TechEd and the Subscriptions booth
TechEd Las Vegas is over, and as you can see, I haven't won a dime or at least a fortune that would let me retire early. That's why I am going to tell you what I did for my salary in Las Vegas. We were in the Community Clubhouse with a booth for the SDN Subscriptions program and got quite some interest.
Though originally there were some people, who misunderstood the message "SDN Subscriptions are here" and thought they'd have to pay now for the SDN, at our booth we (Izzy, Shay, Amir, Philipp and me) quickly were able to correct this. The majority of the SDN - read: articles, blogs, forum posts, eLearning etc. - are still for free. Everything that was free - remains free.
SDN Subscriptions means that through the SDN individuals can get full access to the SAP NetWeaver stack for testing, evaluating and developing. While this is nothing new for larger organizations, who had been buying the developer licenses through the regular license program, SDN Subscriptions are something new: we are offering individual licenses for freelancers, independent consultants, "one-developer-shops" and everybody who is interested to lay hands on NetWeaver.
What you couldn't do up to now
Up to now, if you're profile matched one of these role descriptions, it was difficult to get your hands on some of the components of NetWeaver. Though there are trial and sneak preview versions out there, some components like XI/PI, MDM or BI never were availaible for trial downloads on SDN, except parts of the overall solution. These preview versions are not identical to the actual GA software and have limited life span after which you need to reinstall.
Although many freelancers or independend consultants got access through the development licenses of their customers to those systems, often the kind of things they were allowed to do or test in those systems was limited. Take configuration, for example. Or using a different database or OS under the system.
And just forget about upgrades of trial systems and sneak preview versions. You were not allowed to do so, and that's quite an important aspect of the skills of an SAP consultant.
Equally important, there was no easy way for you to keep your code in a system. If you were using a trial version, the system access expired after a couple of weeks. And if it was done in a customer system, your user usually "expired" after the end of the project.
What you can do now
Now with the SDN Subscriptions, you can have your very own systems to play around with, as well as do serious development. How "serious" demonstrates an important goodie: you have now the option to apply for your very own ABAP-namespace.
Get first hands experience on XI/PI, MDM and BI.
See also the benefits if you plan to take SAP Education classes and do personal certification. With a system at hand, where you can really prepare yourself for the next level of professional skills in certification, it is much easier to get past the tests and indulge in the knowledge.
Go through the full installation process of the NetWeaver stack on multiple platforms and databases. Gather this experience and be ready when your customer needs that knowledge.
"Mess up" - I mean - configure and reconfigure your very own installation without endangering your customers system and trust.
Other things you can do
With your SAP NetWeaver, Developer Subscription you also get access to every new version of NetWeaver. As long as your subscription is current, you are entitled to access any new version of NetWeaver.
Though you have only one development user, you still can create multiple concurrent users for testing purposes.
Having said all that, I don't want to hear those types of questions at the TechEd in Munich anymore 😉
So check out the SAP NetWeaver, Development Subscription under http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/subscriptions/development
And don't forget to tell us what you think through that feedback form.
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