Why you shouldn’t risk keeping Cisco TMS running once it goes out of support 

When you’re running software that’s been in place for years, and appears to be working fine, the temptation is to leave it alone, even when it goes out of support. 

Take Cisco TMS. You probably can’t remember when you last contacted Cisco’s Technical Assistance Center (TAC) about it. And given you probably have a long list of pressing IT projects to deliver, TMS replacement may fall into the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ bucket. 

But as this legacy application approaches end-of-support, I’m here to explain why upgrading isn’t merely a nice-to-have: it’s essential if you’re to keep your enterprise conferencing service secure, compliant, maintainable, and capable of offering the modern capabilities your users expect. 

What does ‘end of support’ for Cisco TMS actually mean?  

January 31, 2027 is the end of support date for Cisco TMS. After this, there will be no further feature or security updates to the software. You’ll also no longer be able to get technical assistance for TMS from Cisco. 

Of course, from a functionality perspective, you won’t notice a sudden drying up of TMS innovation. Other than adding support for new in-room equipment, TMS hasn’t had any significant feature upgrades for years. 

The security risks

What it has had, however, are security updates. The latest of these was as recent as July 2026. And with AI having introduced whole new levels and speeds of threat to IT systems, the need to keep your software up-to-date has never been more important, particularly for those in highly secure and regulated sectors. 

After January 31, 2027, TMS will no longer receive vital security updates as and when new threats and vulnerabilities emerge. It may be months before this happens, but it could also be on February 1^st. Security-conscious organizations aren’t taking the risk, and are moving off TMS before then. 

Compatibility headaches 

Security won’t be the only area of concern if you keep TMS running beyond January 2027. No software operates in isolation, so ongoing compatibility with other parts of your IT ecosystem needs to be considered.  

There will come a point when new software and hardware no longer works nicely – or at all – with TMS. For instance, even if your in-room devices are compatible with TMS today, what happens when Cisco launches new equipment and you want to upgrade? 

Ageing software increases overheads 

Elsewhere, legacy software will have dependencies, such as older operating systems and databases. TMS requires you to license and maintain the 2019 (or earlier) versions of Windows Server and SQL Server. Retiring TMS will reduce the number of licenses you require for these environments. And if TMS is the only application they’re still supporting, you’ll be able to close the environments down altogether, freeing yourself from both the license costs and the environments’ administrative overheads. 

A chance to elevate your conferencing services 

So far, we’ve focused on what could go wrong if you keep TMS running beyond its out-of-support date.  

Moving off TMS isn’t just about avoiding problems, though: It’s a huge opportunity to unlock the latest and greatest functionality – capabilities that will make your conferencing services easier to use, more secure, more reliable, and more capable, than they’ve ever been before. 

VQ Conference Manager – the only complete on-prem TMS replacement recommended by Cisco – has seen ongoing innovation for 20+ years, and offers a richness of functionality that can only come from such extensive development by a large product team.  

Upgrading means benefiting from an immediate uplift in capabilities over TMS – see our TMS vs VQ Conference Manager feature comparison chart – along with the assurance of much more to come, thanks to our detailed product roadmap and regular releases. 

Start your TMS exit today 

VQ Conference Manager is used by hundreds of organizations in government, defense, intelligence, education, research, and enterprise. This includes large numbers of ex-TMS customers, who’ve successfully upgraded using our proven TMS to VQ Conference Manager migration process. 

So if you’re still running TMS, and may have been tempted to keep it running beyond January 2027, I hope I’ve convinced you to think again. The good news is that you’ve still got time to migrate before then if you move quickly: book a meeting with us to get started.