HPE: Wanna revive that support deal for your software? Ha ha ha, har

Organizations running software from Hewlett Packard Enterprise would be wise to read up on their support contracts – there's a new policy in town.

Under revised terms effective today, HPE software support contracts that expired more than a year ago can no longer be renewed, meaning customers who wish to revive their old support deals will have no choice but to negotiate and purchase new support contracts – which we can imagine will involve new prices and terms and conditions.

HPE began notifying customers of the new support terms in notices sent out in August. Here's the note people got in their inboxes, a copy of which was passed to El Reg:

"In efforts to streamline HPE's support offerings and ensure optimal business outcomes for our Customers, HPE's Return to Support Program will be revised to provide Customers with a twelve (12) month opportunity to reinstate any expired HPE support contract ("Reinstatement Option") before such Reinstatement Option expires and Customers are no longer eligible to return to HPE support for those previously supported software licenses ("Revised RTS Program")," the notice to customers reads.

Companies who wish to renew support contracts that expired less than a year ago can still reactivate their deal, but they will have to pay the support costs from the entire time their deal has been lapsed as well as a 50 per cent "reactivation" charge. That offer had also previously applied to contracts longer than one year, but is no longer valid as of November 1.

The hefty charges to reinstate support are not particularly unusual. Fellow enterprise software giant IBM warns that its reinstatement costs can add up to three times the original support fees, while Oracle requires customers pay lapsed support fees as well as 150 per cent their last annual charge to reinstate a support contract.

HPE did not respond to a request for comment on the policy change. ®