Understand the “MSDN on GSA” Expiration Issue

Often times our customers who purchase MSDN Subscriptions from GSA schedules may be confused about when their subscriptions actually expires. For example, you may be thinking… “it sure has been a while since I renewed… but my “My Account” page says that I don’t expire for another 2 years!”… Hmmmm. Well, MSDN Subscriptions purchased on GSA schedules have slightly different terms then ones purchased on Microsoft Government Enterprise Agreements or Commercial Agreements. Let’s talk specifics…

On non-GSA purchases… the cost is pro-rated based on the life of the Agreement you are purchasing on. So if you purchase MSDN on a Microsoft Government Enterprise Agreement (EA) that has 2 years remaining until renewal, the purchase price of the MSDN will be prorated to fit those 2 years. Thus the EA will “co-terminate” with the MSDN Subscription in this situation. However, the terms for MSDN Subscriptions purchased on GSA is different. On GSA, you purchase 3 years of MSDN coverage regardless of the Agreement end date. Thus, your MSDN Subscription expires 3 years from your original purchase date.

While this sounds simple enough, the Microsoft Volume License System (MVLS) does not know how to account for this anomaly that only applies to a small number of customers. So when you see an expiration date on your “My Account” page, it’s referring to the Agreement end-date and not the MSDN Subscription itself. The only way to truly confirm the expiration of your MSDN Subscription is to calculate 3 years from your MSDN Subscription purchase.