Cisco Meraki is ubiquitous in the realm of cloud networking. Meraki has come on leaps and bounds in recent years though, and is no longer just for SMB - Meraki is great for enterprise too. If you've had your Meraki installation for a little while now, it may be time to consider a refresh - and we can help.
Cloud networking was an impressive concept with Meraki, when they entered the market. The ability to manage your equipment via a web page is both simple and extremely handy.
In this blog, we'll take a look at the reasons you might consider, if you are thinking about a refresh of your Meraki network installation.
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Cloud Management
Cloud Management is the key to making your life simpler. Management via the cloud just means that you can access the Meraki management via a web page.
- Via a clever mechanism, when you connect a Meraki device, it tunnels back to the cloud and connects to the Meraki control system. From here, you can configure the device via a web page.
This is very convenient and all about making your life simpler. No more console cables and you can ship the device direct to site, where you can then remotely configure it. You can even configure in advance of it being installed, and once installed, the config will be downloaded.
This isn't to say that Meraki isn't also sophisticated. We have written many scripts which are used to automate Meraki setup via the available API.
For our Meraki Managed Services offering, we can monitor your Meraki environment also via the API. Simple - yet very powerful.
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No More Costly Software Upgrades
Software upgrades are a real headache for most system administrators. Meraki solves this problem.
Meraki can automatically roll our software upgrades, and these can be set to occur at a convenient time, such as in the middle of the night.
The upgrades can be automatically rolled back, if they fail, meaning that you can set and forget.
Meraki do let you know when a software upgrade is on the way, so if its not a convenient, time, you can pause the update.
Many customers spend a lot of time and effort on out of hours engineers upgrading software on their devices. Costly and inconvenient, this is one thing which is resolved out of the box with Meraki.
Free your engineering team from the tedium of having to come to site out of hours to undertake a software upgrade, which can be automatically undertaken in Meraki.
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Built in Security
Security is the thing that keeps many CIOs up at night. Worrying if your network is secure is a key concern.
Network installations are complex by nature, making it easy to make a mistake and leave your network wide open.
Meraki MX appliances couple not only the security you'd expect, but also additional features, such as SD-WAN. No mean feat.
Cisco have also brough to bear their security and fault-finding product set to bear, with containers on the MX that can install applications such as ThousandEyes (this is integrated into the Meraki dashboard too, so accessing the results is hassle free).
Cisco Secure Access Service Edge (formerly Umbrella) also integrates, to the MX offers defence in depth.
If you need site-site VPNs or end user access VPNs, these are supported too - and Meraki makes it simple to use these features.
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Integrated Product Set
With all this functionality, you might expect that Meraki has bought some of the technology in and it doesn't all integrate properly.
Meraki combines an array of networking equipment with the convenience and familiarity of a common management dashboard.
Meraki offers switching, security & routing, Wi-Fi (where Meraki began, as well as a wide array of cameras.
More recently, IoT sensors have been added to the lineup, so if you want to know if a door has been left open, or a comms room is overheating, Meraki has you covered.
Other sensors can tell you if you have a floor event, or if the air quality is not good - very handy in this post COVID world.
The real value of the integrated product set is that it all works seamlessly together.
Meraki is easy to manage and powerful - with a great array of options in the equipment lineup.
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Meraki Refresh: Summary
In this blog, we have walked through the reasons you might refresh your Meraki network, if you have had it installed for a few years. This same holds true if you have not yet installed Meraki and discover the convenience of cloud networking.
One barrier to upgrade is financing, and we can offer Cisco Capital, which is available at very low, or even 0% rates, to help you install your new network as fast as possible.
If you want a low or zero touch network installation, we can help there too, with our officially accredited range of Cisco Powered Managed Services - never get caught by surprise with a network outage, without the support you need for your business.
We are here for the journey for our customers as a trusted partner - if you need some help with your network design and install, we are your partner of choice.
Wi-Fi is a particular speciality for us too, so if you rely on Wi-Fi as a business-critical service, we have unparalleled experience in this space.
Hopefully the world of Meraki cloud networking is of interest and if there's anything we can do to help on your journey, just let us know.
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