Cisco MS220-24P End-of-Life: Migrate to MS225-24P Guide

If you still have Cisco Meraki MS220-24P switches in your wiring closets, the clock has already run out. The MS220-24P-HW, a 24-port Gigabit cloud-managed Layer 2 PoE access switch with a 370W power budget, reached its End-of-Sale on July 29, 2017 and its Last Date of Support (LDoS) on July 29, 2024. That second date is the one that matters operationally: as of mid-2024 these switches receive no firmware, no security fixes, and no hardware backstop from Cisco. They may still be quietly forwarding frames in your IDF today, but every day they do, they carry risk that a regulator, an auditor, or a 2 a.m. hardware failure will eventually surface. This guide explains exactly what the milestones mean, why the stackable MS225-24P is the right refresh target, and how to migrate cleanly.

Why the MS220-24P needs to come out now

End of life for a cloud-managed switch is not like end of life for a server you can air-gap and forget. A Meraki access switch sits directly in the user data path and reports to a cloud dashboard, which means an unsupported one is both an availability liability and a security exposure at the same time.

• No more security firmware. After LDoS, the Meraki team stops releasing firmware for the MS220 line, so any newly discovered vulnerability in its switch OS, web stack, or cloud-communication libraries will never be patched on this hardware. There is no PSIRT remediation path left.
• No TAC, no RMA. Past the Last Date of Support, you cannot open a hardware support case and you cannot get an advance-replacement unit. A failed MS220-24P is a same-day outage with no Cisco spare behind it, and the model's original lifetime warranty does not survive LDoS.
• Audit and compliance findings. Running unsupported, unpatchable network gear is a direct finding under FedRAMP, CMMC, HIPAA Security Rule safeguards, PCI-DSS, and most SLED security baselines. Vendor no longer provides security updates is exactly the language assessors flag, and it is hard to compensate around for a device in the user access path.
• Operational fragility. With no firmware roadmap, you also lose dashboard feature parity over time as the rest of your Meraki fleet advances, and edge cases stop getting fixed.

What each milestone date actually means

Cisco Meraki uses a simpler lifecycle than the IOS-XE catalog, but the milestones still carry distinct meaning. End-of-Sale (July 29, 2017) is the last day you could buy the MS220-24P new through authorized channels; everything after that is install base and secondary market. The MS220 line did not publish a separate End of Software Maintenance milestone, so firmware and the full support entitlement effectively ran straight through to the Last Date of Support. LDoS (July 29, 2024) is the hard wall: the final day Cisco delivers any support, updates, or RMA for the product. There is nothing after it. You can confirm these dates and the recommended replacement any time on the MS220-24P-HW end-of-life page.

The replacement: Meraki MS225-24P, and why it is a real upgrade

The drop-in successor is the Cisco Meraki MS225-24P-HW: a 24-port Gigabit, cloud-managed Layer 2 access switch with the same 370W-class PoE/PoE+ budget the MS220-24P delivered. From an end-user and PoE-device perspective it does everything the old switch did. The difference is in the uplink, stacking, and backplane engineering, which is where the MS220 generation was genuinely dated.

• True physical stacking. The MS220 had no stacking interface at all. The MS225 ships with dual dedicated physical stack ports delivering up to 80 Gbps of stacking bandwidth, so you can stack a row of access switches into one logical unit with a redundant ring instead of a pile of independently-managed boxes.
• 10G uplinks on every unit. The MS220-24P offered 1G SFP uplinks. Every MS225 includes four 10G SFP+ uplink interfaces, which matters the moment you put Wi-Fi 6/6E access points, multi-gig clients, or aggregated traffic behind the closet. It removes the 1G uplink bottleneck that quietly throttled MS220 sites.
• Larger non-blocking backplane. The MS225 carries a non-blocking switching fabric rated up to roughly 176 Gbps, with eight QoS queues per port for converged voice, video, and data, so it does not become the constraint as port utilization climbs.
• Power redundancy option. The MS225 supports an external redundant PSU (Cisco RPS-2300) for closets that need power resilience, an option the MS220 did not offer.
• Lifetime hardware warranty. The MS225, while supported, carries Meraki's lifetime hardware warranty with advance replacement, restoring the RMA backstop you just lost on the MS220.

On licensing, Meraki keeps the model you already know: one per-device subscription (Enterprise or the Advanced tier) that bundles cloud management, the dashboard, and support for the term you buy, in 1-, 3-, 5-, 7-, or 10-year increments. Unlike Catalyst, there is no separate DNA/Smart Licensing stack to reconcile, no PAK files, and no on-box license server, the subscription is the entitlement. The one thing to plan for: an MS220 license does not carry over to an MS225, so you purchase new subscriptions and ideally co-terminate them with the rest of your Meraki org so everything renews on one date.

When the MS120-24P is the smarter pick instead

If a given closet is a single non-stacked switch with modest uplink needs, the MS120-24P is a lower-cost, functionally equivalent Layer 2 cloud-managed PoE switch and an entirely valid replacement. Choose the MS225-24P where you want stacking, 10G uplinks, and headroom; choose the MS120-24P where you are simply replacing one isolated 24-port access switch. Both are current and both keep you in the same dashboard. You can compare live configurations and pricing on our switch catalog or in the catalog.

A practical migration plan

Because both old and new switches live in the same Meraki dashboard, an MS220-to-MS225 refresh is one of the cleaner Cisco migrations, but it still rewards a methodical, closet-by-closet approach rather than a big-bang swap.

1. Inventory and assessment

Pull every MS220-24P from the dashboard with its serial, network assignment, port count in use, actual PoE draw, and uplink configuration. Note which closets are single switches versus candidates for an MS225 stack, and capture current uplink media (the MS220's 1G SFP versus the MS225's 10G SFP+, which usually means new transceivers and possibly new fiber or twinax).

2. License transition

Order MS225 (or MS120) subscriptions sized to the right tier and term, and plan co-termination so the new licenses fold into your existing renewal date. Confirm dashboard org capacity and admin roles before hardware arrives.

3. Config and feature parity

Replicate VLANs, access policies, port profiles, voice VLANs, STP settings, QoS, and any access control (802.1X/MAB) from the MS220 onto the MS225 template. Validate that every feature you relied on maps cleanly, then pre-stage configuration so a swapped switch adopts its identity the moment it claims into the network.

4. Physical: rack, power, PoE, uplinks, stacking

Confirm rack depth and mounting, verify the closet's power and PoE budget supports the new load, fit the correct 10G SFP+ optics or DAC for each uplink, and, where you are stacking, cable the MS225 stack ports into a redundant ring before cutover. Order optics and any RPS-2300 redundant supplies as part of the same BOM so nothing blocks install day.

5. Phased cutover and secure decommission

Migrate one closet at a time during a maintenance window: move uplinks, claim the MS225 so it pulls its pre-staged config, move access connections, and validate PoE endpoints (phones, APs, cameras) come up. Run the old and new gear in parallel only as long as needed to confirm parity. Then decommission each MS220 securely: factory reset to clear configuration and cached credentials, remove it from the dashboard org, and dispose through an asset-disposition process that documents data sanitization, which matters for federal and healthcare chain-of-custody requirements.

Procurement notes for regulated buyers

For federal, DoD, and SLED purchasers, source the MS225-24P-HW and its subscriptions through TAA-compliant, GPC-payable channels, and confirm DoDIN APL status where your mission requires it. As an authorized Cisco partner, we supply documented country-of-origin and warranty status, current lead times (Meraki access switches and the matching optics can carry real lead time, so order ahead of your maintenance window), and license terms that line up with your renewal cycle. The goal is a single, defensible BOM, switches, subscriptions, optics, and any redundant power, rather than a chassis quote that surprises you later.

If your MS220-24P fleet is already past Last Date of Support, the safe move is to scope the refresh now and stage it before a failure forces an unplanned outage. Review the full milestone detail on the MS220-24P-HW EoL page, browse other affected models in our Cisco end-of-life library, and when you are ready, get a TAA-compliant MS225-24P replacement quote and we will confirm stock, lead time, and license terms before you commit.