Cisco Ethernet Switches and Meraki MS Switches compete in the networking equipment category. Cisco switches seem to have the upper hand in terms of advanced features and reliability, while Meraki excels in cloud management and ease of use.
Features: Cisco Ethernet Switches provide capabilities like Layer 3 switching, advanced QoS, and robust security features including VLAN support and Spanning Tree Protocol. They are known for high performance and reliability. Meraki MS Switches deliver comprehensive cloud management, simple deployment, and ease of use, with a focus on visibility and remote management.
Room for Improvement: Cisco Ethernet Switches face criticism for high costs, complex setup, and limited GUI options. Suggestions include reducing pricing and simplifying licensing. Meraki MS Switches are also seen as costly, mostly due to cloud licensing dependency, with calls for improved local management capabilities and more flexible pricing.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Ethernet Switches are mainly deployed on-premises, offering high-quality service and support, though with variable response times. Meraki MS Switches excel in cloud management, allowing for flexible deployment in hybrid and public cloud environments, with good but potentially costly customer service due to licensing.
Pricing and ROI: Cisco Ethernet Switches are expensive with steep licensing costs impacting ROI, despite reliable performance ensuring a fair return over time. Meraki MS Switches, though costly, offer operational efficiency through centralized management, contributing to reduced costs and time savings, providing a favorable ROI for cloud-focused businesses.
Meraki MS Switches are first-line cloud-managed access and aggregation switches that combine the benefits of cloud-based centralized management with a reliable access platform. With cloud management, thousands of switch ports can be configured and monitored instantly over the web.
Meraki MS Switches Features
Meraki MS Switches have many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:
Meraki MS Switches Benefits
There are many benefits to implementing Meraki MS Switches. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:
Reviews from Real Users
Meraki MS Switches is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are its accessibility, application visibility, and flexibility features.
Jóhann T., IT Manager at Sund Upper Secondary School, says, “Accessibility is what I find most valuable in Meraki MS Switches, because I'm able to check things and see if they're working, without being on-site at all times.”
A Senior Network Engineer at a tech services company mentions, "The top feature of Meraki MS switches for me is Layer 7 application visibility. Another positive in general is that you don't need to set up a console to the switch itself; it dials into a single dashboard where you can completely manage all your network devices."
John M., user at Baseline Consulting, LLC, comments, "I like the flexibility of the Meraki firewall. It gives you the ability to lock things down. Having multiple VLANs is helpful for the switching infrastructure and firewall. It's crucial when you have a public-facing VLAN, a private-facing VLAN, and a secure VLAN."
PeerSpot user William M., Consulting Engineer at IV4, expresses, "It is easy to deploy, maintain, and update. It has been trouble-free so far. I am still a Cisco command-line bigot, but the web interface makes it a lot easier for our help desk to interact with a client. When the clients call in and say that they aren't able to connect, it takes the help desk 10 minutes or less to look at everything in the enterprise or location. They can look at the firewall, switches, or access points in the dashboard. That's why I like the dashboard."
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