What Cisco Meraki Is Used for And Why Every Small Business Needs to Know

In today’s dynamic business world, every business owner must protect their business virtually in all aspects. Maintaining a secure, stable network with multiple vulnerable areas is often difficult.

As your business expands, every new location has vulnerabilities in:

• User access control
• Data protection
• Device compatibility

By adopting innovative technology, small business owners can protect their hard work. However, most people find it challenging due to inadequate IT infrastructure and resources.

Cisco Meraki exists to assist small businesses such as yours to enhance security and boost your response in case of a security incident. It has easy-to-use and simplified tools that even small IT teams can handle.

Let’s discuss what you can use Cisco Meraki for and what you should know as a small business owner.

What is Cisco Meraki?

Cisco Meraki consists of a comprehensive suite of Network and IT solutions, including:

• Firewalls
• Switches
• Wireless
• CCTV

Cisco Meraki leverages cloud capabilities to ensure exceptional services. The cloud-based dashboard interface makes it easy to manage all these individual solutions.

As a small business owner, Cisco Meraki is an excellent way to be proactive in ensuring adequate security and optimizing efficiency in your business processes.

You can use a browser to configure security for your:

• WiFi networks
• Firewalls
• Routers
• Internet-connected devices
• Switches

Instead of managing these endpoints individually, our team at Crescent Tek will leverage Cisco Meraki to update and configure all of them from one platform.

How Does Cisco Meraki Work?

Cisco Meraki enables small businesses to expand, minimize operational costs, and streamline operations.

Meraki products have integrated security and networking features and are fully Cloud-managed. These devices use a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to connect automatically to the Cisco Meraki Cloud.

The built-in intelligence tools allow you or your network manager complete visibility of the WiFi network usage. You can access all aspects, including the browsing activity of any user on the network.

Cisco Meraki Security solutions have Layer 7 visibility tech to optimize security. You can implement restrictions that make it easier to control the network bandwidth in case of overloading.

You can also monitor traffic to determine the areas that slow down the network.

Cisco Meraki also allows you to set rules and policies to limit access to certain websites or applications for a duration or permanently. It’s an excellent way to enhance productivity and efficiency while monitoring your team’s performance.

What Every Small Business Needs to Know

Every business aims to improve connectivity and performance to maintain a competitive edge. However, most small business owners neglect to work with Cyber Security Companies. They fail to realize that security determines the success of all these aspects.

Cisco Meraki provides a cost-effective and efficient solution to the security challenge, and here’s how: 

Supporting Your IT Team

IT management is often a burden that can affect your business growth. Most small businesses either lack the workforce or resources to maintain an in-house IT team.

Cisco Meraki eliminates the challenge of managing your network. The tools are easy to use, enabling the handling of most processes with a small IT team.

At Crescent Tek, we’ll take care of the installation so you and your team can focus on other essential aspects of your business. We’ll use Cisco Meraki to simplify setting up and configuring cloud networks using zero-touch provisioning.

Enhanced Access Visibility

Cisco Meraki makes it possible to control your network on one management interface. This means all elements of your IT infrastructure work in harmony. You gain a comprehensive real-time view of your network, which allows you to leverage new insights.

Easy Network Management

Traditionally, fixing network issues or network management requires the physical presence of an IT expert. The Cisco Meraki dashboard is cloud-based and accessible via any internet-connected device. It gives you the ability to access real-time network performance. You can observe the bandwidth usage by specific applications, ports, and appliances.

Our experts in New Orleans will leverage these insights, making it easy to optimize your network capabilities.

Easier Troubleshooting

Network issues are often challenging to identify and resolve due to limited visibility. With Cisco Meraki, you can receive alerts or notifications in case of any network issues.

You’ll also have access to effective troubleshooting tools that help to address the particular issue. This allows you to swiftly fix the problem from any location on any internet-connected device.

Enhanced Security

In any business, it’s essential to maintain high-security levels. It’s the only way to ensure consistent uptime and productivity. This requires you to be aware of potential threats and device activity which involves regular software updates.

Cloud-managed networks eliminate these challenges by combating security threats and ensuring network visibility.

The updates are automatic, and it’s easy to enforce security policies from a simple dashboard. Cisco Meraki Security features that protect your network such as:

• Enhanced firewall policies and security options.
• Anti-virus and anti-phishing services
• Automatic intrusion detection and prevention
•  Advanced malware protection

• Content filtering tools
• Data encryption with Auto VPN

You can deploy security apps and automate and synch them using zero-touch cloud provisioning.

Managing your Bottom Line

As a small business owner, it’s essential to consider your IT investment’s total cost of ownership (TCO). Most people only consider the initial hardware and software installation costs.

Although these are essential, you must also consider the recurrent maintenance and support costs. These costs significantly affect your bottom line with time.

A managed cloud network minimizes the recurrent costs and TCO within a short duration. Our New Orleans team understands that your bottom line matters. We guarantee high-quality, cost-effective solutions.

Scalability

Cisco Meraki is cloud-based, which allows you to scale your business and security measures quickly. It gives you access to unlimited tools and resources to accommodate your business growth on demand.

If you need to add new devices, the Meraki dashboard allows you to add them to your existing network. They inherit the security policies, subnets, and other properties, resulting in easy setup.

Experience Growth Without Limits

Cisco Meraki suits any business, especially small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). It eliminates the need for an elaborate IT team and vast resources to manage the network.

At Crescent Tek, we understand your IT needs are unique, so we’ll focus on offering cost-effective solutions that suit your business needs. Get in touch with us, and discover business growth without limits.