Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch vs Cisco Meraki MS

Likelihood to Recommend

I like the performance of this platform around the establishment of digital operation space. It has enabled our IT team to build an interactive base that links our marketing team to our potential customers. The cost of creating the networking system is lower as compared to most upcoming platforms. I can totally recommend this product to any business organization for reliable networking systems. It has successfully connected our business to cloud networking services.

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Mark Allwood

Marketing Specialist

GelattinaMarketing & Advertising, 201-500 employees

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This product will go to the top of the list of what I will use again. It makes support significantly easier and that is important to the operations here. I feel this is a strong candidate to be used in just about any configuration. It is very adaptable.

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Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology

Higher Education Company, 51-200 employees

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Pros

Many 10GbE SFP+ fiber port options.
Can be used in Distribution and Core topologies.
Options with 20, 32 and 48 10GbE SFP+ ports.
Redundant fans, fonts, and CPU.

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Verified User

Analyst in Information Technology

Information Technology & Services Company, 201-500 employees

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Meraki MS switches are wonderful at allowing a network admin to configure a VPN mesh network without having to have highly specialized knowledge. Unlike Cisco switches, there is no CLI, there is only a GUI, and Meraki support helps you set it up as you add nodes to your network.
Meraki MS switches are easy to deploy. Full stop.
They can work with any firewall or ASA but I would strongly recommend using the Meraki MX security appliance if you are going to use Meraki MS switches because they were made to work together.
They easily stack. It's all done for you in the Meraki cloud control panel.
They will get an address from your admin VLAN's DHCP scope and keep it. Even if you unplug it and move it, you will not have to worry about addressing it.
The GUI is online and you can reach it from anywhere, so as long as you have the credentials, you can manage the network from any device that has a browser.

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Jane Updegraff

Senior Systems Administrator

DRT Holdings, Inc.Aviation & Aerospace, 501-1000 employees

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Cons

It's not a "all in one" platform. Requires many components
Softphone GUI could be improved
Limited ACD functionality

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Patrice Tanguay

Directeur - Exploitation des technologies de l'information

Biron Health GroupHospital & Health Care, 1001-5000 employees

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People who are coming from enterprise switches or command line options may feel limited
If internet is having issue, managing the switches can become more burdensome
Switches do not have as many advanced features as enterprise switches
Delay in reporting and debugging

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kevin mcgillicuddy

IT Infrastructure Supervisor

Sight and Sound TheatresEntertainment, 201-500 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

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Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

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General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

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Likelihood to Renew

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Cisco Meraki MS 10.0

Based on 1 answer

Great product and we're always watching for new additions from meraki

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Verified User

Manager in Customer Service

Architecture & Planning Company, 51-200 employees

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Support Rating

No score

No answers yet

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Cisco Meraki MS 9.0

Based on 25 answers

Cisco support for the Meraki products is great. I have a dedicated representative who I can reach out to at any time. They offer numerous online resources and easy to follow tutorials to help the most novice user feel like a pro. When I need support they were ready and quickly helped me solve my problems.

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Laurance J. Specht

IT manager

Brooklyn Laboratory Charter SchoolEducation Management, 51-200 employees

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Alternatives Considered

Most problems that face our company has been solved by an effective performance of this product. The operation and continuity of our business programs are boosted by great network connections. Alcatel company has been helpful in providing training and development guidelines where possible. The system performance has built a powerful operation base that can identify and provide solutions to business challenges. The digital working base for all our plans has been implemented.

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Ganbare Yaki

Marketing Manager

MANGORetail, 10,001+ employees

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Cisco Meraki equipment is easier to configure, setup, and deploy as well as manage. The only thing I will say for the other gear is that they have their special niche requirements, protocol options, and special configuration options that not all Meraki gear has. Meraki gear cannot do everything that other switches out there can do for specific requirements. For the most common network requirements, Meraki can do it!

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Trevor Harley

Senior Network Administrator

Birchcliff Energy Ltd.Oil & Energy, 201-500 employees

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Scalability

No score

No answers yet

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Cisco Meraki MS 9.3

Based on 15 answers

We have had no trouble linking multiple switches together with a daisy chain cable. We have done this throughout our building and have added them as switch stacks so that they appear as one large switch. It's even better when combined with port aggregation on our fiber feed lines for 20GB throughput back to the core network.

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John Glenn

Network Operations Manager

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)Religious Institutions, 501-1000 employees

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Return on Investment

It has created positive Return on Investment.
Our main IT objectives have been achieved.

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Mark Allwood

Marketing Specialist

GelattinaMarketing & Advertising, 201-500 employees

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One critical business objective was a worry-free network. This is it!
Another business objective was to be able to manage my entire network from a single interface. Meraki delivers again! Not having to be in the building to monitor, manage and configure networking equipment is worth the weight of these devices in gold.
I wanted to be able to see everything that was happening on my network. Meraki enables that. I can see every device, what each is doing, set alerts for when individual ports go down or the device that is attached stops sending packets, etc. The visibility into my network's performance and security is unprecedented. I never knew what I was missing and I do not want to go back!

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Nathan Roberts

Director, Management Information Systems

CareerSource FloridaPublic Policy, 11-50 employees

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Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch vs Cisco Meraki MS