All About Meraki MS225 Switches

If your network needs bandwidth without sacrificing cost efficiency, then you’re going to have to do some searching to find the perfect hardware. It’s always easy to overspend and get more throughput than you actually need. At the same time, if you underspend at the cost of performance, critical business functions can suffer, and that’s never worthwhile.

Striking the balance is challenging, and that’s exactly why Meraki MS exists. The switches in this series are meant for efficiency, flexibility, and adaptability, and knowing the specifics of what these switches can offer may help you perfect your network.

For those reasons and more, here is a breakdown of a staple in the series: the Meraki MS225.

Meraki MS225

The entire Meraki MS line is designed to combine networking power and capacity with ease of use and efficiency. These are near-high-end switches that help smaller enterprises compete with more expensive networks while saving time and costs at every corner.

The MS225, in particular, is a prime example of that design philosophy. It is a stackable switch that can easily quarterback small to medium-sized enterprise networks. Its 80G stackable bandwidth enables rather powerful networking, but it doesn’t quite hit data center levels of performance.

Most of all, the MS225 is built around Meraki’s ease-of-use design. With cloud access and the proprietary dashboard, it is easy to configure and deploy. It’s also easy to monitor and manage, allowing for powerful networking control with very little oversight. It’s a switch that offloads work from network administrators and operators, instead automating as much as reasonably possible and simplifying the rest.

Key Features

In order to live up to its design philosophy, the Meraki MS225 is loaded with interesting features.

The switch is controlled through the Cisco Meraki Dashboard, which is designed to simplify network management, reducing labor costs associated with the hardware. The dashboard enables remote packet capture tools that aid with precise management and network optimization.

Further enhancing the ease of use are automatic firmware upgrades and broadcast storm control.

In terms of performance, the switch is built for stackable routing. Each switch has up to 24 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports and 4 10G SFP uplinks. When stacked, the switches can achieve a maximum bandwidth of 80G. PoE and PoE+ configurations are also available, enabling easier network design and providing up to 370W of power per stack.

As far as stacking goes, the MS225 supports both physical and virtual stacking, expanding network options and overall efficiency.

Additionally, the switch is fanless and provides optional redundant power supply options. This makes it quiet, easier to fit into variable networking configurations, and reliable as a backbone networking device.

Common Use Cases

The Meraki MS225 certainly provides good, raw power for networks and can serve as an integral part of networking infrastructure. At the same time, the PoE configurations enable it to fit into a wider range of applications.

Combined with the stacking options, you’ll find that the MS225 really shines in mid-level enterprise operations. Mid-sized businesses that support up to 1,000 users in a single location are served well by the MS225 and the Meraki MS line in general. These uses can include office locations, small campuses, research facilities, manufacturing, and more.

In specific uses, the MS225 does great as a quarterback for surveillance systems; the PoE configurations make it that much easier to run cameras as needed. It also fits nicely into remote monitoring systems and really any network that hybridizes fiber and Ethernet in a relatively even balance.

You may also find the MS225 offloading some work for data centers, but the limitations of the stack prevent it from being a premier data center switch.

Overall, the Meraki MS225 switch is quite flexible, and it can fit into far more networks than not. Whenever efficiency is the primary goal, the MS225 is a serious contender and a switch that offers much to network administrators.

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