Cisco Meraki

Cisco Meraki brings wireless access points, switches, security appliances and endpoint management into a central cloud dashboard. It is well suited to organisations with multiple sites or limited on-site IT, but the quality of the network still depends on sound cabling, radio design, VLANs, addressing and security policy.

IP6net has more than a decade of experience installing and maintaining business networks. We use Meraki where central management and remote diagnostics provide a practical advantage, while keeping the underlying network design explicit and documented.

Network assessment and design

Before hardware is selected, we review the number of users and devices, physical layout, internet circuits, critical applications, guest access and resilience requirements. For wireless deployments, expected coverage and capacity matter more than simply counting access points. A survey may be required where the building, density or radio environment is complex.

Design work can include:

• IP addressing, VLANs and routing between user, server, voice, guest and management networks.
• SSID design, authentication, guest access and traffic shaping.
• Switch capacity, Power over Ethernet budgets, uplinks and spanning-tree considerations.
• Firewall rules, internet breakout, site-to-site VPN and remote-access requirements.
• High availability and secondary-circuit options where the site needs resilience.

Meraki products

• MR wireless: centrally configured access points with client visibility, RF information and policy controls.
• MS switching: access and aggregation switching with VLAN, port, PoE and network diagnostic functions.
• MX security and SD-WAN: routing, firewall, VPN, traffic management and multi-site connectivity.
• Systems Manager: profile, application and policy management for supported endpoints where mobile-device management is required.

Product models and licences are selected against throughput, port count, radio capacity, security features and the expected service life—not just the current user count.

Deployment and ongoing management

IP6net can stage equipment, configure the Meraki organisation and networks, coordinate installation and document the completed design. Standard templates can keep settings consistent across sites while still allowing controlled local differences.

For supported networks, the dashboard provides remote status, event information and packet-capture or diagnostic tools. IP6net can monitor agreed alerts, investigate connectivity problems, manage configuration changes and coordinate circuit or hardware escalation. Meraki management depends on cloud connectivity, but local traffic continues according to the capabilities and configuration of the installed device during a dashboard connection loss.