Switch Upgrades - Perhaps?

[SPieroni]

We have a mixture of MS225 and MS390 switches that have licenses up for renewal. In July they will have been in use for six years. It is being recommended to me to keep them for another three years but am not sure I am comfortable with that.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you

[r2kat]

Why do think about replacing them? If you didnt face any major problems i dont see any disadvantage to still work with them. We have about 100 MS225 and the End-of-Support is April 30, 2031.
For MS390 it is Mar 28, 2032.

Meraki End-of-Life (EOL) Products and Dates - Cisco Meraki Documentation

So we will just keep them running as long as possible. We also didnt face any high replacement rate due to hardware failure, I think two in the last 5 years, and our experience with Meraki is good enough that we dont think this will change in the next years.

So just let keep them running would be my advice 😉

Best regards
René

[SPieroni]

Hi Rene,

Thanks you for your advice! My primary reason is due to their age. They will be nine years old at next renewal.

[r2kat · Accepted solution]

As i know you have 'lifetime' warranty for these switches. This means the lifetime ends concurrently with the End-of-Support Date.
Returns (RMAs), Warranties and End-of-Life Information - Cisco Meraki Documentation

So even if you face a failure they need to be replaced by Meraki. But as mentioned we dont expect that, even if they are 8 or 9 years old. We are just replacing our 8 year old access points because of EOL but they still would run perfectly without any increased failure rate.

So i really dont see any reason why you should replace them earlier unless you dont need specific new features as Mloraditch mentioned.

And how Meraki describe their warranty sheet: "Cisco Meraki stands behind its products."
And they would definitly not offer lifetime warranty if they are not completely sure that the devices will run even longer then 10 years 😉

[SPieroni]

The lifetime warranty was not included in my thought process. Thanks for pointing that out! I think you have me convinced on renewing the licenses and calling it a day.

Thanks again!

[mloraditch]

Unless you need specific new hardware features or there is some history of high failure (which I'm not aware of for these models or for any Cisco switches in general in any recent memory), I keep switches running until EOL, maybe replacing a year or so early if there is a financial incentive to do so.