Improved reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) is provided by an extensible and flexible firmware architecture. The architecture provides management for events, where an event is a response to an imminent failure of or capacity change requirement applicable to a component of the system. In response to an event, control of a system is transferred from an operating system to the firmware manager. The manager identifies an action that is specified by the event. Based on the action, the firmware manager selects a firmware handler from a plurality of firmware handlers. The firmware manager dispatches the selected firmware handler to perform the specified action. The firmware manager and the dispatched firmware handler exchange system-independent information regarding the event. The firmware manager also manages time-slices for the performance of the specified action by the dispatched firmware handler.