Cisco Aironet 4800 Access Points (discontinued) vs. Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points

Cisco Aironet 4800 Access Points are well suited for a larger office or organization that has multiple buildings that require a larger-scale wireless network. The controller makes it easy to discover and deploy radios in a timely manner. The Cisco Aironet 4800 Access Points are probably not well suited for smaller offices where one radio will suffice.

Incentivized

In a larger environment once you set up, I think it's really easy to manage. It's all I can say. So in any kind of a large environment, it's going to be super easy. Even in a small environment, you're doing minor clicks and configurations, so it's just going to be just as good there as it is in a large environment.

Incentivized

• Ease of setup
• Area of coverage
• Device life

Incentivized

• It's cloud based, so as long as we have an internet connection, we can access it. Whenever we push a change, it's one stop like a single pane of glass to manage all our equipment. And so that's what I liked about it.

Incentivized

• Our current series doesn't have the GPS Telemetry for auto placement on maps that is coming out, I believe in future models, but we're not there yet. I believe they're trying to make them backwards compatible. So there is a lot of manual places on the map. Make sure you get it in the right location because that can determine its ability to locate your clients in the building.
• And then I would say the other thing that they probably just need to work on a bit is a bit more of the RF management, the ability to see how is that AP broadcasting compared to others.

Incentivized

The Cisco Meraki WiFi Access Point dashboard and support license is mandatory so to continue usage we will need to renew the license. We may opt to purchase a more current WiFi generation device if something newer is available at that time. Currently, happy with the use of the dashboard as it is very feature rich.

To get basic functionality doesn't take long. Set up a new Meraki Dashboard activate the licenses and get internet connection for the APs and you are more or less done. The Dashboard will find your items and you're good to go.

Incentivized

I give this rating because right out of the box we were able to configure multiple radios in the console and deploy them to our environment in a very short amount of time. The only issues we had was there was a bad radio, which was replaced quickly and easily.

Incentivized

Meraki support is usually top notch. The are quick to respond and stick with an issue until it is resolved. One of the difficulties I've had with Meraki MRs is the limited ability the customer has in troubleshooting. Much of the more technical aspects of resolution can only be accessed by the Meraki support team, meaning dedicated IT teams are reliant on them when more complicated issues arise.

Incentivized

There were documents that detailed how the WiFi Access Point was to be installed and mounted. The only issue was to cable the device, we use a third party for this type of work and typically has to be performed after normal business hours. Other than that, the installation was easy.

We are not using any other Cisco products at this time.

Incentivized

We looked at HP and their products, their Aruba products. We actually entertain looking at some of Cisco's products. The problem is once you start down a path with a technology that you choose and you get pretty deep down that path, it's very hard to try to change, especially when something's working so well

Incentivized

I gave the rating I did because, in my opinion, this product scales very well. We are able to add as many radios as we need to to expand our network to more sites, as we need them. So far, I have not had any issues when installing new radios.

Incentivized

It's really easy just to add an AP to a dashboard. It adopts the config we already have there for everything else. So there's not a lot to configure. I guess it's kind of a one-time setup unless you have some unique use cases to where you want things, maybe not broadcasting from that AP or not. So it's a simple product to use.

Incentivized

• Migrate to all wireless office >$10M savings from not needing to refresh or license edge switching infrastructure
• Advanced licensing requires are APs in org to be licensed, which can be cost prohibitive to buying Advanced license
• Flexible work life balance for employees are greater satisfaction knowing the can troubleshoot or resolve issues remotely if required

Incentivized