Hardware Support Services Market

Dell Technologies’ services revenue fell 4% to USD 23.1 billion in its fiscal year to 30 January 2026 even as its Infrastructure Solutions Group grew 40% to USD 60.8 billion, its results of 26 February 2026 show, and IBM’s Infrastructure Support revenue slipped to USD 5.10 billion in 2025 from USD 5.11 billion, its 2025 annual report filed on 24 February 2026 shows. The hardware support services market covers break-fix maintenance, original equipment manufacturer (OEM) support contracts, extended warranties and third-party maintenance (TPM) for servers, storage, networking gear and end-user devices. Douglas Insights sizes it at USD 96.0 billion in 2025, about USD 1.20 trillion of supported installed hardware at an average annual support fee of 8.0%, and at USD 141.0 billion in 2035, a 3.92% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). The study sits in our data centre infrastructure coverage, beside the Everything as a Service Market, Intelligent PDU Market and Cyber Security Market reports; every figure follows the Douglas Insights research methodology.

Which hardware earns the most support revenue: servers, storage, networking or PCs?

Servers earn the most, 34.0% of 2025 hardware support revenue or about USD 32.64 billion, Douglas Insights estimates. Server support also grows fastest, 5.6% a year to USD 56.28 billion by 2035, on enterprise AI clusters.

Servers lead because a server carries the highest support fee per system, often 8% to 12% of its list price a year for four-hour on-site response, and because an AI server costs USD 300,000 or more, a Douglas Insights estimate. Dell sold USD 24.7 billion of AI servers and USD 19.5 billion of traditional servers and networking in its 2026 fiscal year, its 26 February 2026 release shows, and every one of those systems enters the support base when its warranty starts. Server support grows 5.6% a year, a Douglas Insights estimate.

End-user devices, USD 23.04 billion, hold 24.0% through extended warranties and on-site PC repair; they grow 2.0% because laptops are cheap to replace. Networking, USD 21.12 billion, grows 4.4% on campus and data-centre switching refreshes; Cisco’s services revenue, mostly support, held flat at USD 15.0 billion in its fiscal year to 25 July 2026, its results of 12 August 2026 show. Storage, USD 13.44 billion, grows 2.4% as data moves to cloud object stores. Printers, point-of-sale and other devices, USD 5.76 billion, grow 2.8%. Hardware values for 2035 sum to USD 141.49 billion, 0.36% above the headline.

Who provides hardware support: OEMs, third-party maintainers or integrators?

OEMs provide most hardware support, 72.0% of 2025 revenue or about USD 69.12 billion, Douglas Insights estimates. Third-party maintenance grows fastest, 6.4% a year to USD 28.56 billion by 2035, as buyers keep equipment longer.

OEMs lead because support is sold with the hardware, often bundled for three to five years, and because firmware updates and parts for new systems come only from the maker. OEM revenue grows 3.4% a year to USD 96.56 billion, slower than the market, because OEM support renewals drop sharply once a product reaches end of service life. IBM’s Infrastructure Support fell 3% in the third quarter of 2026 even as its Infrastructure segment grew 4% to USD 3.7 billion, its results of 21 October 2026 show.

Third-party maintainers, USD 15.36 billion, grow 6.4% because they support equipment that OEMs have retired, typically at 40% to 60% below OEM renewal prices, a Douglas Insights estimate. The two largest US specialists merged: Park Place Technologies completed its merger with Service Express on 6 January 2026, creating a company with about USD 1.2 billion of annual revenue serving more than 25,000 organisations in 180 countries, its release states. Integrators and managed service providers, USD 11.52 billion, grow 3.6%. Provider values for 2035 sum to USD 141.53 billion, 0.39% above the headline.

What drives hardware support demand: AI server build-outs, longer equipment life or device refreshes?

Hardware support revenue rises 3.92% a year in our base case: the supported installed base grows 5.5% a year to about USD 2.05 trillion and the fee rate falls 1.5%. Four drivers add 7.00 points; restraints remove 1.50.

AI server build-out in enterprises and sovereign clouds: 3.20 points

AI servers are the largest driver, worth 3.20 points. Dell’s AI backlog reached USD 95 billion and its Infrastructure Solutions Group revenue rose 89% to USD 31.78 billion in the quarter to July 2026, its results of 1 September 2026 show. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) grew third-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue 34% to USD 12.2 billion, with server revenue up 35.3% to USD 6.8 billion, and guides 34% to 37% growth for fiscal 2026, its release of 2 September 2026 states. Douglas Insights estimates about 40% of AI servers shipped in 2026 go to enterprises, neoclouds and governments that buy OEM support, against near zero support spend by hyperscalers that maintain their own fleets.

Longer equipment life and end-of-service-life gaps: 1.60 points

Longer life adds 1.60 points. Memory makers are short of capacity: Samsung said server demand “led to higher market prices across all applications” as it earned KRW 107.4 trillion of operating profit in the third quarter of 2026, its release of 29 October 2026 states, and Micron’s fiscal 2026 revenue rose to USD 133.19 billion from USD 37.38 billion, its results of 30 September 2026 show. Dearer replacement servers push buyers to extend existing ones by two or three years. Cisco ended support for Catalyst 6500-E chassis and Supervisor 2T on 31 October 2025, its end-of-life notice shows, leaving thousands of installed switches to TPM providers. Douglas Insights estimates average server service life rose from about 5.0 years in 2020 to about 6.2 years in 2025.

Networking refresh and campus upgrades: 1.10 points

Networking adds 1.10 points. HPE closed its acquisition of Juniper Networks on 2 July 2025, and its networking revenue rose 74.9% to USD 2.9 billion in the quarter to July 2026, its 2 September 2026 release shows. Cisco’s product revenue rose 16% to USD 48.3 billion in fiscal 2026, its 12 August 2026 results show, which feeds support contracts for five to seven years.

End-user device refresh after Windows 10: 1.10 points

Device refreshes add the last 1.10 points. Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 on 14 October 2025, its lifecycle notice states, prompting companies to buy new PCs with three-to-five-year on-site warranties. Dell’s Client Solutions Group revenue rose 20% to USD 15.03 billion in the quarter to July 2026, its 1 September 2026 results show. Summed, 3.20 + 1.60 + 1.10 + 1.10 = 7.00 points, a Douglas Insights estimate.

What holds hardware support growth back: cloud migration, hyperscaler self-maintenance or fee discounting?

Two restraints remove 1.50 points a year from supported installed-base growth: on-premises workloads moving to public cloud take 0.90 points and hyperscaler self-maintenance takes 0.60 points; fee discounting then lowers the price leg by 1.5% a year.

Cloud migration is the heavier drag because every rack retired from a company data centre ends a support contract. Hyperscaler capital spending shows where new hardware goes: Amazon expects about USD 220 billion of cash capital expenditure in 2026, its results of 29 October 2026 state, Meta guides USD 135 billion to USD 145 billion, its third-quarter 2026 results of 21 October 2026 show, and Alphabet spent USD 131.95 billion on property and equipment in the first nine months of 2026, its 28 October 2026 release shows. Douglas Insights estimates hyperscalers bought about 45% of 2025 server value but less than 5% of server support.

Fee pressure is the second drag. OEM services revenue barely moves while hardware booms: Dell services were flat at USD 5.86 billion in the quarter to July 2026 against USD 5.84 billion a year earlier while total revenue rose 58%, its 1 September 2026 results show, and Kyndryl’s fiscal 2026 revenue was flat at USD 15.1 billion, its results of 6 May 2026 show. AI servers carry a lower support fee as a share of price than general servers, and TPM discounts pull renewal prices down, so the fee rate falls from 8.0% to about 6.9% by 2035, a Douglas Insights estimate.

Which region spends the most on hardware support, and where does it grow fastest?

North America spends the most on hardware support, USD 37.44 billion or 39.0% of 2025 revenue, led by US enterprises, banks and government agencies. The Middle East and Africa grow fastest, 5.4% a year to USD 6.50 billion by 2035.

North America leads because it holds the largest enterprise server and storage base and pays the highest labour rates for on-site engineers. It grows 3.8% a year to USD 54.36 billion as AI factories at banks, carmakers and federal agencies add support contracts. Microsoft’s additions to property and equipment doubled to USD 39.37 billion in the quarter to September 2026, its release of 28 October 2026 shows, and enterprise AI capacity hosted in such sites still needs on-site support.

Asia Pacific, USD 25.92 billion, grows 4.8% on sovereign AI clusters in Japan, India, South Korea and Southeast Asia. Europe, USD 24.96 billion, grows 3.2% but leads in repair rules and TPM adoption; Evernex, a French third-party maintainer covering more than 165 countries and 500,000 IT systems, bought Poland’s Comptest on 23 March 2026, its ninth acquisition since 2019. Latin America, USD 3.84 billion, grows 4.2%, and the Middle East and Africa, USD 3.84 billion, grow 5.4% on Gulf data centres. Regional values sum to USD 99.83 billion in 2026 and USD 142.28 billion in 2035, 0.92% above the headline.

Which companies lead hardware support services?

Dell Technologies leads hardware support with about 17% of 2025 revenue, Douglas Insights estimates, and the five largest, Dell, Cisco, HPE, IBM and Lenovo, hold about 45% together; third-party specialists hold about 16%.

Dell’s services line includes deployment and consulting as well as support; Douglas Insights counts about 70% of it, roughly USD 16 billion, as hardware support. IBM’s Infrastructure Support has eased from USD 5.38 billion in 2023 to USD 5.10 billion in 2025, its annual report shows, as mainframe and Power customers renew on newer systems with lower support content. HPE’s fiscal 2025 revenue rose 14% to USD 34.30 billion, its results of 4 December 2025 show, but the company no longer reports a separate support line.

Third-party maintainers are consolidating fast. Warburg Pincus agreed a majority investment in Park Place, with Temasek taking a significant minority stake, as Charlesbank and GTCR exited, Charlesbank announced on 10 September 2025. Evernex bought Empowered and OrderWork in the United Kingdom on 26 June 2026, its tenth deal. Douglas Insights estimates the five largest TPM firms hold about 30% of TPM revenue, up from about 20% in 2020.

Kyndryl, the infrastructure services business spun out of IBM, booked USD 13.5 billion of signings in fiscal 2026, its 6 May 2026 results show, and resells and manages hardware support inside larger outsourcing deals. Lenovo and HP Inc. lead PC warranty services; HP’s third-quarter fiscal 2026 report cites rising memory and storage costs and component shortages among its risks, its release of 26 August 2026 shows.

How much does hardware support cost, from a laptop warranty to a mission-critical server contract?

Hardware support costs an average 8.0% of the hardware’s purchase value a year in 2025, Douglas Insights estimates, from about 3% for a laptop warranty to 15% or more for mission-critical storage with two-hour on-site response.

The average hides a wide ladder. Douglas Insights puts end-user device warranties at 3% to 6% of device price a year, standard next-business-day server support at 6% to 9%, four-hour mission-critical server and storage support at 10% to 15%, networking support contracts at 9% to 14% of list price and TPM contracts at 40% to 60% below OEM renewal prices. Renewal prices for equipment past five years often rise 20% to 50% at OEMs, which is the opening TPM providers sell into.

The fee rate falls 1.5% a year in the base case, to about 6.9% in 2035. AI servers drive most of that fall: a USD 300,000 AI server rarely carries more than 4% to 5% a year in support, a Douglas Insights estimate, because buyers negotiate on very large orders and replace GPUs on short cycles. Labour costs for field engineers rise 3% to 4% a year, which partly offsets the fall. The price leg would turn flat if OEMs succeeded in bundling software subscriptions, monitoring and security patching into support contracts.

Tariffs affect spare parts more than labour. The US Supreme Court ruled on 20 February 2026 that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not allow tariffs, a Congressional Research Service report explains, and HP said tariff refunds added USD 0.11 to its third-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings per share, its 26 August 2026 release shows. Douglas Insights treats tariff effects as neutral to the 2035 fee rate.

What if AI spending cools or equipment lives stretch further: how large is hardware support in 2035?

The hardware support services market ends 2035 between USD 113.8 billion and USD 174.3 billion across our three cases, around a base of USD 141.0 billion. Enterprise AI adoption and fee discounting set most of the spread.

In the slower case enterprise AI projects stall after 2027, more workloads move to public cloud and TPM discounting spreads to new equipment, taking 1.5 points off installed-base growth and 0.7 points off the fee rate. In the faster case sovereign and enterprise AI clusters keep growing at 2026 rates and right-to-repair rules extend equipment life, adding 1.5 points of installed base. One extra point of yearly revenue growth adds about USD 14.2 billion to 2035 revenue, a Douglas Insights estimate.

Live signals sit near the base case. Dell’s AI backlog of USD 95 billion and HPE’s 34% to 37% growth guidance point up, while flat Dell and Cisco services revenue and IBM’s 3% fall in Infrastructure Support point down. Our 3.92% rate reflects a fast-growing installed base offset by falling fee rates.

Which rules shape hardware support, from the EU right to repair to ecodesign rules for servers?

Three rule sets shape hardware support: the EU Right to Repair Directive (EU) 2024/1799, applied from 31 July 2026; the EU Ecodesign Regulation (EU) 2019/424 for servers and data storage; and e-waste and product-lifecycle policy worldwide.

The repair layer matters most for TPM. Directive (EU) 2024/1799 entered into force on 30 July 2024 and applies from 31 July 2026, the European Parliament legislative summary states, requiring makers of covered products to offer repair at reasonable prices and to give independent repairers access to parts. It covers consumer goods first, but Douglas Insights expects its spare-parts principles to spread into enterprise hardware contracts.

The ecodesign layer covers servers directly. Regulation (EU) 2019/424, adopted on 15 March 2019, requires firmware updates and availability of key spare parts for servers and storage, and the European Commission says it is under review. The waste layer adds pressure: the world generated 62 million tonnes of e-waste in 2022, only 22.3% formally recycled, heading for 82 million tonnes in 2030, the Global E-waste Monitor 2024 of 20 March 2024 states, which pushes companies to keep hardware in service longer.

Douglas Exclusive: the Support Life Extension Ledger

The Support Life Extension Ledger is a Douglas Insights model built from 12 inputs: 9 company filings and releases, 2 regulatory texts and 1 international statistic, listed below. It tracks hardware supported past OEM end of life.

The finding, a Douglas Insights estimate: the share of supported data-centre hardware older than the OEM’s end-of-service-life date rises from about 18% in 2025 to about 27% in 2035, and that post-warranty tail supplies about 60% of TPM growth. Each year of extra server life adds about USD 2.4 billion of support revenue at 2025 fee rates.

The ledger changes how to read OEM results. Flat OEM services revenue during a hardware boom does not mean support demand is weak; it means more of the older base is moving to third parties while new AI servers carry lower fees. Douglas Insights therefore weights equipment age and memory prices as heavily as new hardware shipments in the forecast.

How does the methodology turn USD 1.20 trillion of installed hardware into USD 96.0 billion?

Our methodology multiplies about USD 1.20 trillion of supported hardware, at purchase value, by an average annual support fee of 8.0% to reach USD 96.0 billion, then grows the base 5.5% and the fee rate minus 1.5% a year.

The model covers 5 hardware types, 3 provider types and 5 regions, using 64 data points, 24 sourced and 40 modelled. The installed base comes from OEM hardware revenue over the past six years, less hyperscaler self-maintained fleets and retired systems; fee rates come from company filings and a Douglas Insights price ladder. Arithmetic: USD 1.20 trillion x 8.0% = USD 96.0 billion; USD 96.0 billion x (1.055 x 0.985)^10 = USD 141.0 billion. The supported base reaches about USD 2.05 trillion in 2035.

Two cross-checks agree. First, Douglas Insights’ estimates of the support portions of Dell, Cisco, HPE, IBM and Lenovo services sum to about USD 43 billion, about 45% of our total, matching our top-five share. Second, our TPM estimate of USD 15.36 billion puts Park Place and Service Express, at about USD 1.2 billion, near 8% of TPM, consistent with a fragmented field. AI tools help draft the text and automated checks test the arithmetic and links; the Douglas Insights research desk chooses the sources, builds the model and approves publication, as our editorial standards explain.

Sources

1. Dell Technologies Dell Technologies fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2026 results (2026)
2. Dell Technologies Dell Technologies second quarter fiscal 2027 results (2026)
3. IBM via SEC IBM annual report on Form 10-K for 2025 (2026)
4. IBM via SEC IBM third quarter 2026 results (2026)
5. Cisco via SEC Cisco fourth quarter and fiscal year 2026 results (2026)
6. Hewlett Packard Enterprise HPE fiscal 2026 third quarter results (2026)
7. Hewlett Packard Enterprise via SEC HPE fiscal 2025 fourth quarter and full year results (2025)
8. Kyndryl via SEC Kyndryl fiscal 2026 fourth quarter results (2026)
9. Park Place Technologies Park Place Technologies completes merger with Service Express (2026)
10. Evernex Evernex acquires Empowered and OrderWork (2026)
11. Micron via SEC Micron fourth quarter and fiscal 2026 results (2026)
12. Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics third quarter 2026 results (2026)
13. Amazon via SEC Amazon third quarter 2026 results (2026)
14. European Parliament Directive (EU) 2024/1799 on repair of goods, legislative summary (2024)
15. ITU and UNITAR Global E-waste Monitor 2024 (2024)
16. Microsoft Windows 10 end of support (2023)

What counts in the hardware support services study, and what is excluded?

The hardware support services study counts break-fix maintenance, OEM support contracts, extended warranties and third-party maintenance for servers, storage, networking and end-user devices worldwide. Software support, managed cloud services, consulting and new hardware sales are excluded.

The study splits revenue by 5 hardware types, 3 provider types and 5 regions: North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. Open source software support appears in our U.S. Open Source Services Market report, and pay-per-use hardware models in the Everything as a Service Market report.