Cisco Meraki Erfahrungen

Great for a large range of businesses

Kommentare: Overall we are pleased with our Meraki purchase and installation. We used a system integrator to obtain it but looking back we could have saved some money doing it ourselves but the quick onboarding and initial setup by the integrator ensured we got running quickly

Vorteile:

Meraki is a cloud based product that controls on premises and remote hardware. The hardware is top of the line and includes all the functions you would expect from an exterprise offering. Given the broad number of options and the cloud based always updating nature of this product if fill many needs and be adopted by most organizations.

Nachteile:

Some of the navigation takes some getting used to and I wish it would flow more but there are so many features that building a fluid navigation gets tough, even for Cisco. The graphing could also be better and offer additional options when you need more details but generally it will fill most needs.

Robust MDM platform used for management of iOS devices

Kommentare: We started using Meraki SM when it was still being made available for free to small organizations. At the time, the system was simple, but provided us with what we needed. As the system grew and was improved upon, primarily as Apple released new management options for iOS devices, it became necessary for us to upgrade from the free platform to a paid subscription. The per-user pricing was very competitive, and the available management options were well worth the cost.

Vorteile:

Setup of an enterprise MDM was made easy with Meraki SM. The web administration portal was easy to use, and offered us all of the functionality we needed initially, as well as has provided us the opportunity to increase our use over time. The platform is well designed, simple to use, and responsive. The app management solutions provided through SM are excellent, as well as the user/device options for license assignment and updating.

Nachteile:

We have found the location mapping to be unreliable in Meraki SM, despite having our mobile devices all GPS enabled and configured to make location information available to the SM app. The location tracking tends to use cellular location based on IP addressing and tower locations rather than GPS coordinates provided by the device. Policy pushing over the air is hit or miss, and it can take multiple attempts to get a client device to receive the revised policies. The greatest restrictions of the Meraki MDM seem to lie with Apple not making as many centralized management options available as they should, since enterprise use of iOS doesn't seem to be on their list of priorities.

Expensive but overall worth it

Vorteile:

Ability to manage devices from anywhere. Creating and copying configs among other devices is simple and convenient.

Nachteile:

Cost is a little high compared to other similar products.

Lots of promise but not enough focus on the core

Kommentare: This software has great promise as an MDM solution but it lags behind other solutions. If you’re looking for free and iOS/Android this is for you. If you want to manage computers you may want to consider looking elsewhere. Systems Manager doesn’t scale well and provide advanced features.

Vorteile:

This is a beautiful MDM solution that supports all platforms which is great. There are some features not found elsewhere that make it easy to integrate security functionality with Meraki’s networking stack. Want WPA2 enterprise with TLS? Systems manager makes this seamless.

Nachteile:

Feature set prioritizes integration with Meraki stack. Features introduced by Apple or Microsoft at the OS level can take months if not years to finally be implemented. This can cause quite a lag as your user base upgrades. No real features to manage the patch level of devices aside from manually pushing updates each time. Licensing cost fluctuates frequently (it’s free, it’s paid, it’s mostly free but sometimes paid).

Consistent, Secure and Bug free!

Kommentare: Very smooth; commercial grade; everything is tightly knit together and just works! Easy to create VPNs, VLANs and add users.

Vorteile:

Automation of updates and remote management

Nachteile:

Licensing fees (although we're aware of Meraki Go model which is license free)

A good solution for SMB

Kommentare: It's been good for the most part. It takes a while to find things as I came from a Cisco only shop but it is usable by people who have no network experience if you need someone like that to be able to vlan a port or something like that.

Vorteile:

It is easier to install and maintain than most similar products. You can easily establish vpn's between owned devices with dynamic ip addresses.

Nachteile:

Ran into an issue recently where you can not define access for Software VPN clients to networks that are vpn connected that are not Meraki.

Easy to use and comprehensive tools for managing mobile devices and other assets

Vorteile:

A single one-stop location for remote management of iOS and other mobile devices and other assets. In particular, monitoring and administrating iOS devices is challenging and this tool has saved countless hours in configuring and deploying and maintaining iPhones in our business.

Nachteile:

The features for updating Apps from the App Store needs improvement.

Cisco Meraki - The best solution for network management with a small team!

Kommentare: When we first began upgrading our outdated infrastructure, we decided on Meraki. As we continued from our MDF and worked our way out, the benefits of a full Meraki network became even more apparent. Our Meraki dashboard is our lifeline for knowing what is going on across our network from power outages to wireless health and bandwidth utilization. I love that we are also able to allow access to outside vendors and internal staff in a secure way with only the access the need and nothing more. The VPN client has allowed me to get my entire network up remotely after major power outages. I can't recommend Cisco Meraki enough for anybody who needs the flexibility and simple but secure anywhere/anytime access to their network. Cisco Meraki is a true enterprise level network solution that you can feel confident about deploying without having needing high level network engineering on staff or contract.

Vorteile:

Cisco Meraki allows us complete visibility into our network at all times. I can manage 95% of my network tasks from anywhere at any time. This has allowed us to keep network management in-house with a 3 person IT team for a large campus environment with almost 1,000 users daily. Adding new devices is simple and the support is immediate and on point. I do not have to wait for a response and escalation. The agent who responds first is the one who resolves the issue in a professional and friendly manner.

Nachteile:

The annual license renewal is costly. If you decide to co-term your licensing, it is not immediately obvious what the yearly licensing costs will be so it is important to consider this factor when forecasting your budget. For us, using Meraki offsets the cost of MSPs or another FTE for a network admin role so it is well worth the annual license costs to have the peace of mind that your network is always up to date and accessible to you from anywhere on any device.

Great solution for our business

Vorteile:

Cloud config is obviously huge. Being able to have a site set up and ready to go in the cloud before anything is plugged in make acquisitions and new stores so easy to stand up. Most new features are software based so it's only getting better.

Nachteile:

Pricing could be easier to understand. There are some features that a more advanced network might need but it works great for us. It definitely should have better monitoring built in.

Meraki review

Vorteile:

Really good for AP deployment and monitoring

Nachteile:

Appliances can be really expensive like for example the MR44

A cloud infrastructure that optimizes our services

Kommentare: There are many benefits of taking our network infrastructure to the cloud, operating costs, software licensing, hardware maintenance, security systems and disaster protection are some of the costs that reduces an organization with such implementation, on the other hand, accessibility from anywhere in the world and manage the network offers very broad possibilities for any IT team, Cisco Meraki in its various products has given us the ability to manage a wireless ecosystem deployed in a fairly large geographical area with the administration from the cloud, this allows us to detect anomalies in real time, view bandwidth consumption in a timely manner and a large number of functions that makes the administrative work of the network a little easier.

Vorteile:

Cisco Meraki has allowed us to evolve our network infrastructure and the way we interact with this, there are clear details that make this a highly balanced, sustainable and accessible network, due to its on cloud environment has reduced locative, operational and maintenance costs associated with the equipment installed on these sites; aspects to highlight within the Meraki environment I can mention their equipment (Access Point) in our case, these are robust equipment, resistant to different outdoor environments, easy configuration (plug and play) and administration in the remote console, in addition, provides a wide range of data and metrics that are a very detailed basis for the management by our IT team in all the deployment of the infrastructure, Its clear and intuitive console has the functions at hand offering very fast possibilities to configure parameters such as SSID, MAC filtering (white and black list), bandwidth management either by SSID or by users, WEB content filtering, among others, possibilities like these make Cisco Meraki a very strong ally in our organization.

Nachteile:

It should take into account the number of devices implemented in the network as it depends on the number of licenses to hire, although their individual cost is a bit high if you must take into account that this value is associated with some benefits of great help as some devices have a lifetime warranty while licensing is active, although in our cases the Access Point does not have this benefit I can guarantee that such equipment have a very striking performance in addition to withstand extreme operating conditions, so no negative comments so far I do not have.

Efficient and powerful for managing, monitoring and administering wireless networks.

Kommentare: Cisco Meraki allowed us to efficiently manage and administer our access points that are distributed in strategic locations in the city from the cloud and without having to move to the site, now we can monitor and configure them from the central panel with ease, it allowed us to exercise total control over the network, restrict pages and limit bandwidth among others.

Vorteile:

Cisco Meraki offers a GUI that can be operated in a simple way, it is easy to implement, it is scalable which allows us to meet the needs of the company; it has excellent capabilities for monitoring, supervision and management of wireless networks in the cloud, does not require much technical knowledge for the initial configuration of the Access Point, with Cisco Meraki we can manage and configure securely and simplified way all from the central control panel regardless of location or time (we can distribute the bandwidth as we wish, by network name, page or IP among others).

Nachteile:

Functionally I have not found anything I dislike about Cisco Meraki, the only downside of Cisco Meraki is the high cost of licenses and equipment.

Decent MDM - But Conversion to License structure is irritating

Kommentare: Sales/account reps are purely focused on selling you new stuff so they can improve their numbers. they do not look out for you once you've bought their product.

Vorteile:

It has a decent feature set - including remote management of profiles and security features, For both Macs and iOS. The ability to completely lock down and erase the entire device has been nice in a few extreme situations. The UI is intuitive and easy to use with LOTS of information about the devices being managed.

Nachteile:

Initially we enjoyed the fact that we were given a relatively high if not unlimited (I cannot recall) now, we are billed per device. Which is fine. But the process to obtain the licenses is absolutely ridiculous, takes way too long and they do not allow for our account for an upgrade process. IE client has 20 computers enrolled, and they replace all of them, well you have to get another 20 licenses (paying for 40 computers) and then remove the old computes when they are phased out. Then decrease the license count. There is zero flexibility here, and the vendor was borderline indignant when it was pointed out how this is a problem in the real world.

Gold standard for Medium-Large businesses...remote site management

Vorteile:

easy to spin up remote systems, all cloud managed and deployed. Plug and Play setup, as well with templated usage, you can deploy in a matter of minutes

Nachteile:

MX firewalls don't provide enough MANUAL OVERRIDES which would be useful. Not as robust as old IOS firewalls for that specific reason.

Great fully-featured cross-platform MDM solution

Kommentare: We needed a basic iOS MDM for about 50 iPads, and Meraki SM fit the bill with their Free 100 device plan. In a space where most iOS MDMs are the same in features and in price, Systems Manager has unique features like Tags, and allows us to expand our management to Android and Windows, which we will most certainly be taking advantage of in the future.

Vorteile:

-Aggregation of MDM policies across iOS, macOS, Android, and Windows platforms make it really easy to deploy the same setting, such as screen lock, to multiple platforms without drilling the per-platform settings -Supports all iOS MDM settings and is quick to implement new ones as Apple introduces them -Tagging system is incredibly useful to identify and organize different devices - this is unique to Meraki -Although we don't have Meraki networking products - they can all be managed from the same dashboard -Just like most MDM platforms, it offers easy web-based device registration, and syncs with Apple VPP and School Manager

Nachteile:

-Web management dashboard has a steep learning curve and is not very intuitive - a task like deploying a new app to devices involves three or four different management pages -Pricing is comparable, if not a bit more expensive than other iOS MDMs, but its cross-platform support makes up for this

Powerful product in combination with Meraki hardware

Kommentare: Overall a brilliant product and system, there is a reason we have been using the Meraki products for the past 8 years.

Vorteile:

The ability to remotely manager and monitor the network remotely has significantly cut down on support call outs and requests among our clients. Everything on the network is visible from the moment traffic hits the WAN to the clients machine. The tools for diagnosing and checking network issues are amazing. As well as the granularity of the information displayed to the ability to 'micro manage' the network.

Nachteile:

Not so much an issue with the software , but the cost of licenses and hardware can be pretty steep especially if you replace all the network devices.

Meraki is easier than regular Cisco Wireless.

Vorteile:

1) Consolidated management of all of our Meraki devices at different location. 2) You can use same configuration template for all or multiple locations. 3) Cisco meraki's keeping up with new vulnerability game is really good. 4) You can use MX devices for SD-WAN which is much more simpler than regular Cisco CLI devices.

Nachteile:

1) If you are using template based deployment then your guest ambassador account can't delete user accounts for wireless. 2) Like many other cloud solution, there is a lack of granularity & fear of compromise.

Meraki - easy to use for the Network administrator

Kommentare: Overall, I would choose Meraki again. The costs are evened out by not needing to have a network engineer on staff if you have a good understanding of your network. Not for the enterprise, but small to medium business with a Network Administrator would benefit greatly with all the features you get with their products.

Vorteile:

I didn't have to use CLI to make any configurations. The GUI is very intuitive and easy to navigate. The built-in net flow allowed me to catch a ransomware attack by providing me the data usage and source/destination information. Quickly isolated the offending device and got it unplugged.

Nachteile:

Price. You purchase the hardware, then also have to license each device. This makes for a pretty expensive network appliance over time.

Not a simple Network equipment

Vorteile:

The access to the Dashboard that controls the network. I can push software installation, I can control the network from EVERYWHERE --- literally

Nachteile:

I think they need to improve the SSID availability, a calendar will work.

Best Network Management Software

Kommentare: It has drastically helped us manage our network and assign privileges to students who need to be further restricted.

Vorteile:

Meraki is easily the best way to manage Access Points and switches. My favorite feature is the tagging system so I can tag a whole group of clients or AP's and assign SSID's, privileges and anything else I want to anybody who falls into that category.

Nachteile:

It is on a licensing deal. I would rather buy the application and devices and be done with it rather than worrying about figuring out licenses for everything as well.

Love this product

Vorteile:

We converted over to Meraki about 2 years ago and it was the best decision we have made. The features and functionality of the dashboard are outstanding and being able to work from anywhere and make changes as needed is great.

Nachteile:

Dashboard can be cumbersome at times and do think some of the items could be laid out a bit better visually.

Easier Firewall Maintenace

Kommentare: Easy to use, was able to teach myself and a nice GUI.

Vorteile:

Used to work with Fortinets/SonicWalls/ASA, but Meraki has made a much simpler cloud based solutions for firewalls.

Nachteile:

Really haven't come into any major issues, I know at one point the device failed but was quickly RMA'd and replaced.

A highly satisfied new user moving from Sonicwall

Vorteile:

Our company recently moved from SonicWall devices to Meraki for firewalls. The cloud software that runs the system is pretty user-friendly and straightforward to use. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to configure the standard settings in the device. If you need help with something that is beyond your personal knowledge level, the support team is great! They are in SanFrancisco, so there isn't a language barrier. They are extremely helpful, and never make you feel like an idiot. The smartphone app for monitoring is also pretty nice. The hardware and licensing are a little more expensive, but I find enough value in the product that this isn't an issue.

Nachteile:

I wish that the smartphone app came with a little more functionality for changing settings on the devices, but this certainly isn't a deal breaker. Most internet browsers that I have tried on smartphones will work just fine anyway.

Cisco Meraki Firewalls work great.

Vorteile:

The clean dashboard, ability to view connected devices, and just overall reliability.

Nachteile:

So far nothing, all works good and is easy to manage.

meraki on the fly

Vorteile:

Ease of deployment was minimal. Gear to ship and have users install

Nachteile:

Cost was too high to the overall features