Cisco Meraki Z3 Teleworker vs. Sierra Wireless AirLink Cellular Routers and Gateways

The Cisco Meraki Z3 Teleworker appliance was ideal for scenarios where the remote worker spent the majority of their time remote. It alleviates the need for VPN software and gives the IT staff additional visibility into the connectivity of the user. We often encountered scenarios where the users broadband was having issues vs the Meraki network and the tools Meraki provides help to work through these scenarios. The case for the Meraki devices is not as strong for occasional users who cannot justify the cost of the appliance vs just logging in via VPN.

Incentivized

If you only need 10 devices, there are other solutions that will fit and may be cheaper. For deployments of hundreds of devices, the management capabilities of the product are well worth the cost. In addition, for sites that run on low power (e.g. solar), the devices are fantastic, with idle power <1W for some devices.

Incentivized

• Easy setup for remote worker
• Versatility with WiFi and cable connections
• Safe to outages with dual wan setup

Incentivized

• Cellular band coverage
• Managability
• Software updates

Incentivized

• When Internet is lost and come back we need to reset the Z3 device from the dashboard in order to register the IP Phone to CUCM
• It would be nice to manage the Z3 device to a local web portal just for TS
• Max Speed 100Mbps. It would be nice if it could run up to 1GB

Incentivized

• Configuration changes require a reboot

Incentivized

At the time of implementation, we were not aware of a comparable product from Cisco or comparative vendor. We had initially deployed the Z1 appliance and had so much success that the transition to the Cisco Meraki Z3 Teleworker was a quick and easy fit for us. The device is easy to deploy and just works.

Incentivized

The manageability and power requirements of the Sierra Wireless modems is great. The cost of alternative solutions may be lower, but the Sierra Wireless solution has saved the company from many issues over the past 10 years.

Incentivized

The product is very scalable due to its implementation to the Meraki cloud and SD-WAN capabilities.

Incentivized

• Good visibility for IT team so we can monitor and validate the teleworker traffic
• Zero Touch Provisioning so we do not need to send a Engineer to configure it.
• Consumer-grade network security

Incentivized

• These devices have allowed us to replace copper circuits without the high costs of a satellite solution
• The low operating costs have allowed us to deploy cell to improve resiliency at many sites
• The serial port allows us to replace modem access at sites where copper circuits have become very expensive.

Incentivized