Meraki MS Switches Valuable Features
JM
JohnMonroe
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.
View full review »JM
Joel Masocha
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.
View full review »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.
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.
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.
View full review »TB
reviewer1258163
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.
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.
DN
David NETO
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.
View full review »CT
Corey Taub
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.
View full review »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.
View full review »SI
SyedImran
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.
View full review »SS
Subhashis Sahoo
Senior Solution Architect at Quess Corp Limited
I found the cloud-managed dashboard most valuable in Meraki MS Switches.
View full review »RB
RanjitBhosle
Tech Engineer at Wipro
The switches are very stable.
It's able to expand.
The product is easy to set up.
View full review »VM
Vasileios Matiakis
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.
The most valuable features of Meraki MS Switches are the GUI mode which is helpful for access and good dashboards.
View full review »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.
View full review »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.
View full review »I like the portal, it's really interesting.
View full review »The product offered a lower CapEx cost for the appliance. That's why they tried that infrastructure.
It was easy to set up.
View full review »MR
Mike-Robinson
Owner at Mar Consulting Services
This product has QoS, decent visibility of what's going on, and it's a managed switch.
View full review »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.
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.
View full review »SA
SergeAkpro
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.
View full review »NA
Neal Arwood
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.
View full review »TW
reviewer966840
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.
SR
Sid Roy
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.
SM
reviewer1294776
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
View full review »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.
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.
View full review »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.
View full review »WM
William Murray
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.
PP
supervis809292
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.
View full review »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.
View full review »AI
reviewer1657209
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.
View full review »AE
Alexander Ernst
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.
View full review »MP
reviewer1426365
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.
ES
reviewer2012496
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.
View full review »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.
View full review »MB
reviewer1129767
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.
View full review »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.
View full review »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.
View full review »JV
reviewer734790
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.
View full review »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.
View full review »SF
reviewer1218795
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.
JB
Javier Berthin
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.
View full review »TS
Troy Scott
CIO at U.S. Metals, Inc.
I like the support, and basically, that's why I'm using Meraki by Cisco.
View full review »DS
Darren-Sinden
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.
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.
MY
Majid Yousuf
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.
View full review »AA
Aminu Abubakar
IT Specialist at Central Bank of Nigeria
The solution is very stable.
View full review »JG
reviewer1261443
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.
View full review »AL
manager813261
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.
View full review »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.
View full review »The switches, overall, are very good.
The newest switches, in particular, are excellent.
The initial setup is simple.
View full review »TP
Tshepo Phuthego
Graduate Trainee at HNE
Easy access to the solution is the most valuable feature.
View full review »MA
MuhittinAkar
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.
View full review »The most valuable feature of Meraki MS Switches is user-friendliness.
View full review »BL
reviewer1601091
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.
View full review »SM
Syed Masood A.
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.
View full review »The solution Is easy to use.
View full review »LK
Luiz Kazan
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.
View full review »PW
Paul Woods
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.
- 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
MR
reviewer1768326
It specialist
For the most part, the solution has been stable.
The solution can scale fairly well.
The cloud-based deployment is very straightforward.
View full review »TM
Tony-Moore
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.
View full review »GM
reviewer1506144
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.
View full review »DP
Devanand PR
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.
View full review »SC
Sara Coronel
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.
View full review »JH
reviewer1414806
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.
View full review »SV
reviewer1142103
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.
View full review »MM
reviewer1143678
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.
View full review »SB
reviewer2285133
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.
View full review »RS
reviewer1497534
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.
View full review »SV
Sambasiva Rao Venigalla
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.
View full review »MB
Mansukh Bhesania
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.
View full review »SP
SYMONPHARES
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.
View full review »SA
Shan Anan
IT Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 201-500 employees
The solution is very user-friendly.
View full review »RG
Remigiusz Gorecki
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.
View full review »RM
Raul_Morales
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.
View full review »EB
Enzo Bastianello
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.
View full review »JG
reviewer1687242
Director at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
I find administration management and the cloud to be valuable features.
EL
reviewer1151457
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.
View full review »RE
reviewer1222638
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.