Meraki MS Switches Reviews

We are partners of Meraki and operate as a service provider for Meraki switches, notably the Meraki MS Series 410, 420, and 450. Our responsibility is to help customers deploy these solutions, which are always situated on-premises.

The main use cases for our customers include end-user connectivity, IP telephony, and security purposes such as for the cameras and access points.

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 in to a single dashboard where you can completely manage all your network devices.

In my opinion, there's room for improvement cost-wise. With Meraki's licensing terms, you're required to pay an annual licensing fee, which can be for a one-year license or perhaps a five-year license. But if you analyze the costs involved, there are huge expenses incurred as far as the licensing is concerned. It's very costly.

When you see the cost of the device and the cost of the license, they're almost the same. So let's say, for example, a device costs $4,200 and you go for a three or four year license, it will cost you the same. And that's for everything; for the wireless, the switches, the firewalls, everything.

Of course, the total costs depend on several factors, including the customer requirements, the service provider, and the service integrators (which may have their own partnership bias). With Cisco partners, there are gold level partners which will have different discounts to the silver partners, for instance. Given these factors, I always try to get the maximum discount from the vendor so I can offer a solution to my customers at the lowest margin.

Apart from costs, one improvement that I would like to see in terms of features concerns the mobile application. Most users of our switches are now on the web-based interface and I feel it's time for Meraki to start developing the mobile app more seriously, because it's currently not up to standard and a lot of people aren't using it.

I've been using Meraki MS Switches for about six to eight years.

For the cloud license model, the stability of the switches largely depends on your Internet capability. For example, you will want to have both primary and secondary backbone connections for the Internet, and that's it. The stability of the hardware is fine.

I would say that it's scalable, especially in the sense that there are models up to at least 10 Mbps and at the upper range there are 10 Gbps copper switches. Then there are switches that support 1 Gbps fiber as well as 40 Gbps fiber (via QSFP). Thus, there are enough models to offer the scalability that you need as far as bandwidth is concerned.

There are fixed-model switches and also some older model switches to choose from, so it depends upon the customer's requirements to decide on their own solution. When it comes to scalability, there are various options available. 

Cisco is always top-notch when it comes to technical support. It's reassuring to know that they will be there to assist you in solving your issues. Of course, there are sometimes priority cases, but even then they make sure to be available to help you resolve the issue. It doesn't matter if you're a customer, a partner, or a service provider, they provide an excellent technical support service.

Positive

The setup is very easy. It's typically a one-touch provisioning process and it's like not traditional switches where you have to put in a lot of effort bringing the switch up and running with a basic configuration. With Meraki switches, all you need is a status page where you can log in locally. As soon as you connect it to the Internet, the device is on board and on the cloud, and you can start playing around with it.

You don't need a lot of technical staff to implement the switches. One engineer is capable of doing it alone and, in fact, most of the time it just takes a single team member to deploy. Naturally, this would be an individual who knows the product inside and out, to be able to deploy without anyone's help. You also need a few remote hands who can rack and stack the equipment, but as far as the configuration is concerned, only one engineer can do everything.

I had one scenario where I had 120 devices divided into three different models. Four of them were Layer 3 fiber switches which acted as the core switches and 16 of them were fiber switches for distribution, also with Layer 3 capability. Then we had almost a hundred devices acting as access switches, which is normally Layer 2 PoE-capable switches where we have a couple of SFP ports for the uplink. All of this a single person would be able to deploy in five working days, at eight hours a day.

When it comes to maintenance, it depends on the size of the infrastructure. In a retail mall, for example, you will have hardly 150 switches, compared to a big hotel or apartment building where you will have more than 200-300 switches. With those kinds of deployments, you will have to have multiple people to address the multiple issues with the guests.

There is a lot of scope for ROI with Meraki, mainly because your headcount will go down. With Meraki switches, you don't need to have too many people around to manage the infrastructure, and you don't have to travel much to maintain multiple branches across the globe.

Additionally, you won't need to spend much in terms of reporting tools, log tools (e.g. log collectors), or anything like that because everything is included in the product. There's a lot of sophistication and features that Meraki brings in terms of Layer 7 application visibility. You really have complete control over the end-users infrastructure.

If you buy a license for one switch, it will include the licensing for the device RMA, device failure warranty, technical support, and everything else. Also covered is support for software updates for future releases. It's a single license for everything and there's nothing that customers need to pay in addition to the license.

I would rate Meraki MS Switches an eight out of ten.

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.

When it comes to troubleshooting, in the past we had to take the console and do configuration changes, and we had to be on location or have a VPN connection to access it. But with Meraki, there is the advantage that you have dashboard access via the internet and you can work on it from anywhere. With Meraki switches, there is virtual stacking. Let's say you have two branches where two different switches are located. I can take a few ports from switch 1 and few ports from switch 2 and I can do a virtual stack between these ports. And there is a port schedule, as well. For example, some customers want to do make budget choices to save power or something. There is a port schedule option to give power for access points through these PoE ports on a schedule you choose, like during office hours. Morning 9:00 to evening 6:30, and it will work only Monday to Friday. I can schedule so these ports will be running those times only. In an annual scenario, this can mean more savings for the customer.

You can select multiple ports at a time in a checkbox, and you can do a port configuration. If uplinks are required, you can configure that, too. There are a couple of tools available in the Tools section where you can do ARP, Ping, LED status, etc. If any network goes down or is getting any warnings, you'll get an immediate amber symbol. We'll get alerts and an immediate email even if one link goes down or anything is wrong. We require some additional integrated tools for when a switch is down, like WhatsUp Gold, or SolarWinds. So on the back-end, we need to integrate our email servers into the process. We need more tools for that. But in the dashboard, it all comes together and gives greater visibility, including the UX pack if you want - everything will be there.

The features part is good. Everything in terms of access and everything else.

In terms of what could be improved, there's API. For example, we recently implemented Microsoft Azure. We have it integrated now into the dashboard for authentication. Dashboard authentication includes local users which we are creating in the dashboard itself. We integrated Azure with our local active directory. As the administrator in IT, I can log into the dashboard with my AD credentials only, so we used Xero and SAML with the Microsoft Azure. It's working fine. Similarly in the camera. Generally, the camera is in the cloud. In the camera, every field requires you to enter some information. If you have a cloud archive, it will be directed towards your Meraki cloud based on whatever storage license you have, 90 days or 30 days. But we worked on a different approach. We developed some more internal applications with other partners. We are pitching data from the Meraki camera, and we are putting into our internal storage with the Python script in the back-end.

Another thing is CMX. There is a location tracking for the employees who are inside, and with Meraki there is a Bluetooth option with a separate radio. They have a separate Bluetooth radio, Air Marshal radio, 2.4 and 5 GHz, for all the different radios, but it's all ELM mode in the old access points. It serves the clients as well as monitors the rogue access points. But in Meraki, we have a separate radio for it to monitor all the Bluetooth clients who are coming and who are identified from the dashboard. We will send it through the API to the location-scanning API to a third-party application and it gives you greater visibility. We can customize our own application of the dashboard. For example if you have a retail shop, you can put your store map on there and you can track the clients, like how many clients have visited. We can customize it. We worked on that customization pack.

In terms of troubleshooting, if we get more tools there is an issue. Our pack has some internal access, right? In traditional solutions we can go to the CLI and we can see whatever you want to change and you can play around with it. But in Meraki, if they got additional tools maybe it would help. In terms of MS I see some complications. There are some voice-related services that some customers are expecting, so they want to put an MS firewall in Azure or AWS, and they want to ship the traffic from that firewall. For example, I am at different branches, so the initial firewall will make the decision. They are looking at that kind of scenario. I hear from some of the customers with MS, that there are some voice-related, SIP services. So it's a limitation. If you have a voice service with AmEx, I saw something that SIP ALG will not support AmEx. So that's one limitation here.

I have been working with Meraki Switches for the past year. I have actually worked with all Meraki products, not only a particular one, as it is a complete stack. I've worked with them for a couple of POC's that we did for the customers. They were implemented mostly in firewalls and access points. A feature we recently implemented for one location was Mindtree.

In terms of stability, it is stable.

You can scale it up. You can take any traditional scenario that you have a license for and scale up. I'm working with 200 or so people, so I just bought a few access points and a few switches. If you compare Meraki with the traditional, every switch or every firewall and every access point, every WLCL switch in the traditional way requires some licenses. If that device has a MAC throughput capability, I need to go for another device. If there is a WLCL pack, it requires another device I need to purchase. But with Meraki, there is nothing like that, the license will cover the hardware, RMA, and the licensing plan.

Recently, it converted from the quote elimination to party-wise licenses. If you have a device license, you simply add the licenses and you can play around with it. There are more restrictions, like if you see access points with MR, ENT it will come with an MV, so it's not about the model. For example, today I have an MR42, tomorrow I'll buy some MR53 or MR87. It is independent of the model and you can add whenever you have the API licenses. Similarly, if you have a camera license, you can add. If you have MDM or MV, you can add. It's unlimited. It is scalable, and it gives you flexibility and security. Every device will establish a tunnel with official encryption towards the Meraki cloud and all the devices will be securely connected and it will take less than 1 kbps in terms of configuring data. 

We have worked on the homes of CEO's and directors and up to to hospitals, retail and manufacturing establishments. Everything is supported and scalable.

They give 24/7 support, so whenever you have an issue, you can write or call directly if you feel that it is higher-priority. You can simply call the toll-free number and they'll immediately come to the call and help. In terms of any troubleshooting, they will do it from their end. Because we have some limited access in terms of troubleshooting, if you want to do some changes like firmware-related bugs or something, they will fix it from their end on the back-end.

The initial setup is very simple. I ordered the devices and immediately the software is loaded and you'll receive a dashboard key so you can start the configuration. Once the device is running you can simply play around with it.

It only takes minutes to set up for basic configuration. If you're looking for integrations you may need to do some registration or back-end coding or something. Apart from that, if it's a dashboard it is a configuration template. If you have multiple branches, you can create one template for other branches.

I recommend Meraki MS Switches. If the user wants more flexibility in terms of configuration and manageability, I would definitely recommend implementing it.

On a scale of one to ten I would rate Meraki MS Switches a nine.

There are many use cases for the solution. We implement them mainly for SMEs.

The switches, overall, are very good.

The newest switches, in particular, are excellent.

The initial setup is simple.

The problem that we saw with some customers is that it's very hard to train them to manage everything on the cloud, and some customers don't want this. 

The firewall is not very powerful. The other week, one of the switches only gave one gigabit of output. It's become a concern for our customers.

It is very difficult to know what we should do. There should be a queue available to connect over the VPN. However, there was a lack of an image in the other queue. Once, when a customer wanted to tour the system, there were issues with connectivity to the VPN, which was offputting. 

The solution is very stable. We've tested it extensively and it's very good. It's also quite fast. A company doesn't have to fear reliability with Meraki. They shouldn't expect to deal with bugs or glitches. It's reliable.

The scalability is very good on the backend. We've even run some stress tests to see how the solution would hold up to expansion and have had great results. If an organization needs to scale up, they can do so with Meraki. It's not a problem at all.

The solution offers okay technical support. Users need pretty good access to senior engineers on the technical support team. Sometimes you have really bad errors on the site and you need very advanced help. A more junior technical support staff member will not be able to assist. Meraki needs to continue to work to ensure senior staff is available to deal with those levels of calls as they happen. A user expects to have a senior engineer to take the question from the beginning to the end if big issues arise.

Last week or last month we had an issue where we really needed a senior engineer and the support staff we got originally didn't know how to answer our questions. We had to pay for a more senior engineer.

We also use Aruba and HPE switches. We use a combination.

We've found the setup to be very straightforward.

On the promotion side, the marketing team will help when something goes wrong. You can write to someone at the company and they can help troubleshoot any issues as soon as something comes up.

Typically, it only takes about one day to deploy a switch. For a simple deployment, we just take it and connect it to the new port, and then we just connect everything to the computer. It's very easy. We haven't had issues or complications.

We're an integrator; we implement the solution for our clients.

We typically sign contracts for years as opposed to yearly. One year might be a bit expensive, but if you choose a long-term contract, it's very good. The pricing is very good. It's quite competitive in the marketplace. There are others that are much more expensive than this product. It's affordable, even for small companies.

We're an integrator. We tend to test things before we send them to our customers.

We are a very small company, we are constantly looking for competitive pricing, as we don't have big budgets to throw around.

The solution is very good. From using the software to deployment, Meraki is good. Even enterprises would benefit from using the solution. Although we typically deal with smaller companies, I'd pick Meraki every time.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. I would rate it higher, however, we have unique needs for the VPN, and require complex software features

We typically use the solution at the client site. 

All switching technologies are pretty much the same. The best thing I could say is that I like how I can see everything on one dashboard along with the access point in MX. I prefer how you see everything in the dashboard easily, with no command-line interface. It makes it easy to check in to Meraki and easy to configure.

They're easy to update. Everything seems to be stable with Meraki switches the last couple of years.

We support clients and we do a lot of stuff remotely, and we can easily see everything remotely. You don't need to be a network engineer to support Meraki.

The setup is easy. It's pretty plug-and-play.

A while back, there were some update problems.

Pricing is higher than other options.

Technical support hold times seem to be getting longer. 

I've been working with the solution for about four or five years or so. It's been a while. 

The stability of the solution is very good. Currently, there are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable and the performance is good. 

The solution is scalable, however, it depends on which model you buy. We usually buy one that's stackable, in case we need to add more. We can easily stack them when we need to expand.

You don't need to be a network engineer to support Meraki. We often support our clients and can do it remotely, which is helpful.

Technical support directly from Meraki is very friendly and they are knowledgeable folks. As of late, however, since maybe the last year or so ago, the hold time seems a bit longer. That said, the support personnel, the knowledge, it's all top-notch to me. It's just the time being on hold, it's getting longer and longer.

The initial setup is not difficult or complex. We find it to be very, very easy. A company shouldn't have any issues with the initial setup.

While the pricing is a bit high and a bit of a drawback, its ease of use makes the price almost worth it.

I'm a consultant. 

If you don't have a dedicated network engineer, I would highly recommend Meraki.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. The switch is great. The price, however, is a bit high.

I had to provide solutions for a pharmaceutical company, where data plays a very important role. This is where testing takes place and security is critical, and they have a lot of security on-site. If you want to have more VLANs and so on, you can do it through a core switch.

It all depends on the customer's requirements. For example, if the customer uses SAP HANA, they will go for a new direct server. On the new direct server, you have an output of 10 GBs, and based on the output and the number of users, I provide the solution to the customer.

It also depends on the application. For example, in SAP HANA, it'll depend on all the customer's modules, how many servers will make a Nutanix server, for example, 12 to 16 servers, and the number of users. 

The cloud part of Meraki Switches is very good. They also have a good GUI. It's a complete solution. I like the switching and the monitoring part.

The throughputs, especially the throughput path, can be improved on the core switches. I think they should improve the throughput in the core switches to enable higher throughputs. A little bit of training for customers like online training would definitely help us.

I provided a couple of Cisco Meraki solutions to clients last year. 

Meraki MS Switches are stable.

Meraki MS Switches are scalable.

Technical support is good. Our team is already certified in this area, and if anything critical happens, we try to log into their portal. If not, we'll have our own tech support handle it.

On the switching front, I have provided a lot of solutions on Juniper and also on HP Aruba.

The installation is not a problem at all. It takes about a day to configure all the systems.

We have about four or five people working with Meraki switches.

When you compare it to other switches like HP, Juniper, and Ruckus, Meraki MS Switches are cheaper.

I would recommend Meraki MS Switches. I like Cisco Meraki Switches, and I have friends who've been using them. They're a couple of system integrators who only use Meraki.

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

We primarily use the solution for switches for our clients.

The cloud management on the solution is very good.

The Wi-Fi 6 for access points is excellent.

The performance is pretty good.

We've found the initial setup very simple.

The stability of the solution is quite good.

The scalability potential of the solution is great.

Clients are very confused by technical support. They seem to have trouble reaching Meraki to get the assistance they need.

I'd prefer if they'd go for Layer 3 features. We do not have access to these yet. Aruba, for example, offers full Layer 3 features.

I've been using the solution for about a year at this point. It hasn't been too long just yet.

The solution is very stable. The performance is reliable. It doesn't have any bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash and freeze.

The scalability of the solution is rather good. If a company needs to scale, it can do so with ease.

We typically work with small and medium enterprises.

There isn't a convenient first-hand way to communicate with technical support right now. The tech support is mainly through Cisco - which is very quick typically. However, with Meraki, which is separate from Cisco, customers can only directly contact support through dashboard licenses and they can't open a case with Meraki effectively. They don't know how to reach the right people, and so they come to us, the distributors, to get answers. We need to advise them to go directly to Meraki technical support as we are not in a position to help them, and they tell us they can't, that Meraki is not available. 

Meraki needs to make their technical support policies and processes very clear and to communicate this to their clients so that their clients know how to reach out when there are issues. It shouldn't fall to us.

We did not previously work with other solutions, although we are looking at a few options now. We're considering something in two months or so.

The initial setup is not complex. It's very simple and easy to set up. It's straightforward.

The deployment and management are very easy.

The solution's pricing can be high on Cisco. There are options, such as Avaya, that can be a bit lower. The pricing of this solution isn't too bad.

We are a Cisco partner.

We primarily use the solution in our client companies. We don't use the solution ourselves.

I'd recommend this solution to smaller companies and enterprises. For larger-scale organizations, such as campuses, Cisco Catalyst may be better.

Overall, I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.

We are a system integrator and this is one of the solutions that we provide to our customers.

This is a very easy solution to deploy.

The management is cloud-based so you do not have to be on-premises to work with it.

It is easy to configure using the cloud-accessible web-based interface.

The licensing would be improved if shorter terms were offered.

There is not much training available for this solution.

Better online and remote support is needed.

I would like to see support for IoT.

We need to be able to add an access point without requiring an additional controller.

This solution is quite stable but you must coordinate with a remote site where engineers have administrative access to the features. This makes it easy to repair in case of an emergency.

I have two or three projects that are using this solution. One of them has twenty-five hundred users.

The initial setup of this solution is straightforward as long as you have a good technical person. 

The DNA subscription is a three-year minimum term.

This solution is better than the Cisco Catalyst switches.

This is a solution that I definitely recommend but since it has limited information available on the web site, it is a bit difficult to configure the licensing.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.