Meraki VS Cisco 9200L for network refresh

[Eds89]

Hi all,

I've just taken over the sys admin role for a company, and one of the first things on my list is looking at network design and switch refresh.

We are comparing options between Meraki and Cisco 9200L gear.

All the 9200L series seems to support Layer 3 functionality, so when comparing to Meraki models, I would consider the MS250 to be the closest equivalent.

Pricing for Merakis come in at about double that of Cisco, before licensing.

Is this a fair comparison of models? I can't believe the Meraki gear is more expensive than Cisco, let alone double the price!

Cheers

Eds

[Inderdeep]

Check out the price below 

Meraki MS250: https://itprice.com/cisco-gpl/meraki%20ms250

Cisco Catalyst 9200L: https://itprice.com/cisco-gpl/cisco%209200l 

Comparison between these 

https://community.meraki.com/t5/Switching/Can-you-please-suggest-Catalyst-9200L-48-P-stack-vs-Meraki...

[Eds89]

Thanks but those price lists mainly look to revolve around licensing and I'm more interested in the hardware and capabilities rather than pricing.

As for the other forum post, I did come across that, but there is only one person with one mention of the MS250 comparison to the 9200L vs 9300L.

I just want to be sure I am comparing appropriate models, which I believe to be (but need people to confirm explicitly);

MS210 - 9200L

MS250 - 9300L

My planned design is a 2x MS250 stack, with 1G fibre uplinks to MS120 switches around our site.

Many thanks.

Eds

[Bruce]

@Eds89 depends what functions you’re wanting to use on the Cat 9200L. If you’re looking to do anything clever like SD-Acess then you need the Cat. Otherwise if you’re looking for ‘normal’ Layer 2 switching and a small amount of Layer 3 static and connected routing then either the MS210 (with 1Gbps SFP ports) or MS225 (with 10Gbps SFP+) ports should be fine. If you’re looking at redundant power supplies or OSPF then the MS250 is the most cost effective Meraki switch.

With the Meraki solution you also need to consider the ease of management, reporting and troubleshooting assistance that the Dashboard provides you. In the Catalyst world you don’t get anything similar unless you add a DNA Centre to your solution (which isn’t cheap).

EDIT: You could also use a MS210 as a replacement for a Cat 9300L if you don’t need the redundant power supplies and can make do with a small number of static and connected Layer 3 routes.

[Inderdeep]

@Eds89 : You can look into below. As per your requirement you may go with the Meraki but If you want Cisco your price may increase based on the license : Essential, Advantage and Premium 

[DarrenOC]

Hi @Eds89 

if you want to go Meraki then speak to your account manager. They’ll do their best to price match.

Where are you geographically based and do you know your Meraki/Cisco AM

[Eds89]

Thanks.

The costings were fine, I was just curious on the models that clostest resembled each other from each manufacturer.

This was so that when we compiled our pricing, we were comparing the most like for like setups possible.

When comparing the MS250 to the 9300L and the MS120 to the 9200L, the total costs came out pretty much the same for both setups, which to me suggests those model comparisons are accurate.

Sadly, our parent company has asked us to standardise on Cisco native kit to match what they are doing, so it's all moot anyway.

Thanks for all the input.

Eds