Understanding EOSL

End Of Service Life (EOSL): Your guide to understanding this hardware milestone

Hardware is the backbone of your data centre. From Mainframes, Servers and Storage to Routers and Switches, every component serves an essential role in keeping your business up and running. As such, you do your best to minimize disruptions and outages by being proactive about maintenance and replacing components before they fail.

However, one thing you might not be planning for is the official End Of Service Life (EOSL) of each component. Every hardware component manufactured has an official date beyond which the manufacturer will no longer support it. It usually comes shortly after the official end of production.

What does EOSL really mean for your organization, though? It’s a difficult situation in which to find yourself, but it does not mean you’ll need to rush out and spend hundreds of thousands on the latest and greatest from your preferred hardware manufacturer. In this post, we’ll explore everything you need to know about EOSL and its implications for your data centre or network hardware.

The Hardware Lifecycle

It’s difficult to understand EOSL without first having a solid grasp on the entire product lifecycle. Fortunately, most hardware has a pretty defined lifecycle. However, it’s not what manufacturers want you to think it is. According to OEMs, this is what the lifecycle should look like:

• The device is designed and then manufactured.
• Manufacturing lasts for two to three years.
• The manufacturer stops producing the device but continues to provide support for a short time (called End Of Life , or EOL).
• Within a couple of years, the manufacturer stops offering any support and you must upgrade to a new system (called End Of Service Life - EOSL).

Now, that lifecycle looks great from the OEM’s perspective because it allows them to keep a steady stream of profit flowing into the company’s coffers. OEMs don’t really make money by helping you keep IT hardware in good working condition. That’s because when properly maintained, a basic storage array, a server or a router can have a lifespan that extends across decades. Where’s the return for shareholders in that?

EOSL: Definition, Origin, Importance

Let’s start with the basics. EOSL stands for End Of Service Life. EOSL marks the date upon which a specific product/product line is no longer supported by its Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and is officially retired. Beyond discontinuing standard support, EOSL also implies that the OEM will no longer provide software/OS updates or renew support warranties for the equipment. Essentially, it’s their recommended date for a hardware refresh. Simple, right? Actually, there’s more to it.

An approaching End Of Service Life date can put a lot of pressure on IT managers. After all, it’s their responsibility to ensure that the data centre stays running smoothly, and that means avoiding disruptions and minimizing downtime, including any related to replacing components. So their first instinct is likely to be to contact the manufacturer to start shopping for a replacement, but that’s a huge mistake.

The truth is that those End Of Service Life dates that seem so very important are not particularly pressing. In fact, they’re completely arbitrary. Your hardware isn’t going to fail the moment the clock strikes midnight (and likely won’t for a very long time afterward). Understand that the OEM industry uses EOL/EOSL terms to indicate lifecycle stages as they relate to support, marketing, development, etc. These terms do not accurately represent current or future equipment performance. Instead, they’re commonly used as scare-tactics to encourage product upgrades/refreshes.

So, if there is no basis for EOSL dates in objective reality, why do manufacturers follow this practice? It’s pretty simple: they need to turn a profit.

OEMs’ artificially accelerated refresh cycles

To combat that problem, manufacturers regularly retire existing hardware and introduce replacement options every 5-7 years (which are often little more than iteratively better than the systems just retired). In some cases, the improvements are more cosmetic than anything.

In short, you end up paying a ton to retire perfectly good hardware and upgrade to new, more expensive equipment.

Look at it this way. If the OEM told you that your hardware would function just fine for 20 years or so, would you be in a hurry to replace it? Probably not. You need to maximize your Return On Investment (ROI) while minimizing your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), and that usually means keeping hardware in place as long as possible (at least until there is a compelling reason to upgrade, such as dramatically improved performance).

Since no self-respecting manager with a tight budget is going to upgrade hardware unless there is a compelling reason to do so, OEMs give you that reason in the form of an End Of Service Life. It’s essentially an ultimatum - upgrade to our latest and greatest model or face the prospect of going it alone without any help if things go wrong.

Of course, many organizations lack the in-house talent required to troubleshoot issues if they do arise after EOSL , so that threat can feel very real. After all, what’s the cost of new hardware compared to hours or even days of downtime while your team struggles to identify the problem, source replacement components from the second-hand market, and then install and configure them upon arrive?

Thankfully, there is an alternative to caving to a manufacturer’s EOSL threats and going it all by yourself: Third Party Maintenance (TPM).

Why work with a Third Party Maintenance (TPM) provider?

TPM s offer you the chance to keep existing infrastructure in place, skip the costly upgrade or extended warranty from the OEM, and avoid the pitfalls of trying to troubleshoot hardware problems on your own. In short, companies like Support 247 offer the ability to improve your ROI and decrease your TCO, while keeping your equipment in peak condition.

At Support 247 , we present the opportunity to extend hardware’s useful life not by weeks or months, but by years. In fact, we regularly help customers extend the lifespan of hardware by five to 10 years beyond the official EOSL. What could you do with the amount of money saved on support and maintenance during that amount of time?

It’s not just about financial savings, though. You also gain the time to make an informed decision about replacement hardware, rather than simply jumping at whatever your OEM offers as their replacement to your current setup.

Find out more about Third Party Maintenance here.

Other benefits of the right TPM

Working with the right TPM can also yield a wide range of other benefits, including the following:

• Flexible Service Level Agreements (SLAs): At Support 247 , we offer four flexible, customizable SLA s. That allows you to dial in the level of coverage that you need and works best for your unique budget and growth predictions. Want 24/7 coverage? We can help. Need replacement parts only? We do that, too. Take a moment to explore our four service level agreements and we think you’ll agree that there’s something that will fit your needs perfectly.
• Access to Top Tier Talent: Our engineers come from the same talent pools as the OEMs, meaning that you don’t sacrifice access to experience and expertise. We also work with local engineers to serve our clients all around the UK to ensure there will always be one close to you.
• Fast Response Times: When an outage occurs, time is of the essence. On-line support can be available within minutes. If needed on-site, our engineers can be at your location in as little as four hours. No more waiting for days or weeks for help to arrive – we’re there when you need us.

Experience the difference SUPPORT 247 can make after EOSL

Worried that a looming EOSL date will mean costly upgrades and downtime to install new hardware? It doesn’t have to. Don’t be fooled by the artificial refresh cycle OEMs have created. You can keep current infrastructure in place and operating at peak condition for years to come.

Contact Support 247 here today to learn more about how we can help.