Meraki MS Switches Open Your Eyes
Updated November 20, 2024

Meraki MS Switches Open Your Eyes

Kenny McGarrity | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • MS120-8LP
  • MS120-8FP
  • MS120-24
  • MS225-24P
  • MS225-48
  • MS225-48FP
  • MS350-48FP
  • MS390-P

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Meraki MS

The Cisco Meraki MS switches are being deployed across our organization to replace older HP switches. Those older switches had no centralized management and gave practically no visibility into the traffic flowing across the network. The Cisco Meraki MS switches allow a novice admin to modify network ports. I am easily able to find client stats in a branch location and Cisco Meraki MS allows for easier troubleshooting than standalone managed switches.

Pros

  • You typically set up a network, then leave it alone. Who wouldn't want a centralized point-and-click interface to set this up?
  • No more blindfolds on what's going on with your network. You will actually see how your network is being used and what apps they are using.
  • The tools you get for managing the network are actually useful. For example, the ability to schedule firmware upgrades across an environment is nice.

Cons

  • If you're hoping to get Cisco CLI access, look for a different product. You simply get a point-and-click interface, which means limitations on some of the more complex feature sets you can get from other Cisco products.
  • If you don't keep up on the licenses, you lose the ability to control your switch on the website. It's not a good product for people who are looking to save cash on a long-term purchase.
  • There are some weird limitations on the Meraki MS390 that make it feel like it is different hardware from the rest of the Meraki line and crammed into a Meraki case.
  • The Cisco Meraki MS switches are much more of an investment (cost more) than the cheap HP switches we purchased back in the day. Ultimately we are spending more money on these purchases, however it provides more insight into our network.
  • Our IT sales vendor loves that we keep purchasing these from him, so we get more free lunches from him as a result.
  • We are able to be more nimble and consistent with our configuration as a result of the management feature set.
I'm able to deploy the configuration to a network switch without having to touch it. Stacking switches is a no-brainer and things just seem to hum along. If a switch ever dies, we can easily replace it with an RMA unit and slap on the same config as the one that died. We also use switch templates to ensure our configuration is standardized across our org.
We use Meraki integration with our monitoring system, Logicmonitor, to track long term statistics on our core switches throughout our org. There are many other Meraki Marketplace options for you to integrate with. If you're of the clever dev variety, you can tap directly into the Meraki API and write your own applications.
I think when it comes to the 99% of what you do with a switch, Meraki can help you do that at scale. You can apply templates to locations and tags, and make the entire provisioning process one of the most simple I've ever seen. If there's a problem, the Meraki dashboard is there to tell you the problem it sees, and the port the issue is occurring on.

The most important part is being able to see all your activity for an entire location from one spot in the dashboard. This has become a central tool in trying to resolve issues and proactively hunt for new problems.
I can't say there are any other products I've evaluated that have the cloud management features that make it like a Cisco Meraki MS. After years of configuring different network switches and routers, this kind of purchase is a no-brainer for a lot of small to medium-sized businesses. It has really increased the ease in standardizing our deployments, easily displaying all the clients that are connected to the network which also allows us to quickly troubleshoot issues which require us to track down network device.

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

Yes

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

Yes

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

Yes

Did implementation of Cisco Meraki MS go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco Meraki MS again?

Yes

If you're not looking to do anything fancy on your network, then the Cisco Meraki MS switches will handle most all of your needs. You get VLANs, port aggregation (LACP), IP interfaces, and basic L3 routing. If you're the programmer type, there are APIs galore for you to explore. If you want to get CLI access, it's not going to happen. If your switches are offline, you can't control it through the cloud (though you can log into the web interface locally). If your company is stingy on license renewals, stay far away.

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