Standardised fleet or multi-vendor strategy: where do you land in 2026?

Hey everyone,

In a recent discussion, we talked about how teams are using automatic enrollment to deploy and scale ChromeOS fleets more easily — whether that’s zero-touch for new devices or Flex for existing hardware.

That got me thinking about another decision many admins are navigating right now: how they’re thinking about fleet strategy as they plan for 2026.

Some organisations prefer a highly standardised fleet, sticking to one vendor or model to keep things predictable — from user experience and support, to lifecycle planning. Others lean towards a multi-vendor approach, mixing devices (and sometimes ChromeOS Flex) to stay flexible on procurement, optimise costs, or extend the life of existing hardware.

 

Both approaches can work well on ChromeOS, but the trade-offs are something to take into consideration.

 

I’d be interested to hear from the community:

 

• Do you lean more towards a standardised fleet, a multi-vendor strategy, or a mix of both?
  
  
• What factors tend to drive that decision in your environment (scale, cost, supply chain, sustainability, support)?
  
  
• Has your approach changed over time as ChromeOS and Flex have evolved?
  
  

As always, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer — it’d just be great to learn how others are thinking about this for the year ahead.