you sure you can do without a profiler?
Visual Studio Standard doesn't have one...

How much is your time worth?
As in: How much time will go into setting up this 'reinstall everything every X days' setup. I would think this takes at least a day, everytime you do this... you can only backup specific things and settings, not just the whole server. Therefore if you decides you use some new server components you'll have to remember / make sure you reinstall all of these components at the next 'reinstall'-day. Even in the best-case scenario of one day per evaluation period, that will be 24 developer-hours.

And at last, to answer your question:

Am I just being a complete cheapskate?

Yes, you are ;-)

Answer 7

So, you're saving $5k/year but have the constant overhead of working around limitations, re-installing operating systems, and breaking the intended use of trial licenses?

How much is your time and that of your developers worth?

Add up all the time your workarounds will cost you--real cost in salaries, plus opportunity cost of that time not being spend getting your products closer to being out the door.

My guess is it's going to be a lot more than $5k!

Answer 8

You might be able to save ~10k/yr buying through the Microsoft store:

http://store.microsoft.com/microsoft/Visual-Studio-2008-Professional-Edition-with-MSDN-Premium/product/D8B25050

The page says it comes with a 3 year premium subscription. 2.5k * 8 for 3 years would be 20k vs. the ~10k/yr * 3 (30k).