JNUC 2026 Day 1 recap: powering up in Kansas City 

The 17th Annual Jamf Nation User Conference (JNUC) kicked off in Kansas City with a full house for the Keynote and a day of breakout sessions that made one thing clear: Declarative Device Management (DDM) isn't "the future" anymore — it's the standard admins are building on.

In case you missed it

Keynote. In her first keynote as CEO, Beth Tschida framed the day around three "circuits" powering Jamf forward: the API, the platform UI and AI. The keynote introduced the new Platform API Gateway, Device Health (a continuous record of hardware health), Vitals (an AI-powered diagnostic assistant built into Self Service+), an expanded Routines, and a significant extension of AI governance — including a new AI Visibility Report, model insights and on-device AI support.

Read the full JNUC 2026 keynote recap here.

Platform State of the Union. Jamf's Sam Johnson opened by previewing what's ahead for Apple in the enterprise, before diving into the details: blueprints gained site-scoped views, trigger-based activations and full audit history; the new Platform API Gateway consolidates every Jamf API behind a single authentication model; and the Jamf Platform Terraform Provider — already running in production at Lloyds Banking Group — lets admins manage a Jamf instance as code. The session also introduced App Insights, Jamf Device Checker and Jamf Tap.

Read the full Platform State of the Union recap here.

Themes from Day 1 of JNUC

DDM sets the tone for modern management

From the keynote stage to the breakout rooms, DDM wasn't just mentioned — it is the foundation. Three of Day 1's four best-attended breakout sessions dug into DDM directly, and even sessions framed around other topics (profiles, software updates, self service) circled back to it.

Administer like an engineer

Infrastructure as code, GitOps and Terraform showed up everywhere, from Lloyds Banking Group's fireside chat at the SOTU to two of the top breakout sessions. The common thread: Jamf admins are increasingly adopting the tools and mindset of software engineering teams when it comes to managing at scale.

APIs are the universal language of Jamf solutions

The keynote blueprints API demo, SOTU's Platform API Gateway deep dive and a top 10 breakout session all make the case for migrating away from the Classic API by underscoring the importance of admins learning how to connect to the Jamf platform in modern environments.

Security and cross-platform management rounded out the day

Sessions on CrowdStrike Falcon integration and Android Enterprise for Apple-centric admins showed Jamf Nation's world extends beyond Apple-only management.

Top 10 attended sessions

1. DDM: Set It. Declare It. Forget It. Jamf's Anthony Darlow and Scott Mackay made the case that DDM isn't an incremental update but a new operating model for Apple device management, walking through real-world scenarios of autonomous management in action.
2. Declarative Device Management — Software Updates. Eli Lilly's Lawrencia Mensah shared how her team cut OS compliance time from 30 days to 5 across a fleet of 60,000+ iPhones and iPads and 7,300+ Macs using DDM-powered automation.
3. The Profiles Are Dead, Long Live the Profiles. Jamf's Arkadiusz Migała and Deanna Abdin introduced Configuration Profiles 3.0, showing how legacy profile declarations and native DDM configurations now live together under blueprints.
4. Self Service+: Designed for Admins, Built for the End-User Experience. Jamf's Sara Graves and Mateusz Popiało introduced Self Service+, the reimagined end-user app, and showed how blueprints give admins precise control over what shows up and when.
5. From Zero to GitOps: Training a Mac Team to Work Like DevOps Engineers. Lloyds Banking Group's Gordon Deacon, Dafydd Watkins and Joseph Little told the story of taking an eight-person team from zero Git experience to fully owning a GitOps workflow for Jamf Pro.
6. Taming Jamf at Scale. Eli Lilly's Jason Phegley showed how Terraform-based infrastructure as code across five Jamf Pro instances delivered a 90% reduction in deployment time and 350+ hours reclaimed annually.
7. Classic API Works… Until It Doesn't. Jamf's Luke Allen and Elmo Kuisma made the case for Platform API over Classic API, showing how accessible the move is even without prior coding experience.
8. Drift Happens. Jamf's Brianna Judge and Eric Metzger, joined by CrowdStrike's Kyle Jones, walked through a full drift-detection-to-response workflow pairing Jamf Pro with CrowdStrike Falcon.
9. Digital Employee Experience. Advania Sweden's Simon Binder unpacked what DEX means for Apple device management and how to make the business case for investment.
10. Don't Fear the Droid. Jamf's Michael Managhan and Ryan Legg, joined by Google's Al Chappelle, gave Apple-focused admins a practical foundation for managing Android Enterprise alongside their Apple fleet.

Quotable moments

Amid a keynote full of new updates, Tschida grounded it all in why any of it matters:

"New capabilities, risks and change arrive faster than any of us can fully process. And still... our mission hasn't changed: to help people do their best work on Apple."

And on where the platform itself is headed, Jamf's Katie English put it plainly:

"For years, Jamf was the platform you configured. Now it's the platform you build on."

Braindating begins

JNUC's Braindate activity was buzzing with 419+ participants joining on day one alone. The most-searched keywords tell their own story about what's on admins' minds coming into JNUC:

• AI
• Partner
• Intune
• User groups
• PSSO

What's up next

Day 2 is already in full swing with a jam-packed day of breakout sessions, headlined by the Education State of the Union alongside a strong lineup of breakouts on AI governance, third-party app management and more.

And the one-on-one conversations haven't stopped either — Braindates are still going strong, so if you haven't logged into the app yet, there's still time to grab a slot with a speaker or fellow admin before the day wraps.

Tonight: Jamf Nation Party at CPKC Stadium. Great food, live music and even better company. Kansas City knows how to throw a party — and so do we!