Meraki MS Switches Reviews

I am a customer of Meraki. 

A good feature of Meraki is that you can access a single pane of glass and you can configure all the devices via the same access and just change the menus.

This product doesn't enable a local configuration without internet access. If you compare this product to Fortinet the granularity of blocks that you can do related to the firewall and reports that you can deliver and control about blocking all access on Fortinet is more than Meraki. And when you talk about number of WANs that you can put on the device, Meraki can have only two WANs and when you have Fortinet you can have at least six sources of WAN.

I rate this solution a 10 out of 10. 

Our primary use case of this solution is for connecting desktops to LAN.

I like the feature that allows us to copy conditions from one port to another.

I would like to see some automation and better integration with the editing tool.

The solution has been very stable so far.

For our current state, the solution has good scalability. We have around 400 users in our company. We use five people for maintenance. We don't have immediate plans to increase our usage, but perhaps after four or five years. 

The technical support is a good four out of five. Sometimes it takes some time for them to respond. Perhaps because of a backlog. But they always deal with the issues. 

The initial setup was straightforward and the entire process took maybe four or five hours. We did it ourselves.

We pay an annual subscription fee.

My advice to others would be to try the solution. Most of the features are cloud-based so it's easy to manage it from anywhere - even from your mobile. I rate the solution an eight out of ten. There are still some developments that need to be done. It's not perfect. But from a personal perspective, I can say that they are a good eight. Additional features that I would like to see included in the next release of this solution, is if they could create different teams for different standards, some API integration solutions, and other different applications. It could be easier to use and easier to implement. Perhaps they can also add automation.

• All the switches managed from one dashboard, forget about CLI
• One-click changing VLAN
• Aggregate ports, I can easy see what is connect to each port on the switch,
• I can see how the bandwidth is used
• Automatic firmware upgrade
• Adding new switch takes less than 10 minutes

We have about 20 switches across five offices in USA, Europe and India, and we can all manage all of them from one dashboard. No more spending time on the firmware upgrade, it is automatic, and the switches just work!

• Management
• Maintenance
• Support

I've used it for two years.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

Unfortunately, they don't have an upgrade path, so if you need higher model, you need to buy a new one.

10/10.

10/10.

• Dell
• Cisco
• Arista

It is very easy, just add the switch to your dashboard network and you ready to go. And you don't need to be a network expert to do it.

We did it in-house.

• Arista
• Juniper

I hope they will have an upgrade path soon. For example, we bought a switch, and after two months we needed to upgrade it to the model with 10GB ports. Unfortunately Meraki said that we can upgrade because it is over 30 days, but we needed buy new switch.

We deploy the solution on-premises.

The solution is very stable.

The pricing of the solution can be improved.

We have been using this solution for approximately two years and are currently using version MX64.

The solution is scalable. There are currently seven people using it in our organization.

We have had a good experience with customer service and support.

I rate the solution seven out of ten. The solution is good, but the pricing can be improved.

Mainly, we do some configurations and allow for ports to be opened on the firewall. 

For the most part, the solution has been stable.

The solution can scale fairly well. 

The cloud-based deployment is very straightforward.

We have dealt with a few minor bugs. 

We would like the solution to lower its costs. 

I've been using the solution for one year.

The solution is largely stable and reliable. That said, we have faced some very minor bugs here and there. It hasn't been a big deal in general.

The scalability is good. It's likely as scalable as Aruba, for example. If a company needs to expand it, it can do so. 

We have 150 people using the solution currently.

We've never contacted technical support. I cannot speak to how helpful or responsive they are. 

We also work with Aruba.

I've also worked with FortiSwitch in the past, at a different job.

We have found the initial setup to be easy. If it is cloud-based, it's a really easy installation. There is no need for a reprogram mission or something like that or to even worry about having to do some coding. 

I cannot recall how long the deployment took. However, it does depend on the internet connection. As a cloud-based solution, you need to download all the configurations from the headquarters. 

You only need one manager and two technicians to handle the deployment and maintenance tasks. 

Users do have to pay to license the solution. 

The pricing could be lowered a bit.

I would recommend the solution, however, it depends on the project. 

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

We are using the MS425 series. We like the ease of use, ease of administration, and central dashboard. Meraki also has fantastic documentation and community.

With its central dashboard, we can deploy a generic configuration across hundreds of switches, rather than doing it in the old school way where an individual or a group of engineers would log onto each device via CLI, which takes a long time. So, everything is connected.

It can have better security. It needs more security enhancements, and in particular, a zero-trust element. If we could have external and internal users vetted in the same way as a zero-trust network, that will be handy.

I have been using this solution for the last nine months.

It is probably not as scalable as Cisco Catalyst 9000 Series, which includes the 9200s, 9300s, and 9500s. Its security requirements aren't as strong as the Cisco DNA portfolio. 

Globally, we have about 3,000 users. We're on a five-year subscription. As and when the business requires more, we will increase its usage. We will no doubt adopt the same solution because that's our LAN standard now. It is the global standard.

We didn't need their support, but I do know that for any questions, they're normally very helpful. There are lots of configuration guidelines and best practice documentation. Meraki has fantastic documentation and community.

I'm currently trying out Cisco 9000 Series Catalyst Switches because this particular customer was stung by a ransomware attack. So, they're looking to lock down every single portion of the network, and they want everything to fall under the banner of a zero-trust network with lots of security tools, agents, and hosts.

It is very easy to install. You probably could get away with zero-touch provisioning or plug-and-play. All the profiles are pre-configured on the central dashboard, and then a non-technical person could be on-site and plug everything in based on how you've drawn things out in a topology drawing. After that, you just take the reins and just check, and that's it.

A lot of customers deploy it during LAN refresh. When Meraki came out, they were the best cloud-based access point. Everything was centrally managed through the central dashboard. It was a cloud-based wireless LAN controller. Then they started to infiltrate into the LAN switching arena. So basically, everyone wants a single pane to administer their network, and that's what you can get with Meraki. It is a single pane incorporating everything from switches to access points to even routers, which are MX SD-WAN.

I would recommend this solution if security is not paramount. If you're a secure industry or a technology company where you want a bit more security, it is probably not suitable for you. It is suitable if you're in retail or manufacturing where security isn't paramount.

I would rate Meraki MS Switches an eight out of ten because they're really easy to configure.

We are a solution provider and the Meraki MS Switches are one of the products that we implement for our clients as part of their network infrastructure.

One of our typical use cases is connecting stores within a retail environment.

The SD-WAN capability is already integrated and it is excellent.

It can easily tie into the backend of Azure.

The most valuable feature is the granular visibility that they provide with a single pane of glass. It is a very useful dashboard.

The pain point for our customers is the pricing and it should be reduced to make it more competitive.

We have been dealing with this product for a couple of years.

I haven't had any problem with Cisco at all. I would say that they are pretty solid in terms of stability.

Different switch models are chosen based on the size of the site. We use certain models at smaller sites, whereas we use different models for the larger sites. Overall, scalability is excellent.

Technical support is good and they are on top of everything.

I work with several similar products by different vendors and sometimes, people buy them instead because they are cheaper.

The initial setup is straightforward. The administration is usually handled by people like the VP of technology in the company.

The pricing is high and it is where we get the most pushback from customers.

My advice for anybody who is considering this type of product is to do the research. From my experience, Meraki switches sell themselves and the only thing that people contest is the price.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

We are using Meraki MS Switches as a network device in our organization.

Meraki MS Switches have a very user-friendly dashboard and the policies are straightforward for sending them to the devices and blocking sites.

The traffic reporting should be better in Meraki MS Switches. We want to be able to see all the traffic and where it is going. Additionally, detailed device utilization information would be very helpful for the security personnel.

The solution VPN is based on Windows features. They have to come up with their own solution because of what is happening, sometimes it is connecting and sometimes not. If they had their own tool, these types of issues can be mitigated.

I have been using Meraki MS Switches for approximately six months.

I rate Meraki MS Switches an eight out of ten.