Manage an entire network from a single remote point.
First, let’s cover the name. “Meraki” sounds like a cooking technique, like Japanese teriyaki. Meraki is actually a Greek word that means to do something with heart or passion—sure, you could apply that to cooking too.
Cisco recently acquired the company, Meraki, in November of 2012. This soulful additional to Cisco’s portfolio has produced the Cisco Meraki line of cloud-managed devices, including an incredible line of switches. These switches are unlike anything else on the market.
Features Available on Cisco Meraki MS Switches
- Cloud-based management for remote administration
- Gigabit and 10-gigabit Ethernet ports, plus SFP interfaces
- PoE and PoE+ outputs to power mission critical IP devices
- Text and email alerts of power loss, downtime or configuration changes
- Real-time control through high-speed, layer 3 access*
- Layer 7 reporting of data usage by applications and users
- Virtual stacking of thousands of ports from many switches
- Optional redundant power supplies**
* not available on MS220 series
** not available on MS220-8 models
Benefits of Cloud Management
Cisco Meraki MS switches are the world’s first cloud-manageable gigabit switches. They are available in several models and configurations. The MS220 line features layer 2 access, MS320 features layer 3 access, and MS420 features 10-gigabit Ethernet ports—the differences are more than that, but those are a few of the highlights.
What unites all of these models is the management system. Virtually stack all of the ports on your Cisco Meraki switches and manage them from a single interface. The interface could be on a PC or a mobile device, either on the premise or from a remote location.
These switches allow you to bring the benefits of the cloud to businesses and enterprises. Take advantage of unified configuration and monitoring of the switches, letting your organization reduce IT costs and travel expenses. Deploy the MS220 and MS320 switches in remote offices, while the MS420 switches are ideal for distributing resources in enterprises and campuses.
Alerts and Layer 7 Reporting
With so many switches connected to one cloud-based management system, it might sound overwhelming for one person to be administrating everything.
The Cisco Meraki MS switches can issue email or SMS text notifications during an event, such as power failures and service interruptions, or if port configurations are altered. Integrated troubleshooting tools can detect cable failures and diagnose other problems in real time.
Monitor traffic through the switch’s customized Layer 7-based operating system. What Layer 7 allows is for administrators to view highly detailed reports about data usage, including which websites or applications are accessed most frequently, what each user is doing with their access permissions, and so on. Reports are displayed as highly readable graphs and charts, with an incredible amount of data available.
Cisco Meraki MS switches are available in a variety of models to suite every kind of deployment type. Each one is a dynamic switching solution built to cut your business’ IT expenses, while also allowing access to an incredible alert and data usage reporting system. The gigabit-speed Ethernet ports with diagnostic tools, voice and video QoS, and PoE support only further these switches’ high-performance operating quality. Licensing is required to connect the switches to the cloud-based service.