Solution Guide
MSP Dashboard
This document discusses the Cisco Meraki Managed Services
Dashboard, which contains features purpose-built for Managed
Service Providers offering cloud-managed networking as a service
to their customers. Via the MSP Dashboard, partners can leverage
Meraki’s multi-tenant cloud infrastructure to deliver integrated wireless,
switching, security and mobile device management. Meraki’s unique
architecture enables MSPs to offer networking as a service with minimal
upfront investment, and with lower overal operational costs.
Table of Contents
1  Introduction
2   Using the MSP Dashboard
3   Benefits of the MSP Dashboard
4   Cisco Meraki’s Hosted Architecture
5  Product Families
Copyright
© 2013 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved
Trademarks
Meraki® is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc.
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Cisco Systems, Inc. | 660 Alabama St, San Francisco, CA 94110 | (415) 432-1000 | sales@meraki.com
1 Introduction
Introducing the Cisco Meraki MSP Dashboard
Organizations are increasingly looking to offload network deployment, monitoring, and
management to a trusted partner. Going beyond networking design and installation, managed
service providers (MSPs) are delivering networks as a service: ongoing monitoring, configuring,
and troubleshooting handled by the service provider. End customers are able to treat their
network as a utility, and MSPs have new recurring revenue opportunities providing value-added
services.
To help Cisco partners deliver these services more efficiently and to a broader base of customers,
Cisco has introduced a set of unique tools and resources for MSPs offering Meraki wireless,
switching, security, and MDM as a service to their customers. The Cisco Meraki MSP Dashboard is
specifically built to allow service providers to centrally manage end-customer networks over the
web, while still maintaining logical isolation and security of each customer network.
The MSP Dashboard is built on top of Meraki’s cloud dashboard and integrated hardware. Cisco
maintains Meraki back-end infrastructure in multiple datacenters around the world and delivers all
management tools through a central web-based interface, without additional wireless controllers,
management appliances, or software. On-premise access points, switches, and security
appliances automatically pull their configuration from the cloud, and commuincate statistics
and metadata back to a centralized database. User traffic does not pass through the cloud,
flowing directly to its destination on the LAN or across the WAN, and and-user functionality is not
interrupted if the network loses connectivity to the cloud.
Utilizing tthis platform, MSPs can increase operational efficiency by monitoring, configuring, and
troubleshooting remote branch and campus networks over the web, reducing truck rolls and
operational costs. Meraki’s cloud infrastructure is built to handle tens of thousands of customer
networks, ranging from from small branch offices to campuses. With Meraki-hosted backend
infrastructure, partners can grow their service offerings with their customers with minimal upfront
investment.
The MSP Dashboard is available free for existing Cisco Meraki partners. Those interested in
offering Cisco Meraki as a service should contact their account managers to get started.
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Cisco Systems, Inc. | 660 Alabama St, San Francisco, CA 94110 | (415) 432-1000 | sales@meraki.com
2 Using the MSP Dashboard
The Cisco Meraki MSP Dashboard has a number of tools to centrally monitor, configure, and troubleshoot networks, helping
MSPs efficiently deliver scalable services to end customers.
MSP Portal
The Cisco Meraki MSP Portal is a central
location for staff to monitor all of their
Cisco Meraki end customers over the
Web, whether that’s at a central NOC/
SOC or field offices.
The MSP Portal page summarizes in a
single place high-level information about
every organization that an MSP services.
Such organization-wide information
includes license status, device counts,
and network health, including whether devices are alerting or offline.
More information about licensing and working with multiple organizations is available at the Meraki Knowledge Base1.
Branding
A customized logo on the Meraki dashboard and in emailed summary reports can help MSPs promote their brand with end
customers and remind local administrators where to get front-line support. As part of the sign-up process, Cisco will work with
the MSP to customize their unique content for the MSP Dashboard.
Support ticketing
The MSP Dashboard includes a central place for MSP
staff to create, monitor, and respond to support cases with
Cisco Meraki staff. Cases for different end customers are
isolated from one another to ensure security.
Remote live tools
All Meraki networks include a complete set of live tools that
make remote monitoring of network health significantly
easier. Helpdesk and NOC staff can utilize these tools to
troubleshoot network issues without having to resort to
dispatching on-site support.
For example, administrators can see a list of current clients
associated to a particular AP and ping associated clients as
well as the AP itself, run a throughput test, ping a particular
MAC address and run an interference scan of the local RF environment.
1. http://kb.meraki.com/knowledge_base/licensing-for-managed-service-providers-msps---faq
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Cisco Systems, Inc. | 660 Alabama St, San Francisco, CA 94110 | (415) 432-1000 | sales@meraki.com
Monitoring end-customer network activity
Meraki offers rich tools for staff to remotely monitor end customer activity to ensure network quality and fulfill any SLAs that
may be in place, including:
Applications
•
Identifies and controls application QoS for hundreds of apps
•
Classifies evasive or encrypted traffic with DPI and advanced heuristics
•
Cloud-based signature database is always current and custom rules can be created for in-house applications
Content
•
Identifies and controls traffic based on HTTP/HTTPS content type (e.g., audio, video, text, application)
•
Recognizes HTTP-encapsulated video and audio
•
Category-based content filtering, matching over 1 billion URLs, is available on MX security appliances
User
•
Identifies traffic based on Active Director group. user name, computer name, operating system, and other client attributes
API integration
The Cisco Meraki cloud infrastructure securely provides SNMP, Syslog, XML, and Presence APIs that allow MSPs to integrate
with 3rd party network management systems, deliver custom reports, and develop data-driven service offerings.
Automatic summary reports for end customers
The Cisco Meraki MSP Dashboard can send
monthly summary emails to designated
addresses. MSP end customers can gain
insight into their networks and understand
traffic, clients and application usage without
needing to be granted full access to the
management system.
For customers who want more control, MSPs
can create special read-only accounts that
allow users to see Meraki’s client monitoring,
traffic analytics, and Presence location analytics and engagement information.
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Cisco Systems, Inc. | 660 Alabama St, San Francisco, CA 94110 | (415) 432-1000 | sales@meraki.com
3 Benefits of the MSP Dashboard
Partners using the Cisco Meraki MSP Dashboard can benefit from Cisco Meraki’s investments in infrastructure and focus on
ease of management to drive revenues and margins.
Lower operational costs
•
No infrastructure costs - Meraki maintains a multitenant public cloud-hosted management infrastructure which eliminates
the need to build out data centers and other infrastructure
•
Controllerless architecture - Network topolgies need to include only access hardware, e.g. APs, switches, and security
appliances (firewalls). There are no controllers or other management devices, either on-site or centrally located
•
Lower staff requirements - Meraki’s intuitive management reduces engineering hours and staff training requirements.
Integrated wireless, security, switching and MDM solutions give administrators a single pane of glass view and a common
management tools across products
•
Streamlined cost model - A single pricing model includes maintenance, support, and ongoing feature releases
•
Increased efficiency - Eliminate pre-staging and truck rolls via self-configuring hardware. Meraki’s centralized dashboard
and remote live tools make maintenance easy for both on-site staff and centralized / NOC employees
Scale with customer demand
Meraki’s architecture facilitates partners to scale from small
installations to large campuses. Since Meraki hosts the backend
infrastrucutre, taking on larger customers doesn’t require increased
up-front spending.
Cisco has invested in optimizing the Meraki datacenter architecture
to scale to millions of attached devices. Technologies like propriatary
high-performance databases, redundant server architectures and
multiple geographically dispersed data centers ensure that MSPs can
offer Meraki services to all their end customers, no matter how big or
distributed they may be.
Extend MSP portfolio into the mid-market
The Meraki cloud-managed architecture is fully-integrated with plug and play features, enabling MSPs to extend enterpriseclass features into mid-sized businesses. Solutions including BYOD, site-to-site VPN, location analytics, and wireless security
are available “out-of-the-box”, and can be deployed to organizations of all size with minimal operational cost and complexity.
Opportunity for significant value-add services
Cisco Meraki maintains backend infrastructure and networking technical support, allowing MSPs to offer services such as
NOC/SOC monitoring, end-user help desks, network design, and installation.
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Cisco Systems, Inc. | 660 Alabama St, San Francisco, CA 94110 | (415) 432-1000 | sales@meraki.com
4 Cisco Meraki’s Hosted Architecture
Cisco Meraki’s cloud-managed architecture provides MSPs with a complete solution without the cost and complexity of
traditional infrastructure buildout.
Centralized multi-site management
Network administrators can easily monitor multiple sites,
e.g. branch offices, from a single web-based console. This
approach reduces the complexity of managing distributed
deployments.
Speed and ease of deployment
MSP engineers do not need to install, configure, and
maintain on-site controllers and management systems,
streamlining deployment and driving down total cost. There
is no need for prestaging, either - hardware can be shipped
directly to the installation point and configured remotely.
Scalability on demand
Meraki networks scale up to tens of thousands of endpoints per network. In addition, back-end cloud resources provision
automatically as deployments grow, enabling MSPs to elastically scale their practice simply by deploying more endpoints at
the customer’s sites.
Simplified branch network setup
Meraki makes it easy to support customers with many branch offices, without the operational expense of truck rolls and
on-site engineers. Meraki hardware simply needs to be connected to the Internet. Once installed, devices will self-configure,
and ongoing management can be performed remotely over the web. Automatic, self-configuring site-to-site VPN and WAN
optimization create secure, high-performance links between sites.
Automatic cloud-based optimization
Meraki’s centralized service provides round-the-clock optimization of the network. Dynamic wireless channel planning
monitors and mitigates interference, ensuring the network is operating at peak performance. Mesh routes are also constantly
updated to ensure maximum client throughput.
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Cisco Systems, Inc. | 660 Alabama St, San Francisco, CA 94110 | (415) 432-1000 | sales@meraki.com
Highly available and secure datacenters
Meraki’s highly available datacenters with
geographic redundancy give partners fault
tolerance without incurring the expense of building
multiple datacenter. Moreover, a Meraki network
continues to serve clients even if communication
with the cloud infrastructure is lost, with only
remote monitoring and control interrupted
client traffic will continue seamlessly.
-
The Meraki datacenter architecture is SSAE16
/ SAS70 type II certified and hardened against
physical and network intrusion, part of an overall
solution that is PCI compliant. Additionally, Meraki
offers MSP staff a suite of tools for securing
administrator accounts, such as two factor authentication and role-based policies.
Effortless upgrades
Meraki’s hosted system makes upgrades trouble-free. Since the management system is web-based, new features require
no client or server-side upgrades. New features are added to the cloud dashboard several times per year without disruptive
downtime.
Meraki also manages firmware upgrades centrally, freeing network administrators from involvement in keeping APs up-to-date.
Firmware upgrades take place over the air in a secure, fault-tolerant fashion.
API Access and Historical Statistics
Having a hosted service available makes it easier to create enterprise applications that build on the network. Meraki offers a
secure, XML-based API that can be used to produce custom monitoring and reporting applications, without installing additional
software or hardware on site.
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Cisco Systems, Inc. | 660 Alabama St, San Francisco, CA 94110 | (415) 432-1000 | sales@meraki.com
5 Product Families
Cloud Managed 802.11n Wireless LAN
• Indoor & outdoor access point models
• Ultra-high performance, up to 900 Mb/s
• Integrated wireless security & guest access
• Cloud-based management eliminates costly, complex
controller hardware
• Ideal for high-density campuses, branches, teleworkers,
and rugged / outdoor environments
Cloud Managed Access Switches
• Gigabit Ethernet edge switches with PoE available on all ports
• Centrally managed with monitoring and alerts
• Ultra-reliable, includes lifetime warranty
• Optimized for voice and video traffic
Cloud Managed Security Appliances
• Complete networking, security and application control
• Centrally managed through the cloud
• Includes WAN optimization, VPN, firewall, & branch routing
• Six models scale from small branches to campuses
Cloud Based Mobile Device Management
• Centrally manage mobile devices, Macs and PCs
• Push apps to any number of devices
• Enforce restrictions and security policies
• Monitor device status and inventory
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Cisco Systems, Inc. | 660 Alabama St, San Francisco, CA 94110 | (415) 432-1000 | sales@meraki.com