Mr. Perkin wanted a solution that provided centralised management and could control bandwidth at the student level. After a number of conversations with his peers and resellers, they decided to test out the Meraki platform, starting with the Meraki MX security appliance. They were immediately impressed by Meraki since they could manage their whole network, including Layer 7 traffic shaping from an easy to use web-based dashboard.
The team wanted to manage traffic and bandwidth per application by using Layer 7 traffic shaping rules, rather than having to cut off access to applications. “Instead of shutting off Facebook, for example, we want the ability to manage the bandwidth used by Facebook. That way, the kids can still use Facebook, but they only use limited bandwidth,” said Mr. Perkin.
His team wanted to manage their whole network for a large and distributed campus on a single dashboard to have ease of management and troubleshooting that they can do from their desks.
Cisco Meraki connects your campus with reliable wired connections and always-on wireless coverage
Read: 8 Reasons Why K-12 IT Teams Use Meraki
