September 14, 1998
TechNet: Microsoft's hidden jewel
By Bob O'Donnell
Love 'em or hate 'em, it's virtually impossible to find a business of any size that
isn't running at least a couple of Microsoft products.
Whether it's Office applications, operating systems, both or even more, you're bound to
run into Microsoft-labeled software (or hardware) somewhere within your company. And in
most cases, you'll probably face some problems using those products.
Given the sorry state of compatibility and reliability that passes muster in today's
computer industry, problems are basically inevitable. Of course, Microsoft isn't the only
guilty party in this regard, but it is unquestionably the most prominent and frequently
the most flagrant.
Thankfully, although the company still hasn't proved that it's capable of avoiding the
problems in the first place, it does have a first-class clean-up solution. I'm referring
to TechNet, the CD subscription series that combines the company's extensive Knowledge
Base with a whole slew of how-to articles and white papers on important technologies --
and, most importantly, comes with all the company's Service Packs, bug fixes, security
patches, and other software upgrades.
TechNet has been available for several years, but it's still one of the company's
best-kept secrets. That's a real shame, because at $299 per year for 12 monthly updates,
TechNet is an amazing bargain that, frankly, no IT shop of any size can afford to be
without. In fact, I think TechNet is a rare case where Microsoft is charging significantly
less than what the product is worth (and a lot less than what most companies would
probably be willing to pay for it). The current version of TechNet consists of 19 CDs, and
updates of three or four CDs arrive consistently the first week of each month. However,
despite the fact that Microsoft recently revised TechNet's logo, the company still hasn't
delivered a long-promised revised software interface.
I regularly use the TechNet CDs for my own research and have found them enormously
helpful, both for finding answers to specific problems and for doing general research. In
addition, easy access to the frequent software upgrades (without having to worry about
downloading them from the Web) is itself worth the price of admission. Heck, the number of
Internet Explorer security patches I've been able to install from the TechNet CDs makes it
worthwhile.
Now, you could certainly make the argument that the need for a service as extensive as
TechNet is a pretty sad commentary on the state of software at Microsoft. And to be
honest, you'd be right. It really is sad that you essentially need this enormous
information trove by your side just to keep things working.
But if you accept the reality that the computer software industry is still living
through an immature stage in which these types of incompatibilities and problems are going
to happen (or you've just decided to keep using Microsoft products anyway), then you have
to appreciate the effort that Microsoft has made in putting together TechNet. It really is
a good tool, and a great value.
©
Copyright 1998, by InfoWorld Publishing Corp., a
subsidiary of IDG Communications, Inc. Reprinted from InfoWorld,
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