Meraki MS Switches Reviews

I am a system integrator and my company is a partner for Cisco.

The ease of use and manageability from anywhere, whether it is from your mobile app or anywhere else with an Internet connection, is a unique selling point. It helps reduce network overhead by not requiring engineers to support the system.

The most valuable feature is the cloud management architecture from Meraki. The control plane is in the cloud, and the data plane is local, allowing manageability from anywhere.

Meraki requires more models, especially with respect to PoE Switches, to support Wi-Fi 6 capabilities. Meraki should also consider improvements in stacking features, particularly in the lower-end models like NS130, where stacking isn't supported, unlike with Cisco traditional switching.

The ease of installation and configuration saves time. Most things are automated, allowing for pre-configuration and readiness even before the delivery of equipment.

The network overhead is reduced as they don't have to hire engineers for support. The ease of use has helped reduce overall support costs.

Meraki pricing is a little premium compared to other vendor products. However, considering the features and ease of use, they are seen as pioneers in cloud management.

Meraki needs more stackable features. It would be beneficial if Meraki had stacking security in more models, especially at the lower end.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.

I am primarily focused on the Catalyst wireless port portfolio and the switching portfolio, which includes the 9200, 9300, and 9500 series, among others. I also work with Meraki, including the Meraki MX firewall, MS switches, and Microsoft products, among others.

Almost all of my functions perform very well. I don't require anything else. It is very good in the management console, which is managed through a single dashboard. That's why I mostly recommend Meraki for small setups and remote office locations for clients using MS language.

The prices are a little higher than other vendors. However, within the Cisco customer segment, customers mostly recommend it because they are existing users, and they are satisfied with their current usage.

I have been using this solution for the last three years.

If there are many users and a heavy data load, heavy data traffic, I am not suggesting Meraki. I am focusing on Meraki Catalyst for live usage. It is not scalable enough, and I do not recommend it due to its switching capability.

I receive support directly from a Meraki dashboard. The support is excellent and rated ten out of ten.

Positive

I have mostly been using Cisco for the last 15 years. I do not work with other vendors. For switching portfolios, I focus solely on Cisco.

The initial setup was straightforward, especially with the API setup. I simply go to the dashboard, insert a dashboard license key, and add a device. I can then see their GUI-based dashboard and configure it according to my requirements. For single fleets, the setup usually takes 30 to 60 minutes.

I have a technical team for the installation part. They manage our technical communication well.

I am very satisfied. The investments made are justified by the satisfaction with the Mediatek solution.

Local Meraki support is excellent. They assist on each and every deal, especially regarding the size of BOQs. 

I would rate the overall solution ten out of ten.

I am using MX400, MS320, MX250, and MS250. We also used MX64 before. We have replaced it with MX67.

The solution is efficient and easy to run.

The product has no CLI. The solution must provide a command line interface like the one in the Cisco environment with a proper iOS interrogation ability. It's the biggest thing for me because we don't know what these devices are doing half the time. It takes a long time to know we've committed a configuration change in Meraki. Sometimes, we have to wait for long before anything happens.

I have been using the solution for at least five years.

We have also used Cisco routers. They were plugged into NETGEAR Switches in our branches throughout the country. However, my organization wanted more visibility and the ability for our first-line support to do things rather than needing a higher technical level. So, we switched to Meraki.

The tool is expensive.

I will recommend the tool to an organization depending on its needs. It is a convenient product. Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.

We can build virtual stacking for the switches. It helps manage multiple switches deployed in different locations with a single console on the cloud. If we make any configuration changes, it can be changed across all the features using it.

It is a cloud-based product and depends on internet connectivity. It is not limited to specific geographical areas as well. So, we cannot provide these switches in the BFSI segment, especially the banking sector, as they have certain limitations due to regulatory guidelines. 

They could add NAS encryption protocol to the switches. Nowadays, many customers enquire about this feature.

We have been using Meraki MS Switches for almost eight years.

Stability-wise, I rate the product as a nine out of ten.

We have seven to eight customers for Meraki MS Switches from the manufacturing sector. I rate its scalability an eight out of ten.

The product's technical support team needs to take ownership of the problems. There is always room for improvement.

Neutral

I am working with many product competitors like Ruckus, HP, Juniper, etc.

We have implemented the product in Cisco cloud infrastructure itself. It is a private cloud based on a public cloud setup like AWS, Azure, or Google. It provides connectivity to the devices through the internet via a terminal. We require two people to manage the entire setup for maintenance.

The product's licensing cost is about 30% to 40% of the hardware cost. We have a yearly subscription. All the features are bundled in the licensing component. There are no additional costs involved.

It is one of the best products. It has a very good dashboard and a straightforward configuration. Although, it is not compliant with the requirements of specific industries that want to set it up within a particular region or country. In such cases, we provide them with on-premise solutions.

I recommend it to others and rate it a seven out of ten.

We used Meraki Switches primarily for firewalling.

They help us provide reliable solutions to other customers as system integrators.

The reliability and ease of configuration are good. I very seldom receive complaints about the switches.

The GUI can be improved for a better comfort level.

We have been using Meraki Switches for more than seven or eight years.

The product has always catered to the specifications, and we haven't had any complaints about it.

Scalability is not a problem. We have it on-premises, and it is easy to scale.

Sometimes, we don't get support. That depends on the product warranty and support conditions. As a system integrator, I rate it a six out of ten as I can't raise any tickets without procuring equipment in my name.

Positive

We have worked with Sophos.

It is easy to install and usually requires just one technician.

One technician is usually enough for the installation. We manage the implementation ourselves as system integrators.

As a system integrator, we don't have that parameter for our markings. Return on investment is not applicable to us.

Compared to other products in the market, it is always expensive.

I am not sure about other solutions besides Meraki and Sophos.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.

Meraki switches are appropriate for small and medium-sized businesses. Most recently, I worked with Meraki switches when I was helping my last two clients transition to a new service provider. One is a printing company, and the other is a tourist and convention center. One was moving from Ubiquiti to Meraki. 

Meraki switches greatly increase our clients' security.

I like the flexibility of the Meraki firewall. It gives you the ability to lock things down. Having multiple VLANs is helpful for the switching infrastructure and firewall. It's crucial when you have a public-facing VLAN, a private-facing VLAN, and a secure VLAN. 

The documentation could be more extensive. For example, it could describe more scenarios.  It would be great if they could incorporate AI engines into the switching infrastructure and firewall so you can configure it to prevent intrusion. They have intrusion prevention and detection, but they could enhance it by incorporating AI into their firewall.

The switching infrastructure doesn't need AI so much, but it would undoubtedly benefit their firewalls. That would be enormously helpful in creating the secure infrastructure most clients want. Hacking is a significant concern as the country becomes increasingly dependent on digital infrastructures.

I've used Meraki switches for around seven years. I'm an integrator and a networking consultant. I assess the client's infrastructure and develop solutions for them. For example, I had one client for more than 20 years. I set up their initial infrastructure and updated it as it grew and increased in complexity over two decades.

In general, Meraki switches are highly stable. In one implementation, we had some issues, but that had more to do with how the facility was constructed. Some switches went down. The electrical setup in the facility wasn't as robust as it needed to be, so we had things go out because of storms. However, I've had no problems whatsoever with other clients.

Meraki switches are highly scalable, but I've mostly dealt with small and medium-sized businesses. You need to add enough devices to scale up to a thousand or 5,000 users. These days, that can be challenging because of supply chain issues.
 

Meraki support is fine. Sometimes it's a little slow, but I think that's due to the pandemic. It was superb prior to the pandemic. I rate Meraki support eight out of 10. 

I've worked with solutions from different vendors, including Cisco ASA 400s and Fortinet FortiGate firewalls. I had one client on FortiGate, but I transitioned them to Meraki when they doubled the size of their office. They needed a more robust solution. 

The other client had Ubiquiti in place, but the whole network was cobbled together and hadn't been maintained properly. Their server infrastructure was toast. They had been a client many years earlier. I was called in to remedy their predicament because their in-house support was useless, so we designed some things and stabilized everything. Their security was far superior to what it was before. 

Deploying Meraki MS switches is pretty straightforward if you have a background in networking, and I've been doing this for 25 years. The deployment time depends on the complexity of your environment, but a simple deployment takes less than an hour. It will take longer if you are doing a more complex deployment with multiple DHCP servers and VLANs. 

The switches don't require much maintenance, and you can manage them remotely once they are deployed. It's convenient to have someone on site, but not necessary.

My clients say they're fine with the investment. In one case, I work with the vice president and CFO. He's pleased with it, but I don't have the financial data points.

You can buy licenses for one, three, five, or 10 years, and it's pricey. The hardware changes. For example, you couldn't get the speeds we have today unless you had some high-end internet. 

You may have had a nice infrastructure that was fine for a hundred megabits per second, but the minute you get up to 500 or 1 gig or higher, the infrastructure is insufficient, so you need to purchase new equipment. That's just the name of the game. Equipment and licensing costs go up. I don't know if there's a way to get around that. I really don't think so.

I stopped evaluating other solutions later in my career because I was sold on Meraki by that point. If you spend too much time looking at other options, you don't solve the problem necessarily. 

I'm a tiny outfit, and I was pretty much retiring. I knew Meraki to be a good solution, and I use it personally. It's something I'm familiar with that I can support remotely. If a device goes down, we simply get another one in place, and everything downloads from the cloud. Replacing or scaling up is simple once things are configured correctly and working, 

I rate Meraki MS Switches10 out of 10. I must add the caveat that I don't have experience with hundreds of different solutions. I haven't made a lot of comparisons, but Meraki solutions have worked extremely well for my clients. I'm happy with that. 

If you asked me why, I would say it's the robustness of the solution. Cisco continues to invest in Meraki and come out with new products. Their support is top-notch, and the configuration is straightforward and logical. It's one of the better solutions out there.

These last two clients have been pleased with Meraki, though they also use FortiGate. This is probably their first real in-depth foray into Meraki infrastructure. 

If you're considering Meraki, do your homework. You must have a clear idea of where your client is now and their expectations. What do they hope to get out of the solution?  It has more to do with building a proper client relationship than it does with hardware and licensing costs. You have to be upfront with all of that, of course, because they're looking to you to get that information. You must be thorough in your research and present multiple options. 

My company currently has about a dozen switches in operation in multiple locations. We've got probably about four or five of them in our main headquarters, then we've also rolled out to individual sites to utilize them. We remove the Cisco router and go directly into what we currently have as an SD-WAN solution.

Updates are easier to administrate. Security is handled in real time updates.

Overall a great solution.

The most valuable features are the cloud and throughput visibility, the ease of configuration, and being able to implement them into our umbrella DNS solution.

As far as the downside, I would say that they're not data center ideal. They're definitely missing some of the higher end data center Cisco features, but I'm sure those are coming down the road. Probably the only other downside I see to these is that they're very limited in their GUI for the initial configuration. 

3 Years

So far, I have not seen any of the switches go down. 

I think the only downside that I've seen so far in the scalability of the product is that they don't have anything that's more than a 48-port switch. They're more useful as access switches than as core switches for large environments. I mean, you can stack them nicely, but I haven't seen anything like a blade switch. It's different from what we standardized on in the past, with the Cisco 6500 or the 4000 series blade switches.

The support has always been really good. 

This product is very straightforward. They're a little bit of a change from the standard Cisco gear, but if you understand the networking and how things work, they're pretty simple to set up.

We have the switches on the cloud, so we can centrally administer updates from the cloud pretty simply. It's nice in that respect because you don't have to have hands-on maintenance. 

Everybody would love for the pricing to be cheaper than it is, but I don't know if that's a legitimate ask.

It's $150 per year for licensing on each 250 switch. The 425 switches are about $500 a year for the enhanced enterprise licenses. 

My advice to those looking at implementing the product would be to understand how to get into the console before implementing the switches because, in a secure environment, they may not be able to call back initially without a little bit of configuration. However, if you have broadband with DHCP, it's simple to get the initial configuration downloaded.

I would rate this solution as an eight out of ten. If they had a little bit more advanced features, I'd raise them up, but they're real good.

Meraki MS Switches have revolutionized our network operations. With cloud-based management, deployment is effortless, and monitoring is streamlined.

Meraki MS Switches have been invaluable in our network management. Compared to other switches, Meraki stands out with features like Power over Ethernet. This capability, along with remote manageability, has transformed our network operations, allowing us to implement changes quickly and efficiently while maintaining our organization's standards. It has been a refreshing change, making our tasks easier and more streamlined.

The most valuable features of Meraki MS Switches are their reliability and simplicity. Once they are plugged in, they just work without needing much maintenance. They are dependable in various environments, from office to field settings. With Meraki, you can trust that they will perform reliably, which has been my experience.

One area where Meraki MS switches could improve is offering smaller switch sizes for distribution switches, as not all networks require the standard 24 or 48 ports. Having more compact options with fewer ports would be beneficial, especially for distribution switches with only a few connections needed. This could help optimize space, power usage, and cost efficiency, particularly for networks with many end-user switches and few distribution switches.

I have been using Meraki MS Switches for over a year.

I would rate the stability of the product as a ten out of ten. I have not faced any issues so far.

I would rate the scalability of Meraki MS Switches as a solid ten out of ten. We have approximately 20,000 end users at our company.

The technical support is excellent.

Before Meraki, we used a mix of Cisco and other brands. Then we switched exclusively to Cisco and eventually to Meraki.

I would rate the easiness of the initial setup as an eight out of ten. The deployment of Meraki MS switches typically takes a few days. We prepare parameters and schedule remote sessions with our network administrators. The actual session lasts about an hour, but the whole process involves coordination and preparation, including in-house support from an external company.

I would rate the costliness of Meraki MS Switches at around seven out of ten. They are not cheap, but I find them to be a good value for the money. However, I would prefer if the prices were a bit lower.

The analytics and dashboard functionalities of Meraki have greatly enhanced my network monitoring. While I primarily use it to monitor basic parameters like bandwidth and connectivity, it allows me to quickly spot potential issues and react promptly, despite overseeing a wide area.

In high-density environments, my experience with Meraki MS switches has been positive. They handle multiple wireless networks cohesively, including those for office and public use, without issues.

Overall, I would rate Meraki MS Switches as a nine out of ten.