Apple future compatability

[AndyTh]

I work of a local authority in Wales supporting schools with their iPads. We use the Apple VPP system and the free version of the Meraki MDM (System Manager) to deploy apps and generally keep an eye on all the ipads out in schools.

I have recently heard a rather alarming rumour that Apple are about to stop the free Meraki MDM from deploying apps to any IOS device.

Has anyone heard this, is it confirmed?

Thanks

Andrew

[kYutobi]

They announced this some time ago but I haven't heard anything different. I was with Meraki before it was bought out by Cisco so I'm sure they we announce something like this since I am grandfathered in with over 200+ iPads.

https://meraki.cisco.com/blog/2017/01/instant-systems-manager-free-30-day-trials/

[AndyTh]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes I would have thought that any such massive change would have been widely announced. Like you we have been with Meraki for quite a few years and have well over 50 schools and about 3000 ipads on the system. It would be a real pain to have to move them on elsewhere.

Hopefully it is just a rumour and nothing will come of it

Andrew

[kYutobi]

Now I'm praying it's not lol.

[Noah_Salzman]

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@AndyTh wrote:

Thanks for the reply.

Yes I would have thought that any such massive change would have been widely announced. Like you we have been with Meraki for quite a few years and have well over 50 schools and about 3000 ipads on the system. It would be a real pain to have to move them on elsewhere.

Hopefully it is just a rumour and nothing will come of it

Andrew

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Hi Andrew,

We talk with Apple on a regular basis. To the best of my knowledge what you heard is a purely a rumor. In addition, I am pretty sure there is no technical way they could differentiate between our paid users and our free users (in their systems it all just looks like Meraki SM MDM customers).

And, yes, if we ever made a change to how our free product works we would give you ample warning so you had plenty of time to prepare for that change. No change is planned at this time.

Lastly, in case anyone new to our product is confused by the discussion of free Meraki SM, they should read this article which explains the different ways we have licensed the product over time:

https://documentation.meraki.com/zGeneral_Administration/Licensing/Systems_Manager_Licensing

Cheers,

Noah Salzman

Product Manager for Meraki SM

[AndyTh]

Noah thanks for the reply and putting my mind at rest.

This is a great relief

Andrew

[beks88]

Never used Free Meraki, but is Free Meraki getting updated to support the Apple Business Manager migration?

Apple is discontinuing the old portals deploy.apple.com and vpp.itunes.apple.com. Could this affect Free Meraki because of the tokens?