Meraki MS Switches Valuable Features

JM
Works at Baseline Consulting, LLC

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. 

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JM
IT Manager at a construction company with 10,001+ employees

These switches are not expensive and their configuration is very easy. You can provision them on the dashboard, then you just connect them to everything. It picks up from there. Management is easy.

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AmayPatil - PeerSpot reviewer
Presales Solution Architect at Airtel

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.

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Buyer's Guide
Meraki MS Switches
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Meraki MS Switches. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Prasanth Kailasam - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Client Manager at GBM

For me, management and security is the most valuable feature. Moreover, Meraki has a beautiful management console from where you can manage the entire solution.

From an enterprise level, too, their pricing is reasonable. Being the Cisco umbrella, they are on the higher end but pretty okay.

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TB
Global Network Architect at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees

The most beneficial features of Meraki MS Switches are the visibility and convenience they provide. We have a single-pane-of-glass and a cloud-based management dashboard, so we do not need to manually configure each device. This is the greatest advantage. Additionally, they are easy to deploy with zero-touch provisioning, meaning that even those with limited technical knowledge can connect the devices.

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Dan Brunnquell - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Of Information Technology at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees

I like that I can patch and manage them remotely from the user portal. It's easy to patch and manage from anywhere.

The initial setup is easy.

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DN
Consultant at Decathlon International

We like the ability to perform data capture and open it with Wireshark in case of issues.

For me, the best functionality is provided by Meraki for any device. The ability to manage the devices for the dashboard online, from the online dashboard. It is great.

The product is very straightforward. 

The stability of the product is very good. 

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CT
Senior Network Administrator at RS&H

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.

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Jóhann G. Thorarensen - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Sund Upper Secondary School

Accessibility is what I find most valuable in Meraki MS Switches, because I'm able to check things and see if they're working, without being on-site at all times. I can, for example, travel across the country, yet I can still check on how things are working, or what's not working. I can figure out what's the problem, what's the solution, and I can fix the problem, even when I'm not on-site. Easy access to these switches has been a great help.

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SI
Tech Specialist, Client Network DeliveryTech at AT&T

Meraki MS Switches are amazing. Whoever built it is a genius. I like that it's a plug-and-play solution.

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SS
Senior Solution Architect at Quess Corp Limited

I found the cloud-managed dashboard most valuable in Meraki MS Switches.

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RB
Tech Engineer at Wipro

The switches are very stable. 

It's able to expand.

The product is easy to set up. 

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VM
Owner at Omma Consulting

The features are great.

It's scalable. The expandability and ease of use are excellent. 

We like how easy the manageability is. 

The evolution of the product was also quite good. It's always getting better and better. 

It's very easy to set up.

This product is stable. The reliability is great.

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Sairam Prem Vangala - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Support Operations Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

The most valuable features of Meraki MS Switches are the GUI mode which is helpful for access and good dashboards.

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Fabio Palme - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect at Ingram Micro

My clients value the application visibility of this solution. For example, for the Layer 2 switch, our customers are able to see not only the wireless aspect, but its cloud management.

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DarrenHaun - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Vice President at Horizon Mechanical Solutions

Meraki's site-to-site VPN function is phenomenal, and the VLAN is simple to use and set up. If you need the VLAN to sort the networks out, that works very well. The performance is also excellent.

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Christophe ANDRIEU - PeerSpot reviewer
Sales Manager at Waycom International SASU

I like the portal, it's really interesting.

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JoelCloutier - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineer - Operations Technologies Individual Contributor at Innergex

The product offered a lower CapEx cost for the appliance. That's why they tried that infrastructure.

It was easy to set up.

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MR
Owner at Mar Consulting Services

This product has QoS, decent visibility of what's going on, and it's a managed switch.

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AnkurKumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at HCL Technologies

This switch is enabled with network security features. We use it for port security and MAC whitelisting, as well as DHCP snooping to prevent users from adding unauthorized DHCP servers to the network. The switch supports BPDU guard, root guard, and rapid spanning tree protocol for the loop prevention mechanism.

Moreover, now with the advent of automation in our environment, the switch supports various automation testing tools, and it's quite helpful for network troubleshooting as well.

The switch has a good speed and low latency. I will not say it's the market leader of low latency, but it competes with Arista switches in terms of latency. 

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Nader-Elmansi - PeerSpot reviewer
Presales System Engineer at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees

It's better for small businesses.

The solution is well-managed and easy to deliver.

Its cloud feature and cloud management are great. They are the most valuable aspects.

The setup process is simple.

It is stable. 

We can scale the product.

Cisco gives very good support.

The pricing is very good. 

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SA
CTO at itecks

The most valuable features of Meraki MS Switches are simple deployment and administration. You can have all your switches in one place and manage them.

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NA
Principal & Director of Operations at Net3IT

Quality of Service is easy to deploy. The ease of deployment, in general, is valuable. It is easy to do port configuration and VLAN assignments.

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TW
IT Specialist at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees

The most valuable feature of the solution is device tracking, which allows our company to know where the product is plugged into the environment.

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SR
Vice President - Operations & Client Support at Scicom Infrastructure Services

The most valuable feature of the product is the console. The second most valuable feature is the technical support and the infrastructure behind the console.

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SM
Owner at a consultancy with 1-10 employees

The most valuable feature about Meraki is the console. The second most valuable feature, to me, is the technical support and the infrastructure behind the console.

I think their feature set is far better than most

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Amr Moustafa - PeerSpot reviewer
NOC Technical Lead at NCR Corporation

The most valuable feature is that it is more stable than Catalyst switches. It is easy to configure and claim the switches by their serial number directly from the portal.

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Dhanushka Chaitanya - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager - Enterprise Networking Solutions at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

The solution is user-friendly and offers good visibility of users, service visibility and program management. It is easy to handle the configurations.

The setup is simple. 

We have found the product to be stable. 

It is scalable. 

The product is reasonably priced. 

The existing setup is okay right now.

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IanMacfarlane - PeerSpot reviewer
ITSM SME at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Being able to look at every port and see what it is connected to is very useful. Everything seems to be running really well. They've got everything covered.

They have a really cool mounting system at the bottom and an access point that you can use to level up your device. It is kind of cool.

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WM
Consulting Engineer at IV4

It is easy to deploy, maintain, and update. It has been trouble-free so far.

I am still a Cisco command-line bigot, but the web interface makes it a lot easier for our help desk to interact with a client. When the clients call in and say that they aren't able to connect, it takes the help desk 10 minutes or less to look at everything in the enterprise or location. They can look at the firewall, switches, or access points in the dashboard. That's why I like the dashboard.

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PP
Supervisor of IT Infrastructure & Cybersecurity at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

Setting up a switch can be performed prior to having your hands on the device. Once you purchase a Meraki switch you will get an email from Meraki with a code to add to your dashboard and then you can start setting up your switch so when it arrives it will download its configuration and be all set up. It is practically a zero-touch deployment. Firmware upgrades on devices are pushed from the cloud and typically only bring the device down for a minute or two while applied. The built-in packet capture on them allows easier troubleshooting even when you are not onsite. They even allow you to create staged upgrade plans so you can schedule which switches upgrade in order to minimize downtime.

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Samir Shah - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at Infinity Access Technologies Pvt Ltd

We like that it can work on a cloud basis. It gives the customer a choice to be operated from a central location and it can be controlled from there. Our customers mostly opted for having a centralized approach.

It's a proactive approach to networking for IT infrastructure. It will bring better uptime and availability to the network.

The initial setup is easy.

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AI
Director, Network and Telephony at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It is easy to work with. 

The dashboard is awesome. It provides you with very rich information, and when it comes to troubleshooting, it provides you with a wealth of information on the network about what is going on.

It tells you what traffic goes out and what traffic comes in.

It's very good. It provides you with a very deep look and there is a lot of good information if you need it.

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AE
IT Manager at IMP Bautest AG

What we like best is that the product makes configuration easy. We can configure a whole bunch of switches or ports at the same time. For example, if we select 200 ports and change some parameters, these options will be applied two minutes later on every branch anywhere in the world where we have selected the switches. This ability to configure multiple switches in one step is an incredible feature.

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MP
ICT Associate at a government with 51-200 employees

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.

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ES
Chief Information Officer at a hospitality company with 501-1,000 employees

It makes the management of SSIDs fairly easy. It's pretty intuitive. I haven't used anything else to manage stuff, so I don't know what other things are out there.

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Dhanushka Chaitanya - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager - Enterprise Networking Solutions at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

We find value in its ability to enable cloud management and visibility. They are also easy to deploy. It's very convenient because you can see who is accessing, what type of UI system they're using, what applications they're using, the bandwidth, and more. Management is also easy as you can access and manage the switches from anywhere. As it's managed on the cloud, we can support customers remotely if there's a problem.

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MB
Senior Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

The most valuable feature is the ability to segment my infrastructure between phones, security systems, and other tasks.

The dashboard is very easy to use.

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Gregory Marron - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Consultant at The Marron Group

The most valuable feature is the dashboard because it makes it easy to manage all of the switches. It's easy to turn them up and get it configured.

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Antra Andrianarivo - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Manager at Nexthope

The switches are great. The basic features are sufficient. 

The stability is good.

You can scale the product.

Support has been very good. 

The solution offers very good integration potential.

The pricing is fair and offers good value. 

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JV
IT Manager at a hospitality company with 201-500 employees

The most valuable features are ease of use and configuration. It has a cloud-based configuration that makes it easy.

They've added some improvements to firmware update scheduling where you can stagger the updates, which is the biggest advantage. Prior to that, you could not stagger updates when you have data center switches or stacks, which was difficult. They've now added some improvements for more update processes to stagger devices, which has greatly improved my happiness. It is in beta right now.

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Matt Baldwin - PeerSpot reviewer
President at Vertisys LLC

Where they are in the market and the market segment with their cloud management is an impressive aspect of the solution that originally lead ut to the solution. The maturity with their cloud management is really great.

The technical support is quite good.

The initial setup is straightforward.

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SF
Senior Network Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

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.

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JB
Engineer at ITC GROUP

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.

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TS
CIO at U.S. Metals, Inc.

I like the support, and basically, that's why I'm using Meraki by Cisco.

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DS
Solutions Specialist - Enterprise Networking & SD-WAN at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

The most valuable feature for us are the APIs. Development there has been very exciting and now we can actually drill down to client levels. What that means is that when I look at the portal I can drill down to the users that are logged on to the network and see what they are using the network for. It is very valuable to us and the client to have that ease of use and the capability of providing high-level service and service quality on the switches. It is a nice and easy way of leveraging utility and resources by pushing out policies from a single location to wherever my Meraki devices may be.

If I was an IT manager and I had sites globally, Meraki would be a perfect fit. I could reach the devices that are overseas without me or anyone else having to touch them. It is very much like zero-touch deployment, which is fantastic. An obvious bonus is that this capability is still backed by Meraki R&D with talented teams to support it. When changes and new features come out, I don't have to worry about doing software upgrades on devices because it's all done in the cloud. They just load it up and on you go. Of course, many other things are happening with Meraki and other developments that they are working on with Cisco. The whole story will come out in the resolution of what they choose to do on the security side of things and what capabilities you can gain by using Cisco and Meraki together.

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Anoop-Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Video conferencing Admin at Akshara Enterprises India Pvt Ltd

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.

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MY
Sales Engineer at Logicom

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.

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AA
IT Specialist at Central Bank of Nigeria

The solution is very stable.

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JG
Director of Institutional Technology at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees

Having the Meraki GUI controlled elements meant that I could train my help desk guys without having to try and teach a command line.

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AL
Manager at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees

The most valuable feature is the ability to orchestrate the network from the cloud.

These switches are simple to use and the user interface is good.

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Sriman L - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer at Nipun Net Solutions

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.

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Antra Andrianarivo - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Manager at Nexthope

The switches, overall, are very good.

The newest switches, in particular, are excellent.

The initial setup is simple.

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TP
Graduate Trainee at HNE

Easy access to the solution is the most valuable feature.

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MA
Hardware and Networks Support Executive at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees

The most valuable features of Meraki MS Switches are ease of use, and we can find technical knowledge easily.

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AkshayPrakashan - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Consultant at Redington

The most valuable feature of Meraki MS Switches is user-friendliness.

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BL
Senior IT Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

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.

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SM
Sr. Presales Consultant at a integrator with 501-1,000 employees

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.

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Mohamed El-Kholy - PeerSpot reviewer
Sales Manager at Quadratech

The solution Is easy to use.

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LK
Corporate Head of Digital Solutions Development Strategy | Smart Cities and 4.0 Industry at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

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.

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PW
Founder at SDWAN Clan

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.

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it_user203934 - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
  • 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
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MR
It specialist

For the most part, the solution has been stable.

The solution can scale fairly well. 

The cloud-based deployment is very straightforward.

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TM
President at Virtual Tech Computer Solutions

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.

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GM
IT Infra Head at a consumer goods company with 1,001-5,000 employees

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

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DP
IT Support Executive at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees

The dashboard and the interface, in general, are good features. We can work globally and anybody can log in from our web-based console to use it. Everything from switches to access points can be used from a single dashboard.

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SC
Senior Consulting and Design Engineer at Claro Ecuador

A valuable feature is the console of the dashboard which is pretty integrated. It's also easy for the client to monitor their dashboard. 

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JH
IT Engineer at a printing company with 201-500 employees

It is easy to set up and easy to monitor. It is also easy to check the status of the switch.

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SV
Network Administrator at a leisure / travel company with 1,001-5,000 employees

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

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MM
Security & ICT Product Manager at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees

The solution is easy to configure and to deploy.

The interface is great. It's easy to understand for the customer.

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SB
Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

It offers a compelling solution due to its cloud management capabilities and strong security features. In specific sectors like healthcare and hospitality, reliability is paramount, and customers demand reputable brands with a long track record in security and support.

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RS
Lead Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

The solution is a switch and many of them do the same operations, it connects devices together.

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SV
Technical Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Without any malware intervention, it will automatically provide you with notifications for the hardware updates from the dashboard.

You can connect from the dashboard itself. It is very easy to operate.

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MB
MD and CEO at Aster Networks

The most valuable feature is cloud management. In particular, if you are required to manage the switch remotely then this is a good solution.

The SD-WAN features are very good.

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SP
Contact Centre Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

The most valuable features are the cloud management, the monitoring, and the visibility available on the report's facts on the cloud controller.

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SA
IT Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 201-500 employees

The solution is very user-friendly.

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RG
Data Center Presales Engineer at Integrated Solutions

The most valuable feature of this solution is the interface because it is very simple and easy to learn, even for somebody who hasn't seen it before.

The remote management from the cloud is very good.

The security features are very good.

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RM
Preventa TI at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

The main features of Meraki MS Switches are integration, high quality, and hardware guarantee.

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EB
CECEO, ICT & Privacy ConsultantO at CHIP COMPUTERS S.r.l.

I like that this solution is easy to configure and it provides complete visibility of the graphic end point. 

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JG
Director at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

I find administration management and the cloud to be valuable features.

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EL
Delivery Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

The solution's most valuable aspect is the ease of stacking. The configuration on the MS Switches is very good, as well as its ability to assign the LANs.

The visibility of the solution is very good.

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RE
Head of IT at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

The technical support is very good. They offer some of the best support on the market.

View full review »
Buyer's Guide
Meraki MS Switches
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Meraki MS Switches. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.