MDEP – A Check-In Before ISE 2026
When we published the original MDEP research note in July 2025 (with details and way too similar phrasing that have since shown up in a number of analyses by others), the thesis was that Microsoft was not just creating another certification program – it was attempting to define the underlying platform for all Android devices. In the enterprise communications context, this meant Teams-centric devices in meeting rooms, at desks, and across shared spaces. Since then, the story has not substantially changed, but it has gained some important details. This post is a brief update to that original report, not a rewrite, and is best read as a “chapter 1.5” rather than a new take.
Ignite Insights
By the time Ignite 2025 rolled around, it was clear that just about the entire collaboration industry saw MDEP as the long-term foundation for Teams-first devices. Most of the usual suspects in the collaboration hardware world had aligned themselves with that direction to varying degrees. One notable exception at the time was Logitech, which continued to emphasize its CollabOS as its own secure, multi-platform device OS, even as it deepened its partnership with Microsoft.
Shortly after that event, Logitech issued a clarifying statement that put additional structure around its path forward. Logitech’s product and engineering teams, it said, were working closely with Microsoft to explore a potential MDEP integration – but with some clear guardrails. Any MDEP adoption would need to preserve CollabOS’ unique capabilities, its ability to work with multiple service providers, and its security posture. Equally important for customers, Logitech committed that all existing CollabOS devices will remain certified and fully supported under current Logitech and Microsoft support policies. MDEP would only apply to future devices.
Taken together, this is less a capitulation and more a normalization. Logitech acknowledged that MDEP is part of the future Teams story, while also reassuring customers that their current investments are not at risk and that CollabOS will not suddenly become a single-tenant OS. For enterprises that bet heavily on CollabOS precisely because it was not tied to one UC platform, that clarity matters more than any marketing slogan.
Google: ‘Never MDEP’
At the same time, other vendors have been demonstrating what it looks like to navigate a world where not all platforms want to live on the same underlying OS. Neat’s announcement this week that Google Meet now runs on Neat Bar Gen 2, Neat Bar Pro, and soon on other devices, illustrates this tension particularly well. Neat is deeply aligned with Microsoft on Teams Rooms, and its roadmap clearly assumes a future in which MDEP plays a central role for Teams appliances. Yet it also wants to offer a first-class, native Google Meet experience.
In industry conversations, the expectation has been that Google is unlikely to embrace MDEP for its Meet service any time soon (despite Microsoft’s desire to work with all partners). Rather than choosing sides, Neat has effectively chosen to carry the complexity. By all accounts, their Meet-capable appliances will ship with two Android-based OS images – one aligned with the MDEP world and one that is not – and invoke the appropriate stack on boot depending on which service the customer intends to run. That is not the simplest architecture, but it is a pragmatic answer to a very real customer requirement: run Teams and Meet natively on the same family of hardware without being forced to pick a single winner at the Android OS level.
♫…That Will Bring Us Back To ISE…
While vendors like Neat and Logitech are focused on preserving multi-platform value, others are leaning into MDEP more directly as a way to simplify their story. Crestron, which was already named as an MDEP partner, has now pre-announced its first MDEP-based device – a touch panel, scheduled to debut at ISE. For Crestron customers, that means room scheduling and control panels that share a common, Microsoft-managed platform layer with other Teams-aligned devices. For Microsoft, it extends MDEP’s footprint beyond front-of-room appliances into the broader set of devices that live at the edge of the room experience.
AudioCodes is pursuing a similar direction on the voice side. The company has been positioning itself as a multi-UCaaS endpoint supplier for some time. At ISE, they will announce an MDEP-based IP phone designed to live comfortably in that multi-platform world while still aligning with Microsoft’s device platform strategy. The specific model details are not public yet, but the intent is an endpoint that treats MDEP as the foundation and still offers native voice compatibility with Teams, Zoom, and amazingly, Webex.
All of this is happening against the backdrop of Microsoft’s own event choices. The MDEP team, along with senior Teams leadership, will be visible and vocal at ISE in a couple of weeks, while Microsoft has opted not to participate in the new Enterprise Connect event in March. That does not change the technology, but it does say something about where Microsoft expects the room and device ecosystem conversation to take place.
TL;DR Update
For buyers, the practical takeaways from the original MDEP research note still hold, but they can now be sharpened:
- MDEP is no longer a hypothetical roadmap item – OEMs are shipping or about to ship real products on it.
- Existing non-MDEP devices are not being orphaned overnight, but new purchases increasingly need to be evaluated through an MDEP lens, and per Microsoft’s current guidance, new Android devices must be MDEP-based if they want to achieve Microsoft Teams certification.
- Multi-platform realities remain, and some of the most customer-friendly vendors are willing to absorb considerable technical complexity – including dual OS images – to keep that flexibility alive.
If you are making multi-year decisions about room systems, signage players, control panels, or IP phones, the question is not whether MDEP exists, but how each vendor is choosing to participate. Our original July 2025 MDEP research report still lays out the architecture and the key questions to ask – this piece is simply a status check on how the ecosystem has evolved since.