Cisco Aironet and Catalyst 9100 Access Points vs Meraki MR

Likelihood to Recommend

These access points are well suited for enterprise environments that require Wi-Fi 6 capability.

Verified User

Engineer in Professional Services

Information Technology & Services Company, 5001-10,000 employees

A Cisco Meraki MR is well-suited for highly visible locations where a device needs to be suddenly integrated and not drawing attention to itself. It may not be so well-suited to environments where in depth monitoring of traffic to specific destinations needs to be quickly determined and throttled on an as needed basis, such as in a conference environment.

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Verified User

Professional in Information Technology

Law Practice Company, 51-200 employees

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Pros

11ax
Operate on 802.3at
Support tri-radio functionality

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Verified User

Engineer in Professional Services

Information Technology & Services Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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Layer 7 Firewall Embedded
Different type of access control and guess portal
Traffic shaping and bandwidth rate limits for high demands application
Health option to identify quickly different problems with the performance
Integration with third party guess portal like “Eleven WiFi” for customize guess access
Analytics and reports of usage very helpful in order to obtain data of your internet usage and allocate resources more efficient

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Jose De Jesus

IT Hospitality Manager

NovalogiqComputer Networking, 11-50 employees

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Cons

Certain models are large

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Verified User

Engineer in Professional Services

Information Technology & Services Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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There needs to be an easier way to see which devices are being heavier used, so as to determine needed adjustments.
It would be good to have more in-depth access to what locations connected devices are navigating to.
Cost. These devices could be a little more competitive if the cost were lower. Meraki prices itself out of some sales.

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Verified User

Professional in Information Technology

Law Practice Company, 51-200 employees

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Usability

No score

No answers yet

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Meraki MR 8.6

Based on 2 answers

The Cisco Meraki MR web interface is best in class when it comes to network management. While some networking knowledge is needed to understand what you are doing, no specialized training in any one specific operating system is required to design a whole network.

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Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology

Higher Education Company, 51-200 employees

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Performance

Cisco Aironet and Catalyst 9100 Access Points 9.1

Based on 1 answer

These access points have been stable and have performed well in our test environment from the beginning.

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Verified User

Engineer in Professional Services

Information Technology & Services Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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No score

No answers yet

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Support Rating

No score

No answers yet

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Meraki MR 8.8

Based on 25 answers

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.

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Dennis Chwee

Senior Network Engineer

Clark ConstructionConstruction, 1001-5000 employees

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Alternatives Considered

The Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points meet or exceed the competition in every category.

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Verified User

Engineer in Professional Services

Information Technology & Services Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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Meraki MR are certainly one of the good products on the market. The ease of use, configuration from the dashboard and the rollout are certainly the main differentiators of Meraki. The lifetime warranty of MR (not outdoor models) is also a great advantage.But, the licenses to pay as long as you use the product may discourage some buyers (vs Fortinet for example).

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Verified User

Account Manager in Sales

Information Technology & Services Company, 51-200 employees

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Scalability

Cisco Aironet and Catalyst 9100 Access Points 9.1

Based on 1 answer

The ability to host applications on the AP make this platform very scalable.

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Verified User

Engineer in Professional Services

Information Technology & Services Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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No score

No answers yet

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Return on Investment

The ability to gain experience with Wi-Fi 6
Long-term support for next-gen wireless controllers

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Verified User

Engineer in Professional Services

Information Technology & Services Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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Very easy deployment when we moved a major office location.
When we added special business needs we were able to add a Wi-Fi channel for special access with minimal IT effort and configuration.
Easy to setup, deploy and install when we have added remote sites.

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Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology

Oil & Energy Company, 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

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No