Enterprise switch stack recommendation

[Hemi-Cuda]

Hoping there's one or two network guys on here. Our work is moving offices next year and it's coinciding with a core switch stack refresh that we need to do. Currently we have a stack of 3 Cisco Catalyst 3750x's, and I'm looking at moving to the Cisco Meraki line for a replacement. I'm not a network guy at all, my Cisco CLI experience is pretty much just changing a port from one VLAN to another if I need to. So moving to a cloud managed device with a nice GUI is very tempting, especially when I'll be setting up a new office from scratch. Reviews I find online are mixed though, which is making me a bit hesitant. Are there any other enterprise grade switches out there that are easier to manage than the core Cisco stuff?

[Shazam]

Meraki is very straightforward. Very full featured. Can’t go wrong with it.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Shazam

Meraki is very straightforward. Very full featured. Can’t go wrong with it.

Good to know. Sounds like CDW will be able to give me a test unit to play with for a few weeks, so that'll make the decision a lot easier

[MrCallahan]

Meraki is good if you're background isn't networking and you're responsible for managing the switches. You'll have to keep a close eye on the license expiration, as you'd hate to be in a position where the license expires, and you're no longer able to use your gear.

Couple questions that'd I'd ask:

• Are there plans to have multi-gig Wireless AP's in the future? (for 802.11ax)
• Do you currently have routing configured on your existing 3750 stack? You're routing config will determine if you need the Layer 2/3 switches.
• Do you have a lot of East/West traffic for high volume traffic? (Storage? AutoCAD? Really Bursty traffic?) stacking bandwidth may come into play here.
• Any 10/40/100GB interface requirements?

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by MrCallahan

Meraki is good if you're background isn't networking and you're responsible for managing the switches. You'll have to keep a close eye on the license expiration, as you'd hate to be in a position where the license expires, and you're no longer able to use your gear.

Couple questions that'd I'd ask:

• Are there plans to have multi-gig Wireless AP's in the future? (for 802.11ax)
• Do you currently have routing configured on your existing 3750 stack? You're routing config will determine if you need the Layer 2/3 switches.
• Do you have a lot of East/West traffic for high volume traffic? (Storage? AutoCAD? Really Bursty traffic?) stacking bandwidth may come into play here.
• Any 10/40/100GB interface requirements?

1. Nothing planned, but future proofing is always a good idea
2. No routing, we just have 4 VLANs specified for different server/workstation/phone subnets. Nothing is segregated though
3. Not a lot of heavy internal traffic. I do plan on utilizing 10 Gig modules for our new switches so I'm able to connect our Nimble storage and ESX host ISCSI ports at 10 Gbit
4. See above


I'm leaning towards the MS250-48, seems to be the closest/slight upgrade to our current Catalyst 3750x's, and will give me enough 10 Gig ports to get all of the ESX ISCSI ports and the Nimble connected

[FanIn80]

Meraki is great. Very highly recommended. Not just their rackware, but also their hotspots. I switched my old office over to a full Meraki deployment (gateways, switches, hotspots), and never had an issue in the six years I was there. No wifi issues. No switch issues. I managed three separate offices all tunnelled together over a VPN, all Meraki from top to bottom.

I’ve done all that the hard way with Netgear, flat Cisco, etc. Just so much nicer with Meraki gear. I was worried a bit when Cisco bought them out years ago, but the stability and functionality survived fairly seamlessly.

I’m pretty sure you can still get a free WAP from them, with a free 3-year license, just for attending one of their online webinars. Check it out!

[CrunchBite]

Check out Ubiquiti Unifi gear. With the Unifi cloud key, damn near as easy to use as Meraki Gear and way cheaper, no licenses.

Meraki is solid if expensive.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by CrunchBite

Check out Ubiquiti Unifi gear. With the Unifi cloud key, damn near as easy to use as Meraki Gear and way cheaper, no licenses.

Meraki is solid if expensive.

For WiFi Ubiquiti is great, already switched to them last year. They don't make any enterprise grade switches though, and they don't have the reliability that you absolutely need in a core switch stack