Item: Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points
Rating: 8
Author: Tom Hollingsworth

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use the Cisco Meraki MR series access points because it allows me to easily configure how to provide important wireless services to myself and the people I work with. And I work in an office where not everyone is enabled. So if they need to make a setting change or something like that, instead of calling me to dig into the dashboard, they can usually log in themselves and figure out what's going on. But the reliability of the Meraki MR dashboard allows me to log in remotely from wherever I might be and see what they're seeing and help guide them through a solution while also making it a lot easier to add new devices as we go along instead of having to go through some cumbersome enrollment. If there's a customer or someone who needs a specific workload that Meraki MR can provide and are willing to invest, I'm happy to suggest Cisco Meraki MR.

Pros and Cons

Pros

It uses some of the latest wifi standards in the IT industry. So I don't have to worry about slow connectivity.
It also allows me to decide how to deploy the access points intelligently so my clients aren't overloading one. Or, they can provide a fault-tolerant solution. So if something happens in the office and one of the devices suddenly goes offline, the rest will pick up and keep on going. And it just makes things easier all around.

Cons

For me, part of it comes down to the value proposition of Meraki MR is that it's easy to use, but as someone who's worked in IT a lot, sometimes I want to be able to dig under the hood to find those bells and whistles of things that I might want to configure on my own.
And I understand that sometimes that can create challenges. So maybe as someone a little bit more seasoned in the IT space, and my thought process is to hide that, but still let me get into it if I have to because there are occasions when there's a little setting I need to mess up with.

Return on Investment

I think offering the access points, and other Meraki hardware at a low entry cost with a recurring licensing structure allows us. Tie the productivity that we get from them to recurring revenue. Still, it also allows us to enable new features in the devices as we move along that could be utilized by remote workers or people buying new devices. And that helps us understand how our users are using them.

Simplified Management

So as someone who's configured wireless access points in the past, having used a console cable and text command line, I can say that Cisco Meraki MR's dashboard simplifies the process. All you have to do is have the serial numbers and plug them into the dashboard. They can be automatically provisioned. All of the policy settings can be pushed down to the devices. You don't have anything to worry about. It just takes care of itself.

Integrations with other Cisco products

We've mostly integrated Cisco Meraki MR with some of the Cisco switching solutions and some of the Cisco security solutions. It's helped us out quite a bit because one of the things that you can find that's challenging with wireless access points at the edge is that the security built into them needs to leverage many other solutions to be fully functional. And by doing that, I think it gives us a real capability to leverage some of the advanced security solutions available from Cisco while still leveraging the ease of use you get from a product like Meraki MR.

Scalability

I think the scalability comes at about a seven-me, which has nothing to do with the product itself. I think it's more of the positioning of the Cisco Meraki MR dashboard, edging the simplicity over the deep contextual configuration.

Giving me a little more access to tweak certain things would raise that.

Alternatives Considered

I've used a lot of wireless access points in the past, and I can say that Cisco Meraki MR is probably the easiest for me to use and configure. It may not necessarily be cutting-edge technology. Still, in my experience, people trying to run on the cutting edge usually try not to get cut themselves.

Key Insights

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

Yes

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

Likelihood to Recommend

I think the best solutions for Cisco Meraki MR apps are remote office and branch office situations where you must provide coverage for a restaurant or a retail location. Still, you have less skilled IT employees there. So you can remotely configure those devices to ensure you're running at peak performance. I think the places that may not be the greatest fit are in a traditional large enterprise, and that's mostly because the IT departments there are a little bit more seasoned and full of features. And the advantages of Meraki really can't be recognized there as much as they might be.

Cisco Hybrid Work

Cisco Products Used for Hybrid Work

Webex App
Cisco Umbrella

Hybrid Work Model

Working from anywhere (e.g., coffee shop, airport)
Working from home

Hybrid Work Implementation Progress

The process is complete and I'm able to work remotely both at home and from a shared location. The process was easy to implement due to integrated support for devices and users.

Organizational Challenges Faced

Understanding application needs and planning for "work from anywhere" needs were the primary organizational challenges.

Impact on Organizational Challenges

Cisco allows for easy identification of applications and you are easily able to prioritize traffic so that users aren't facing bandwidth challenges.

Hybrid Work Experience

Working from home or a coffee shop allows rapid responses to customer needs and also flexible working hours to help with work/life balance.

Other Products Considered

Cisco is a much more integrated system compared to other devices that focus solely on hardware or software. They are easy to acquire and maintain.

Other Collaboration Services Used

Microsoft Teams
Zoom
Google Meet
Slack

Using Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points

Users and Roles

5 - Knowledge workers

Support Headcount Required

1 - Networking knowledge, Wireless expertise (CWNA Level), Security knowledge

Business Processes Supported

Wireless access
Device Management
Access Control

Innovative Uses

Location services (finding lost devices)
Traffic profiling
Remote site management

Future Planned Uses

Mesh networking
IoT

Likelihood to Renew

Easy to use, reasonable licensing terms. Good hardware protocol support.

Evaluating Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points and Competitors

Products Replaced

Yes - Linksys access points. Needed to be replaced because of outdated protocols and difficult management.

Key Differentiators

Scalability
Ease of Use

Access points needed to be easy to use and manage remotely

Evaluation Lessons Learned

I would spend more time evaluating the management portal and all of the advanced management features.

Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points Support

Support Rating

I have never needed to contact support for Meraki

Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	None

Using Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points

Usability

Easy to install and connect to by end users, including guest access support.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	None