Cisco to Buy Meraki

[FN-GM]

Cisco to Buy Meraki for $1.2 Billion - NYTimes.com

[AngryTechnician]

I'm conflicted about this. On one hand it should guarantee the future of the product line, but on the other hand, Cisco aren't renowned for giving stuff away for free, so the future of Meraki Systems Manager is a concern.

[FN-GM]

On one hand it should guarantee the future of the product line

 

I wouldnt be to sure, I thought Cisco where dropping Linksys.

[SYNACK]

Is that a 10x price hike I hear tramping just over the hill?

[AngryTechnician]

I wouldnt be to sure, I thought Cisco where dropping Linksys.

 

Well, Cisco acquired Linksys in 2003, so if they discontinue the brand after nearly 10 years that still sets a reasonable precedent for Meraki sticking around.

 

Is that a 10x price hike I hear tramping just over the hill?

 

I'm not so sure that's a danger. If you've looked at the price of Meraki wired network offerings they aren't significantly dearer than Cisco. Cloud controller licensing is certainly more of a concern, but hopefully they won't want to upset the existing install base by hiking up renewals.

[glennda]

we've just been discussing this in the office. we think its a good thing as personally Cisco's current wireless stuff isn't great!

 

 

EDIT: Meraki's View http://www.meraki.com/company/cisco-acquisition-faq

Edited November 19, 2012 by glennda

[glennda]

This went through yesterday - Meraki is now officially Cisco and I'm growing to love it more and more!!

 

Cisco Completes Acquisition of Meraki - The Network: Cisco's Technology News Site

[CyberNerd]

Lets hope they don't run the Merakai brand and products into the ground like they did Linksys.

[glennda]

Lets hope they don't run the Merakai brand and products into the ground like they did Linksys.

 

Hopefully not - As its brilliant kit and for once its something that "Just works" - well most of the time

[chazzy2501]

Yes but Cisco also purchased Flip and ruined it. I'm seriously now not purchasing any more Meraki gear because of this, nor am I going to continue using the remote management they offer for free. (as I've just started and don't want to have to make an emergency move when Cisco decide they're done.

 

bye bye Meraki.

[glennda]

Yes but Cisco also purchased Flip and ruined it. I'm seriously now not purchasing any more Meraki gear because of this, nor am I going to continue using the remote management they offer for free. (as I've just started and don't want to have to make an emergency move when Cisco decide they're done.

 

bye bye Meraki.

 

TBF Flip was never run into the ground - they just got to the point where they didn't want it anymore (it was profitable and worked) and nobody wanted to buy it!

 

Meraki will be called "Cisco's Cloud Networking Group" under the current form. The guys who started the company are still involved so will hopefully steer it in a way that doesn't ruin the products.

[Michael]

I thought the idea behind purchasing Linksys was to appeal to the end consumer and not just businesses buying into the Cisco brand. To be fair Cisco now have some great Small Business products, but I have to agree, their wireless solutions are not the best out there.

 

I'd say most consumer gear is generally some form of wireless solution. The majority these days are generally Netgear or a re-branded Netgear solution.

[glennda]

I thought the idea behind purchasing Linksys was to appeal to the end consumer and not just businesses buying into the Cisco brand. To be fair Cisco now have some great Small Business products, but I have to agree, their wireless solutions are not the best out there.

 

I'd say most consumer gear is generally some form of wireless solution. The majority these days are generally Netgear or a re-branded Netgear solution.

 

Linksys is aimed at the consume rather then the business market. Meraki is aimed at the Business mid sized business - not only are they just a wireless manufacturer the security appliances abilitys are pretty god damn impressive (auto configured site to site VPN being one). I did my POC with a client yesterday who has an MX80 in the datacenter, the remote workers simple get sent a Z1 and once setup on the console it automatically configures a VPN tunnel direct with the MX80 appliance, with it being dynamic and auto-discovered it removes the need to have Static addresses and we are hopefully going to be removing the need for an Expensive MPLS circuit.

 

I just hope it stays the same!!

 

Also the kit looks super Cool