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You conducted extensive research, you did the necessary POC testing, and you judiciously procured server equipment for its proven performance rate and longevity. It has operated well for you, and it continues to do so. The corresponding OEM support is responsive and efficient.
But OEM support won’t last forever.
Eventually, your OEM will announce EOL on that line of equipment. This will drastically raise maintenance and support rates. Soon after, they’ll announce your hardware is approaching EOSL.
EOL vs EOSL
To clarify the difference between the two terms:
- End-of-Life, or EOL, indicates that the hardware has reached the end of its use life according to the manufacturer. The OEM stops marketing, selling, and refurbishing the product line. They will continue to offer maintenance on the existing EOL equipment for a short window of time.
- End-of-Service-Life, or EOSL, is announced depending on the product pacing of the company and its new iterations of hardware. From that date forward, OEMs will no longer provide technical support or maintenance for the hardware.
When your OEM announces EOL, you should start seeking alternative support methods or replacing the hardware. Even if you continue to operate under their inflated maintenance prices, the OEM will eventually announce the end of their service support as well. At that time, you have two options. Upgrade, or shoulder the entirety of the troubleshooting, sparing, and remediation for that equipment. That’s a risky, heavy burden.
You need a better mitigation strategy. Here’s how to plan for the EOSL event you know is coming eventually.
What You Get (and What You Don’t) with the OEM Premium
As mentioned before, when the OEM announces EOL on a line of server equipment, they don’t pressure you to buy all-new, yet. Instead, they charge you an inflated premium for continued support of that hardware.
You see, OEMs don’t respect the laws of supply and demand when it comes to maintenance. Naturally, hardware prices trend downward over time. As more companies upgrade, more units are being refurbished and cycled back through the secondary markets.
Supply increases, demand decreases, and price follows suit. Regardless, your OEM will still charge you more as time goes on.
So, your OEM continues to charge you exorbitant support rates for the next 3–5 years, and then declares EOSL on that equipment. At this point your OEM would love nothing more than for you to buy all-new hardware.
But there are more economical solutions than an immediate upgrade. Enter third-party maintenance (TPM) and value-recovery-based and IT asset disposition (ITAD) services.
Third-Party Maintenance and IT Asset Disposition Strategies when Hardware is Approaching EOSL
At CentricsIT, we offer TPM and ITAD solutions for customers looking for a more practical, flexible way to support their legacy hardware for the remainder of the IT lifecycle, even after EOSL has been announced.
Third-Party Maintenance
TPM pricing and continued support grants you the flexibility to save towards a capital outlay and prepare for the eventual transition to newer equipment—but this time, it’s on your schedule.
Our extensive network of global partners and market specialists enables our strategic position within secondary markets; we get the best possible deals on new and refurbished hardware from all around the globe. Not only that, we also have access to qualified engineers worldwide, meaning we provide the same level of hardware support you’ve been used to with your OEM (if not better). This combination enables us to provide one of the most comprehensive, competent, and economically priced third-party maintenance solutions available, beating out OEM support prices by 40%–70%.
ITAD
In addition to providing maintenance support, our data center experts conduct detailed IT infrastructure audits to determine the inherent value of each of your units in the secondary market.
From there, we advise you on what hardware to decommission and which units to keep in service. In some cases, it might make more sense to upgrade as soon as EOL is announced (e.g. there’s $100k in this chassis now, but in a year, it might only be worth $35k). With this strategic selling, we’ll get you as much of your overhead back as possible—funds that you can put directly towards your new replacement hardware.
However, for those units that are no longer viable, CentricsIT also provides compliance-fulfilling data sanitization solutions as well as R2-certified recycling services.
Upgrade on Your Own Schedule
It’s your business, your IT OPEX, and your data center. You should decide when to retire your hardware, not the OEM.
Strategic TPM and ITAD solutions grant you the technical support and flexibility you need, long after EOSL is announced. By engaging these resources and planning for the transition from the very beginning, you mitigate the risk and cost associated with EOSL events.
Need help planning for your hardware approaching EOSL? Contact a Solutions Architect at CentricsIT to save money on support and upgrade on your own schedule.
