We purchased new units recently and all the firmware was up to date. The only downtime was licence installation (there are 3 licences which require reboots when installed).
We have a good relationship with the local service guys, emails are always quickly answered and onsite support is prompt. The Department I indirectly work for has a fair bit of HDS kit so there is an existing enterprise support agreement - can't comment on what the standard support would be like if, for example, a single AMS unit was the only infrastructure purchased from them.
