Cisco Access Manager is a great option for the large number of Meraki customers out there: it's natively integrated into the Meraki cloud and is easy to access and configure.
Setting up Cisco ISE can be quite detailed and involved, so this new product is aimed and reducing complexity - while increasing the security on your network.
ASSOCIATED BLOGS:
Securing your network, particularly Wi-Fi networks, is critical in this day and age and Cisco Access Manager supports the latest security protocols.
The gold standard in network security uses certificates rather than passwords to verify whether users or machines should be allowed to connect to the network. Access Manager integrates with Microsoft Entra to validate certificates when devices connect to wired and wireless networks that are managed through the Meraki cloud dashboard.
For devices that don’t support certificates, such as printers and display-boards, Cisco Access Manager can use the devices’ hard-wired MAC address to check against a list of authorised devices.
For Wi-Fi connected devices, this is paired with a static password, ensuring that the traffic over the air is encrypted. Different passwords can be assigned to different groups of devices, reducing the risk of the password being used for unauthorised devices.
Diagram Source: Cisco
ASSOCIATED BLOGS:
To make life easy, Cisco Access Manager is integrated into the Meraki Cloud Dashboard, with updates managed by Cisco ensuring that you are always using the latest stable version.
It uses the same access controls as the rest of Meraki’s products, so only authorised users can update settings, and that all changes are logged for auditing purposes.
Technical support is available 24/7 through Meraki TAC, ensuring a timely response to any problems or queries, and is included as part of the standard licence.
ASSOCIATED BLOGS:
Many network administrators want to control not just access to the network, but access on a deeper level.
One of the major features of Access Manager is the ability to not just permit or deny a user onto your network, but to determine what rights a user should be allowed and apply network settings to ensure that they can only access services that they are permitted.
This can reduce the number of wireless networks and VLANs in use on the network, whilst ensuring users don’t have unrestricted access to all services.
ASSOCIATED BLOGS:
In this blog we’ve discussed the benefits of using Cisco Access Manager to secure your Meraki cloud-managed network.
Cisco Access Manager is convenient (accessed straight from the Meraki cloud), as well as simpler to administer than Cisco ISE and a cost
We can help you to understand whether Cisco Access Manager is suitable for your needs and design the right solution to meet your requirements. We have extensive experience in securing our customers’ networks and are a Cisco partner, ensuring that we are trained in their solutions.
ASSOCIATED BLOGS: