HP to begin charging for firmware updates and service packs for servers
Summary: HP server customers are about to get an unwelcome surprise when they need to update firmware or apply a service pack. Effective later this month, those downloads, which often fix critical bugs …
Context & Ripple Effects
The move lands a year after HP admitted to backdoors in its storage products, so trust in the vendor's handling of security basics was already frayed among enterprise buyers. Charging for firmware and service packs reverses an expectation set long ago when Microsoft began pushing Windows Server 2003 SP2 through Automatic Updates — that critical fixes arrive free and automatically.
The pickup was broad for a single announcement: Computerworld, eWeek, The Inquirer and Ed Bott all covered it within days, reflecting how directly it touched every datacenter operator running HP ProLiant-class gear.
First-order effects
- Customers with expired support contracts must now pay HP to download firmware and service packs that often fix critical bugs, effectively making patching a paid feature rather than part of owning the hardware.
- Rival server vendors — Dell, IBM, Lenovo — gain an immediate talking point: free lifetime firmware as a procurement differentiator against HP's installed base.
Second-order effects
- Procurement math shifts toward total lifecycle cost, letting competitors undercut HP on multi-year deals even at equal sticker prices, while third-party maintenance firms find a market in servicing HP fleets their owners can no longer cheaply patch.
- Customers weighing HP's cloud ambitions — including the Ubuntu-based service announced in 2011 — face harder questions about whether locking into HP infrastructure means accepting paywalled maintenance downstream.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds across the industry, security patches become a contractual entitlement tied to support agreements rather than a product right — pushing enterprises toward either premium contracts or open-source stacks they control themselves.
- Hardware vendors' margins increasingly come from the installed base rather than the box, accelerating the conversion of one-time server sales into recurring support revenue streams.
The trend: Enterprise hardware vendors are converting ownership into subscription by gating updates and fixes behind paid support contracts, monetizing the installed base after the sale.