Item: Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points
Rating: 8
Author: George Richardson

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Meraki MR

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Alvarez and Marsal are moving to a more wireless base deployment, we current have trouble with some of our office not being 'ready' with the best Wi-Fi design to support clients in those offices.
We need reliability for sensitive applications like team but also good bandwidth and throughput for large file downloads. We have multiple business units which sometimes share offices (some business units may move in or out of office) so we need to flexible in our design for ensure we are in a good place for any future growth.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Upgrade process is good and has options to preference when upgrading to latest stable version.
Client timeline page is very helpful when trying to understand what is going on with an effected client.
AP Alerting function is also helpful.

Cons

I would like to be able to see CPU and memory (maybe antenna) health / status.
Better testing capability with Radius, I see lots of failures when using this test even though those devices pass Radius auth. Maybe performing the test on one or two APs at a time.
Authenticating access-points to the network, currently we have to use MAB, would like the ability to use 802.1x auth.

Key Insights

Do you think Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points's feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points again?

Yes

Return on Investment

Moving to the cloud lowering overall CAPEX cost.
Configuring from the cloud, with only internet access needed to make changes.

Simplified Management

Our team hasn't got the most wireless experience so having a more simple view and way to configure wireless networks is a massive bonus for us. We are looking to begin use of the Meraki APIs to make management options and deployments even easier and more streamline, which I am excited about.

Integrations with other Cisco products

Nothing yet, would like to look at the Thousand Eyes, Meraki API to begin integrating.

Scalability

Meraki is very scalable, you can create different orgs, different networks very easily and review licenses in a single view. Also the ability to deploy in different countries without having to worry about geographical latency to the wireless controller is very helpful.

Alternatives Considered

Haven't really used a similar product to Meraki MR.

Likelihood to Recommend

We are moving cloud first, so not having to have a wireless controller on prem is very helpful.
Meraki MR is generally more simple to use and setup which benefits our team as a whole.
The license and support is covered under the license cost, this makes things simple to manage without have to worry about smart net coverage, and DNA licensing. Meraki just have additional licenses to add desired features in a simply way.

Trying to find out where the conversation is braking down between client and AP can be difficult, if there could be a monitoring radio to perform monitor type PCAPs that would be great. Sometimes the interfering APs page doesn't load on some of our deployments which can make channel planning more difficult.

Comments

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Friendly neighborhood wireless guy - Meraki MR review.

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