The resumption of the normal working regime generates problems in two critical areas for any organization: WiFi infrastructure and cybersecurity requirements. Cisco Meraki products cover both needs simultaneously and offer additional SD-WAN functionality. Datanet specialists can help you capitalize on them, ensuring a good price/performance ratio by integrating with the existing infrastructure.

Cisco Meraki, a technological leader

 

The pandemic has increased the number of mobile employees, generating an overload in the WiFi infrastructure of organizations. On the other hand, mobility has expanded the attack surface of companies and the number of cybersecurity risks is increasing. Last but not least, most companies face financial challenges, with limited IT budgets.

In this context, Cisco Meraki products recommended by Datanet specialists are the best choice for small and medium-sized companies. The Cisco solution is not only affordable but also powerful, being the leader on the SD-WAN market for two consecutive years, according to Gartner quadrants in 2018 and 2019. However, Cisco Meraki is also notable for the many features that allow it to cover specific requirements and usage scenarios.

Manage your WiFi infrastructure more efficiently

 

Mobile employees are not only more numerous but also have higher requirements – they want more speed, performance, and availability. Traditional WiFi networks do not meet the new needs, the capacity of MPLS solutions being quickly exceeded.

Meraki helps you solve these challenges with the WiFi infrastructure you operate. For this, the Cisco solution automatically analyzes several indicators: the type of applications/services, the available bandwidths, latencies, etc. Then, by correlating the data and the quality parameters that must be observed in the delivery of each application/service, it establishes the optimal connection. Basically, Cisco Meraki combines MPLS solutions, broadband, and 4G connections from the WiFi infrastructure to deliver an optimal response. And it does this in real-time, dynamically adapting to traffic conditions and locations where accesses are made. This makes it more efficient to allocate resources from the WiFi infrastructure.

Last but not least, Cisco Meraki is designed to reduce your operational effort. For example, creating a site-to-site VPN connection is done quickly, with just a few clicks. Connectivity issues for users and applications can be fixed remotely. The centralized management console and real-time information delivered by dashboards allow you to act proactively in the WiFi infrastructure. You have extensive visibility into your network and applications – you know who uses them, what resources they consume – and you can prioritize them. The equipment offers “Zero Touch Provisioning” capabilities that allow the reuse of configuration models.

Benefit from pre-integrated cybersecurity

 

A second major advantage provided by Cisco Meraki is the cybersecurity features. Basically, when you buy Meraki equipment, you benefit from “bundled” features such as:

• Next-Generation Firewall. With Cisco Meraki, you can identify the users, content, and applications they are accessing. This allows you to assign traffic rules, VLAN tags, and bandwidth limitations to each end-user category. Each network stream is classified and has dedicated access control and prioritization rules. Access is allowed not only based on user categories, but also on terminal equipment classes. (For example, specific rules may apply to Android tablets used in BYOD mode.)
• Intrusion Detection systems. The integrated Intrusion Detection System (IDS) uses a combination of signatures, protocols, and anomaly detection/inspection methods. IDS works on the basis of predefined security rules, updated daily, which protect your critical resources in the WiFi infrastructure.
• Auto VPN. With the help of this cybersecurity feature, you can securely connect different workstations and access public cloud environments. Cisco Meraki provides a unique self-provisioning feature for VPN connections, eliminating manual configurations.
• Content filtering. Dynamically block access to web content (differentiated across over 80 web categories) and automatically filter billions of URLs.
• Advanced Malware Protection. Benefit from protection against advanced threats and identify those that are still unknown by retrospective detection. Cisco AMP, for example, uses a database of over 500 known threats, updated daily.

All these cybersecurity features are integrated into the solution and do not require additional purchases. Cisco-certified Datanet specialists can help you customize and integrate them into existing protection systems. For additional information and price offers please contact us at sales@datanets.ro.

(More information on how Cisco approaches SD-WAN technology can be found HERE.)