How to extend your Meraki networking capabilities

How to extend your Meraki networking capabilities

27 October 2022

Our team recently hosted a webinar on the topic of the Cisco Meraki technology marketplace, discussing how you can integrate products from Meraki Technology partners, such as V-App to do more with your Meraki estate than is possible just via the Meraki Dashboard.

 

Since the webinar our team have had numerous conversations based on the topics covered and there have been two or three key themes that people have picked up on.

 

Users of Meraki products will know how easy they are to work with and will understand the business value of the Meraki Dashboard converged management platform, however the Meraki platform can be used as exactly that – a platform.

 

Meraki devices capture all kinds of information about what is going on around them, and some of that information can be used to improve operations, or add customer engagement value, you just need to know how to access all this information & data.

 

Anyone who has listened to me talk about Meraki, or has attended one of our Meraki 360 interactive sessions will know that there are two ways to manage Meraki devices:

  • The Meraki Dashboard, the one stop single pane of glass that allows you to onboard, configure, monitor, maintain, troubleshoot, and otherwise manage your Meraki estate.
  • The Meraki Dashboard API, A RESTful API that can be used for many of the same things as the Meraki Dashboard, such as creating new networks, onboarding devices and so on.

 

Key takeaway 1

 

The Meraki Dashboard is superb, a single pane of glass that combines all the functionality you need to operate your network and it holds vast amounts of information about your users, devices, network traffic and various other parameters. As an example, some customers need to have a network configuration backup system, where they can compare current and previous versions of the device configurations and restore old versions if needed. This is something that the Meraki Dashboard doesn’t provide natively and is where the Dashboard API comes into play.

 

The Dashboard API is a powerful tool that would enable those customers to add that functionality to their Meraki deployment, or a wide range of other functionality or features, if you look at the API documentation, the possibilities are pretty much limitless.

 

The obvious caveat here is that this involves technical effort in designing and creating the code needed and having somewhere to host it, not always viable in the timescales we often must work to.

 

Key takeaway 2

 

You don’t need to have the in-house expertise to DIY or build it yourself. While you can, and various Meraki customers do, build their own applications completely from scratch, you don’t need to.

 

If you don’t have the expertise, or time you can look at the Meraki marketplace and buy a ready-made application that gives you the features you are after.

 

There are over 200 different packages available on the marketplace, everything from the previously mentioned configuration management system through to Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems and many more. If you want to have a look at the options, you can find them here

 

Our technology partners can be found on the Meraki marketplace, an example of their solution offerings include:

  • Tools which use Meraki MV cameras as sensors to gain business insights
  • Solutions to help you build smart IoT apps in the cloud
  • Applications and tools for Meraki MR access points
  • Admin tools useful for networks equipped with MR, MS or MX devices

 

Key takeaway 3

 

Cloud native solutions are significantly faster to spin up and incredibly easy to integrate with Meraki systems.

 

This fact will probably not come as much of a surprise, as one of the main selling points of cloud solutions has historically been their simplicity. That said, people we have spoken to have commented that they were surprised by how easy the solutions are to initially configure and use. The fact that it was also capable of pushing any necessary configuration changes it needed to operate, to the Meraki Dashboard only made it even simpler.

 

In summary:

  • Meraki Dashboard allows you to add available tools to make suited to your environment
  • You don’t have to build it all yourself, there are many off the shelf packages you can easily integrate with your Meraki infrastructure
  • Meraki is all about powerful features being simple to use

 

If you missed the webinar, watch on-demand: https://www.ingramflyhigher.com/uk/training/extend-your-meraki-network-capabilities

 

Alternatively, if you’d like to learn more about Meraki and connecting partner solutions, please reach out to me Adam.Hickin@ingrammicro.com