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News

January 29, 2021


End of Sale Announcement - MR Access Points

Cisco Meraki is announcing the upcoming end-of-sale for the following products:
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The following products, which are functionally equivalent, will replace the above products:

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We expect to be accepting final orders for this product through July 21st, 2021. However, the final date will depend on the availability of stock and, at Cisco Meraki's discretion, the actual end-of-sale date may be earlier than July 21st, 2021. End-of-Support date for this product will be July 21st, 2026.

Definitions

  • End-of-Sales Announcement (this document): Official end-of-sales notice
  • End-of-Sales Date: The last date to order the product through Cisco Meraki point-of-sales outlets. After this date, the product is no longer for sale via any channel. This includes Trial Conversions.
  • End-of-Support Date: The last date a product will be supported by Cisco Meraki, typically five years from the End-of-Sales Date

End-of-Sale Milestones

  • End-of-Sales Announcement: January 27th, 2021
  • End-of-Sales Date: July 21st, 2021
  • End-of-Support Date: July 21st, 2026
September 29, 2020


End of Sale Announcement - VMX100

Cisco Meraki is announcing the upcoming end-of-sale for the following products:

They have been replaced with the following products which are functionally equivalent:

 

They expect to be accepting final orders for this product through December 22nd, 2020. However, the final date will depend on the availability of stock and, at Cisco Meraki's discretion, the actual end-of-sale date may be earlier than December 22nd, 2020. End-of-Support date for this product will be December 22nd, 2027.

August 26, 2020


End of Sale Announcement - MR55

Cisco Meraki is announcing the upcoming end-of-sale for the following products:

MR55_490.png

They expect to be accepting final orders for this product through August 25th, 2020. However, the final date will depend on the availability of stock and, at Cisco Meraki's discretion, the actual end-of-sale date may be earlier than August 25th, 2020. End-of-Support date for this product will be August 25th, 2027

Definitions

  • End-of-Sales Announcement (this document): Official end-of-sales notice
  • End-of-Sales Date: The last date to order the product through Cisco Meraki point-of-sales outlets. After this date, the product is no longer for sale via any channel. This includes Trial Conversions.
  • End-of-Support Date: The last date a product will be supported by Cisco Meraki, typically seven years from the End-of-Sales Date


End-of-Sale Milestones

  • End-of-Sales Announcement: August 25th, 2020
  • End-of-Sales Date: August 25th, 2020
  • End-of-Support Date: August 25th, 2027
March 23, 2020


COVID-19 REMOTE WORKING SOLUTIONS

Companies are having employees working from home due to Coronavirus mandatory shut downs so to help them keep their networks secure use the Cisco Meraki's Z-Series which is a teleworker gateway that is an enterprise-class firewall, VPN gateway, and router. 

Meraki Z3 Teleworker Device Deployment

    • Hardware VPN option for remote workers
    • Meraki can drop-ship the Z3 to the teleworker's house.
    • Once connected it would Auto-VPN back to HQ Meraki MX appliance through either the wireless SSID or hardwired LAN Ports.
    • POE port to hardwire their Cisco phone (or 3rd party phone)
    • Ability to Monitor Staff Productivity at Home
    • Secure VPN with Umbrella through HQ MX
    • Zero Touch provisioning through dashboard
    • Ability to block & stifle bandwidth on non-business critical apps

 

 

The Meraki MR30H WAP is also a cheap and viable solution to offer a secure connection back to head office via a WiFi connected device in the home. With the addition of the MR Advanced Licence, secure VPN with the protection of Cisco Umbrella at the end point is automatic.

 

Sign up for a Webinar here to find out more about these solutions and get a free device!

 

Cisco is also offering Free 90-day Webex Licenses  - sign up here.

February 14, 2020


Cisco Meraki and Umbrella Integration - MR Advanced/Upgrade Licence

There are two ways that the Cisco Umbrella DNS service can be integrated with a Cisco Meraki network. 

1) Meraki MX Integration with an existing (or new) Cisco Umbrella DNS subscription 

2) Meraki MR Advanced + Upgrade Licences with Cisco Umbrella integration 

1) Meraki MX

Integrating the Meraki dashboard and Umbrella DNS allows clients connected behind Meraki security appliances or access points to have their DNS traffic filtered through Cisco's Umbrella DNS service. 

This integration allows administrators to easily apply and modify DNS-based filtering rules to multiple groups of clients on their network by simply assigning a filtering policy to a specific Meraki group policy or SSID.

Once assigned, all DNS requests from clients included under that policy will be automatically redirected to Cisco's Umbrella DNS service where it will be checked against the appropriate policy configured for the Network Device in the Umbrella dashboard.

There are specific instructions on how to Integrate the MX with an Umbrella subscription and this requires a specific firmware version on the MX.  For more information see you can read about it here.

Reach out to us if you'd like a quote for a Cisco Umbrella Subscription that you can use with your Meraki MX Security Appliance, its a relatively inexpensive way to easily improve the security of your network and a must have in today's world!

2) Meraki MR 

The Meraki MR Advanced + Upgrade Licenses with Cisco Umbrella integration enables Meraki administrators to assign predefined Umbrella content filtering and security policies to an SSID or Group Policy directly from the dashboard and removes the need to integrate with an existing Umbrella dashboard or Umbrella account.

Once Umbrella policies are assigned, all DNS requests from wireless clients will be intercepted by the upstream MR access point and redirected to Cisco's Umbrella DNS resolvers for evaluation. That DNS lookup either resolves successfully, allowing the client to connect to the requested web page, or gets blocked which redirects the client to an Umbrella block page.

In order to use the new MR Advanced & Upgrade Licence Umbrella integration the following prerequisites have to be met:

  • The organisation where the integration will be used must have the Meraki Per-Device Licensing (PDL) model enabled. 

  • Each network using the integration must have a valid MR Advanced or MR Upgrade + device (Enterprise) licence assigned for every access point.

  • All access points in the dashboard network must be running MR 26.1+ firmware.

There are two types of MR licences that can enable the Meraki Umbrella integration: MR Advanced and MR Upgrade licence. 

  • The MR Advanced licence includes a device (Enterprise) licence for an MR access point itself in addition to the Umbrella add-on licence which enables Umbrella functionality on that access point. This licence is generally purchased for licensing a new MR access point that does not already have a licence.
  • The MR Upgrade licence is considered an add-on licence and enables Umbrella functionality only. It can only be assigned to MR access points with an active device (Enterprise) licence. This licence is generally purchased for MR access points that already have a basic enterprise licence (not enabled for Umbrella).
    January 31, 2020


    Meraki releases MG Cellular Gateway to much applause!

    What is it?

    The MG Cellular Gateway is a brand new Meraki product line that takes a cellular signal and transforms it into a wired Ethernet connection that can then be propagated down to the rest of a network via a router.

    Cellular is growing

    Cellular usage as a viable enterprise-grade connectivity option has been steadily growing with advances in throughput and availability in particular. 

    So there’s obvious an appetite in cellular products, but in what scenario would an MG cellular gateway be useful?

    Cellular signal strength

    One of the biggest challenges with utilising cellular connectivity is getting the signal itself to where it’s needed. For most enterprises, geographical cellular coverage is not the issue. The challenge is usually with signal strength where the networking equipment is located. More often than not, this tends to be a network closet or server room deep inside a building, where cellular reception is likely to be poor or sporadic at best.

    Antennas from cellular devices in a closet or server room can be extended to a location with better signal using a coaxial cable, however this is only practical over short distances. Coaxial cables are susceptible to high signal loss, making them unsuitable to transport a cellular signal over all but short distances.

    Meraki MG cellular gateways are IP67 rated, meaning they can be optimally positioned, indoors or outdoors, to receive maximum signal strength. Cellular signal from MGs is delivered to the rest of the network via an Ethernet cable which experiences zero signal loss even over larger distances. Ethernet delivery also means that MG can be paired with any router on the market downstream to provide another uplink for SD-WAN or as a failover/primary link.

    As you would expect with a Meraki product, MG is supremely simple, and of course managed from the same dashboard as the rest of the Meraki portfolio.

    Please contact us for a quote or order online here!

     

     

     

    January 31, 2020


    The New Meraki PER DEVICE Licensing model

    Meraki has just released an optional way of licensing their products called PER DEVICE Licensing. 

    The existing (and still available) Dashboard co-term model with one simple expiration date didn’t quite work for customers with conflicting budgeting processes, varying grants or site billing, or other accounting (non-networking) requirements. 

    To address this, the optional PER DEVICE Licensing model offers the ultimate flexibility for licensing and offers a suite of new, exclusive features not offered on the co-term model:

    • Licence Devices Individually: Assign a license to a specific device (MR, MS, MX, MV, MG) or a network (in the case of vMX and SM licenses) and maintain a shared expiration date or separate expiration dates across devices, networks, or organizations.
    • Partial Renewals: Enjoy the ability to renew all your devices or a subset of devices, as you prefer. 
    • Move Licences Between Orgs: Org Admins (Read/Write) on multiple organizations are able to move a licence (or licences & devices together) between those organisations without calling Meraki support. This functionality is available through the dashboard and APIs. 
    • 90 Day Licence Activation Window: You will have up to 90 days to claim and assign your licenses before they activate – giving you more lead time to deploy Meraki products.
    • APIs: APIs are available to claim, assign and move licenses. This will allow a greater level of automation and the ability to integrate with other systems. 
    • Individual Device Shutdowns: If a license expires on a device, only that individual device or product will shut down (after the 30 grace period). 

    Please reach out to us for more information and a quote if you would like to move to PER DEVICE licensing.