Meraki MS Switches Reviews

We typically use the solution at the client site. 

All switching technologies are pretty much the same. The best thing I could say is that I like how I can see everything on one dashboard along with the access point in MX. I prefer how you see everything in the dashboard easily, with no command-line interface. It makes it easy to check in to Meraki and easy to configure.

They're easy to update. Everything seems to be stable with Meraki switches the last couple of years.

We support clients and we do a lot of stuff remotely, and we can easily see everything remotely. You don't need to be a network engineer to support Meraki.

The setup is easy. It's pretty plug-and-play.

A while back, there were some update problems.

Pricing is higher than other options.

Technical support hold times seem to be getting longer. 

I've been working with the solution for about four or five years or so. It's been a while. 

The stability of the solution is very good. Currently, there are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable and the performance is good. 

The solution is scalable, however, it depends on which model you buy. We usually buy one that's stackable, in case we need to add more. We can easily stack them when we need to expand.

You don't need to be a network engineer to support Meraki. We often support our clients and can do it remotely, which is helpful.

Technical support directly from Meraki is very friendly and they are knowledgeable folks. As of late, however, since maybe the last year or so ago, the hold time seems a bit longer. That said, the support personnel, the knowledge, it's all top-notch to me. It's just the time being on hold, it's getting longer and longer.

The initial setup is not difficult or complex. We find it to be very, very easy. A company shouldn't have any issues with the initial setup.

While the pricing is a bit high and a bit of a drawback, its ease of use makes the price almost worth it.

I'm a consultant. 

If you don't have a dedicated network engineer, I would highly recommend Meraki.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. The switch is great. The price, however, is a bit high.

I am a customer of Meraki. 

A good feature of Meraki is that you can access a single pane of glass and you can configure all the devices via the same access and just change the menus.

This product doesn't enable a local configuration without internet access. If you compare this product to Fortinet the granularity of blocks that you can do related to the firewall and reports that you can deliver and control about blocking all access on Fortinet is more than Meraki. And when you talk about number of WANs that you can put on the device, Meraki can have only two WANs and when you have Fortinet you can have at least six sources of WAN.

I rate this solution a 10 out of 10. 

We provide Meraki Switches to schools, universities, and hospitals.

We find value in its ability to enable cloud management and visibility. They are also easy to deploy. It's very convenient because you can see who is accessing, what type of UI system they're using, what applications they're using, the bandwidth, and more. Management is also easy as you can access and manage the switches from anywhere. As it's managed on the cloud, we can support customers remotely if there's a problem.

Their subscription model could be better. Some of our customers prefer a one-time payment to a monthly or yearly subscription model, so they don't buy the product. Technical support could also be better.

We have been dealing with Meraki MS Switches for about four years.

It's a stable product.

Meraki MS Switches are scalable. 

Technical support could be better. Some support agents aren't adequately qualified to support us. Their technical skill needs to improve.

Meraki Switches have some advantages compared to others. For example, visibility, management, and auto device detection. 

The initial setup is simple. 

We provide installation and implementation services. Most of our customers use the warranty for maintenance.

It would be better if they had a one-time purchase option instead of a subscription model.

It's more suitable for medium-sized companies.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Meraki MS Switches a nine.

We are using the MS425 series. We like the ease of use, ease of administration, and central dashboard. Meraki also has fantastic documentation and community.

With its central dashboard, we can deploy a generic configuration across hundreds of switches, rather than doing it in the old school way where an individual or a group of engineers would log onto each device via CLI, which takes a long time. So, everything is connected.

It can have better security. It needs more security enhancements, and in particular, a zero-trust element. If we could have external and internal users vetted in the same way as a zero-trust network, that will be handy.

I have been using this solution for the last nine months.

It is probably not as scalable as Cisco Catalyst 9000 Series, which includes the 9200s, 9300s, and 9500s. Its security requirements aren't as strong as the Cisco DNA portfolio. 

Globally, we have about 3,000 users. We're on a five-year subscription. As and when the business requires more, we will increase its usage. We will no doubt adopt the same solution because that's our LAN standard now. It is the global standard.

We didn't need their support, but I do know that for any questions, they're normally very helpful. There are lots of configuration guidelines and best practice documentation. Meraki has fantastic documentation and community.

I'm currently trying out Cisco 9000 Series Catalyst Switches because this particular customer was stung by a ransomware attack. So, they're looking to lock down every single portion of the network, and they want everything to fall under the banner of a zero-trust network with lots of security tools, agents, and hosts.

It is very easy to install. You probably could get away with zero-touch provisioning or plug-and-play. All the profiles are pre-configured on the central dashboard, and then a non-technical person could be on-site and plug everything in based on how you've drawn things out in a topology drawing. After that, you just take the reins and just check, and that's it.

A lot of customers deploy it during LAN refresh. When Meraki came out, they were the best cloud-based access point. Everything was centrally managed through the central dashboard. It was a cloud-based wireless LAN controller. Then they started to infiltrate into the LAN switching arena. So basically, everyone wants a single pane to administer their network, and that's what you can get with Meraki. It is a single pane incorporating everything from switches to access points to even routers, which are MX SD-WAN.

I would recommend this solution if security is not paramount. If you're a secure industry or a technology company where you want a bit more security, it is probably not suitable for you. It is suitable if you're in retail or manufacturing where security isn't paramount.

I would rate Meraki MS Switches an eight out of ten because they're really easy to configure.

I had to provide solutions for a pharmaceutical company, where data plays a very important role. This is where testing takes place and security is critical, and they have a lot of security on-site. If you want to have more VLANs and so on, you can do it through a core switch.

It all depends on the customer's requirements. For example, if the customer uses SAP HANA, they will go for a new direct server. On the new direct server, you have an output of 10 GBs, and based on the output and the number of users, I provide the solution to the customer.

It also depends on the application. For example, in SAP HANA, it'll depend on all the customer's modules, how many servers will make a Nutanix server, for example, 12 to 16 servers, and the number of users. 

The cloud part of Meraki Switches is very good. They also have a good GUI. It's a complete solution. I like the switching and the monitoring part.

The throughputs, especially the throughput path, can be improved on the core switches. I think they should improve the throughput in the core switches to enable higher throughputs. A little bit of training for customers like online training would definitely help us.

I provided a couple of Cisco Meraki solutions to clients last year. 

Meraki MS Switches are stable.

Meraki MS Switches are scalable.

Technical support is good. Our team is already certified in this area, and if anything critical happens, we try to log into their portal. If not, we'll have our own tech support handle it.

On the switching front, I have provided a lot of solutions on Juniper and also on HP Aruba.

The installation is not a problem at all. It takes about a day to configure all the systems.

We have about four or five people working with Meraki switches.

When you compare it to other switches like HP, Juniper, and Ruckus, Meraki MS Switches are cheaper.

I would recommend Meraki MS Switches. I like Cisco Meraki Switches, and I have friends who've been using them. They're a couple of system integrators who only use Meraki.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Meraki MS Switches a seven.

We primarily use the solution for switches for our clients.

The cloud management on the solution is very good.

The Wi-Fi 6 for access points is excellent.

The performance is pretty good.

We've found the initial setup very simple.

The stability of the solution is quite good.

The scalability potential of the solution is great.

Clients are very confused by technical support. They seem to have trouble reaching Meraki to get the assistance they need.

I'd prefer if they'd go for Layer 3 features. We do not have access to these yet. Aruba, for example, offers full Layer 3 features.

I've been using the solution for about a year at this point. It hasn't been too long just yet.

The solution is very stable. The performance is reliable. It doesn't have any bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash and freeze.

The scalability of the solution is rather good. If a company needs to scale, it can do so with ease.

We typically work with small and medium enterprises.

There isn't a convenient first-hand way to communicate with technical support right now. The tech support is mainly through Cisco - which is very quick typically. However, with Meraki, which is separate from Cisco, customers can only directly contact support through dashboard licenses and they can't open a case with Meraki effectively. They don't know how to reach the right people, and so they come to us, the distributors, to get answers. We need to advise them to go directly to Meraki technical support as we are not in a position to help them, and they tell us they can't, that Meraki is not available. 

Meraki needs to make their technical support policies and processes very clear and to communicate this to their clients so that their clients know how to reach out when there are issues. It shouldn't fall to us.

We did not previously work with other solutions, although we are looking at a few options now. We're considering something in two months or so.

The initial setup is not complex. It's very simple and easy to set up. It's straightforward.

The deployment and management are very easy.

The solution's pricing can be high on Cisco. There are options, such as Avaya, that can be a bit lower. The pricing of this solution isn't too bad.

We are a Cisco partner.

We primarily use the solution in our client companies. We don't use the solution ourselves.

I'd recommend this solution to smaller companies and enterprises. For larger-scale organizations, such as campuses, Cisco Catalyst may be better.

Overall, I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.

This solution is suited for the cookie factory just around the corner and up to including multinational organizations with locations spanning around the globe.

The solution is a switch and many of them do the same operations, it connects devices together.

In this solution, you are lacking a feature that Cisco Classic has that allows you to save your configuration with a serial cable.

In some deployments, I would like stacking to act like RAID 1 but not if you are updating the firmware of one switch in a stack. Stacking and switches with Meraki, they need to improve on this. I had a different experience with Extreme Networks which behave completely different.

I have been using the solution for approximately three years.

I have found the solution to be stable.

The solution is plug and play. If you want to upgrade, all you do is plug it in and it works.

In my experience, they sometimes reply with a proper answer and others they reply with, "You can always file the I wish button request" I am confused why an organization would push automatically scheduled release candidate firmware. They tend to be too pushy. After this, I have to look at every customer individually and cancel those updates, which does not make sense to me.

I have used Extreme Networks and Cisco products in the past, some of the features are better than this solution in Extreme Networks and Cisco's licenses will not expire like they do in this solution.

The setup was as easy as a setup can be, we had no issues.

The licensing element is not favourite with Meraki. My opinion is if you buy something, it should be yours, and not if the license expires, the lights go out, or you might not be able to manage it anymore. The licensing is purchased on a one, three, five, and seven year basis.

Switches are switches, they do what they say they do on the box. I do recommend this solution If you are looking for something easy, and do not mind having to renew your license or else you will not be able to manage it anymore. Then this solution could be a good fit. Cisco Classic 2900 Series and the likes, they just keep on going. Unless you really need support, that is extra, but at least functionality will not expire with the license.

I rate Meraki MS Switches an eight out of ten.

We are using these switches to provide internet access to our users. They connect the access points.

The dashboard and the interface, in general, are good features. We can work globally and anybody can log in from our web-based console to use it. Everything from switches to access points can be used from a single dashboard.

We had some dashboard licensing issues, maybe because their method of collecting data from the user needs to be more streamlined. It seems that they have collected information from the vendor, but perhaps there is not a proper SOP regarding this.

They collected some vague information that was registered and when it came to us, we found out that they didn't use our proper email address. As a result, licensing became an issue. It was only resolved after we contacted them and changed the details of the registration. Consequently, there was a long delay before we started using it.

When I registered the system in India, there was no problem. However, in the UAE, the vendors were not collecting and properly verifying the details. The need to streamline the licensing data collection process to fix this.

As a manufacturer, or OEM, they might be doing their part correctly, but the vendors might be losing the data. So, they need to be strict on their vendors to collect the information properly. Or, they need to at least contact the people, the end-users, and verify that it is correct. As it is now, they just depend on the vendors' data. Before they register it, they need to contact the customer directly with the data and verify it. Ideally, some kind of SOP should be there.

With no SOP in place, the question becomes one of what happens when Cisco takes the data from the vendor and registers the product, but doesn't verify it by contacting the customer. This can happen in cases where the vendor is in a hurry to sell the product. In fact, they might fill in bogus data and give it to Cisco. Then, once the customer gets the product and starts to configure it, they get the licensing issue like we did, which is the first step in the process. The fails only because the data given by the vendor is wrong, and it's not the fault of the customer.

If instead, Cisco verified the details with the customer again, once they receive the data, it would be better. As I suggest this, it might seem like a slow process, but in today's world, it is not. They can contact the customer directly, using the provided email or mobile number. They can call them, verify the details, and it will be good for both Cisco and the customer.

We have been using Meraki MS Switches for approximately six months.

It is pretty stable so far, but we really only just started using it so I may have more comments in another year or so.

Scalability is something that we'll determine in the long term. At this time, we have between 30 and 50 users. It can scale up to 60.

I have not yet dealt with technical support.

Previously, we used MR access points and we liked the user interface. We wanted to extend that to our switches. At the time, the switches were web-managed but they were not under the same dashboard. Switching to Cisco and Meraki brought everything together, from switches to access points, into a single dashboard.

I was involved in the installation and found that it was straightforward. The deployment took between one and a half and two hours, although we still had the problem with the licensing. That was a long wait.

Our deployment team consisted of three people. There was one person on-site, another in India, and one in the UK.

We are just about to do some configuration with these switches.

This product is quite expensive. The vendor might be cashing in on the dashboard because it's attractive, and nobody else is providing such a sophisticated dashboard. It has the IP, switches, routers, security cameras, and everything else included in one place. So, while the product is expensive, the features they provide are unmatchable.

This is a product that I recommend for others.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Our primary use case of Switches is for controlling and monitoring the clients. I'm a senior consultant and design engineer and we are partners of Meraki. 

A valuable feature is the console of the dashboard which is pretty integrated. It's also easy for the client to monitor their dashboard. 

I think the cameras should be better integrated so that clients can review real time images on the dashboard. That's a basic feature.

I've been using this solution for a year. 

It's a pretty stable solution and there was no difficulty integrating the products to one dashboard. 

The scalability of the solution is excellent. 

It's somewhat difficult to contact technical support, there are several manual steps involved. If you don't know the process, it can take time. 

The initial setup was not complex. 

I would rate this solution a 10 out of 10. 

We use it for general network switch purposes.

It is easy to set up and easy to monitor. It is also easy to check the status of the switch.

It would be great if the switch can identify the IP address connected to the network port. It seems most of the switches cannot identify the IP address. They can identify the MAC address but not the IP address.

I have been using this solution for almost one year.

It is pretty stable. We had only one issue related to the cooling fan, and they had to call the hardware back. We had to switch the hardware to fix the issue, and it took a while. That was the only issue we had.

In our company, we have about 400 users, but on this site, we have only 150 users.

We didn't need any kind of support, but I think the support is good.

We were using a Cisco switch. We switched to Meraki because of the monitoring capabilities. Meraki is on the cloud, so it is easier to monitor. It is also easier to check the status of the switch, which is a good thing for a network administrator.

The initial setup is really easy because everything is on the web. Most of the stuff has been implemented on the cloud. Once you receive the switch, you just connect to the cloud. There is no installation as such.

I would recommend this solution to others. This is a good product from my standpoint. We plan to continue using this solution.

I would rate Meraki MS Switches a nine out of ten.