We have a lot of 2702i APs in our environment. According to the below notice they are EOL soon. But what does it mean in reality? Can i run them 4 years more without any issues, or should i change them to 2802i? I understand that I will not be able to buy more of them (we have some 2702i as spares in case of hardware issues), but what is worrying me is the "End of SW Maintenance". If I run these with a IOS XE controller like 9800 series, would that mean that there will be no bug fixes and so on?
How should I react to this EOL notice, plan for immediate change of them, or could I run them for a couple of years more?
Link to EOL notice:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/aironet-2700-series-access-point/eos-eol-notice-c51-740711.html
Table 1. End-of-Life Milestones and Dates for the Cisco Aironet 2700 Series Access Points
Milestone | Definition | Date |
End-of-Life Announcement Date | The date the document that announces the end-of-sale and end-of-life of a product is distributed to the general public. | April 30, 2018 |
End-of-Sale Date:
HW | The last date to order the product through Cisco point-of-sale mechanisms. The product is no longer for sale after this date. | April 30, 2019 |
Last Ship Date:
HW | The last-possible ship date that can be requested of Cisco and/or its contract manufacturers. Actual ship date is dependent on lead time. | July 30, 2019 |
End of SW Maintenance Releases Date:
HW | The last date that Cisco Engineering may release any final software maintenance releases or bug fixes. After this date, Cisco Engineering will no longer develop, repair, maintain, or test the product software. | April 29, 2020 |
End of Vulnerability/Security Support:
HW | The last date that Cisco Engineering may release a planned maintenance release or scheduled software remedy for a security vulnerability issue. | April 29, 2022 |
End of Routine Failure Analysis Date:
HW | The last-possible date a routine failure analysis may be performed to determine the cause of hardware product failure or defect. | April 29, 2020 |
End of New Service Attachment Date:
HW | For equipment and software that is not covered by a service-and-support contract, this is the last date to order a new service-and-support contract or add the equipment and/or software to an existing service-and-support contract. | April 29, 2020 |
End of Service Contract Renewal Date:
HW | The last date to extend or renew a service contract for the product. | July 29, 2023 |
Last Date of Support:
HW | The last date to receive applicable service and support for the product as entitled by active service contracts or by warranty terms and conditions. After this date, all support services for the product are unavailable, and the product becomes obsolete. | April 30, 2024 |
