In adopting digital transformation, businesses increasingly rely on connecting cloud-specific services. The ongoing pandemic has necessitated, and in many cases, speed this adoption. By leveraging technology, businesses are likely to continue looking for ways to improve efficiency, and reduce costs, as they navigate these difficult times.
Cisco Meraki Cellular Gateway (MG) is built to address the growing demand for operational reliability and business continuity across industries. MG allows for better performance, quick provisioning, high availability, and redundancy in providing cellular wireless WAN connectivity to geographically dispersed networks.
As businesses are starting to take advantage of the advancements in cellular technology, we’re empowering them to be scalable. The shift towards the distributed application model, workforces, and software-defined technologies is leading to the increased need for API access to the network. The good news is that MG can be configured and managed using the Meraki Dashboard API!
What can the Meraki API do for your cellular WAN connectivity?
Through automation and integrations, the Meraki Dashboard API for MG enables scale, growth, and future-proofing.
Automation
IT teams can add new organizations, administrators, cellular networks, and MG devices across thousands of locations in minutes with an automation script. By automating network provisioning and bulk configurations, IT teams can minimize manual and routine tasks, freeing up time to work on more important things such as optimizing for better performance or developing modern apps. The Meraki Dashboard API also offers flexibility in cloning sites or developing templates to help you get MGs deployed easily.
Much of configuration-related set up such as DHCP, LAN, port forwarding rules, subnet pool, and uplink settings, entails repetitive tasks and is prone to human error. Network administrators spend a lot of time on these repetitive configuration and monitoring tasks that can be automated and made error-free using APIs. With MG, customers can do so via APIs to avoid manual error and service downtime—significantly reducing the management workload.
With the Meraki Dashboard API, one of our retail customers was able to rapidly automate deployment and provisioning at more than 2000 distributed locations nationwide. The resulting streamlined operations reduced overhead and costs for them.
Integration and future-proofing
The potential of the Meraki Dashboard API goes beyond faster, seamless, and cost-effective automation. Meraki API services are easy to use, easy to train staff to program with, and ripe for technology partners to continue to build native integrations on top of. For growing businesses, using these API services can significantly increase speed-to-market.
The Cisco Meraki Dashboard API is a RESTful API that uses HTTPS requests to a URL and JSON as a human-readable format. So, what does this mean for our customers? This higher software programmability using structured network data makes it easier to integrate with business logic systems. When building APIs, they can choose from a larger pool of skilled resources. Businesses can build their dashboard for store managers or specific use cases, allowing them to quickly add new services.
Visibility
Lack of end-to-end visibility is problematic when troubleshooting network issues such as high latency and jitter. By monitoring the cellular connectivity and signal strength of MG devices through APIs, IT teams can save hours of troubleshooting. Meraki APIs make our platform extensible and allow you to be agile in responding to quickly changing business needs. Meraki offers a comprehensive platform that complements out-of-the-box management and analytics for Wireless WAN deployments with the integrations and solutions powered by Meraki APIs.
Organizations across industries are eager to build their Wireless WAN infrastructure on the Meraki platform and some of them already have a head start with our new product line – MG Cellular Gateway. MG provides a solution for optimal cellular signal strength. It gives our customers the flexibility of pairing MG with any Meraki or Cisco ISR/vEdge router or 3rd party router to provide another uplink for SD-WAN, or as a failover or primary link.
MG was only launched a couple of months ago and we’re already releasing new features. There is no better way to see these features in action than to try it out for yourself.
Quick network diagnosis
We’re always seeking to provide capabilities that truly add value to our customer’s business. For cellular troubleshooting, customers have frequently told us how challenging it can get without any visibility into the signal characteristics at their site. This lack of control leads to them taking a hit on business functions that rely on cellular signals.
MG users can now take advantage of this data within the Meraki platform to quickly diagnose what’s affecting cellular connectivity, or what led to performance degradation, through historical stats— signal strength, latency, and loss—that are visual and easy to interpret. By knowing how cellular connectivity is at certain sites at any given time, it’s simple to get to the root cause of network issues. Easy monitoring of live data along with the signal level, signal quality, and connectivity data could potentially save hours of troubleshooting.
It gets even better with an API-driven architecture. MG can be managed completely through APIs, giving customers the flexibility of custom reporting and integrations that they need. Stay tuned for more updates!
How to access
From your Meraki dashboard, go to Monitor->Cellular gateways; select the MG for which you’d like to get the health data, and then go to Uplink from the menu bar. Scroll below to view the historical and connectivity data as far as 30 days in the past.
Test out the new capabilities for yourself. To learn more about the MG Cellular Gateway, you can refer to these additional MG resources:
¿Eres de los que constantemente está leyendo sobre lo último en IT? ¿Te has imaginado que nos espera en el futuro? Cisco Live Cancún, es un espacio único para conocer y experimentar la tecnología simplificada, segura e inteligente de Cisco Meraki que permite a las organizaciones transformarse digitalmente.
Cisco Live Cancún será del 28 al 31 de octubre y quisiéramos compartirte algunas razones para animarte a vivir esta experiencia con nosotros:
Sesiones técnicas: Meraki está incluido en siete sesiones técnicas. Estas sesiones se centran en tecnologías, estrategias de arquitectura, aplicaciones de solución de problemas para las soluciones o tecnologías de Cisco. Regístrese para las sesiones, ya que serán 100% Meraki. Los asistentes de Cisco Live pueden registrarse para estas presentaciones iniciando sesión en su cuenta en línea de Cisco Live e ingresando al catálogo de sesiones.
Vertical summits: hay un total de siete sesiones verticales en Cisco Live Cancún y Meraki es patrocinador de tres. Manténgase actualizado, conozca las historias de éxito de otras compañías que ahora son una referencia en su industria, haga crecer su red y comience o adapte su estrategia tecnológica para llevar a su compañía un paso por delante de su competencia en las sesiones para gobierno, educación y salud.
Zona DevNet: visite las sesiones de Meraki DevNet para obtener más información. Meraki tendrá seis sesiones en la zona DevNet. Los asistentes de Cisco Live pueden registrarse para estas presentaciones iniciando sesión en su cuenta en línea de Cisco Live e ingresando al Catálogo de sesiones.
Demos (World of solutions): como complemento a todas las sesiones de aprendizaje, en el World of Solutions, podrá ver las soluciones de Cisco y sus partners. También podrá encontrar a Meraki en una variedad de demos en todo el Cisco Showcase:
Launch | WiFi 6 Launch
Security | Meraki Security
Branch | Branch Security & SD-WAN powered by Meraki
Branch | Work Simple, Digital Workplace
Campus | Assurance in the Cisco Meraki Platform
Campus | High Density Wireless for Campus
5. Certificaciones: si necesita certificarse en las soluciones Cisco y reforzar su currículum, durante Cisco Live tiene la oportunidad de presentar cualquiera de los exámenes de certificación.
Además de todo lo que podrá aprender en este evento, Cisco Live Cancún también ofrece actividades divertidas y de ocio, como la tradicional carrera de 5 km, sesiones de yoga, el cóctel de apertura del WoS y la fiesta de clausura del evento.
Si trabaja en el sector de tecnología de red, probablemente habrá escuchado del término SD-WAN muchas veces en los últimos meses. En esta publicación, desarrollaremos algunos de los conceptos para ayudar a mostrar por qué SD-WAN podría ser de gran beneficio para su negocio.
SD-WAN significa diferentes cosas para diferentes proveedores, sin mencionar todo el hardware dedicado, el software y las licencias necesarias para ejecutar estas soluciones. El objetivo de SD-WAN es permitir a las organizaciones ahorrar dinero y atender sus necesidades de conectividad más rápido.
En Cisco Meraki, tenemos una solución SD-WAN incluída con la licencia base (licencia para empresas) en todos los dispositivos de seguridad Meraki MX SD-WAN y no requiere de servidores ni hardware adicionales. Solo conéctelo, configúrelo en el panel de Meraki y comience a ahorrar dinero, agregue valor en otras áreas del negocio.
SD-WAN es un acrónimo de (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) y es una tecnología que forma la familia de tecnologías de red definida por software (SDN), con otro ejemplo que es el acceso definido por software. El estar definido por software significa que las decisiones sobre cómo el tráfico puede enrutarse entre todos los sitios en la WAN están definidas por la política, y su comportamiento se adapta a la condición de la WAN en lugar de tener una configuración fija.
Las soluciones SD-WAN logran esto a través de una serie de funciones, tales como resistencia, seguridad, calidad de servicio, optimización de aplicaciones y mucho más. La solución Meraki SD-WAN utiliza una combinación única de estas tecnologías para crear una solución que sea fácil de configurar, implementar y administrar.
Si no está roto, no lo arregles
Si bien este suele ser un buen consejo, el dilema del innovador también nos enseña que si no introduces la tecnología disruptiva en un espacio establecido, como la WAN, ¡alguien más lo hará! MPLS ha visto mucha innovación, pero sería justo decir que esa innovación es, en su mayor parte, para los proveedores de servicios que ejecutan y ofrecen servicios WAN en la parte superior de las redes MPLS.
La simplicidad de Meraki SD-WAN significa que la potencia y la flexibilidad están directamente en manos del cliente o proveedor de servicios. Lo que significa que sin la necesidad de dispositivos, servicios o actualizaciones adicionales, los clientes pueden crear o beneficiarse de una conectividad de red más rentable.
Si bien este tipo de enrutamiento preferencial está disponible en las redes MPLS tradicionales, por lo general, solo está disponible a nivel premium, en un conjunto de clases limitadas y para redes o aplicaciones predefinidas. Mientras que Meraki SD-WAN combina la detección de aplicaciones basada en la capa 7 que viene en todo el stack de Meraki para lograr esto de una manera más breve
¿Por qué Meraki entonces?
A menudo bromeamos diciendo que la SD-WAN es solo un esparcimiento mágico basado en políticas construido sobre la VPN automática de Cisco Meraki. Sin embargo, utiliza tecnología abierta basada en estándares que probablemente ya haya usado. A lo que nos referimos específicamente aquí es una tecnología creada originalmente en Google, pero más tarde de código abierto, que está incorporada en la mayoría de sus productos (por ejemplo, Gmail, Google Drive).
Los dispositivos de seguridad y SD-WAN MX utilizan esta tecnología para inferir la latencia, la fluctuación de fase y la pérdida de paquetes de rutas virtuales entre 2 MX, como se muestra a continuación. Estas tres cosas juntas nos brindan la capacidad de calcular una Puntuación de opinión media (MOS), que se puede usar para calificar la aceptabilidad de una ruta WAN para el tráfico de voz.
Esto significa que una de las políticas que viene preconfigurada es la capacidad de elegir la ruta virtual que sea mejor para el tráfico de voz: una ganancia rápida para todos. En el caso de que cambie la mejor ruta virtual para la voz, el MX moverá automáticamente los flujos a la siguiente ruta más apropiada.
Para rastrear aplicaciones con diferentes características a la voz, simplemente puede agregar una clase de rendimiento personalizada que le permita establecer un umbral compatible para latencia, fluctuación de fase, pérdida de paquetes o cualquier combinación de las tres. A continuación, se puede hacer referencia a este criterio como criterio para la selección de ruta virtual en una única política de UI, como se muestra a continuación:
Finalmente, y completamente integrado en la solución, está la capacidad de ver cómo los flujos atraviesan las rutas virtuales de su red casi en tiempo real e históricamente de manera más poderosa:
Meraki ha estado simplificando tecnología compleja durante más de una década y SD-WAN es solo otro ejemplo en el que hemos aplicado la magia de Meraki para permitir que las organizaciones se centren en su misión. También vale la pena señalar que Meraki ha estado ofreciendo SD-WAN desde 2016, lo que la convierte en una de las plataformas tecnológicas más establecidas y estables en este espacio.
Miles de clientes en todo el mundo ya han elegido Meraki SD-WAN y miles más ya lo estan probando. Conoce más en nuestros webinars con demo en vivo de SD-WAN, registro aquí.
With over 10,000 mobile devices throughout the district, Chris Nilsson, Director of Technology Integration at Lamar CISD, joined us to share how he is using Cisco Meraki’s Systems Manager to keep tabs on them.
In addition to general district-purchased devices, thousands of other devices have been gradually introduced into the network. After completing a course on technology in the learning space, many teachers are given funds to purchase whatever devices they believe will have the greatest impact on their students. Before implementing Systems Manager, there was little available in the way of tracking how students were using the devices.
From asset management to location information to enforcing restrictions and more, Chris has customized this free tool for the unique needs of his district.
Watch the webinar to see how Chris can now monitor this technology and manage the devices from one online Dashboard.
Bill McSorley, Chief Information and Technology Officer, brought an innovative technology perspective to Edison Township Public Schools. ?Coming from a background on Wall Street, Bill was tasked with developing, scaling, and managing a new K-12 network that could support new trends and uses for technology in the education environment.
Yesterday, Bill joined us for a live webinar to describe how he overhauled a patchwork network, consisting of consumer-grade routers, to a flourishing network that he can control on the fly from anywhere.? Taking only a week and a half, Bill deployed the Cisco Meraki solution to three schools in his district, now supporting new initiatives like classroom iPads and laptop labs.
With fewer IT staff and a smaller budget than he was used to in his previous roles with big businesses, Bill needed a powerful and reliable solution with simple management.? He found this with Meraki, a solution that ?blew the competition away? and even gave him the ability to use the network to provide a place for community relief after Hurricane Sandy devastated the area.
Watch here to find out how Meraki provides Bill with deep visibility and control over his network and how he has deployed our free MDM solution to thousands of devices throughout his district.
Over the past few years, we’ve seen an increasing trend toward using mobile devices in classrooms. As a key learning platform, this implementation of technology is positioned to have a significant effect on the future of the K-12 environment. In an effort to prepare districts for deployments, we hosted two special webinars: in the first, Eric Curts from North Canton City Schools shared tips on optimizing your district’s network, while the second covered strategies for iOS deployment models and device management, restrictions, and more.
Providing Secure BYOD at North Canton City Schools
Eric Curts, Technology Director at North Canton City Schools, joined us to share how he is using the Meraki solution to support BYOD, as well as school-issued tablets and desktops across 7 schools. By using custom L3/L7 firewall rules, L7 traffic shaping, and device policies, he created a secure network ensuring safe browsing and bandwidth prioritization for educational applications.
See how easy it is for Eric to manage his network on the fly and support a growing mobile device initiative.
The Ultimate Guide to iOS Deployments for K-12
When preparing your school’s network to handle iOS device deployments, you have options! We’ve created a great deployment guide outlining strategies and tips for successfully supporting and managing content on these devices, including supervising devices, managing restrictions, deploying apps, and more.
Whether student-owned or school-owned, check out the Solutions Guide for detailed information and ownership models and look for upcoming webinars where we’ll take a deep dive into deployments.
Last week, we had several great webinars highlighting Meraki products in action. From Retail to K-12 to Healthcare, we showed how you can use granular analytics to improve business, leverage your switches to do more for you, and gain six-figure cost savings with wireless and security appliances.
Enabling the Next Generation Retail Experience with Dynamic Analytics
Deep visibility into the users, devices, and applications on your network gives you insight into not only who is accessing your business’ network, but how they’re using it. We showed you some of the innovative ways you can create a smarter shopping experience by using your network to turn potential clients into loyal, repeat customers and improve customer experience.
Check out the video to learn how to increase conversion rates, drive store visits with targeted offers to mobile devices, increase foot traffic, integrate network sign-on with your CRM, and much more.
Your School’s Switch Should Do More Than Just Switch
Keep your school’s network ahead of the curve by making your switches work harder for you. In this webinar, we worked through many common problems that K-12 IT teams face daily and showed how simple they were to troubleshoot with Meraki’s intuitive cloud-managed switches.
Find out how you can easily monitor the use of your network, manage settings on the fly, and spend more time on what’s really important.
A Case Study: ABHOW’s Path to Six-Figure Savings
Chris Franks, Corporate Network Manager at American Baptist Homes of the West, shared his experiences easily managing a distributed network of 43 senior living communities across 4 states, supporting 5,000+ residents. With Meraki wireless APs and security appliances, Chris has created a more efficient and scalable network thanks to features like Layer 7 traffic analysis, site-to-site VPN, and WAN optimization.
See how simple it is for Chris to gain complete control over his network while he saves hundreds of thousands of dollars by replacing MPLS and using Meraki devices.
Preparing students for the future is what every educator strives to do. As society continues to innovate new ways to experience and understand the world around us, it is only natural that learning techniques change too.
On February 14th, Chin Song, Director of Technology at Milpitas USD, joined us to share how he created a custom wireless network from scratch and bolstered his existing wired network. Spanning 14 schools in Silicon Valley with over a half million square feet of indoor classroom space, Milpitas USD has begun implementing numerous technology initiatives, including 1:1 with Chromebooks, iPads in the classrooms, and BYOD.
Deploying more than 600 Meraki access points and over 100 Meraki switches, Chin now has granular visibility into how 10,000 students and 800 faculty members are using the network, what devices they’re on, and the types of applications they’re using. Cloud architecture gives Chin increased control over his network from anywhere with real-time management, for both wired and wireless, from a single web-based dashboard.
Milpitas USD Dashboard View
Interacting with guest speakers via live video streaming, collaborating with fellow students in another school, broadcasting district news on location instead of in a studio – these are just some of the ways that Milpitas USD is now embracing technology to promote a higher level of education.
Watch the video – See how Chin quickly deployed the Meraki solution, created a custom network for his district, manages and troubleshoots on the fly, and most importantly how he’s created a mobile and collaborative campus.
This Thursday, February 14th at 9am PT, Chin Song, Director of Technology at Milpitas USD in Silicon Valley, will be joining us to share his experiences crafting a wireless network from scratch and bolstering the existing wired infrastructure.
Students at Milpitas USD are using technology for increased collaboration throughout the district.
With over 2,000 Chromebooks currently issued to students, and another 8,000 on the way, Chin is excited to prepare his district for 21st century learning and increased technology initiatives, like 1:1 deployments and BYOD. Teachers can now work together and share ideas remotely, increasing the time they can spend teaching. Students are collaborating via the Internet, sharing documents online and video conferencing, enabling them to expand their learning environment.
With the cloud architecture, Chin has granular visibility into how students and faculty are using the network on their devices and what types of applications they’re using. Cloud-managed WiFi and switching is providing Chin increased network control in a number of ways:
Real-time management from a web-based dashboard, for both wired and wireless, for on-the-fly troubleshooting
