JNUC 2026 Day 1 recap: powering up in Kansas City 

Jamf Nation kicked off JNUC 2026 in Kansas City with a full house, a new CEO on the keynote stage for the first time 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.

Unpacking the full day included:

• Platform State of the Union
• API and blueprints news
• Night one Braindate community

The news of the day

JNUC 2026 keynote recap: Power up!

CEO Beth Tschida's first keynote included:

• Platform API Gateway
• Device Health
• Vitals
• Routines
• Expanded AI governance

Platform State of the Union: JNUC 2026

Deep dives on:

• Blueprints
• Platform API
• Jamf Terraform Provider
• App Insights
• Jamf Device Checker
• Jamf Tap

Headline news of the day

Jamf's platform is consolidating around three circuits, with blueprints now the connective layer across:

• API
• UI
• AI

Top themes from Day 1

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

Jamf CEO Beth Tschida set the tone early: “This community pushes us. You hold us accountable, and you should.”

And on the platform's direction, the message from the Platform State of the Union was just as direct. Jamf is no longer only “the platform you configure,” 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!