Third-Party Maintenance (TPM) is usually priced below continuing OEM hardware support — Gartner’s 2019 Market Guide for Data Center and Network Third-Party Hardware Maintenance put TPM savings at 50–70% off OEM support net prices. The saving on a given estate depends on the hardware, its age and the SLA, and TPM doesn't fit every workload. This is the 5-year TCO framework Servnet uses with UK enterprises considering TPM.
View the data behind this chart
| Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OEM ProSupport | £k22 | £k22 | £k22 | £k28 | £k28 |
| TPM | £k10 | £k10 | £k10 | £k12 | £k12 |
The maths, illustrated
Illustrative example, not a customer case study: a UK enterprise paying for Cisco SNTC across 4 sites plus EOSL hardware moves about 60% of that spend to third-party maintenance, keeps 25% on Cisco SNTC for the newest gear, and refreshes 15%.
The saving depends on the TPM price for the share that moves, which only a priced, per-device quote for your estate can give. Model it over five years, including the OEM renewal uplifts you would otherwise pay.
When TPM beats OEM
Equipment past OEM end-of-engineering — typical 5+ years old. OEM still charges premium for support but feature engineering is over.
Mid-tier production where 4hr SLA + UK parts is sufficient. TPM matches on SLA at lower cost.
Multi-vendor estate (Cisco + HPE + Dell + Lenovo + NetApp) — TPM consolidates to one contract, one escalation point, one invoice.
EOSL kit that OEM no longer covers — TPM is often the only option.
When OEM beats TPM
Brand-new equipment under 2 years old where firmware engineering + new features matter — stay on OEM for first half of lifecycle.
Production-critical kit where deep TAC engineering escalation is essential — OEM TAC for the most complex P1 scenarios remains best-in-class.
Cisco Smart Net Enterprise Agreement customers — bundled discounts may make OEM economically competitive at scale.
View the data behind this chart
| Cumulative £k | Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OEM | 22 | 44 | 66 | 94 | 122 |
| TPM | 10 | 20 | 30 | 42 | 54 |
An example hybrid model
25% on OEM (newest production tier).
60% on TPM (mid-tier + EOSL).
15% refreshing (planned EOSL retirement).
See our hardware maintenance practice for the full SLA + sector tiering.