Planning a move to Meraki wireless

[CHTL-User]

My on-prem WLC is end of support and I'm planning a move to Meraki wireless in the new year.

Is there any easy comparison guide for the APs - i.e. what is the direct equivalent to an AIR-AP2802E-E-K9 in the Meraki world?

We will only use Meraki for wireless - do I only licence the APs? There was a concerning point in the comparison of licence types which said that in Co-term mode a single compliance issue could take down the whole organisation. We will eventually move to Meraki wireless in multiple sites worldwide. One missed renewal, can't stop the whole show. Should I convert to per device licencing and accept the extra work managing the licences?

We will get consultation but trying to do some research beforehand.

Thanks.

[RaphaelL]

We will only use Meraki for wireless - do I only licence the APs?  Yes.

One missed renewal, can't stop the whole show. Should I convert to per device licencing and accept the extra work managing the licences?  Yes , but there is a grace period with many warnings. That shouldn't be an issue. PDL is more work to manage indeed.

I think that the MR46(E) is something that is similar to your Aironet 2802

[CHTL-User]

Thanks for the reply. You would hope they would give you chance to fix any issues before pulling the plug. I also read that you can effectively lose time with co-termining and depending on how it falls, you could pay for 2 years maintenance and actually get less than that. 

I'll check out the MR46(E).

[alemabrahao]

Do you have any special configuration?

A catalyst 9800 CL is a good option to 

[CHTL-User]

Thanks for the reply. Nothing special - we run 4 SSIDs (various authentication methods). Max. 15 APs per site.

An on-prem cloud wireless controller blows my mind though - what's the benefit to just having the Meraki dashboard manage the APs?

[alemabrahao]

I hope people in the community don't get me wrong, because I love working with Meraki, but there are some points that I've noticed in the last 10 years that I've been working with Meraki.

Meraki scales very well for small and medium-sized companies, but for large companies, I have often seen major instabilities in the scenario.

Meraki still has some limitations (to be honest it bothers me sometimes), for example if you have to create an SSID with MAC filtering you will have to use a Radius server for that.

One of the biggest points is in relation to the subscription (in my opinion of course), because you will have to renew the subscription otherwise your entire environment will be inoperative, in an on-prem solution if you choose not to renew a support contract, the most you will lose is the manufacturer's warranty and support.

If I were to choose today, I can say that my wireless controller of all the solutions I've worked with is the C9800, due to the stability and robustness it brings from ISO-XE, among other things.

Of course this is my opinion. In your case, you must choose the one that best suits you.

[CHTL-User]

Thanks for the honest opinion - I appreciate it. That's the sort of thing you don't read in the sales brochure. I agree about the subscription point - that concerned me when I read it. Food for thought - thank you.

[BlakeRichardson]

I migrated from Ruckus to Meraki at the end of last year. I would suggest getting a single access point to test with and make sure they work with your exisiting infrastructure like Radius etc. 

My biggest issue to date has been the odd Cat5e cable which the devices don't seem to like after a period of time. 

[CHTL-User]

Thanks for reply - yes, I'll do that. I just wanted to pick the right AP so that we can put it into Production when we're ready to go live. Lots of production machinery and shelving so it needs to be industrial.

We moved into a new building so we have CAT6 throughout but some of our older sites won't. Good point to note though - I'll do some research and see if anyone else has reported the Cat5e issue.

[cmr]

@CHTL-User Cat5E cables do work with Meraki, it is just as @BlakeRichardson said, sometimes an old cable will be flaky.  We have one SFTP Cat6 cable that the APs don't like after a while, tester seems to think it is okay, but it is 18 years old so we have got decent value over it's life...

[CHTL-User]

Good to know - thanks for that.