Meraki Introduces Industry’s First Cloud Managed Switches, Expands Cloud Managed Security Appliance Family With Datacenter-class Models And Wan Optimization

SAN FRANCISCO — January 18, 2012 – Meraki, the recognized leader in Cloud Networking, today announced the introduction of the all-new MS series cloud managed switches. Meraki also announced a dramatically expanded MX series cloud managed security appliances family, adding WAN optimization and introducing five new models.

Together with Meraki’s award-winning cloud managed wireless LAN, these products enable enterprises to deploy 100% cloud managed networks, adding visibility and control while eliminating the cost and complexity of traditional solutions.

Peet’s Coffee and Tea Selects Meraki MX Cloud Managed Security Appliances for Nationwide Deployment across 193 Locations

Meraki today announced that Peet’s Coffee & Tea, one of the world’s largest specialty coffee chains, has selected the MX series security appliances, along with Meraki’s award winning wireless LAN, for its 193 retail locations. “The MX provides incredible visibility and control across our highly-distributed network,” said Steve Shead, IT Director at Peet’s. “The MX has improved our manageability, reliability,  and performance.”

“As iPads and web applications increase the demands placed on networks, organizations are increasingly turning to cloud managed solutions to streamline their infrastructure,” said Kiren Sekar, V.P. of Marketing at Meraki. “We are thrilled that Peet’s selected Meraki for their next generation network, and we look forward to delivering an excellent experience to their IT staff, employees, and customers.”

Meraki MS Cloud Managed Switches

The Meraki MS switches bring Meraki’s legendary ease of use, visibility, and control to Gigabit Ethernet access switches. Centrally managed over the web, Meraki MS switches offer plug and play deployment and unprecedented insight into the network.

Meraki MS cloud managed switches introduce “Virtual Stacking,” an industry-first technology that provides centralized management of up to thousands of switch ports. Unlike traditional stacking (which the MS also supports), virtually stacked switches can be in different physical locations, simplifying large scale and distributed environments.

Other benefits of the MS family include:

• Easy to manage in both campus and distributed deployments
• Web-based centralized management  with automatic monitoring and alerts
• Non-blocking Gigabit switching, PoE available on all ports
• 10 Gb uplinks for stacking and high speed core connectivity
• Ultra-reliable hardware design, includes lifetime warranty
• Built-in QoS for voice and video

The Meraki MS switches are available in four models, offering 24 and 48 port configurations with and without power over Ethernet. The MS switch family is available for immediate order through Meraki authorized resellers.

Expanded MX Cloud Managed Security Appliance Family

Meraki also announced a major expansion of its MX series cloud managed security appliances, adding WAN optimization and five new hardware models.

Introduced in early 2011, the Meraki MX, the first cloud managed security appliance for branch networks, dramatically improved the simplicity, visibility and control of distributed organizations.  The MX was adopted rapidly, with deployments including Sony/ATV Music, the world’s second largest music publisher; Syracuse University, who used the MX to connect study abroad campuses to the university; and Westfield Malls, who deployed the MX at over 18 major shopping malls across the US.

The MX feature set provides a complete networking and security solution:

• Security: Next generation firewall, site to site and client VPN
• Networking: NAT/DHCP, routing, link bonding, 3G/4G failover
• Application Control: Traffic shaping, content filtering, WAN optimization (new)

For 2012, Meraki dramatically expands the MX line, adding WAN optimization and five all-new models that scale from small branches to campus and datacenter environments.

New MX hardware models:

• MX60W: Integrates 802.11n WiFi for small branches
• MX80, MX90: 1U appliances for mid-sized branches
• MX400, MX600: Campus and datacenter-class appliances scaling to over ten thousands users, with 10 GbE  connectivity and high availability features

WAN Optimization Added to MX Family:

• Applies deduplication, compression, caching and protocol optimization
• 1 TB hard drive cache with RAID available
• Optimizes Windows File Sharing, FTP, HTTP, and generic TCP traffic
• 3rd party benchmarks demonstrate up to 197x reduction in file transfer times

The MX80, MX90 MX400, and MX600, are available for immediate order through Meraki authorized resellers. The MX60W will be available in the second quarter of 2012.

About Meraki

Meraki is the recognized leader in Cloud Networking. 100% cloud-based from day one, Meraki’s architecture delivers out-of-the-box security, scalability, and management to enterprise networks. Meraki has been deployed in over 18,000 customer networks worldwide, including Stanford University, British Telecom, Burger King, Starbucks, and M.I.T. Meraki is located in San Francisco, California, and is funded in part by Sequoia Capital and Google. For more information, visit http://meraki.com.