Cisco Meraki

Last updated
Cisco Meraki
Company type Division
IndustryNetworking, IT
Founded2006;19 years ago (2006) in Mountain View, California, U.S.
Founders
Headquarters San Francisco, California, U.S.
Key people
Chris Stori (SVP, GM)
Bret Hull (CTO)
Parent Cisco Systems
Website meraki.cisco.com

Cisco Meraki is a cloud-managed IT company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Their products include wireless, switching, security, enterprise mobility management (EMM) and security cameras, all centrally managed from the web. Meraki was acquired by Cisco Systems in December 2012. [1]

Contents

History

Meraki was founded by Sanjit Biswas and John Bicket, along with Hans Robertson. The company was based in part on the MIT Roofnet project, an experimental 802.11b/g mesh network developed by the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Meraki was funded by Google and Sequoia Capital. The organization started in Mountain View, California, in 2006, before relocating to San Francisco. Meraki employed people who worked on the MIT Roofnet project. [2] [3] [4]

In 2007, Meraki selected San Francisco for their community-based Free the Net campaign.[ why? ] They started putting gateway devices in the Lower Haight neighborhood to provide Internet access and giving away repeaters. In the first year of the project, the growth of the network was primarily in the Mission District. By October 2007, they estimated 20,000 distinct users connected and about 5 terabytes of data transferred in this network. In July 2008, Meraki said 100,000 people in San Francisco used its "Free the Net" service. Since then, Meraki discontinued this public service, though many access points remain active, but with no connection to the Internet.

On November 18, 2012, Cisco Systems announced it would acquire Meraki for an estimated $1.2 billion. [1]

Products

Access Points (MR)

Table of Meraki MR Access Points
ModelIndoor/OutdoorWifi CapabilityEthernetArchitectureSystem-on-ChipCPU SpeedFlash-ChipFlash SizeRam SizeWireless chipEnd of Support
MR11IndoorAug 30, 2017
MR12Indoor2x2:2 802.11n (2.4 GHz) Gigabit MIPSAtheros (AR7242/7241)400 MHzMacronix16MB64MBAR9283-AL1AOct 24, 2022
MR14IndoorAug 30, 2017
MR16Indoor2x2:2 802.11n Gigabit MIPSAtheros AR7161-BC1A680 MHzMacronix16MiB64MBAR9283-AL1AMay 31, 2021
MR18Indoor2x2:2 802.11n Gigabit MIPSQualcomm QCA9557-AT4A720Hynix128MiB (NAND)128MBSoC AR9550 + 2x Atheros AR9582-AR1AMar 31, 2024
MR20Indoor2x2:2 802.11ac Wave 2 Gigabit
MR24Indoor3x3:3 802.11n Gigabit May 31, 2021
MR30HIndoor, In-room hotel or dormitory deployments2x2:2 802.11ac Gigabit July 26, 2027
MR32Indoor2x2:2 802.11ac Gigabit Mar 31, 2024
MR33Indoor2x2:2 802.11ac Wave 2 Gigabit ARMv7Qualcomm IPQ4029716 MHzSpansion S34ML01G200TFV00128MiB256MBQualcomm QCA9887Jul 21, 2026
MR34Indoor3x3:3 802.11ac Wave 2 Gigabit Oct 31, 2023
MR36Indoor2x2:2 802.11ax Gigabit Qualcomm IPQ8070A1.0 GHz
MR36HIndoor, In-room hotel or dormitory deployments2x2:2 802.11ax Gigabit
MR42Indoor3x3:3 802.11ac Wave 2 Gigabit Jul 21, 2026
MR44Indoor2.5Gig
MR45Indoor4x4:4 802.11ax2.5Gig
MR46Indoor4x4:4 802.11ax2.5Gig
MR52Indoor4x4:4 802.11ac Wave 22 x Gigabit Jul 21, 2026
MR53Indoor4x4:4 802.11ac Wave 22.5Gig+Gigabit
MR55Indoor8x8:8 802.11ax5GigAug 1, 2028
MR56Indoor8x8:8 802.11ax5Gig
MR57Indoor4x4:4 802.11ax 2,4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz (Wi-Fi 6E)2 x 5Gig
MR58OutdoorOct 30, 2017
MR66Outdoor2x2:2 802.11n Gigabit Jun 9, 2024
MR70Outdoor2x2:2 802.11n Gigabit
MR72Outdoor2x2:2 802.11ac Wave 2 Gigabit Apr 30, 2024
MR74Outdoor2x2:2 802.11ac Wave 2 Gigabit Jul 21, 2026
MR76Outdoor2x2:2 802.11ax Gigabit
MR84Outdoor4x4:4 802.11ac Wave 22.5Gig+Gigabit Jul 21, 2026
MR86Outdoor4x4:4 802.11ax5Gig

Switches (MS)

Series [5] Deployment typeInterfacesUplinksPoE capabilitiesPower configurationStacking capabilitiesRouting capabilitiesModels
MS120-8Compact8 x 1GbE RJ452 x 1GbE SFP

Fixed

67W (LP model)

124W (FP model)

External PSU (non-PoE, LP model)

Internal (FP Model)

Virtual onlyDHCP RelayMS120-8-HW

MS120-8LP-HW

MS120-8FP-HW

MS225Branch & small campus24 / 48 x 1GbE RJ454 x SFP+

Fixed

370W (LP model)

740W (FP model)

InternalYes, 80G physical + virtualDHCP RelayMS225-24-HW

MS225-24P-HW MS225-48-HW MS225-48LP-HW MS225-48FP-HW

MS355Branch & small campus24 / 48 x 1GbE RJ45

8 x XGbE RJ45 (24X only)

2 × 40G (QSFP+)

Fixed

740W (24 port, X2 models)

740W (48 port, X2 models)

Removable PSU400G physical +

virtual

Static + Dynamic

DHCP Server + Relay

MS355-24-HW

MS355-24X-HW

MS355-48-HW

MS355-48X-HW

MS355-48X2-HW

MS390High-performance campus & branch24 / 48 x 1GbE RJ45

24 / 48x XGbE RJ45 (in select models)*

4/8 x 10GbE SFP+

2 x 40GbE QSFP

Modular

830W (24 port models)

822W (48 port models)

Removable PSUCompatible only with MS390

480G physical +

virtual

Static + Dynamic

DHCP Server + Relay

MS390-24-HW

MS390-24P-HW

MS390-24U-HW

MS390-24UX-HW

MS390-48-HW

MS390-48P-HW

MS390-48U-HW

MS390-48UX-HW

MS390-48UX2-HW

MS45010G fiber aggregation12x 40GbE QSFP+2 x 100GbE QSFP28N/AModular

Redundant PSU optional (sold

separately)

Front-port 160G + virtualStatic + Dynamic

DHCP Server + Relay

Warm spare (VRRP)

MS450-12-HW

Security Appliances (MX)

Table of Meraki MX Security Appliances
ModelWifi ModelInterfacesStateful Firewall ThroughputArchitectureCPU SpeedEnd of SaleEnd of support
Z1 [6] Yes5 x GbE50 Mbit/s
Z3 [7] Yes5 x GbE100 Mbit/s
Z4 [8] YesWAN: 1 x GbE RJ45

LAN: 4 x GbE RJ45 (1 x PoE)

500 Mbit/s
MX60 [9] MX60W5 x GbE100 Mbit/s
MX64 [10] MX64WWAN: 1 x GbE RJ45

LAN: 4 x GbE RJ45

250 Mbit/sJuly 26, 2022July 26, 2027
MX65MX65WWAN: 2 x GbE RJ45

LAN: 10 x GbE RJ45

250 Mbit/sMay 28, 2019May 28, 2026
MX67MX67W
MX68MX68W
MX75N/AWAN: 2 x GbE RJ45 1 x SFP

LAN: 10 x GbE RJ45 (2 x PoE)

1 Gbit/s
MX80N/A5 x GbE250 Mbit/sAug 30, 2016Aug 30, 2023
MX84N/A5 x GbE500 Mbit/sOct 31, 2021Oct 31, 2026
MX85N/AWAN: 2 x GbE RJ45 2 x SFP

LAN: 8 x GbE RJ45 2 x SFP

1000 Mbit/s
MX90N/A9 x GbE, 2 x GbE (SFP)500 Mbit/s
MX95N/AWAN: 2 x 2.5GbE RJ45 2 x SFP+

LAN: 4 x GbE RJ45 2 x SFP+

2 Gbit/s
MX100N/A9 x GbE, 2 x GbE (SFP)750 Mbit/sFeb 1, 2022Feb 1, 2027
MX105N/AWAN: 2 x 2.5GbE RJ45 2 x SFP+

LAN: 4 x GbE RJ45 2 x SFP+

3 Gbit/s
MX250N/AWAN: 2 x 10GbE (SFP+)

LAN: 8 x GbE (RJ45), 8 x GbE (SFP), 8 x 10GbE (SFP+)

4 Gbit/s
MX400N/A8 x GbE (RJ45), 8 GbE (SFP), 4 x 10GbE (SFP+)1 Gbit/sMay 20, 2018May 20, 2025
MX450N/A6 Gbit/s
MX600N/A8 x GbE (RJ45), 8 GbE (SFP), 4 x 10GbE (SFP+)2 Gbit/sMay 20, 2018May 20, 2025

Customer data loss incident

On August 3, 2017, the engineering team made changes to the North American object storage service; the change caused some deletion of customer data. Cisco stated that the change was due to the application of "an erroneous policy". The data loss mostly affected media files uploaded by customers. Lost data included:

On August 7 Meraki announced that some data on the cache service could be recovered. On August 9 customers were informed that recovery efforts were still underway but that they "do not expect to be able to recover most assets". [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Constine, Josh (18 November 2012). "Cisco Acquires Enterprise Wi-Fi Startup Meraki For $1.2 Billion In Cash". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
  2. "Sequoia – Companies". Sequoia Capital. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
  3. Fehrenbacher, Katie (2006-08-02). "Meraki Cooks Up Wireless Mesh Router". gigaom.com. Archived from the original on 2022-01-27. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
  4. Goodin, Dan (15 August 2007). "Google-Funded startup to offer free WiFi in San Francisco". The Register. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
  5. "Meraki MS Series Switches Family Datasheet". Meraki MS Series Switches Family Datasheet. 17 May 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-02-25. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  6. "Cisco Meraki Z1 Datasheet" (PDF). Cisco Meraki. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  7. "Meraki Z-Series Datasheet" (PDF). Cisco Meraki. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  8. "Z4 Datasheet". Cisco Meraki. Retrieved 11 Feb 2025.
  9. "MX Cloud Managed Security Appliance Series Datasheet" (PDF). Cisco Meraki. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  10. "Meraki MX Cloud-Managed Security and SD-WAN Datasheet" (PDF). Cisco Meraki. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  11. "North American Object Storage Service Impact". Cisco Meraki. 4 August 2017. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
  12. "Cisco Meraki suffers data loss caused by human error". The Stack. 7 August 2017. Archived from the original on 4 December 2018. Retrieved 10 April 2019 via Techerati.
  13. Marzouk, Zach (7 August 2017). "Cisco Meraki loses customer data in engineering gaffe". CloudPro. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
  14. Hardcastle, Jessica Lyons (7 August 2017). "Cisco Meraki Data Loss Reveals Need for Oversight". SDX Central. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
  15. Sharwood, Simon (6 August 2017). "Cisco loses customer data in Meraki cloud muckup". The Register. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
  16. "North American Object Storage Service Impact (8-4-2017)". Cisco Meraki Documentation. 5 October 2020. Retrieved 2024-05-29.