Meraki MS Switches Reviews

The main thing that we try to take advantage of is the web console. The administration console that is on the cloud is great. That allows the customer to take full advantage of metrics, configuration, and control of the device.

Overall, the switches are really good.

The initial setup is straightforward.

I would like to know if Meraki is going to offer IP phones again. 

The lead times can be long in terms of actually getting the hardware. 

I do work with the Cisco distributor, the main distributor here in Bolivia. I am in charge of developing projects for the customers. I've been dealing with Meraki for five years now.

Most customer networks are small networks. In Bolivia, we don't have very big companies or corporate networks. Most clients have between 100 and 300 users or endpoints and no more than that.

I haven't needed technical support so far. All I've used so far is device replacement when something fails. In terms of Meraki support, so far, I'm not very well involved with that. Most of the time, we have been dealing with any configurations by ourselves.

I do work with various Cisco devices. 

I do work with the whole set of switches, sometimes related to the corporate or enterprise networks. Sometimes I do work for the service provider, however, most of the time, I handle the Catalyst Series switches with enterprises.

It's really straightforward to set up and very easy to get the device up and on the network. It's a really easy process.

Most of the time, we deal with annual licenses. Typically, there's just the standard fee, although some organizations use the enterprise option. 

We are a Cisco partner. 

I'd rate the solution at nine out of ten.

My advice to new users is related to all hardware provisioning and that is to be patient. There's often a delay from the factory when releasing the devices for the customer. Sometimes the lead times are extensive, and sometimes people here don't want to keep moving with the project when it takes too long to get the device. I know that that's not a factory problem; it's a general problem with all electronic devices.

The solution is used for different office locations. The client wanted to have central control from their headquarters on wireless across a number of users, traffic, NMS. It was more of a network and switching type of deployment. They have some applications which they want to track, including how much traffic is going to the user and uptime of devices. For that, they wanted more central management.

We like that it can work on a cloud basis. It gives the customer a choice to be operated from a central location and it can be controlled from there. Our customers mostly opted for having a centralized approach.

It's a proactive approach to networking for IT infrastructure. It will bring better uptime and availability to the network.

The initial setup is easy.

They need more variety in terms of models to satisfy different customer requirements. There are very limited models right now. The range of models could expand.  

They need to work on prioritizing different types of data on the network, whether it's voice, data, video, et cetera. Video needs to be prioritized in a much better way, for example.

If there are certain search protocols added to these switches that make for better network trafficking, that would be ideal.

The lack of availability of hardware is causing issues and bottlenecks. 

We'd like interoperability to continue to be improved. 

We've been dealing with the solution for two years.

The stability is okay. 

I understand Cisco has far more stable products. For example, Cisco Catalyst. That is more stable as compared to Cisco Meraki.

I'd rate the stability four out of five overall. 

The scalability is fine. It's not an issue for us. Cisco is always working on scalability.

I'd rate it four out of five in terms of scalability. This is a new product that is still being refined. However, as they are working on the cloud, it's only going to get better. 

We have around 250 to 300 users based on the switches we've deployed. It's in an international organization with many departments and many levels of people working on it. 

Technical support is good. It is good only for certain areas. Their support needs to be improved to level it out for everyone. Even a premier customer may not get answers within the next business day.

We use Cisco Meraki Switches and Cisco Meraki Wireless.

Cisco has a big problem right now. Their availability of hardware is delayed due to high demand. A lot of system integrators and companies are opting for different hardware providers as they understand that deploying Cisco will take a long time. Cisco needs to work on faster deployment. The manufacturing side needs to speed up deploying hardware to meet demand or they will lose market share.

That said, once you have the hardware, the initial setup is not hard at all. 

We have two to three engineers that can help set up the solution. It depends on the kind of project. For example, if there are four or five switches, so it doesn't take more than two days to settle that. IN that case, maybe we need to have two different engineers: one physically installing the hardware switching and doing the basic configuration and then maybe an L2 engineer who configures things on the cloud and brings different switches alive. We have certified Cisco people. We don't get any problems in terms of deployment. We can also easily handle maintenance tasks. 

I'd rate ROI a three out of five as it is costly. The ROI is not very fast. No doubt they are getting ROI with the cloud-based approach. That said, not everything is on the cloud as of now. The transition is happening very slowly. Some departments and customers are partly on the cloud, not fully. If they're deploying anything like Meraki, they're not getting fast ROI as they're not fully on the cloud. They're not fully utilizing the benefits.

The cost is on the higher side if we are comparing it with Catalyst. It's approximately double the cost. Cisco needs to work on licensing if they want the system to be deployed more. They can have the same set of licensing: standard, premium. Premium customers who don't have any budget issues can buy premium license-based hardware. However, if there are customers who want to deploy good hardware like Cisco yet have budget constraints, they should offer a more affordable tier. 

I'd rate it a three out of five in terms of affordability.

We're resellers. We've been dealing with the 300 and 390 series. 

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. 

We use it for network connectivity in our organization. We use it across all of our locations.

It is cloud-based. So, the software is updated to the latest firmware on a regular basis by Cisco. We have a private cloud.

I like the support, and basically, that's why I'm using Meraki by Cisco.

I've had some hardware failure issues on the POE side on several switches across the years. There seems to be a problem with the POE ports of their unit system.

I have been using this solution for probably seven or eight years.

They're pretty good. I would give them a 10 out of 10.

If you're looking for cloud switches, I would definitely recommend including them in your evaluation because they're really good. 

I would rate Meraki MS Switches a nine out of 10.

When I'm advising customers on solutions I have to know what they need. If they are happy using a cloud management platform and they are looking at running more than a single line of business, then having the web portal with Meraki is a simple solution. It provides a single-pane-of-glass in terms of management. It is easy to switch between the wireless, the security, and controlling the switching if they own all of those different technologies provided by Meraki. With other vendor brands, you might find that the operating cost would potentially increase due to them having to manage different platforms.

The most valuable feature for us are the APIs. Development there has been very exciting and now we can actually drill down to client levels. What that means is that when I look at the portal I can drill down to the users that are logged on to the network and see what they are using the network for. It is very valuable to us and the client to have that ease of use and the capability of providing high-level service and service quality on the switches. It is a nice and easy way of leveraging utility and resources by pushing out policies from a single location to wherever my Meraki devices may be.

If I was an IT manager and I had sites globally, Meraki would be a perfect fit. I could reach the devices that are overseas without me or anyone else having to touch them. It is very much like zero-touch deployment, which is fantastic. An obvious bonus is that this capability is still backed by Meraki R&D with talented teams to support it. When changes and new features come out, I don't have to worry about doing software upgrades on devices because it's all done in the cloud. They just load it up and on you go. Of course, many other things are happening with Meraki and other developments that they are working on with Cisco. The whole story will come out in the resolution of what they choose to do on the security side of things and what capabilities you can gain by using Cisco and Meraki together.

A complaint that I might have about the services is the compliance risk response. If I or our clients put too many devices on a network, threatening emails get triggered by Meraki saying that we are out of compliance. It can put unnecessary fear into the customer of the product that their services will be curtailed or that they will have to pay escalated fees. The customer in turn then pushes the problem on to the reseller — us — which can create an awkward situation. We are seen as a less-trusted advisor because what we provided was poorly planned. I think there is a major problem with warning clients in that way. I've started hearing customers wishing that they had not gotten into a subscription just because of that policy. It is all well good having a subscription policy but making customers edgy is making some consider switching away from Meraki. Losing customers due to the means of enforcement of the subscription service is pretty ill-advised.

I think one of the things that Meraki started to develop and then held back on is unified communications. Meraki started beating the drum about using Meraki for VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and then they suddenly stopped it. It would be nice to actually see that coming to the market, especially in the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa). With Cisco's acquisitions such as Broadsoft, Meraki could potentially invest in that technology, so they would be able to provide a voice platform backed by Cisco. It could be an excellent situation and fulfill their promises at the same time.

There's been a couple of challenges with the stability of the solution. For example, a year ago some of the software products that were going into the switches were not functioning as expected. You cannot really fault the product for that exactly. They are nine out of ten in terms of stability. You turn them on, they work, they get along with other components, and they keep working.

Meraki is scalable but it's only seen as a stackable switch solution. The one thing is the mid-market where obviously Meraki has traditionally had most of their focus on. So, when you buy switches and you want to scale, you have to have them in switch stacks. What Meraki hasn't done — and missed a bit of an opportunity in my opinion — is they've not really developed a low form factor switching solution in the form of a chassis switch. I think that could open up a massive opportunity for Meraki in terms of being seen as more of an enterprise solution.

As far as our own scaling we have seen their numbers grow in terms of selling their solutions whereas we've seen other lines of business that decline. So, I'd say that we've definitely seen exponential growth in sales of Meraki as a solution. More and more customers whom I talk to get to the point of serious consideration and go through the finer processes of discovering what Meraki is all about. People who choose it seem to like it so much that they stick to it. I think the only time I've really seen a compelling reason for not going with Meraki is that the security with regards to firewalls is still Meraki solutions. They really don't quite compete with Cisco and their ASA (Adaptive Security Appliance) technology.

In any case, we do continue to have plans to scale our usage of this solution for us and our customers.

I have not been in contact with Meraki support directly. I do know that there are lots of different ways to actually reach out to support people. Meraki now sells different levels of supports so that you can choose a level that will fit your needs. Obviously, as partners, I've got all the contact details. There is also the Make a Wish feature within the portal that we can use to ask for a special request. They seem to be switched on in terms of what they do and how they do it. All the technicians seem young and very knowledgeable in terms of their areas of expertise.

The installation is straightforward. There are some simple rules of a sort that you have to use. And, of course, Meraki does make it easy. If the opportunity that an end-user is working on is large enough, then there may be a reason to look into training courses that Meraki offers. They offer these in order to help customers in terms of adopting, managing, and expanding their use of the technology. 

A lot of configuration can be done on the cloud before actually having the switches go live. When the switches go live and the license has been activated, then you actually push the configurations on to the switches. From that point of view, I think it is just a great mentality that Meraki has got now around using the portal.

Of course, as partners, we do our own implementations. Our clients often need assistance from our side or from integrators for the deployments. A lot of the time our position with clients is more advisory. The customers know what they know. What they don't know and understand is what they haven't seen before. Some customers like to just dive in and try and work it out for themselves. I've seen clients on the other end of the spectrum where they need help in terms of redoing IP addressing schemes. What they need is some assistance with regards to making sure that it is all configured correctly and doing testing as they are doing the migration from one type of switch to another type of switch. The depth of our involvement all depends on the customer's skills. But even being trained as a Cisco CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) doesn't necessarily mean you are going to be able to get straight to doing a Meraki installation.

As a reseller, evaluating options is somewhat built into the business structure. I deal with Meraki, Aruba, and Cisco around enterprise networking, security, voice, and wireless.

My experience with Meraki goes back to the MS-1 series. That's when I first took the original Meraki training course and got the CMNA (Certified Meraki Networking Associate) certification. We got to play on the newest series of switches around at that time. Those have already gone past their lifecycle. We participate in ongoing training now and continue to get a look at the latest versions of the Meraki switches and get to know early on what is happening in terms of new development. The product is now becoming more of a hybrid with Cisco and other vendor products rather than just purely focusing on Meraki as a stand-alone solution.

If I have any advice for people considering the product, it is to jump on board and don't look back. If you're after a platform that is completely cloud compatible, a solution that will allow you to manage it from anywhere you need to be, then it's definitely a step in the right direction going forward. Meraki seems to cover most things. It takes away the need for CLI (Command-line Interface) which is obviously an aging technology that people were using a decade ago. Now it is a web-based interface and it is available on many different devices. You can now take management anywhere you go. How you push it out affects what you can do with it. Visibility and control are fantastic from Meraki.

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate Meraki switches as an eight out of ten. How good it serves a purpose depends on the use case. For different use cases and different scenarios, I'd give it a different rating. For example, if it is deployed for a data center, then I would rate Meraki very low because the product is not designed to be a data center switch. If I'm using it for total visibility in terms of applications and controls and what is happening on a network, then I rate it very high. For that, I'd give it as much as a 10. Its rating is all about the use case.

We provide Meraki Switches to schools, universities, and hospitals.

We find value in its ability to enable cloud management and visibility. They are also easy to deploy. It's very convenient because you can see who is accessing, what type of UI system they're using, what applications they're using, the bandwidth, and more. Management is also easy as you can access and manage the switches from anywhere. As it's managed on the cloud, we can support customers remotely if there's a problem.

Their subscription model could be better. Some of our customers prefer a one-time payment to a monthly or yearly subscription model, so they don't buy the product. Technical support could also be better.

We have been dealing with Meraki MS Switches for about four years.

It's a stable product.

Meraki MS Switches are scalable. 

Technical support could be better. Some support agents aren't adequately qualified to support us. Their technical skill needs to improve.

Meraki Switches have some advantages compared to others. For example, visibility, management, and auto device detection. 

The initial setup is simple. 

We provide installation and implementation services. Most of our customers use the warranty for maintenance.

It would be better if they had a one-time purchase option instead of a subscription model.

It's more suitable for medium-sized companies.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Meraki MS Switches a nine.

All of our endpoints are connected to our servers via the Meraki switches. Every user goes through them and it mirrors a cloud portal that allows you to administer it.

It hasn't really improved the way our organization functions. It's very similar to any other switch that I've used, although it is easier to manage than other switches.

The licensing model needs to be improved. The way they license their products, I'd rather just pay for a device by the device, and not have to pay annual subscription fees.

We have been using Meraki MS Switches for about two years.

This product is very stable.

This is a scalable solution and everybody in the organization uses these switches. This includes the president and CEO, the business development underwriters, and everybody else. In total, there are about 75 users.

I have not used their technical support.

Prior to Meraki, I used HP switches. I changed because they were too old and it was time to replace them. They were at the end of the normal lifecycle and Meraki had some great reviews, so I figured that I'd try them out.

The initial setup is straightforward.

My advice for anybody who is implementing this product is to do your research to make sure that it's exactly what you need. These are powerful switches and they can do a lot. They probably do more than most people might need so just make sure that it's the right switch for you.

To me, this is a product that meets all of the needs that anyone could possibly have for a networking device. I mentioned the issue with the licensing, although all of the manufacturers are now going with that licensing model. I think that I have that problem with anybody, at this point.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for switches. 

The switches are great. The basic features are sufficient. 

The stability is good.

You can scale the product.

Support has been very good. 

The solution offers very good integration potential.

The pricing is fair and offers good value. 

Since 2019, we have not encountered any problems with the switches. On our servers, there are occasionally some bugs or some problems with some features that need Meraki support; however, everything works well with Meraki Switches. 

We aren't missing any features. 

We've used the solution since 2019. We've used it for a few years now. 

For the most part, the solution is stable. Upgrades are typically great. It doesn't crash or freeze. It is reliable. 

We do not have issues with the scalability. It's very easy to expand. 

There are more than 20 companies using the solution, however, I don't have details about how many individual users are at each company.

As we have Cisco Premier, when we have to call them, Meraki is very fast in solving our tickets and definitely was very fast in their support. It's very, very good. We can call them directly and get immediate help.

We pay for the solution on a yearly basis. We pay a standard fee and there are no additional costs.

While it may not be the cheapest, for the quality you receive, the price is very good. 

We are resellers. 

We are a Cisco Premier Partner, and we're trying to do Meraki certifications. It's in progress.

We provide Meraki to our customers, and it's working well.

Meraki's on the cloud. All solutions that are using SD-WAN is managed on the cloud.

Almost all our customers here in the Madagascar area are 49 or 24FP versions of Meraki MS 210. It's suitable for all our customers here.

We recommend the solution. 

It's reliable and I advise others to use it. If they are using Meraki Switches, I recommend them to use also the firewalls and access points. They work well with everything in one dashboard. It's better to pay and have the firewall, switches, and access points together to get a good view on the dashboard and the management. It's better to use Meraki. It is very, very stable.

I'd rate the switches a nine out of ten.

The most valuable features are ease of use and configuration. It has a cloud-based configuration that makes it easy.

They've added some improvements to firmware update scheduling where you can stagger the updates, which is the biggest advantage. Prior to that, you could not stagger updates when you have data center switches or stacks, which was difficult. They've now added some improvements for more update processes to stagger devices, which has greatly improved my happiness. It is in beta right now.

They tend to have some weird issues with fiber uplinks.

I have been using these switches for six years. We have the latest version.

They are stable. The only issues I've encountered are with fiber uplinks.

I don't have any scalability issues, but there are certain things for which I probably wouldn't use it, such as storage area, networking, etc. For local LAN, it shouldn't have any scalability issues.

It's usually pretty good. It tends to lack when we run into some bug issues. They take time.

It was straightforward. For maintenance, one to two people are enough for about 200 users.

It depends on what type of equipment you have and other things. We're about $17,000 a year.

I would rate these switches an eight out of ten.