Overview:
The Cisco Meraki MS400 Series brings powerful cloud-managed switching to the aggregation layer. This range of 1 and 10Gbps fiber aggregation switches adopts the benefits of the cloud: simplified management, reduced complexity, network wide visibility and control, and lower cost for campus deployments.
Expanding Cloud Management to the Campus
Cisco Meraki aggregation switches extend Cisco Meraki's cloud management to campus deployments. Just like our access switches, these 10 Gigabit Ethernet aggregation switches are built from the ground up to be easy to manage without compromising any of the power and flexibility traditionally found in enterprise-class switches.
Cisco Meraki switches are managed through an elegant, intuitive cloud interface, rather than a cryptic command line. To bring up a Cisco Meraki switch, just plug it in; there's no need for complicated configuration files — or pre-staging.
MS425-32 Highlights
Configurations
- 32 Port 10 Gigabit Ethernet aggregation switch
Hardware platform
- 32 × 10GbE SFP+
- 2 × 40GbE QSFP+ uplink/stacking ports
- 1 × 10/100/1000 RJ45 management port
- Non-blocking switch fabric
- 800Gbps switching capacity
- Compact design (1 RU) for space-constrained environments
- Ultra-reliable, includes lifetime warranty
Switching capabilities
- 802.1p Quality of Service prioritization
- 802.1Q VLAN tagging for up to 4095 VLANs
- 802.1D Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and
- 802.1w Rapid Spanning Tree Broadcast storm control
Layer 3 capabilities
- Dynamic routing (OSPFv2)
- Static routing
- DHCP Relay
- DHCP Server
- First of a kind UI-based configuration
- Easy to configure routed interfaces
- Warm spare redundancy (VRRP)
- DHCP Failover
Cloud management
- Unified switch management from aggregation to access layers
- Visibility and control over thousands of ports
- Built-in multi-site management
- Zero touch provisioning
Monitoring and diagnostics
- Gateway connectivity testing
- Real time troubleshooting tools
- Email and text message alerts
Built-In Multi-Site Cloud Management
The Cisco Meraki MS is the industry's first cloud managed switch, combining the benefits of cloud based centralized management with a powerful, reliable access platform. Cloud management has a number of benefits that make it easier to build networks large and small:
- Centralized management that allows you to manage your entire Meraki network stack from campus aggregation to your access layer (wireless APs, switches, firewalls).
- Virtual stacking: manage up to tens of thousands of ports from a single pane of glass.
- Layer 7 OS, client, and hostname fingerprinting.
- Powerful Live Tools such as cable test to isolate physical layer issues.
- E-mail and SMS (text) alerts upon power loss, downtime, or configuration changes.
- Role-based administration and automatic, scheduled firmware upgrades over the web.
- Regular feature updates and enhancements delivered on demand from the Meraki cloud.
- No staging deployments
With cloud management, thousands of switch ports can be configured and monitored instantly, over the web. Provision remote sites without on-site IT, deploy network-wide configuration changes, and easily manage campus and distributed networks without training or dedicated staff.
Converged Voice, Video and Data Environments
The Cisco Meraki switch family is designed to unify data, voice, and video onto a single IP backbone. All Cisco Meraki switches support rich quality-of-service (QoS) functionality for prioritizing data, voice, and video traffic. The switches support eight class-of-service (CoS) queues on every port, enabling them to maintain end-to-end traffic prioritization.
Lifetime Warranty with Next-day Advanced Replacement
Cisco Meraki MS switches include a limited lifetime hardware warranty that provides next-day advance hardware switch replacement as long as the original purchaser owns the product. Cisco Meraki's simplified software and support licensing model also combines all software upgrades, centralized systems management and phone support under a single, easy-to-understand model.
MS Cloud Managed 10 Gigabit Aggregation Switch Solutions:
The Cisco Meraki MS line of cloud-managed access switches bring the benefits of cloud computing, including management simplicity, reduced complexity, and lower cost, to branch and campus networks.
Meraki switches feature high-end hardware features, including:
- Compact, 1RU design for space-constrained environments
- Terabit performance with non-blocking architecture
- Field-replaceable, hot-swappable power supplies
- Field-replaceable, hot-swappable fans
- Front-to-back cooling
- Dedicated management port
- Low power consumption and shallow rack depth, which enable flexible deployment
- Stacking option for building redundant architectures
Full Enterprise Feature Set
- IEEE 802.1X
- Quality-of-Service (QoS)
- DHCP snooping to prevent users from adding unauthorized DHCP servers on the network
- Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) for high-capacity trunking, stacking, and increased availability
- IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging
- Port mirroring
- 802.1D Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and 802.1w Rapid Spanning Tree
Designed for a Complete Cloud-Managed Switch Network
Campus Edge
MS switches are ideal for small and large scale campus deployments, where reliability, scalability, and managability are top priorities.
- Virtual Stacking lets administators manage up to 10,000 ports in a single interface without having to pre-define stack members.
- 10 GbE cable SFP+ ports with link aggregation provide high speed connectivity to distribution or core switches.
- Get alerts when any switch fails or goes offline, before users complain.
Converged Voice, Video and Data Environments
The Cisco Meraki switch family is designed to unify data, voice, and video onto a single IP backbone. All Cisco Meraki switches support rich quality-of-service (QoS) functionality for prioritizing data, voice, and video traffic. The switches support eight class-of-service (CoS) queues on every port, enabling them to maintain end-to-end traffic prioritization.
To ease deployment, the Cisco Meraki switches support the industry-standard Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP), enabling switches to automatically discover Ethernet-enabled devices, determine their power requirements and join the correct virtual LAN (VLAN). Energy Efficient Power Supply with Low Acoustic Fans Non-Blocking Fabric Full Switching Speed High Reliability / MTBF Extended Life Components 48× 1 GbE Ports with 802.3af / 802.3at PoE Enhanced CPU / Memory Cisco Meraki Cloud Management Built-in 4× 10 GbE SFP+ Ports for Core Connectivity / Stacking Cisco Meraki, Inc.
Cisco Meraki's Unified Software Architecture
The Cisco Meraki MS22 and MS42 switches run the same Cisco Meraki operating system used by Cisco Meraki's firewalls and wireless LAN products. The use of a common operating system allows Cisco Meraki to deliver a consistent experience across all product lines.
Cisco Meraki Cloud Management Architecture
Simplified Management and Operations
Cisco Meraki's cloud managed architecture makes it simpler than ever to quickly provision and reconfigure switch ports with security, QoS, and other parameters. The Cisco Meraki Cloud Controller provides unified policies, event logs, and monitoring, which make it easy to manage and grow large network deployments.
By providing a complete, powerful set of management functions over the web, Cisco Meraki's Dashboard system eliminates the need for proprietary command line configuration interfaces which require expensive or time consuming certifications. Cisco Meraki MS switches can be fully deployed and provisioned in minutes, without requiring any local configuration or staging. Additional or replacement switches can be sent to remote offices and installed by non-technical staff, saving thousands of dollars in time and travel expense.
The Cisco Meraki MS family also includes several remote diagnostic features, from network connectivity and cable integrity tests to latency measurement tools. For deep client troubleshooting, administrators can even enable remote pcap packet capture without any additional probes or hardware on site.
Cloud Management:
Cisco Meraki's cloud based management provides centralized visibility & control over Cisco Meraki's wired & wireless networking hardware, without the cost and complexity of wireless controllers or overlay management systems. Integrated with Cisco Meraki's entire product portfolio, cloud management provides feature rich, scalable, and intuitive centralized management for networks of any size.
Highlights
- Unified visibility and control of the entire network via a single dashboard: wireless, switching, and security appliances
- Streamlines large networks with tens of thousands of endpoints
- Zero-touch provisioning for rapid deployment
- Built-in multi site network management tools
- Automated network monitoring and alerts
- Intuitive interface eliminates costly training or added staff
- Network tagging engine - search and sync settings by tag
- Role-based administration and auditable change logs
- Continuous feature updates delivered from the cloud
- Highly available and secure (PCI / HIPAA compliant)
Cloud Managed Networks
Cisco Meraki's hardware products are built from the ground up for cloud management. As a result, they come out of the box with centralized control, layer 7 device and application visibility, real time web-based diagnostics, monitoring, reporting, and much more.
Cisco Meraki networks deploy quickly and easily, without training or dedicated staff. Moreover, Cisco Meraki provides a rich feature set that provides complete control over devices, users, and applications, allowing for flexible access policies and rich security without added cost or complexity.
Cisco Meraki's cloud management provides the features, security, and scalability for networks of any size. Cisco Meraki scales from small sites to campuses, and even distributed networks with thousands of sites. Cisco Meraki devices, which self-provision via the cloud, can be deployed in branches without IT. Firmware and security signature updates are delivered seamlessly, over the web. With the cloud, branches can automatically establish secure VPN tunnels between one another with a single click.
With a secure, PCI and HIPAA compliant architecture and fault tolerant design that preserves local network functionality during WAN outages, Cisco Meraki is field proven in high security and mission critical network applications.
Cloud Management Architecture
Cisco Meraki's architecture provides feature rich network management without on-site management appliances or WiFi controllers.
Every Cisco Meraki device - including wirelesss access points, Ethernet switches, and security appliances - connects over the Internet to Cisco Meraki's datacenters, which run Cisco Meraki's cloud management platform. These connections, secured via SSL, utilize a patented protocol that provides real time visibility and control, yet uses minimal bandwidth overhead (typically 1 kbps or less.)
In place of traditional command-line based network configuration, Cisco Meraki provides a rich web based dashboard, providing visibility and control over up to tens of thousands of Cisco Meraki devices, anywhere in the world. Tools, designed to scale to large and distributed networks, make policy changes, firmware updates, deploying new branches, etc. simple and expedient, regardless of size or location. Cisco Meraki's real time protocols combine the immediacy of on-premise management applications with the simplicity and centralized control of a cloud application.
Every Cisco Meraki device is engineered for cloud management. Specifically, this means that Cisco Meraki devices are designed with memory and CPU resources to perform packet processing, QoS, layer 3-7 security, encryption, etc. at the network edge. As a result, no network traffic passes through the cloud, with the cloud providing management functionality out of the data path. This architecture enables networks to scale horizontally, adding capacity simply by adding more endpoints, without concern for centralized bottlenecks or chokepoints. Equally important, since all packet processing is performed on premise, end-user functionality is not compromised if the network's connection to the cloud is interrupted.
Cisco Meraki's cloud platform is designed to spread computation and storage across independent server clusters in geographically isolated datacenters. Any server or datacenter can fail without affecting customers or the rest of the system. Additionally, Cisco Meraki's datacenter design is field proven to support tens of thousands of endpoints.
Cloud Management Architecture
Powerful Insight and Troubleshooting Tools
Cisco Meraki's cloud architecture delivers powerful insight and includes live tools integrated directly into the dashboard, giving instant analysis of performance, connectivity, and more. Using live tools, network administrators no longer need to go on site to perform routine troubleshooting tests. Visibility into devices, users, and applications gives administrators the information needed to enforce security policies and enable the performance needed in today's demanding network environments.
Troubleshooting tools such as ping, traceroute, throughput, and even live packet captures are integrated directly into the Cisco Meraki dashboard, dramatically reducing resolution times and enabling troubleshooting at remote locations without on-site IT staff.
Layer 7 application visibility
Out-of-Band Control Plane
Cisco Meraki's out-of-band control plane separates network management data from user data. Management data (e.g., configuration, statistics, monitoring, etc.) flows from Cisco Meraki devices (wireless access points, switches, and security appliances) to Cisco Meraki's cloud over a secure Internet connection. User data (web browsing, internal applications, etc.) does not flow through the cloud, instead flowing directly to its destination on the LAN or across the WAN.
Advantages of an out of band control plane:
Scalability
- Unlimited throughput: no centralized controller bottlenecks
- Add devices or sites without MPLS tunnels
- Add switching capacity without stacking limitations
Reliability
- Redundant cloud service provides high availability
- Network functions even if management traffic is interrupted
Security
- No user traffic passes through Cisco Meraki's datacenters
- Fully HIPAA / PCI compliant
What happens if a network loses connectivity to the Cisco Meraki cloud?
Because of Cisco Meraki's out of band architecture, most end users are not affected if Cisco Meraki wireless APs, switches, or security appliances cannot communicate with Cisco Meraki's cloud services (e.g., because of a temporary WAN failure):
- Users can access the local network (printers, file shares, etc.)
- If WAN connectivity is available, users can access the Internet
- Network policies (firewall rules, QoS, etc.) continue to be enforced
- Users can authenticate via 802.1X/RADIUS and can roam wirelessly between access points
- Users can initiate and renew DHCP leases
- Established VPN tunnels continue to operate
- Local configuration tools are available (e.g., device IP configuration)
While Cisco Meraki's cloud is unreachable, management, monitoring, and hosted services are temporarily unavailable:
- Configuration and diagnostic tools are unavailable
- Usage statistics are stored locally until the connection to the cloud is re-established, at which time they are pushed to the cloud
- Splash pages and related functionality are unavailable
Cisco Meraki Datacenter Design
Cisco Meraki's cloud management service is colocated in tier-1, SAS70 type II certified datacenters. These datacenters feature state of the art physical and cyber security and highly reliable designs. All Cisco Meraki services are replicated across multiple independent datacenters, so that customer-facing services fail over rapidly in the event of a catastrophic datacenter failure.
Redundancy
- Five geographically dispersed datacenters
- Every customer's data (network configuration and usage metrics) replicated across three independent datacenters
- Real-time data replication between datacenters (within 60 seconds)
- Nightly archival backups
Availability Monitoring
- 24x7 automated failure detection — all servers are tested every five minutes from multiple locations
- Rapid escalation procedures across multiple operations teams
- Independent outage alert system with 3x redundancy
Disaster Recovery
- Rapid failover to hot spare in event of hardware failure or natural disaster
- Out of band architecture preserves end-user network functionality, even if connectivity to Cisco Meraki's cloud services is interrupted
- Failover procedures drilled weekly
Cloud Services Security
- 24x7 automated intrusion detection
- Protected via IP and port-based firewalls
- Access restricted by IP address and verified by public key (RSA)
- Systems are not accessible via password access
- Administrators automatically alerted on configuration changes
Physical Security
- High security card keys and biometric readers control facility access
- All entries, exits, and cabinets are monitored by video surveillance
- Security guards monitor all traffic into and out of the datacenters 24x7, ensuring that entry processes are followed
Out-of-Band Architecture
- Only configuration and usage statistics are stored in the cloud
- End user data does not traverse through the datacenter
- All sensitive data (e.g., passwords) stored in encrypted format
Disaster Preparedness
- Datacenters feature sophisticated sprinkler systems with interlocks to prevent accidental water discharge
- Diesel generators provide backup power in the event of power loss
- UPS systems condition power and ensure orderly shutdown in the event of a full power outage
- Each datacenter has service from at least two top-tier carriers
- Seismic bracing for raised floor, cabinets, and support systems
- In the event of a catastrophic datacenter failure, services fail over to another geographically separate datacenter
Environmental Controls
- Over-provisioned HVAC systems provide cooling and humidity control
- Flooring systems are dedicated for air distribution
Certification
- Cisco Meraki datacenters are SAS70 type II certified
- PCI level 1 certified
Service Level Agreement
- Cisco Meraki's cloud management is backed by a 99.99% uptime SLA. See www.Cisco Meraki.com/trust for details.
Security Tools for Administrators
In addition to Cisco Meraki's secure out-of-band architecture and hardened datacenters, Cisco Meraki provides a number of tools for administrators to maximize the security of their network deployments. These tools provide optimal protection, visibility, and control over your Cisco Meraki network.
Two-factor authentication
Two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security to an organization's network by requiring access to an administrator's phone, in addition to her username and password, in order to log in to Cisco Meraki's cloud services. Cisco Meraki's two factor authentication implementation uses secure, convenient, and cost effective SMS technology: after entering their username and password, an administrator is sent an a one-time passcode via SMS, which they must enter before authentication is complete. In the event that a hacker guesses or learns an administrator's password, she still will not be able to access the organization's account, as the hacker does not have the administrator's phone. Cisco Meraki includes two-factor authentication for all enterprise users at no additional cost.
Password policies
Organization-wide security policies for Cisco Meraki accounts help protect access to the Cisco Meraki dashboard. These tools allow administrators to:
- Force periodic password changes (e.g., every 90 days)
- Require minimum password length and complexity
- Lock users out after repeated failed login attempts
- Disallow password reuse
- Restrict logins by IP address
Role-based administration
Role-based administration lets supervisors appoint administrators for specific subsets of an organization, and specify whether they have read-only access to reports and troubleshooting tools, administer managed guest access, or can make configuration changes to the network. This minimizes the chance of accidental or malicious misconfiguration, and restricts errors to isolated parts of the network.
Configuration change alerts
The Cisco Meraki system can automatically send human-readable email and text message alerts when configuration changes are made, enabling the entire IT organization to stay abreast of new policies. Change alerts are particularly important with large or distributed IT organizations.
Configuration and login audits
Cisco Meraki logs the time, IP, and approximate location (city, state) of logged in administrators. A searchable configuration change log indicates what configuration changes were made, who they were made by, and which part of the organization the change occurred in.
SSL certificates
Cisco Meraki accounts can only be accessed via https, ensuring that all communication between an administrator's browser and Cisco Meraki's cloud services is encrypted.
Idle Timeout
30 seconds before being logged out, users are shown a notice that allows them to extend their session. Once time expires, users are asked to log in again.
The Cisco Meraki Cloud Networking architecture enables plug and play branch deployments and provides centralized visibility and control across any number of distributed locations.
Cisco Meraki MS Switches feature virtual stacking — an industry first — that allows management of thousands of switch ports as one, without requiring a physical connection between switches.
Cisco Meraki MS Switches are the industry's only switches featuring integrated Layer 7 application and client fingerprinting and analysis. Hundreds of applications are automatically identified and reported, from business apps to BitTorrent and YouTube, so administrators can see where resources are spent.
Quickly scale growing networks while ensuring redundancy for critical switch infrastructure with Meraki layer 3 switches. Intuitive, dynamic routing configurable in the dashboard simplifies management by removing complex command line interfaces. Traffic flow is optimized at line rate without sacrificing deep visibility into client devices and application use. Deploy ACLs directly on MS switches to secure boundaries between VLANs, hosts, services, and the Internet.
Deploy latency-sensitive applications such as voice and video by guaranteeing network performance. Voice and QoS features such as per-VLAN and protocol-based prioritization, as well as flexible QoS assignments, give inuitive, granular control.
The Cisco Meraki MS220-8P, MS22P, and MS42P Switches support PoE and PoE+, delivering up to 30W to support the most power-hungry devices. A total budget of 380W delivers the power necessary to run dozens of VoIP phones, access points, or other PoE devices.
MS Switches make powerful live tools available for remote troubleshooting at any time. From infrastructure uptime and performance testing to device troubleshooting, live tools simplify day-to-day network administration and dramatically shorten time to resolution.
Extending security down to the port level has never been easier. MS Switches integrate seamlessly with enterprise-grade security systems using 802.1X. Define access policies, segregate guest devices, and quarantine entire environments right from the dashboard.
MS Switches feature long lifetime components and are designed for high reliability. Even though they're built to provide years of reliable service, MS Switches also include a lifetime warranty, and are eligible for advanced shipment replacement, minimizing potential downtime and securing your investment.
