Mike Lav­er­ick has started some­thing of a peti­tion to bring back the VMTN Sub­scrip­tion option, and I could not agree more!

The VMTN Sub­scrip­tion was a way for inter­ested par­ties to pay for a years sub­scrip­tion to VMware prod­ucts, akin to the Microsoft Tech­net sub­scrip­tion pro­gram. It’s not intended for pro­duc­tion use, but as a means to get hold of prod­ucts for lab work, test­ing and development.

I don’t under­stand why VMware pulled the plug on that option back in 2007, but I do under­stand why it’s time to bring it back to life. As is the case with Mike, as a vEx­pert I can prob­a­bly get hold of all the bits and pieces on my own, but not every­one has the same oppor­tu­ni­ties and I’m sure that’s actu­ally sti­fling com­mu­nity knowledge.

The VMware com­mu­nity is filled with great resources, avail­able and shared between it’s mem­bers, all we want is for VMware to enable the com­mu­nity to grow even more by facil­i­tat­ing home labs, test envi­ron­ments and explo­ration of their prod­ucts. That has to be in VMware’s own inter­est too.

It’s not like we’re look­ing for a free lunch here, but what we’re look­ing for is some­thing between the 60 days trial ver­sions and the full pro­duc­tion licensed prod­ucts. After all, we don’t like rebuild­ing our labs every 60 days do we?

The announce­ment of the VMware Labs going pub­lic in 2012 is a step in the right direc­tion, a rein­state­ment of the VMTN Sub­scrip­tion would be another big step. Come on VMware, I know you have it in you!

If you want to add your own voice to the dis­cus­sion, have a look at this VMware Com­mu­ni­ties dis­cus­sion thread, it’s already got some trac­tion and the more atten­tion it gets the better.

Written by . Christian is the owner of vNinja.net and a Senior Consultant for EVRY ASA, specializing in virtualization. Active twitter user and vSoup.net Virtualization Podcast co-host.