Cisco Meraki Systems Manager - End of Sale announcement.

[Cat_Jam148]

Cisco have announced that their Meraki System Manager is going to be fully discontinued 3rd June 2029, preventing sale of new licenses 3rd June 2026.

 

Cisco FAQ

 

I've always liked the system, we use it to manage our 200+ iPads and it's always just worked. We get our licenses for this via the LGFL - I wonder if they'll be offering licenses for an alternative platform...

[6Foot3]

Thanks for bringing this to attention.

Currently have around 1000+ iPads on Meraki SM.

 

I have 16 on Intune for a test, and that seems fine, so I guess slowly moving them over to Intune.

[DavR]

On 08/12/2025 at 11:27, alordcharlie said:

Thanks for bringing this to attention.

Currently have around 1000+ iPads on Meraki SM.

 

I have 16 on Intune for a test, and that seems fine, so I guess slowly moving them over to Intune.

 

What are the device restrictions like in InTune versus Meraki? I set up all my device rules in Meraki years ago, it'll be fun transferring those over.

Like @Cat_Jam148 we're on LGfL licensing, it'll be interesting to see what they'll come up with as an alternative. I suspect they'll do a bulk license deal with someone else.

[password1234]

dang! Moving other to another MDM does that mean a full device wipe/reset?

[6Foot3]

2 minutes ago, DavR said:

 

What are the device restrictions like in InTune versus Meraki? I set up all my device rules in Meraki years ago, it'll be fun transferring those over.

Like @Cat_Jam148 we're on LGfL licensing, it'll be interesting to see what they'll come up with as an alternative. I suspect they'll do a bulk license deal with someone else.

I would say the device restrictions are better on Intune as you have more options.

 

 

1 minute ago, password1234 said:

dang! Moving other to another MDM does that mean a full device wipe/reset?

You would need to create another certificate in Apple School to push to Intune or other MDM.

And yes, you would need to reset all iPads to join them to the new MDM and get a new profile.

 

I would suggest doing a batch at a time.

You've got until 2029 to get all of them over to something else.

[6Foot3]

6 minutes ago, DavR said:

 

What are the device restrictions like in InTune versus Meraki? I set up all my device rules in Meraki years ago, it'll be fun transferring those over.

Like @Cat_Jam148 we're on LGfL licensing, it'll be interesting to see what they'll come up with as an alternative. I suspect they'll do a bulk license deal with someone else.

Also, not sure if you're familiar with Intune, but if you've got a minimum of one Microsoft A3 license, you can have any number of iPads managed in Intune.

It's not a per iPad license like Meraki.

[DavR]

Just had a quick look, and it looks like there is a migrate MDM option..... but only if you're on iOS 26 or later 😕

 

https://documentation.meraki.com/Platform_Management/SM_-_Endpoint_Management/Product_Information/Meraki_Systems_Manager_EOL_Migration

 

I might just take the chance to gather everything in one holiday and start from scratch, we haven't got a huge estate.

[pipsyp]

A massive shame as we've started using this quite heavily ourselves.  Far from a perfect platform (its rather evident they havent been putting much development effort into it for a good long while......and actually I'm not greatly surprised) but it does do the job for the most part, particularly for devices requiring heavy lockdown/kiosk-ing.

 

I still don't personally rate Intune greatly (you cant necessarily rely on it doing as its been told, much as with Windows) but there are others out there of course.

 

They seem to be aligning with Ivanti, I've had dealings with their products in the past in another life and wasn't blown away, but maybe it ends up being a reasonable option.