Over the past few quarters the Cisco Meraki team has expanded every product line, launched a mobile app allowing customers to remotely manage their networks, and also spent time working on some new platform integration to support an ever growing customer base. While many customers run 100% cloud-managed Meraki networks, it is common for customers with existing Cisco deployments at their headquarters to implement Cisco Meraki in their branches. In order to further support this growing customers base, we have added capabilities to make these deployments even more seamless. One of the ways we are doing this is by providing interoperability for Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE). ISE defines how users gain access to a network, along with a wealth of other functions. This post highlights Cisco Meraki compatibility with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) allowing for easier network-wide management.

For customers currently using ISE in their traditional Cisco deployments, there is a clear path to deploy Cisco Meraki devices without increased cost or management complexity. ISE compatibility with Cisco Meraki allows administrators to define a single user access policy across on-premise and cloud-managed networks instead of keeping track of multiple databases. This is especially important for enterprise customers with thousands of users. Cisco Meraki devices can be deployed in parallel to other Cisco equipment, like Catalyst and Nexus switches, and all devices will look to ISE for access policies. The network below shows on-premise devices at HQ, and cloud-managed devices in the branches, with network management unified through ISE.

Meraki MR, MS, and MX product lines support authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) for ISE. Cisco Meraki devices can be propagated within ISE like below, and then configured in alignment with network wide access policies.

We are excited about how this integration streamlines network-wide management, and will continue to develop new integration points with ISE as customer needs evolve. For more information on ISE compatibility, check out this Cisco guide for configuring ISE with Cisco Meraki wireless, switching, and security appliances.