Cisco Meraki

Is anyone using Meraki switches and firewalls?

I have a client who is interested but they look expensive for what you get. I like some of the features but just not sure if it's worth the cost for a small to medium sized business.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

discount81

I got a free Meraki WiFi access point, it is a great device and if I had an unlimited budget I'd fit all of our offices and warehouses with them.

However I went with Ubiquiti instead, the cost of Meraki is too high not too mention it's an ongoing license you have to pay or else it stops working.
Ubiquiti has been fantastic, sure it doesn't have anywhere near the level of features a Meraki does, but it still gives you a very nice product for the price.

deth1k

Ok, when Cisco can't compete with someone, they acquire them

Meraki are excellent if you can afford them, don't forget next day hardware replacement and great support

rsutton

We have deployed 100's of Meraki devices; they our are default recommendation for our clients. Our clients are typically small companies in the 25-200 user range. They don't work for all applications and sometimes we deploy Cisco gear instead.

Pros:
-super easy to configure and deploy
-super easy to manage
-Great for MSP's as you can manage *all* of your devices through a single web portal
-RMA's are processed quickly, as are new orders
-Support is pretty good
-We get great margins on deal regs

Cons
-Expensive compared to other vendors in this space. Ruckus can be better in some scenarios and is much cheaper
-You will start seeing limitations for more "complex" networks

cyberguypr

I also got a free Meraki from a link posted here with the idea of trying it out and recommending them to my old employer. The numbers just didn't make any sense so I ended up putting it on eBay and we stuck with the crappy stuff we had.

NetworkNewb

cyberguypr wrote: »

I also got a free Meraki from a link posted here with the idea of trying it out and recommending them to my old employer. The numbers just didn't make any sense so I ended up putting it on eBay and we stuck with the crappy stuff we had.

Curious, I got the free AP sitting at home. How much did you end up getting for it?

cyberguypr

$250. (need more than 7 characters)

NetworkNewb

cyberguypr wrote: »

$250. (need more than 7 characters)

Nice. Might have to dig that thing out, thank you!

bgold87

We are heavy into putting in Meraki firewalls and AP's. The cloud management and ease of configuration are amazing. I would not recommend them for a very complex network, but are great devices.

colemic

I think Iristheangel has put in a bunch of these as well.

Zartanasaurus

I'm curious about their switches and firewalls as well. They have a nice 48-port 10Gb switch which looks better than any equivalent Cisco offering.

Iristheangel

I like Meraki a lot and I've used the switches and firewalls. Great little buggers and good for certain things but be aware of the limitations as well. The feature parity with their Cisco big brothers isn't quite there yet and you have to be aware of some of the limitations before designing them into the solution:
- No EIGRP
- No BGP
- No DMVPN
- Very basic VRRP on the L3 Switches, No HSRP
- Multicast is dense-mode only
- Sourcefire in the MX series isn't highly adjustable - you have three templates
- WaaS isn't highly adjustable either
- CMX isn't as highly adjustable or granular as Enterprise CMX
And there are a few other things that I can't remember off the top of my head.

I love the Meraki platform and I think they are pioneers in terms of cloud-managed network equipment. There are a few competitors but they don't have the same visibility or feature set that Meraki has baked in. I think as far as WiFi, I'd have a hard time NOT going that route - Especially with their System Manager and the new ISE integration they're starting to have. I love the visibility into the applications, traffic shaping, etc - For someone with a lean IT staff, this is gold. For their firewalls and switches, I'd probably use them at smaller sites and branches or if I deploy them at larger sites, I'd keep those limitations in mind (i.e. not stick them as my L3 switching core in a call center or somewhere with a heavy amount of multicast traffic).

BTW, anyone with a Meraki device and needing to deploy MDM or BYOD, seriously look into Systems Manager. Talk to your Meraki rep.

My .02 cents...

matai

I use and really like Meraki. Like Iristheangel said, there are a few shortcomings. However they keep doing amazing software updates very consistently. We initially bought layer 2 switches that are now layer 3 switches after an update. Very cool stuff.

hurricane1091

To those who got the free one, how do I go about getting one exactly? I'm very aware about the webinar thing, and have been aware for months. This thread made me finally take action though and I signed up for a webinar for tomorrow. What's next though in order to get it? Besides attending the webinar that is.

Update: They called me already about the free meraki. Cool beans!

hurricane1091

Did the webinar for the Meraki. Robust GUI that seems intuitive. CLI killer?

kohr-ah

hurricane1091 wrote: »

Did the webinar for the Meraki. Robust GUI that seems intuitive. CLI killer?

It will never replace the CLI nor Catalyst. The idea is ease of dispatch for locations with ease of management.
There are downsides to it also.

You dont pay your license? Your WiFi/Security/etc dies the point it expires. Our corporate wifi with a physical controller, switches, etc. Will not.

JohnnyUtah41

hurricane1091 wrote: »

To those who got the free one, how do I go about getting one exactly? I'm very aware about the webinar thing, and have been aware for months. This thread made me finally take action though and I signed up for a webinar for tomorrow. What's next though in order to get it? Besides attending the webinar that is.

Update: They called me already about the free meraki. Cool beans!

Yeah, i got a free one like a year or two ago..just watched the webinar, talked to a salesdude on the phone the next day, told them i was interested in deploying it to some of our branch offices, and they mailed it to me..i think it comes with a 3 year license for free..been running it at at home ever since..pretty good deal if you ask me.

I was home for Christmas in florida..my girl called me from my place in virginia..she got a new phone and wanted to know the wifi password...i forgot what it was because i had made it all funky for security. I was at the gym at that moment, opened up chrome from my phone logged into the account.meraki.com webpage unhide my password and copy and pasted it to her..that was pretty cool.

JohnnyUtah41

kohr-ah wrote: »

It will never replace the CLI nor Catalyst. The idea is ease of dispatch for locations with ease of management.
There are downsides to it also.

You dont pay your license? Your WiFi/Security/etc dies the point it expires. Our corporate wifi with a physical controller, switches, etc. Will not.

I couldn't tell you how many cisco devices have died on us at work...and always right after a year or two of use...now i know why cisco's hardware warranty is only 90 days! We've had sooo many access points die, ASAs die, pix's die..and WLC's as well! and those WLC are $2k!..i think we've had at least 4 WLC's die on us...got to have smartnet for those devices..and for our $4k WLC.. it's crazy

snokerpoker

I have never had those issues with Cisco gear JohnnyUtah41.

I think I may end up going with Cisco Catalyst switches and a Sonicwall. Meraki's security appliances are really expensive. For example the firewall I am looking at is about $11,000 + 3 year support at $22,000. Seems a bit much for a company of just over 25 employees.

kohr-ah

JohnnyUtah41 wrote: »

I couldn't tell you how many cisco devices have died on us at work...and always right after a year or two of use...now i know why cisco's hardware warranty is only 90 days! We've had sooo many access points die, ASAs die, pix's die..and WLC's as well! and those WLC are $2k!..i think we've had at least 4 WLC's die on us...got to have smartnet for those devices..and for our $4k WLC.. it's crazy

We have been lucky with switches but yeah I've had my share of firewalls and WLCs die also. We switched to Aruba at work because of it. Still have ASA in the data center and now Fortinet at all remote sites.

JohnnyUtah41

snokerpoker wrote: »

I have never had those issues with Cisco gear JohnnyUtah41.

I think I may end up going with Cisco Catalyst switches and a Sonicwall. Meraki's security appliances are really expensive. For example the firewall I am looking at is about $11,000 + 3 year support at $22,000. Seems a bit much for a company of just over 25 employees.

asa 5510 has been solid..just the 5505 have died...mainly the wireless stuff had died for some reason.

all other stuff is procurve

citinerd

snokerpoker wrote: »

I have never had those issues with Cisco gear JohnnyUtah41.

I think I may end up going with Cisco Catalyst switches and a Sonicwall. Meraki's security appliances are really expensive. For example the firewall I am looking at is about $11,000 + 3 year support at $22,000. Seems a bit much for a company of just over 25 employees.

Meraki Firewall for <50 employees should be the MX64. It is most definetely not $33000. CDW has them for around $900 with a 3 year license. Even the MX100 which is for <500 users is <$9000. I think you need to get a new reseller!

Mooseboost

We deploy a lot of Meraki APs to our customers who have Adtrans. Generally the feedback we get on most of the Meraki equipment is positive. I have not messed with the dashboard too much but it seems fairly smooth. The cost point is an issue for some businesses who don't like having to pay for the licenses though. Overall I think their stuff is pretty good. Another issue I run into is customers being uncomfortable with cloud management, thinking that some random Joe is just going to hack all their stuff.

hurricane1091

I got the free AP but I left my old job, and my new one doesn't have any interest in deploying it. I was in a small shop and could of just deployed the thing at will. Is it a crime to sell it?

jmasterj206

I tried to use a MX100 where I work, but there were some limitations that stopped me from purchasing. Site to Site VPN worked great if it was another Meraki unit, but most of our VPN's were to other facilities not owned by us and used different appliances. For example the Meraki's standard phase 1 settings were 3DES. There was no way to change this unless you called Meraki to load this on the back end. It was a pain. You should be able to select the IKE policy settings to match. Also, since we have several internet connections I wanted to send some VPN tunnels down my backup internet connection since it is only used for backup. There was no way to do that. For a lot of people these wouldn't be issues, but they were for me.

One thing about Meraki is that they are very customer oriented and actually listened to my hesitations about the device and they may have well fixed these issues already (This was 8 months ago). I had some discussions with some very high level engineers and seemed like they would try to get these installed in later software releases.