Free · No sign-up · Sourced from vendor policy

Hardware maintenance quote builder

Build a per-device support schedule, see exactly what each platform keeps and loses when OEM support ends, and get the whole schedule priced by a UK maintainer who tells you which kit should not move.

Every maintenance provider asks you to describe your estate in an email and comes back in a few days. This does the scoping part in front of you, in minutes.

Your estate

Add each group of devices. No sign-up, and nothing is sent until you ask for a quotation.

Platform

Model

Qty

Site

Criticality

Response

Cover ends

optional — drives are the most common failure, so this sharpens the spares position

Serial numbers — optional, paste or type; commas, spaces or new lines all work

Platform

Model

Qty

Site

Criticality

Response

Cover ends

optional — drives are the most common failure, so this sharpens the spares position

Serial numbers — optional, paste or type; commas, spaces or new lines all work

Platform

Model

Qty

Site

Criticality

Response

Cover ends

optional — drives are the most common failure, so this sharpens the spares position

Serial numbers — optional, paste or type; commas, spaces or new lines all work

Contract term

Current annual OEM spend (optional)

Coverage specification

What each group keeps and loses if it leaves OEM support, from the vendor’s own documentation.

6 × HPE ProLiant server · ProLiant DL380 Gen10

Move — named trade-off

Loses the Service Pack for ProLiant, System ROM and CPLD — but keeps more than most people assume.

Keeps: iLO management firmware · Storage controller firmware · Drivers · Safety and security firmware — HP committed publicly in 2014 that security patches stay free for all server users

Loses: Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) · System ROM / BIOS updates · CPLD firmware

There is no HPE software-only or firmware-only contract: Pointnext Tech Care sells Critical, Essential and Basic, all of which cover hardware. The realistic options are to accept the SPP gap on stable estates, or keep OEM cover on the subset that genuinely needs BIOS-level updates.

4 × Dell PowerEdge server · PowerEdge R740

Move to third-party

No firmware loss. Dell publishes PowerEdge firmware and drivers with no entitlement check.

Keeps: BIOS and system firmware · iDRAC firmware · All drivers · Firmware catalogue and DUP packages · Security updates

Possibly over-covered: 24×7×4 selected against standard — workaround exists — 9×5 NBD is the usual fit.

8 × Cisco switching / routing · Catalyst 9300

Move — named trade-off

A TPM provider cannot supply Cisco software — but Cisco documents two lawful routes for the customer.

Keeps: Free security fixes for eligible vulnerabilities by contacting Cisco TAC, per Cisco’s published Security Vulnerability Policy · Hardware break-fix and spares from a third party

Loses: Bug fixes, patches and feature updates via the TPM provider — Cisco states plainly that a TPM provider is not authorised to supply these

Cisco’s own TPM FAQ confirms a customer may buy a single software image from the Global Price List irrespective of any service contract. Budget for that on devices that need a specific release. Note also that a support lapse of 90 days or more may trigger inspection and reinstatement fees if you return to Cisco later.

Possibly under-covered: 9×5 NBD selected against important — significant disruption — 9×5×4 is the usual fit.

Estate in scope

devices · 1 site · 3-year term

Clear

Trade-off

Indicative saving band

30–60%

Applied across all 18 devices in scope.

Get this schedule priced →Line by line, back within one business day

We price the devices that can move and tell you plainly which should stay on OEM cover — including where that means we quote you less.

What to watch

14 devices move with a known, named trade-off

These platforms lose specific update classes but keep more than most buyers expect. Each line below states exactly what you keep and what you lose, with the vendor document it comes from.

4 devices may be over-covered

The response time selected is faster than the stated business criticality requires. Over-covering is the most common avoidable cost in a maintenance estate — 24×7×4 on everything is the quickest way to inflate a renewal. Worth reviewing before you renew anything.

8 devices may be under-covered

The response time selected is slower than the stated criticality implies. Worth confirming this is deliberate — it is a risk decision, not a cost one.

Cisco: a lapse of 90 days or more has a cost to reverse

Cisco’s published reinstatement policy allows for inspection and fees where support has lapsed 90 days or more. That does not prevent a move to third-party maintenance, but it should be a considered decision rather than a drift.

Drive detail sharpens the spares position

Optional, and the entitlement verdicts above do not need it. But drives are the highest-failure component in any estate, so knowing the count, interface and capacity is what lets us hold the right spares near your sites rather than pricing a generic contract.

Serial numbers speed the quote up considerably

They are optional here — the entitlement verdicts above do not need them. But serials let us confirm each unit’s exact configuration, its real end-of-service-life date and its current entitlement status, which is the difference between an indicative band and a firm price.

Sourced from each vendor’s own documentation, not from a maintenance provider’s marketing. Two findings surprise most buyers: HPE keeps far more than expected — iLO, controller firmware, drivers and security firmware all remain available, and HP committed publicly in 2014 that security patches stay free for every server user. And “Dell lets you download firmware freely” is only true of PowerEdge; Dell EMC storage is entitlement-gated, so anyone quoting the PowerEdge policy at a PowerStore is quoting the wrong document.

Weights are indicative and relative, not prices. Most estates arrive over-covered because the original contract applied one response time across everything and nobody revisited it at renewal. The configurator flags each device where the response time selected is faster than the stated business criticality warrants — the saving is available before you change supplier at all.

Price this schedule

Your full schedule comes attached to the enquiry, so there is nothing to re-type and nothing lost in translation. We price the devices that can move, name the ones we think should stay on OEM cover, and put a UK engineer and a parts position behind every line. Just an email gets you started.

Vendor sources for every entitlement verdict (9)

Every verdict traces to the vendor’s own published policy rather than to a maintenance provider’s marketing. Where a platform genuinely should stay on OEM cover we say so — you would find out anyway, and finding out after signing is worse. See how third-party maintenance compares on cost, or check end-of-service-life dates for your kit.

The firmware question, answered properly

The objection that kills most third-party maintenance conversations is not price — it is “we’ll lose access to firmware and patches”. It is a fair concern, and the honest answer is that it depends completely on the platform.

On Dell PowerEdge you lose nothing: Dell publishes server firmware and drivers with no entitlement condition. On HPE ProLiant you lose the Service Pack for ProLiant, System ROM and CPLD updates — but you keep iLO, controller firmware, drivers and security firmware, which is considerably more than most people assume. On Dell EMC storage and NetApp controllers you lose array OS updates outright, and we will tell you to keep those on OEM cover.

We would rather show you the platforms where third-party maintenance is the wrong answer than win a contract you regret at the first firmware advisory. That is why the tool returns a verdict per device rather than a single number for the estate.

Third-party maintenance FAQs

Do I lose firmware access if I move off OEM support?

It depends entirely on the platform, and the differences are larger than most buyers expect. Dell PowerEdge firmware and drivers are published with no entitlement check at all. HPE ProLiant loses the Service Pack for ProLiant, System ROM and CPLD updates, but keeps iLO, storage controller firmware, drivers and safety and security firmware — HP committed publicly in 2014 that security patches remain free to every server user. Dell EMC storage and NetApp controllers are firmly entitlement-gated and are usually best left on OEM cover. The builder gives you a verdict for every line of your estate with the vendor document it comes from.

Can I keep a cheap OEM contract just for firmware?

Not with HPE. Pointnext Tech Care sells three levels — Critical, Essential and Basic — and all three cover hardware; there is no software-only or firmware-only option. Anyone offering you that arrangement on HPE kit is describing something that does not exist. On Cisco the position is better: Cisco’s own third-party maintenance FAQ confirms a customer may buy a single software image from the Global Price List irrespective of any service contract.

What can a third-party maintainer legally support on Cisco kit?

Hardware break-fix, spares and engineering, yes. Cisco software, no — Cisco states plainly that a third-party maintenance provider is not authorised to supply Cisco bug fixes, patches or updates. What you keep as the customer is Cisco’s published security route: non-contract customers who are eligible for a security fix may obtain it by contacting Cisco TAC. We would rather quote that restriction to you than let you discover it later.

Do I have to move my whole estate at once?

No, and you usually should not. A split estate — third-party maintenance on the platforms where it costs you nothing, OEM cover retained where firmware access genuinely matters — is the normal outcome and it is what the specification is designed to express. It also means the decision is not all-or-nothing at renewal.

How much can third-party maintenance actually save?

We publish an indicative band of 30–60% against OEM renewal, applied only to the devices that can move. We deliberately do not quote the widely-repeated 50–70% figure: it dates from 2019, is calculated against net prices, and the largest provider in the category publicly claims 30–40%. A band we can defend is worth more than a headline we cannot.

What is over-coverage and why does it matter?

Most estates run one response time across everything because the original contract did, and nobody revisited it. Paying for 24×7 four-hour response on a test server is pure cost with no risk reduction. The builder flags every device where the response time selected is faster than the stated business criticality warrants — and that saving is available to you whether or not you change supplier.

What happens if I let Cisco support lapse and want to go back?

Cisco’s published reinstatement policy allows for inspection and fees where support has lapsed for 90 days or more, and secondary-market equipment is not eligible for a Cisco contract until inspected and relicensed. That does not prevent a move to third-party maintenance, but it should be a deliberate decision rather than something you drift into.