Meraki Networking

[scottsee]

I'm becoming a believer.

[javentre]

I use a lot of their APs, and I'm generally happy with them.

Their support could use a lot of improvement, specifically not treating web based (email or online form) support cases like they're not important.  I was specifically told on my last case that if I wanted more prompt replies (which were running every other day) that I had to call in.

[srg]

Their support isn't integrated into Cisco TAC?

sent from phone.

[deanwebb]

Their support isn't integrated into Cisco TAC?

sent from phone.

Not much of Meraki is integrated. It still has its own support and dev teams and they sound almost competitive with other Cisco wireless solutions when they present their product. It's not like, "Hey, Cisco has many options and Meraki is one of them," but more like "Cisco has many options, but this is the one you want, amirite or amirite?" Traditional wireless guys push their product hard, as well. They won't bash each other, but they really push hard on their feature sets and where there may be some... limitations... with the other great and amazing Cisco options.

We were looking at Meraki and Aironet at the same time we were picking a NAC vendor. Aironet fit right in with both, did all the 802.1X stuff we needed it to do, regardless of vendor. Meraki was able to do auth, but not much more. Their dev team promised more integration with dot1x solutions in the very near future, and made their ability to get code revisions done more rapidly than some other great and amazing Cisco solutions as one of their selling points.

I honestly wonder aloud if Cisco bought Meraki as an actual technology it wants to integrate or if it bought Meraki to eliminate a potential competitor, because a sales strategy that pits internal units against each other on its own makes no sense to me. If there was a way for a company to internally host the Meraki management cloud for example, that would be some really compelling technology.

[javentre]

a sales strategy that pits internal units against each other on its own makes no sense to me.

But they do that with other BUs, I don't see why this would be any different.

[LynK]

i am very displeased with meraki. We have a few of their APs here, and I cannot change an APs IP from dhcp to static............. it applies but does not send it back to the ap...

[LynK]

We are looking into aerohive for a potential 600+ AP design.

These APs are amazing. From granular control, to being able to tunnel SSID's/networks through GRE. ....wow. I recommend everyone atleast look into this product. I for one am impressed.

[javentre]

. it applies but does not send it back to the ap...

I recently discovered they updated their list of hosts/ports for AP to controller connectivity.  You may want to make sure you're not blocking something.

[LynK]

. it applies but does not send it back to the ap...

I recently discovered they updated their list of hosts/ports for AP to controller connectivity.  You may want to make sure you're not blocking something.

well, i thought that too, however I allowed a permit <meraki APs> to any ip on interface inside..... still did not work...

[SofaKing]

We did a pilot of AeroHive, Meraki, and Aruba a couple of years back.  We deployed about 15 of each to different stores.  AeroHive was the least liked... part of the judgement could be the SE.  Meraki was nice.  Easy to use and setup.  Support was an issue.  We ended up going with Aruba.  We now have about 2000 APs deployed to our retail stores and we are pretty happy with the decision.  Support is great and they have a good forum you can go to when you need advice.

[wintermute000]

Aruba and Meraki are taking a LOT of business from Cisco's traditional wireless portfolio, no matter how much they push unified access and OMG WLCs in your 3850s FTW... quick, upgrade to 10G everywhere because wireless AC will saturate everything... meanwhile their traditional stack's reporting/ease of use/layer 7 functions blow chunks compared to the aforementioned.

[srg]

quick, upgrade to 10G everywhere because wireless AC will saturate everything...

NBASE-T, man!

sent from phone.

[scottsee]

We replaced our entire environment with the meraki lineup recently. 100 ap's, Roughly 50 access switches, 10 core switches, 10 firewalls.. I love the iOS, but the reporting and network visibility this product offers is amazing. You can track everything...

[Fred]

We're considering Meraki for a rebuild of our retail network, but focused mainly on the security devices.  My take (based on nonproduction use) is that it will be a good fit provided we stay within the confines of their design.  As Scottsee wrote, it looks like the visibility out of the box is tremendous and could really decrease management overhead.

Their new template system seems quite powerful, but I've only seen that part in demos.

[javentre]

The template features in their AP management are really useful.