Likelihood to Recommend Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points are well suited for most applications as they scale very well and can be configured to work in a lot of different scenarios. However they are quite costly so they may not be suited for all business purposes. But they do perform and deliver and rarely cause issues.
Read full review I think the best solutions for Meraki APs are kind of that remote office branch office type of situation where you need to provide coverage for say a restaurant or a retail location, but you have less skilled IT employees there. So you can remotely configure those devices to ensure that you're running at peak performance. I think the places where that may not be the greatest fit is in a traditional large enterprise. And that's mostly because the IT departments there are a little bit more seasoned and full-featured. And the advantages of Meraki really can't be recognized there as much as they might be.
Read full review Pros It is a versatile, clean, balanced and secure access point. Wifi 5 802.11ac wave 2 technology. Client link and cleanair are functions to mitigate and improve user connection. Reliable smartnet service for warranty and technical support. Perfect for offices and indoor locations. Read full review Cisco Meraki Wireless does a GREAT job marketing their product and building your trust. They offer free and very informative webinars that offer free gear for your home network. They rely on word of mouth marketing and it simply works. They offer great try and buy programs as well. They stand behind their product and trust the technology. Cisco Meraki Wireless administrators dashboard is top notch. Their wireless UI interface is integrated with all other Cisco Meraki Wireless products. This makes it easy to use. It has single-use credentials and is seamless. Cisco Meraki Wireless support is also top notch. While they are backed by Cisco, Meraki always feels like you are working with a small business that takes your account seriously. They are specialized and a rare breed in the industry. Getting support from them is a pleasure! Read full review Cons Firmware distribution between access points Replace web auth certificate without reloading WLC controllers The issue with expired MIC certificate - but this is not an issue with 9100 New AP with new hardware revision works only with the new WLC firmware Read full review Depending on your business size and budget, the cloud based subscription model may not acceptable to upper management. Must maintain subscription to utilize Cisco Meraki Wireless Access Points. Additional functionality and support for Mobile Device Management (MDM) comes with an additional cost if you want telephone support, otherwise it is limited to a certain number of devices and tech support via email only. Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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.
Read full review Usability The Cisco Catalyst 9120 Access Points have been a solid deployment for me. Using their interface is a mix of new and old. They run IOS, so if you know the CLI, you can easily navigate around them. You can join them to an older controller if it supports a certain version, you can join it to a new 9800 controller--very straight forward--and you can run the embedded wireless controller on them directly. I've found this to be very useful at smaller sites. The Cisco Catalyst 9120 Access Points are not limited to feature sets like the older generations' mobility express platform.
Read full review The Meraki dashboard is an excellent tool to administer and manage the Meraki WiFi Access Point. Navigating the dashboard is intuitive and there are lots of use cases on the Meraki site. The dashboard is the key to having a great administrative experience with the product, easy to use, fast to find information.
Read full review Performance Cisco is providing the best in class access points. We would be focusing Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points to have the common platform. We are waiting for cloud implementation on DNA or cloud monitoring of 9800cl in Meraki dashboard. It's reliable, tagging gives a lot of flexibility. Virtualization finally works as expected.
Read full review Support Rating Cisco has been very good at correcting early issues with their code. Their TAC support has been fantastic when I would open a case with issues I was facing. Even though the hardware was new, they were very familiar with the interfaces and issues I was having. In the past I've been concerned about adopting a new product right away because of support issues. That was not the case here. Once I had the deployment up and running, they have had a good run of reliability.
Read full review Cisco Meraki support has been very helpful when it comes to troubleshooting and supporting their products. There is an online knowledge base with tons of documentation and there is also 24x7 phone support available as part of the dashboard license. Every time I've called support, the engineer I spoke with has been very informative and dedicated to resolving my problems.
Read full review Implementation Rating 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.
Read full review Alternatives Considered In testing, Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points outperformed all other APs in our testing. Performance was second to none in the testing lineup. Reliability has been proven over the many years we have used this product. The new 9100s have also not presented any hardware reliability issues for us so far. Some of the other vendors offer some nice to have features such as Bluetooth device diagnostics and very deep AI assurance.
Read full review I've found that Meraki Wireless Access Points are able to stack up against all of the other access point manufacturers I've used. I think they are more usable and easy to understand when compared to others like Fortinet, Aruba, or traditional Cisco wireless. I do think the features offered are enough for almost all companies looking for a good wifi plan. They have less detailed settings than Aruba and Cisco so if you have complicated deployments they might be missing some options you are after. Keeping it simple is how Meraki wins. They also have a much easier way to do a zero-touch deployment. You can add the access points in the dashboard and get them running very quickly. They can be managed from anywhere without a VPN or local connection which gives them an edge over their competition.
Read full review Scalability These access points offer flexibility in deployment scenarios, supporting both standalone and controller-based architectures. Organisations can choose the model that best suits their current needs and scale as their requirements grow. Cisco Aironet Access Points are compatible with Cisco's Wireless LAN controllers, allowing for centralized management and monitoring of a large number of access points across the network. With the recent changes, it will even support cloud base controllers.
Read full review It has nothing really to do with the product itself. I think it's more of the positioning of the Meraki dashboard, kind of edging the simplicity over the deep contextual configuration type things. Giving me a little bit more access to tweak certain things would definitely raise that rating.
Read full review Return on Investment With a wide range of Wi-Fi and security options, as well as the ability to expand and scale easily, it’s an excellent solution. It achieved a significant rise in the number of concurrent wireless network users with a low-cost solution that provided outstanding performance. We invested in wireless networks in the long run, and as a result, we could connect more users without compromising performance. Read full review KPI generator: Generator of commercial indicators that help us define the client's profile. Consumption data: See in which the network is occupying the consumption by application and user. Heat zones: See which is the area of interest most traveled by the end user. Read full review ScreenShots