Evolving the Digital Branch with Meraki in the ATC
In this article
Our customers use WWT's Advanced Technology Center to learn about how Cisco's software-defined WAN solutions can be deployed to help improve the user experience and reduce costs.
In fact, some customers have put this learning into action and used the ATC to develop configurations for deployment into their production networks. Because of this success, continue to make investments to our SD-WAN lab environment. We now offer a larger solution that includes products from Meraki's security, switching, wireless and enterprise management product lines.
The Meraki "full stack" environment
Customers now have access to the ATC Meraki environment, which is designed to help them meet business-oriented outcomes. Customers can see an enterprise-class environment complete with traffic generation to simulate a corporate network, rather than a simple demo of a sales engineer's home network. Whether your organization is part of distributed healthcare, retail, education, hospitality or distributed enterprise, you can realize the benefits from the simplified network management that Meraki provides.
The ATC Meraki environment is not just for demonstrations; it can also be used for proofs of concept customized to the business-relevant applications on your network. How will the Meraki solution help to meet your organization's business needs? Enterprise-class traffic generation tools, such as Ixia, can simulate the applications that are unique to your organization and show how Meraki seamlessly integrates into your network.
Our proof-of-concept lab environment integrates multiple vendors and technologies into the Meraki full stack, so customers can get answers to questions, such as:
- How can I integrate Meraki into my Cisco enterprise network?
- How do I configure Meraki's SD-WAN solution to prefer an Internet Service Provider for VMWare View or Citrix VDI clients?
- How can I scale my security down to branch equipment through best-of-class content filtering and threat protection?
Each of these examples and more can be created in our labs to help you decide which of Meraki's products and technologies is the best fit for your organization's business needs.
Technology that simply works
We developed the ATC Meraki environment with a focus on several technologies across the Meraki product line. They include:
Security Appliances – MX Series
- Software Defined WAN
- Cisco AMP Threat Protection
- Full Mesh Auto VPN
- Warm Spare Redundancy
Switching Appliances – MS Series
- Physical Switch Stacking
- Virtual Switch Stacking
- Layer 3 Switching
- Application Visibility
- Enterprise Security
Wireless AP's – MR Series
- Guest Access
- WIDS/WIPS
- Location Analytics
- Application Traffic Shaping
Systems Manager
- Software Inventory
- Remote Software Updates
- Single App Mode
- Identity Management
- Sentry for Automated MDM Profile Installation
Additionally, we demonstrate how the Meraki line of appliances integrates with Cisco enterprise devices, as well as how programmability through Meraki's open API's can make IT deliver users services more efficiently. If you think that centralized cloud management isn't simple enough, try managing all your appliances across multiple networks through a single configuration template!
Get started
To learn about how SD-WAN solutions can impact your organization, visit our SD-WAN workshop page.