Item: Cisco Meraki MR
Rating: 9
Author: Trevor Mayes

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

When I first started we used MR18 and MR16 but then graduated to the Mr33. I love the flexibility of the APs. I am a beta tester for the new 9163E. I love the Cisco Meraki MR platform it helps us to stay light and connected. I have convinced management to let me implement MRs everywhere and remove our controller based equipment.

Pros and Cons

Onboarding
Config sync
Easily deploy

I know it may not happen but Mesh with MXs would be cool
Change that firewall rule to allow ips by default

Return on Investment

Coverage area
Ease of deployment

Simplified Management

I can manage the Cisco Meraki MRs from one portal and see all the stats in one place. I can let all my teams have access so they can see when a site has an outage or find the IP address. It is awesome for other teams to see to have a better understanding.

Integrations with other Cisco products

AWS CloudFormation

We wanted to move our on prem equipment MXs to the cloud and VMxs and AWS were perfect for this. We were able to use this to offload all of our on prem things to the cloud and use on prem as a back up. Did not take long and the steps were all laid out with Meraki and AWS documentation.

Scalability

Cisco Meraki MR is made to be scalable and flexible. We can scale up or down as needed and deploy devices without configuring them. We can add the devices to the portal and then not have to touch them before they reach a location. We love that it can scale as we need it.

Alternatives Considered

Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers

Cisco WLC controllers are good but not a scalable option. We have 10 deployed and it is a pain to keep them all updated on the same code without DNAC. I just love to deploy with a controller that needs the APs to check into. Cisco Meraki MR is one big controller for multiple sites.

Key Insights

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

Yes

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

Yes

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

Yes

Did implementation of Cisco Meraki MR go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco Meraki MR again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Cisco 3504 WLAN Controller, Cisco Aironet 2800 Series Access Points, Ubiquiti Networks UniFi

Likelihood to Recommend

The ease of use would be the biggest winner. Great coverage, features that keep you connected and secure. You can easily scale up and down depending on need. Hot swappable devices that are ready once added to the portal. Cisco Meraki MRs just work and that is what we enjoy most. The continual uptime is really nice. With Cisco WLC and APs we always have issues with connectivity.

Cisco Meraki MR for the Win

Modules Used

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Meraki MR