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Cisco Meraki SM

Cisco Meraki SM

Overview

What is Cisco Meraki SM?

Cisco offers Meraki Systems Manager (SM), an enterprise mobility management platform supporting the monitoring, provisioning and securing of mobile devices across an enterprise network.

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Recent Reviews

Its an awesome tool!

10 out of 10
March 01, 2024
Incentivized
We are using Cisco Meraki SM to manage our corporate laptops and control the policies where users need to adhere with internal policies. …
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A better MDM solution

9 out of 10
June 13, 2019
Incentivized
We use Systems Manager as our MDM software for all of our company mobile devices to include Android and iOS. It addresses the problem of …
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Awards

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Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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What is Cisco Meraki SM?

Cisco offers Meraki Systems Manager (SM), an enterprise mobility management platform supporting the monitoring, provisioning and securing of mobile devices across an enterprise network.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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VMware acquired Airwatch in 2014. Workspace ONE is a Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) solution and is available in Standard, Advanced, Enterprise, and Advanced for VDI editions.

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Product Details

What is Cisco Meraki SM?

As Cisco’s endpoint management solution, Cisco Meraki Systems Manager supports a variety of platforms allowing for the diverse ecosystem often found in today’s mobile centric world. The vendor states this places Systems Manager in prime position to alleviate the concerns of security teams in various industries, empower teachers to run their digital classroom, and ease the burden of enterprise IT teams with distributed sites.

Cisco Meraki SM Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Cisco offers Meraki Systems Manager (SM), an enterprise mobility management platform supporting the monitoring, provisioning and securing of mobile devices across an enterprise network.

Workspace ONE Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) and Jamf Now are common alternatives for Cisco Meraki SM.

Reviewers rate Product Scalability highest, with a score of 9.4.

The most common users of Cisco Meraki SM are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(47)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-13 of 13)
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March 01, 2024

Its an awesome tool!

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
We are using Cisco Meraki SM to manage our corporate laptops and control the policies where users need to adhere with internal policies. Cisco Meraki SM also utilizes to maintain allowed software at the mobile level in corporate mobiles by users. We need seamless policy control without compromising administrative overhead and security processes.
  • Policy management
  • Remote control
  • Mobile provisioning
  • Encryption settings and compatibility
  • Granular posture checking
  • Quick settings
Cisco Meraki SM is well suited for all kinds of mobile device management solutions. To maintain a large group of devices, Cisco Meraki SM can quickly adjust to any of use case. Especially it's very user-friendly and understandable to an administrator. And policy creation is easy and quick to implement.
Jeffery Albertson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
My school district manages mobile computing devices with Cisco Meraki SM. It is primarily used to manage 200+ classroom iPads. Educators love having iPads, even though they are not designed to be shared. This is where Meraki makes my job so much easier. It interfaces with Apple's DEP to allow the devices to easily be put under management. I can manage the apps and track the location of all my devices and even have the ability to lock them remotely when they are lost or stolen.
  • Set-up is straight forward. Easy to follow directions.
  • Customizable security policies that allow management by user specific parameters.
  • Seamless integration with Apple's Device Enrollment Program.
  • Location tracking in real time needs to be implemented.
It is very helpful if you need to restrict the apps a student or employee can have on their device. I had teachers using Netflix on the iPads before I brought them under management. Restricting them will make you unpopular with some of your employees, however, I advise them the device is being provided for business use and, therefore we have the right and responsibility to manage it.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Meraki SM with our mobile devices and tablets to help manage and track the devices. Our main use is for managing settings and apps for a better end user experience. Also, if a phone becomes lost or is stolen we are able to lock down to avoid the loss of company and personal data, or to track the device down if need be.
  • App Management
  • Push settings remotely
  • Enrollment
  • Remote lock or wipe of device
  • email profile push
  • push paid apps - Mostly Apple via VPP
  • Android sometimes has small bugs but normally easy to work around or fix
  • Android and Meraki SM sometimes fight each other and in doing so can break settings
We use SM everyday and and would hinder my job if we did not have SM implemented.
That right there is enough to pay for itself time and again. Not only ease of management but we are able to assist end users efficiently and with ease, with the use of SM.
Philip Dixon | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Cisco Meraki SM to manage mobile devices across the organization for all the businesses that make up the restaurant group. Practically every department is using it at some level. Cisco Meraki SM has solved many problems for us including, asset management, access policies, software updates, deployments, and more. It is very flexible and robust and we use it for both Apple, Android, and Windows devices.
  • We can create templates for our mobile devices that make new hardware deployments a breeze.
  • Pushing out new with Apple Business Manager is easy and efficient.
  • We get tons of real-time information on our devices and useful historical information and logs.
  • Kiosk and Single App mode is great for single purpose tablets.
  • Sometimes there can be delays in pushing out a new configuration and the device reacting.
  • A "remote in" feature for iPads would be great.
  • SM per device license costs can add up, I would like se a flat rate or bulk rate.
If you have an enterprise environment with a lot of iPads, Cisco Meraki SM is a great value for money solution with a ton of features and great support from the Meraki team.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
All of our iPhone and iPad devices across all of our teams and locations have Meraki SME Mobile device management installed to monitor and safely protect the company’s provided devices. We also use it to share docs with backpack but mostly to control data usage and make sure business apps are installed and configured properly.
  • Monitor data usage.
  • Share files with backpack.
  • Allow to wipe stolen and lost devices.
  • Personalizes dashboards for teams.
  • Perpetual licensing.
  • More custom reporting.
For a company that provides devices to their employees to monitor data Usage and implement policies for business applications like Webex or Jabber. And also locate technician staff on the road servicing our clients. It is also useful for whitelisting apps and provide access to documents and tools for all users.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Meraki SM to manage our fleet of iPads. We have just over 100 iPads within the primary school. We use Meraki SM to manage the apps and permissions on each iPad as well as to track the iPads if any go missing. I am the main user, however, we also have another IT technician who has access. Meraki SM saves us so much time as I am able to remotely install apps, update OS and change home screen layouts all without even seeing the devices. Previously, I had to collect all devices and plug them into a cart and use a laptop to make these changes.
  • App management
  • Permission management
  • Device tracking
  • Compatibility with older devices.
  • Better device location tracking.
  • Ability to show Wifi name on dashboard.
The free tier of Meraki SM was excellent and we used it for a few years. We now use the paid version. Meraki SM is excellent for schools that need to manage large amounts of iPads without needing to maintain physical contact with them. We are a small primary school on a single site however Meraki SM is able to handle larger sites. Devices are able to be configured so that the permissions are automatically set depending on the current user, or the current location. This allows for excellent customization. In my experience, Meraki SM works best when used with iPads. It does have some features for managing other devices but I have not used it for this.
Matthaniel Cowell | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
[Cisco Meraki SM] was used to manage iOS, Android and Windows devices across the whole company. It allowed to affordably remotely manage devices across many states and push policy updates to devices. This solution allowed us to remotely install apps and send updates to mobile devices as well. This solution made it easy to enforce our security policy.
  • Affordable management
  • Remotely install apps
  • Apply policy updates remotely to all device types
  • Chromebook management could be better
  • G Suite integration could be more straightforward
  • Implementing Android Management could be more streamlined
[Cisco Meraki SM is] great for a small company to implement a decent security policy for mobile devices. This solution will cover most use cases however, it doesn’t quite have the feature set that MaaS360 or AirWatch has, but it’s way more affordable. It’s particularly great if you use Meraki to manage your network, but certainly not required.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using Cisco Meraki Systems Manager to manage every mobile tablet or mobile phone in our organisation, it provides the tools we need to maintain compliance and ensure our devices are operating in a managed and secure way. The IT department manages the software, however the devices that are managed are in use across the whole organisation.
  • Ease of use
  • Ease of remotely installing device profiles
  • Ease of remotely installing apps
  • We haven't been able to force device updates without the need for the devices to be enrolled in DEP.
  • IP location is not very accurate.
Cisco Meraki Systems Manager is well suited to organizations that want a budget MDM that covers most needs. It complies with the security needs for some cybersecurity schemes such as Cyber Essentials Plus. It is well suited for organizations that are also looking for an easy-to-setup MDM with low training requirements.
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are currently using Cisco Meraki Systems Manager to manage our Meraki access points as well as (primarily) as an Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution. The IT Department configures all laptops and mobile devices with Meraki agent before we deploy the assets to employees.
  • The tagging feature is quite nice. One of the tags we use is for lost/stolen devices and we have it configured to email us when one of these devices show to be online. This allows us to take actions (such as remote wipe, track GPS, etc).
  • The ability to configure Geofences is also a nice feature to have. This allows us to restrict where our clients/employees are able to utilize the device.
  • Cloud-based management offers the ease of management which simply is not found with on-premises solutions.
  • Limited ability for "command line" functions. For example, we had a laptop that was stolen and showed to be online, but we could not wipe it. We were able to access a command prompt, but it would not accept DISKPART or FORMAT commands to try and make the PC unusable.
  • The GPS location is not terribly accurate and frequently it "guesses" location based off of an IP address rather than actually activating the GPS on the device. This makes tracking lost/stolen devices very difficult.
  • Difficulty getting devices to correctly show their status in the dashboard. For example, I can have a PC that is online and connected to the Internet, but shows to be offline in the dashboard. Only after refreshing many times would it indicate that the PC was actually online, thus allowing me to administer it.
The Cisco Meraki Systems Manager is a very cost-effective solution for MDM, if you can tolerate "less than stellar" ability to manage/track your devices. This would be excellent for small businesses, but for our needs it has been a cause of more frustration than benefit. When it does work as expected, it actually works pretty well.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Cisco Meraki Systems Manger is a fantastic asset to our organization. It allows us to manage all of our firewalls, switches, and access points all under on umbrella. The mobile app has come a long way and is more than just informational now. Makes my life easier and who doesn't want that?
  • Allows us to easily configure our switches, firewalls and wireless access points
  • At a glance view of the status of our hardware
  • Support has been quite good. We rarely have issues but they respond quickly and with quality information.
  • While the mobile app continues to improve, you can't do everything you can through the desktop browser portal.
  • They update it often and it can be frustrating trying to figure out where they put something. That seems to have slowed down but does exist.
  • It does not always report our topology correctly when trying to trace ports from our MX to MS devices.
Works well for a business heavily invested in Meraki. We can see all our switches, firewalls, and access points at a glance. It makes them all easy to configure and monitor. While we do wish some of the tools were better, the are sufficient to get an idea of what's happening in your network.

Small business like a veterinary office might not take advantage of all the features. If the shop is a 'set it and forget it' kind of place, it might not have too much value.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Systems Manager as our MDM software for all of our company mobile devices to include Android and iOS. It addresses the problem of lost or stolen devices by allowing us to remotely manage and wipe any devices we need to, as well as monitor and allow only certain applications to run on company owned devices.
  • Manage and track devices
  • Install applications without user intervention
  • Track mobile data usage
  • More up to date tracking, sometimes can be delayed
  • Easier application updates, some do not update remotely and forces the user to bring device to our office
  • More straightforward device restriction implementation
Like any other MDM software, Meraki Systems Manager does a good job of monitoring any number of mobile devices from laptops to cell phones. It does a good job for administrators to manage data, applications, restrictions, and numerous other aspects that a business needs to worry about on company owned devices that may not be seen by the IT department after deployment.
Laurance J. Specht | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use the Meraki System Manager to manage switches and access points across our campus facilities. We balance and manage point access, wireless connections via cloud and LAN for devices. It serves as a secondary filter of web content as well as an analytics tool to assess network traffic. The interface is clean and easy to follow with some training.
  • Remote management of access points and switches.
  • Content filtering.
  • Network health and traffic analytics.
  • Bandwidth management.
  • Splash page customization.
  • Deeper firewall and traffic shaping with stronger filtering tools.
  • Quick configuration tools.
The System Manager by Cisco is a powerful tool and is very reliable. The ability to manage the entire network remotely, along with the ability to gain a perspective on overall system usage, is great. Meraki is consistently improving the manager and providing a wider array of products that are a part of their offerings. Support is excellent and it is a full-featured manager.
Mike Madsen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Currently Banyan uses Meraki Systems Manager to manage all of our iOS devices and our laptop and desktop computers. It is primarily used to provision the devices with apps and software but we also use it to remotely support our salespeople who are often out of state. One of our main products is an iOS app, and Meraki has allowed us to support our clients' iPads, keeping our app updated in a timely manner and all without our clients needing an Apple ID.

Previous to Meraki we had an MDM solution that was very limited in its ability. Meraki not only allows us to support our clients iPads but gave us unprecedented ability to support our internal people with remote assistance, meaning we no longer had to walk people through long and sometimes involved troubleshooting but can now simply login to their computer and help them directly. The funny thing is, we originally purchased Meraki simply to support our clients, but with the added functionality we've received from it, it has become invaluable to us on many other levels, including the aforementioned remote assistance ability.
  • App management is a very strong function. It makes app provisioning a snap without having to login with an Apple ID.
  • The remote login capability for computers really is a strong and capable function. Currently it is still in Beta but is such a strong and capable function I hope it is quickly made a standard function of the software.
  • The ability to geofence a device easily without having to jump through multiple hoops to do so has proved to be a fantastic function, very popular with our Enterprise level clients.
  • Currently the application addition to Meraki has gone through some changes that make it not as user friendly as it used to be but has improved some areas of the function such as easy of deployment.
  • It would be nice to have the ability to reset a users password from the control panel. This function is currently missing.
  • Some of the navigation within the panel is not the best. It is a little obscure at times where you need to go for certain functions. For instance, to manage users, instead of a nav feature just saying, Manager Users, you have to know to click on a link simply called, "General". This could be improved.
For client support Meraki has been invaluable. For internal support it has been even more invaluable however. I have to admit when we purchased Meraki it was with the intention of simply supporting our clients but we have ended up using it more for internal functionality than we have for client functionality, though it does fulfill a critical role in supporting our app. Because our app is iOS it could be problematic if we were asking all of our clients to update the app themselves, especially those who lock down the use of the iPad more than others. This way we support our app in a way that is almost invisible to the client.

For internal, remote support Meraki has been even more valuable. We often have sales people out of state and it has made supporting them a breeze!
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