New MX650!

[Mloraditch]

 I will try to update the post when the docs are posted but this is on display at Cisco Live so I figured Id tease it!

Edit: More info from a session

 

[rhbirkelund]

For those that are curious, it’s going to based off the C8500L platform. 😉

[Ryan_Miles]

And one very important point as shown in that slide is that to start it will be for concentrator mode only deployments.

[cmr]

I'm sure they won't, but I hope they change the front panel, that is about as far from the Meraki friendly face as you could get!

[Ryan_Miles]

As mentioned above it’s based on C8500

[cmr]

Indeed, though it looks to be a different port arrangement from any of the shipping 8500s.  Are the ports all 10/40/100 or are there any 25/50 ports?

[Mloraditch]

The 4 ports on the left are 2x 1/10g and 2x 10/25g. Based on the demo I saw those are the WAN ports. The other side will presumably be the lan once thats enabled. So I think not on 50g

[cmr]

Thanks @Mloraditch it looks from the picture that the 8x ports might all be 1Gb, which would seem odd unless all/most of the ports are soft selectable between WAN and LAN.  I guess that might be the case as most other vendors have had that option for a while. 

[rhbirkelund]

Imagine the day, LACP will be brought to the MX platform aswell? Oh boy, what a dream!

[PhilipDAth]

This.

[DarrenOC]

@cmr - have to disagree with you on that one. It’s a thing of beauty.

[cmr]

No where is that -kudos button 😉

[BlakeRichardson]

Agreed @cmr  looks like a Fortigate to me 

[rhbirkelund]

[Brash]

I agree, I quite like the look.

That said, it's very 'off brand' for Meraki.

[AnythingHosted]

It's been a slow road for Cisco to completely take over Meraki, ever since we had to order through CCW!.

I find the new APs a little off brand Meraki as well.

[GreenMan]

I would have thought that a move to unified hardware would be far more important to people than how a box - a box which lives closed up in a Data Centre cabinet it's whole life - looks..?

[rhbirkelund]

Agreed. This move to a single harware platform has been on its way for quite some time now. And with some of the other products that are on the way, we'll be seeing more and more of this Meraki<->Catalyst persona setup.

[cmr]

@GreenMan I can certainly see the savings in research and production costs for Cisco along with the fact that Cisco Catalyst hardware has always been supremely reliable, so you are correct it does make sense from all those aspects.  However I would have expected some of the savings to be passed on to the buyer, but if anything the prices, at least in the UK, are just going up, which doesn't seem right to me.

Unfortunately the CW APs are not nearly as 'elegant' as the MRs and we are now asked to hide them in enclosures where possible in customer areas, whereas the MRs were considered inoffensive enough to just be there.  As you say, for the large routers it really doesn't matter, though it is still nice if they look more designed than simply constructed. 

[GreenMan]

I think the big advantage for customers is flexibility;  not having to choose your management mode based on the hardware (and vice versa) - knowing you could move between on-prem and cloud without needing to replace boxes.   Given recent inflationary pressures I'm not sure how the savings you hint at would have manifest either (if you're climbing a cliff face, a few steps down along the way are pretty much invisible).   Bear in mind too that there's a significant spend in the unification process itself, too.

Personally I get your point about AP elegance (though I know not everyone is/was taken with MRs either).   I think incorporating another radio and associated antennas also is also a pretty big challenge.

[Mloraditch]

I can't edit again, but the datasheet is now posted https://documentation.meraki.com/MX/MX_Overviews_and_Specifications/MX650_Datasheet

[cmr]

Thanks @Mloraditch I see the mounting kit part number is C8500L.... So Kudos for @rhbirkelund there!  The port quantity seems to somewhat limit it to concentrator mode as routed mode with HA would mean you'd need to use the 10Gb ports for the LAN.  Maybe an MX850 is next with more 25/50 ports 😈