October 6, 2017
One of the biggest challenges in the technology industry is keeping up with the constant state of change. Every day there seems to be a new solution or a new start up that builds upon the innovations of the last newest product. For that reason, we like to use this blog to spread the word about acquisitions, product releases, mergers, and major happenings in the IT industry.
New Cisco Meraki Products and Programs
NEW MX Security Appliances
Beyond wireless, cloud-managed networking hardware, Meraki also offers cloud-managed security appliances as well. Their MX series includes a wide ranges of security features, such as:
- Next-Gen Firewall
- Intrusion Prevention
- Cloud-Brokered VPN
- Content Filtering
- Malware Protection
- High Availability
In September, Meraki announced the release of two new appliances in their MX series, the MX250 and MX450. Both appliances are designed to meet the needs of large campus and branch deployments with 10G WAN interfaces. The main difference between them is scale. The MX250 has a capacity of up to 2,000 clients, while the MX450 can service up to 10,000.
NEW Systems Manager Features
Meraki Systems Manager is a network monitoring, security, and administration application for wireless networks. Specifically, it monitors and applies security policies to the various endpoints utilizing the network. September saw several useful new features to the applications.
- Do Not Disturb Mode: This allows an administrator to prevent Systems Manager from issuing an application update during certain periods of the day. The user can still download apps manually if they so choose, but no automatic updates from Systems Manager can occur. This can be useful to prevent school devices from updating while in use during the school day or community devices to be updated during the business day.
- Apple TV: Systems manager can now support Apple TV Devices.
Meraki Z3 Teleworker Gateway
The Z3 teleworker gateway is a combination of a router, enterprise-class firewall, and VPN gateway. The series began with the Z1, and now with the Z3 we see significant improvement in the WiFi capabilities of the device. The Z3 now has a full 802.11ac Wave 2 antenna. It allows users to take their full Meraki network anywhere they like.
Meraki Virtual MX100 for Amazon web Services and Microsoft Azure
Meraki vMX is a virtual version of the Meraki appliance that has been designed specifically to function with VPN connections to AWS or Microsoft Azure. It can support up to 500 Mbps of VPN throughput and provide all the bandwidth you might need for your direct connection.
NEW Meraki Community
Towards the end of September, Meraki announced the launch of a new community on their website. This forum will serve as a social hub for Meraki customers to discuss all things Meraki. Whether it is specific configurations of their devices, pictures of their infrastructure, or strategy around the products, this community will prove an excellent place to learn from other customers with hands on experience.
Furthermore, the forum has a leaderboard function which tracks participation, and Meraki has teased that they could be giving away SWAG to top contributors.
NEW Meraki Switches Announced
The bread and butter of Cisco Meraki products has long been their MS series of switches. Last month, Meraki announced a new series of switches to be released this fall. The MS120 will stand as a next generation of the MS220 series.
Keeping Up with Meraki
Like many other technology companies, Meraki is always on the move refining their products. In just one month, they added new features, released new hardware, and announced the next hardware already on its way. When the Meraki MS120 switches hit the market, make sure to check back with the Mindsight blog for the details.
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