• [Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches] provide[s] a stable, reliable switching platform. Typically, I end up deploying these and once the configuration is dialled into what the need is I rarely ever must bother with them again!
• Multi-speed interfaces are handy if you are using newer Cisco APs.
• Stack Power cables give interesting power sharing options for 9300s living in the same space.

·         Meraki MS switches are easy to deploy.

·         They can work with any firewall or ASA, but I would strongly recommend using the Meraki MX security appliance if you are going to use Meraki MS switches because they were made to work together.

·         They easily stack. It’s all done for you in the Meraki cloud control panel.

·         They will get an address from your admin VLAN’s DHCP scope and keep it. Even if you unplug it and move it, you will not have to worry about addressing it.

·         The GUI is online and you can reach it from anywhere, so as long as you have the credentials, you can manage the network from any device that has a browser.

• Documentation with Cisco has always been very thorough, but it can be difficult to parse through for straight answers on how to do something. This isn’t any fault of the hardware itself of course.
• Like most Cisco products it can be hard to get started with them if you don’t have the IOS background, which leaves you going the consultant route.

• The GUI isn’t always self-explanatory or completely intuitive, so you might need some help from Meraki support to get things set up.
• You can’t configure some things down to a very granular level and not all advanced features are even available on Meraki MS switches. This is why we don’t use them in our CORE, we only use them for campus distribution stacks. They work very well for that purpose.