Meraki Dashboard Reviews

My main use case for Meraki Dashboard is as a NOC engineer for the MSP, where we have three sites. We add all the sites to Meraki Dashboard for live monitoring. I am the one who uses LogicMonitor, and we get an alert if some device is down. When we receive an alert, I go to Meraki Dashboard and check everything in the logs to see what is going on there.

I can give you a specific example of how I used Meraki Dashboard in my NOC engineer role. One day while I was working on my shift, I received an alert that a remote site was down. I went to Meraki Dashboard, accessed the switches, and checked the logs. I then figured out there was a power outage or someone had unplugged the cable.

Sometimes we need to update the firmware of different APs as part of my main use case. As an engineer, I do not prefer to go one by one to get a session for every AP and then update its firmware individually. Meraki Dashboard is awesome because I can go to the dashboard and update all the firmware of the APs at one time.

The best features that Meraki Dashboard offers include centralized monitoring, a very friendly GUI-based dashboard, and live monitoring, which is awesome.

Meraki Dashboard positively impacts my organization by enabling live monitoring. If someone unplugs the power cable, if the switches are down, if there is an outage, or if there is any misconfiguration, we get an alert from Cisco in our mailbox. We can take action in just one minute, which is awesome. I have never seen such a great tool.

A specific outcome that improved after I started using Meraki Dashboard is our response time, which greatly improved, and our end customers are very happy. Our SLA is 15 minutes. We were using LogicMonitor previously, and sometimes we got false positive alerts. However, Meraki Dashboard alerts are very reliable. We can respond in just five minutes because of that alert system, and end users are very happy. Our SLA has never been breached after using Meraki Dashboard.

Regarding Meraki Dashboard, I would suggest improvements to Cisco ISE integration. I have used Cisco ISE for port security and I never liked the GUI because it is difficult. If I need to check the policies, they should be in a centralized position or on the front of the dashboard. I should be able to check the policies like a firewall, but in Cisco ISE, I have to go through many options to find the policies and determine what the current policies are on a port. My suggestion would be to make the GUI easier for engineers.

I have used Meraki Dashboard for about two years.

Meraki Dashboard is great overall. I can tell you more about what makes the GUI so friendly and how the live monitoring feature stands out for me. In other products, for example, if you have used a UTM, it is not user-friendly. With Meraki Dashboard, if I need to restart a switch, I go to Meraki Dashboard, open the dashboard, go to the site and switches, and simply select the switch. I can restart the switch from Meraki Dashboard very easily. I would rate this product a 9 out of 10.

The main use case is to manage access points and security devices.

My favorite features about Meraki Dashboard are the insight it gives and the easy troubleshooting.

Having everything in Meraki Dashboard, I am able to see everything in one window pane. This helps us tremendously because everything is organized in one place, making it very collaborative and connected.

End-to-end visibility from Cisco affects my organization's troubleshooting capabilities by being very intuitive. It gives me insight, and everything is laid out right there. I do not have to dig in and search on my own in fifteen different places.

Meraki Dashboard has come a great long way and there is a ton of information, but with that ton of information, it becomes somewhat cumbersome and sometimes it is too much. When I am trying to find one or two specific things, I become inundated with twenty different things.

I have been in the industry for at least twenty-five years.

I have never experienced downtime, crashes, or performance issues with the stability and reliability of Meraki Dashboard.

I have never used hybrid and distributed enterprise networks, so I have not faced any specific challenges that Cisco addresses.

I rarely ever have to use tech support, which is good. When I do have to use them, they are excellent.

Prior to adopting Meraki Dashboard, we were using a different vendor. I forget the name, but it was horrible. When we went to Meraki Dashboard, we were so happy we were jumping up and down.

The process of setting up cost and licensing was not quick. It was pretty clunky and it was a challenge.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it is very expensive, but I think since I do not have to pay for it, that is acceptable. It is a rock-solid system.

When picking Meraki Dashboard, we considered other vendors under the Cisco umbrella. I think Aironet was one option. I forget the other vendor and product, but we went with Meraki Dashboard.

I have been using Meraki Dashboard with my company for over eight years. My overall review rating for this product is eight.

Access points, firewalls, and load balancing is my main use case for Meraki Dashboard in my usage.

I don't have specific handy names. Meraki Dashboard uses multiple functions where we can configure SSIDs, firewall policies, DHCP, multiple VLANs and DHCP configurations, VLAN configurations, access control policies, MAC binding, client access based on MAC authentication and certificate-based authentication. We have configured SSO for Windows Active Directory by configuring the RADIUS services. We have implemented many customer requirements in Meraki Dashboard.

With the detailed visibility feature of Meraki Dashboard, I get connected clients information, including how much data each client downloaded and what applications they accessed. I can obtain detailed data including ISP links level monitoring and speed. I can perform speed tests, generate analytics reports, convert to Excel based on each user for each department, create dashboards, monitor and limit bandwidths, and restrict specific URLs.

The advanced security configuration in Meraki Dashboard is useful for network security. Substantial security can be achieved within Meraki Dashboard itself, eliminating the need for additional firewalls to protect your network. You can configure WAN monitoring, users' ACLs, URL filtering, web filtering, and department-wise access configuration for specific client applications. It's completely cloud-managed, and in a simplified way, you don't need to visit any physical infrastructure to monitor activities. Apart from access points, everything is in the cloud. We have monitored IoT solutions, CCTV monitoring, and can detect and control intrusions. When people connect IoT devices to your network, Meraki Dashboard can detect what device it is and control those access controls, even with different operating systems.

Improving the AI capabilities would be beneficial as the machine should learn more extensively.

The future is AI-driven. Network availability is crucial based on machine understanding, so the machine should learn to that extent. Improving AI could be a significant role-changer for many aspects.

Scalability has some limitations as they are not enterprise-ready, and large hyper-scale networks may not be possible on Meraki Dashboard. It needs to be a physical network.

I have been using it for seven years, starting in 2019.

They are instantly available for technical support from Meraki Dashboard, which deserves a rating of 10.

Positive

For people who understand technology, the initial setup for Meraki Dashboard isn't really complicated. For beginners and intermediate users, there may be some misunderstanding because there's no sequence guide from Meraki Dashboard. You have to configure a firewall, create a network, and then a controller before configuring access points. The access points should be available on a DHCP network, so you have to check whether they have allowed the specific VLAN DHCP and open internet to be available. This level of education may not be available for beginners and intermediate technical teams.

I have used analytic functions in Meraki Dashboard.

This dashboard is sufficient for obtaining maximum data output. If anybody needs ready-made analysis generation, we usually generate the logs from Meraki Dashboard and provide them for SIEM tools and SOAR. Currently, it's not only for security monitoring and analysis but also for generating business ideas from this analysis. For that level of business analysis, Meraki Dashboard might not be sufficient. However, for company security purposes, the available dashboard is adequate for understanding the company's security perspective.

Their scheduled times are usually late at night. Their built-in AI monitors the network, and in a recent use case, when the actual scheduled firmware upgrade was at 3:00 a.m. but there was backup activity ongoing, the AI tool rescheduled to a different time automatically.

Port level monitoring, configuration, and ACLs can be configured through Meraki Dashboard as a centralized interface to manage all network components.

I rate the stability of Meraki Dashboard a 10.

I don't have direct comparisons, but Meraki Dashboard is treated as an enterprise-grade wireless cloud-based controller solution, while HP Aruba Instant On is not enterprise grade and has limitations. They are the leaders in cloud-based networks today.

My final rating for Meraki Dashboard is 10 out of 10, and I recommend it to other users.

We are using Meraki Dashboard for network infrastructure management. We have integrated it with Cisco devices such as Cisco HyperFlex systems and Cisco servers. Our entire Wi-Fi solution is using Cisco products.

Meraki Dashboard has provided us with a centralized solution for network management, allowing automatic updates of firmware or patches. It is very user-friendly, reducing technical challenges and making it easier to manage our infrastructure for better integration.

Meraki Dashboard offers an exceptional centralized management solution that allows easy updates and monitoring of various network features, including bandwidth usage and content filtering. It generates detailed reports on a daily or monthly basis and consolidates all network logs in one place that can be accessed easily.

There is a need for price reductions in developing countries, as the cost of Meraki is quite high. 

Additionally, it would be beneficial if Meraki Dashboard could integrate more Cisco devices such as Cisco Firepower and routers.

I have been using the Meraki Dashboard for five or six years.

We have not encountered any downtime related to the Meraki cloud feature in the last five years. However, downtime may occur if there are DNS or internet connectivity issues.

Meraki technical support is reasonably good, yet not excellent. The support response time can be slow, sometimes taking up to fifteen hours. Support often comes in the form of knowledge bases or documentation rather than direct assistance.

Neutral

We previously used Sophos XGS. The performance decreased with an increase in concurrent users, hence we switched to Cisco Firepower for managing a larger number of users both on-premises and in the cloud.

The initial setup of Meraki Dashboard is user-friendly and not very complicated. There is support available for any needed changes or updates.

The cost of the Meraki solution is high, which may not be affordable for smaller companies, especially in developing countries.

Mist and UniFi are considered competitors to Meraki Dashboard.

I rate Meraki Dashboard a seven out of ten overall. 

It is suited for medium to large enterprises, not small businesses, due to its cost.

We manage Meraki Dashboard, using the dashboard to have greater visibility into what happens with our Meraki environment, who is actually using the solution, whether we have any problems, and what the common usage is. It is primarily for management purposes.

Currently, we are investigating the ability to track device movement and other capabilities. It appears very promising, but we are not fully implemented yet. We have just started looking into the depth of this solution. We think it is good, but we have not tested it extensively yet.

We are using the analytics to understand our network, how it is being used, where we have bottlenecks, and if we encounter problems, what the reasons are for these issues.

We have used an integrator for implementation. We also needed to use support, but eventually, we got it running, though it took some time.

For us, it serves as a single pane of glass. It summarizes everything in one place, which is very important for our organization.

The aspect I find challenging about this solution is that it is too extensive and complex. For example, when comparing Meraki Dashboard to Juniper Mist, the latter is quite simple. Mist is a very advanced, technological solution, but it is very straightforward. It provides many insights out of the box without any need to search for them. While the visibility in Meraki Dashboard is good, the solution is too heavy and complex.

We have been working with this solution for approximately 6 months.

The deployment process was complex.

I cannot personally rate it as my team members were involved with the support. I am aware that the support is good, but I did not experience it myself. One of my team members handled support interactions. The support was adequate - not exceptional but satisfactory.

Positive

We work with Meraki Dashboard and Umbrella as well.

For this deployment, we implemented it directly. We are working with Meraki Dashboard and consider it a very good solution. We are expanding its use.

We manage the access points and switches as well.

Everything Meraki is expensive. Everything Cisco is expensive, so consequently, everything Meraki is expensive as well. We recently purchased three additional solutions from Meraki, which were extremely expensive for us. However, we proceeded with the purchase because we also have other Meraki solutions.

I can serve as a reference for Cisco as we use other Cisco solutions.

On a rating scale, I would give this solution at least eight out of ten.

Our brand partner is using it. We are their franchise here in Saudi Arabia, but we also control it from their side.

The connectivity, including VIP connectivity solutions, and easy access, are valuable features.

All of the features we are looking for are already in control. I think those features, which we are not currently utilizing, are already there. For example, the control for the cameras and everything else. The cameras are not connected through Meraki, but all other devices are on Meraki networks.

I believe we have been using it for six to twelve years right now.

The support is on time. If we require any support, for example, when our devices malfunction, we get immediate replacements. It's not a problem. The hardware support is available, and if Meraki itself fails, we receive an immediate replacement solution. If there are any bugs or concerns raised, we get immediate support from Meraki. It's not a problem.

Neutral

I didn't see most companies in Saudi Arabia using Meraki. I believe, other than government agencies or companies, our fashion retail was the first to launch here in our region. Before that, maybe there were more, but I could not figure out how other companies were using it. Companies tended not to go with Cisco, though.

Pricing is good because we are directly getting it from Meraki. If we involve a third-party vendor, the price will definitely go up. The price which they provided us is reasonable.

Our sister companies already picked up the solution. We are working with Inditex, and there was another company from France, Decathlon. They were already using Meraki, but here in Saudi Arabia, they wanted to implement another solution. We advised them to use Meraki, so they also use the same.

It was very easy and fantastic. The overall product rating is ten out of ten.

I find it pretty straightforward and easy to use, especially compared to old, traditional methods.

The most valuable feature for me is the cloud dashboard. Overall, it is just the ease of access to the information.

In general, how I add firewall rules is not great. It is just a little bit too simple the way it is right now.

I have used the solution for probably about eight years.

I find the customer service very good. They are very good.

Neutral

I have not really used other solutions. I use Meraki and Aruba, mainly via Aruba Central. I have dealt with everything, the full end-to-end with either brand. I have worked with Meraki from tiny companies to massive multinationals.

I found the initial setup very simple.

We also considered Aruba Rockets. My company has a fantastic price on Meraki, so that helps.

I could recommend the Meraki Dashboard to other users. 

I rate it an eight out of ten.

I use Meraki Dashboard to manage our Cisco Meraki devices. It is where I handle the setup and configuration of wireless networks, security settings, and more. The real-time monitoring helps me keep an eye on the network's performance, making troubleshooting and issue resolution a breeze.

What I love most about the Meraki Dashboard are its user-friendly features. Configuring wireless networks is a breeze, and troubleshooting is made easy with insights into RF parameters and roaming issues. The simplicity of the dashboard makes configuration a quick task, and the ability to perform packet captures is a game-changer for in-depth troubleshooting. Overall, it is a go-to solution for efficiently managing and monitoring our network.

One area that could use improvement in the Meraki Dashboard is user-friendliness when navigating to port configurations. While it is functional, the process could be more intuitive and straightforward. After using it for three years, I find that the user interface for configuring ports might benefit from some enhancements to make it more user-friendly and efficient. Clarifying the GUI and simplifying the settings would be a great step forward in improving the overall experience in managing switch configurations.

I have been using Meraki Dashboard for three years.

I would rate the stability of the solution as a ten out of ten.

I would rate the scalability of the solution as a nine out of ten. We have approximately 20 users at our company.

We switched from Cisco Prime to Meraki due to continuous improvement, better features, and enhanced integration capabilities. Meraki's dynamic approach aligns well with our need for ongoing advancements and scalability. Unlike the appliance-based nature of Cisco Prime, Meraki offers easier deployment, making it more cost-effective and adaptable to evolving technologies.

I would rate the easiness of the initial setup as an eight out of ten. The time it takes to deploy the Meraki solution can vary, but it is generally quicker than traditional setups.  It takes about a day to deploy it. For a full integration of the Meraki solution, typically two people are needed.

Meraki Dashboard is fairly priced. It is not too expensive.

Overall, I would rate Meraki Dashboard as an eight out of ten. It is a great solution but could use slight improvement.

We use Meraki Dashboard to manage our wireless networks, and we will soon use it for the wired portion, too. We're talking with Cisco and some of their partners about doing full Ethernet and security, as well. We have about 1,500 users.

We don't have to manually update all the Meraki devices individually. Without Meraki Dashboard, we would have to manually update all the operating systems and do the testing when we deploy switches. Meraki Dashboard handles all of that. It has reduced our overhead and admin costs. 

You need to configure multiple devices if you want to introduce something new to your network, and that could potentially break something in the network. We have fewer configuration errors because the Meraki portal will tell you if you've done something wrong. If you were to make the same mistake on a Catalyst switch, it would accept the configuration whether it was wrong or not. It's far easier to avoid mistakes on the Meraki Dashboard. 

We like how Meraki Dashboard lets you manage all the devices in a single pane of glass. The dashboard is intuitive and easy to use. They are constantly updating the functionality. Switches from other vendors have the same features for the life of the device, but Meraki is always improving.

We're refreshing our networks and looking at the new Meraki MX250 firewall, one of the higher-end security devices. We're happy with what the devices can do, but they lack a few features found on older firewalls or competing products.

For instance, you should be able to see if something has been blocked by a firewall rule by looking at a live log of traffic moving through the device. It helps you troubleshoot issues and understand if your rules are working. You need to ensure the firewall is blocking the right things. 

That's unavailable in the Meraki Dashboard. You have to send the logs to a log server. We use SolarWinds locally, but it's not natively built into Meraki. We're also using Cisco ISA and another tool called Smoothwall. 

I've been working with Meraki Dashboard for maybe about eighteen months now.

We've never experienced an outage. If we ever lose internet connectivity, it will likely be an ISP problem, and any devices connected to Meraki Dashboard will keep working. 

Scaling isn't a problem. Meraki Dashboard can scale beyond what we will ever need. We're happy with that. 

I'm happy with Meraki support. I opened one ticket to ask about something I didn't understand. Meraki support resolved the issue quickly. I received a nice phone call from the Meraki support team. 

Deploying Meraki Dashboard isn't simple for us because we have a complex environment. The larger MX devices are at the main campus building, and there are branch sites with other MX devices on the branches. 

The VPN is simple to set up because it's automated. There's a drop-down menu, and you select the devices you want to connect. You don't need to configure things like encryption or tunnels. Normally, I manage and configure the on-site routers individually, but I don't have to do that with Meraki. It's all automated. 

All of the equipment is on-prem, but the Meraki Dashboard management interface is up in the cloud. 

I rate Meraki Dashboard seven out of 10 for affordability. We get the best price from our partner who works directly with Meraki. The subscription is expensive, but you have to factor in the total cost of ownership. We expect to have the solution for five or six years. We will reduce admin costs because we spend less time on it, and the alternative was Cisco Catalyst or DNA Centers, which are also expensive. We wanted to stick with Cisco either way. 

Our board of directors is pleased with it. While it is expensive, we will recover some of those management costs. It reduces the amount of time we spend on network management, freeing up some of our staff to do other things. We can allocate more people to the service desk or downsize.  

We looked at other options, but they didn't match Meraki's ease of use. We didn't look at all the vendors because we're primarily a Cisco shop, and we had already invested in the Meraki platform for our wireless. We were happy with the Meraki, so we didn't feel the need to look at anything else. 

I rate Meraki Dashboard nine out of 10. 

You can control your access points through the current Meraki dashboard. You can also run Cisco switches through the solution if you design your network that way. I've used them in a school environment before with Meraki Access Points. We were handling several students accessing Chromebooks to get to their assignments. An MX400 was being utilized, and it worked really well.

You can help shape the traffic if you have a single point location where you can go and get information on the equipment, including how it's doing and what its bandwidth utilization is. There are some whitelist blacklist capabilities in the MX dashboard, which is very helpful.

Meraki Dashboard's pricing could be improved. Price has become a very real issue in our economy right now. Any product is worth considering if it can help you save some money and still get quality equipment.

Meraki Dashboard could do a little better in the planning stage regarding heat map creation. Once the solution is deployed, you can utilize a heat map capability within Meraki, which is pretty good. However, the pre planning stage is very difficult because you'd have to get a third-party vendor and get their software.

I have been using Meraki Dashboard for about ten years.

I rate Meraki Dashboard a seven out of ten for stability.

Meraki Dashboard is a very scalable solution.

I rate Meraki Dashboard an eight out of ten for scalability.

I rate Meraki Dashboard a six out of ten for the ease of its initial setup.

Meraki Dashboard's deployment does not take that long. The solution is deployed on a hybrid cloud in our organization. We have an MX400 control head, which acts as a traffic-shaping firewall-type device control unit. However, the dashboard itself is in the cloud.

Like UniFi or Aruba, you can cloud anywhere as long as you've got that address. You could be 1,000 miles away and still check in and see how your network is doing. You can also do some troubleshooting through the network configuration. The solution is deployed on whatever cloud provider Cisco has.

It took only one person to maintain the solution in a school environment with 18 access points.

I use the most up-to-date version of Meraki Dashboard.

Meraki Dashboard was the monitoring product that came with the access points from Meraki. So I haven't used a different product for a different device.

If Cisco could come down on their pricing and UniFi could come up a bit on their support, these two products would be neck and neck all the way.

Overall, I rate Meraki Dashboard an eight out of ten.