If your organization is running servers or storage past the original OEM warranty or getting close to that line, you are not alone. Across industries, IT teams are under pressure to extend the life of existing infrastructure while cutting maintenance costs. Legacy hardware support gives you a path to do exactly that without the risk of losing coverage or being forced into a premature refresh cycle.
Below are the questions we hear most often from clients evaluating iShift’s legacy infrastructure support offering.
General Questions
Legacy hardware support is third-party maintenance coverage for servers, storage systems, networking equipment, and hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) that has aged beyond the OEM’s standard warranty window or that the OEM has stopped actively servicing. Organizations turn to third-party maintenance (TPM) when they want to extend the productive life of reliable hardware, when OEM support costs become difficult to justify, or when equipment has reached end of service life (EOSL) status and the manufacturer no longer offers a path forward. In those situations, iShift steps in so you don’t lose support coverage and so your budget isn’t held hostage to an OEM timeline.
These two terms get used interchangeably, but they are meaningfully different. End of life (EOL) means the OEM has stopped manufacturing a specific product model. End of service life (EOSL) means the OEM has stopped servicing and supporting it: no more patches, no more parts sourcing, no more technician dispatch. EOSL is the more critical designation: once you hit it, your OEM coverage is effectively gone. Our legacy hardware support covers both scenarios. We will support your hardware assets as long as you need them until you are ready to make a planned transition, not one forced by an OEM calendar.
iShift’s Legacy Hardware Support is delivered through a global network of L1–L3 engineers – W2 employees, not subcontracted backline partners – with an average of 15+ years of direct OEM experience. Behind that is global parts stocking and logistics, automated monitoring and triage technology, and 24/7 live support available in more than 170 languages. That delivery infrastructure is built on the Park Place Technologies platform, the global leader in third-party data center support, covering over 1.1 million technology assets across 40+ OEM brands. For our clients, that means OEM-equivalent (and often better) support at 30-40% less cost.
Coverage and Compatibility
Our legacy infrastructure support covers four categories:
– Server hardware
– Storage hardware
– Networking hardware
– Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI)
Within those, we work across more than 40 OEMs, including Dell, HPE, IBM, Cisco, NetApp, Brocade, Nutanix, and more. If you are unsure whether your specific equipment qualifies, a free hardware assessment is the fastest way to find out.
Yes, EOSL hardware is exactly where our support shines. OEMs may stop servicing and supporting your equipment, but we will not. Our model is built around supporting assets through their full useful life, which often extends well beyond when the original manufacturer exits. We maintain global parts stocking and logistics so that on-time part delivery is possible even for older hardware generations.
No. Many clients start by moving specific equipment sets, often those already at or near end-of-warranty, while keeping other assets on OEM support temporarily. You can phase the transition based on contract renewal windows, budget cycles, or asset age. Our assessment process identifies which equipment makes for easy, immediate candidates for savings, and which may warrant a different approach.
Yes. One common approach is a Day-1 configuration: you maintain a minimal OEM package to retain access to software updates, while iShift handles everything else. This keeps your software update path intact while significantly reducing your overall maintenance spend. After the initial warranty period ends, many clients transition fully to iShift for complete legacy infrastructure support consolidation.
Cost and Savings
Most clients see savings of 30-40% compared to OEM maintenance pricing. For organizations running Dell, HPE, Cisco, or NetApp under OEM support agreements, especially for hardware past the initial warranty window, the difference can be substantial. We provide a straightforward financial analysis that breaks down potential savings at a line-item level so you can model the impact accurately against your current spend. It is not a rough estimate; it is built around your specific asset inventory.
Yes. iShift offers VMware technical support at 30-40% less than Broadcom’s current pricing – with 7×24 coverage available, a 30-minute Sev1 response time, and unlimited support requests and admins. Supported products include vSphere (ESXi and vCenter), NSX, vSAN, Horizon, and Site Recovery Manager. Given where Broadcom has taken VMware pricing since the acquisition, this is one of the most acute savings opportunities we are seeing right now.
Support Quality and SLAs
L1–L3 engineering support with 24/7 availability, a 30-minute Sev1 response time, and a self-service portal for ticket submission, tracking, and full asset visibility. Engineers carry deep OEM experience across the hardware they support; they are direct employees, not third-party contractors. You are NOT getting a call center; you are getting engineers who know your specific equipment.
Our monitoring technology continuously watches your hardware for faults and anomalies. When something is detected, it automatically initiates triage, identifies which specific part is needed, generates a support ticket, and dispatches an engineer without requiring you to call in or manually submit machine logs. It is proactive, not reactive. Coverage spans multivendor environments including Dell, NetApp, HPE, Brocade, IBM, and Cisco, among others.
Our self-service support portal gives you a single, streamlined asset view across your entire supported environment. Through it, you can view real-time status across all supported assets, submit and track tickets, review open and closed incidents, manage your active contracts, add equipment, and update technical contacts per location. It is designed for IT teams that want visibility and control without constant back-and-forth with a support provider.
Getting Started
The fastest path is a free hardware assessment with iShift. We will review your current asset inventory, identify which equipment has the strongest case for third-party maintenance, and present a financial analysis of what the savings look like. Everything is broken down by line item so you can make an informed decision aligned with your budget and IT roadmap.
Contact iShift to schedule your free hardware assessment. Our team will walk you through the process, answer any questions specific to your environment, and show you exactly what legacy hardware support would cost and what it would save.
Still paying OEM prices on gear you are planning to retire?
Let’s put a number on it. We will review your end-of-service-life inventory, show you what third-party maintenance would actually cost, and how much you would free up for the modernization you are trying to fund.
