Cisco Meraki SM vs. JumpCloud

The free tier of Meraki SM was excellent and we used it for a few years. We now use the paid version. Meraki SM is excellent for schools that need to manage large amounts of iPads without needing to maintain physical contact with them. We are a small primary school on a single site however Meraki SM is able to handle larger sites. Devices are able to be configured so that the permissions are automatically set depending on the current user, or the current location. This allows for excellent customization. In my experience, Meraki SM works best when used with iPads. It does have some features for managing other devices but I have not used it for this.

Incentivized

JumpCloud is least suited in situations where you have few devices, but lots of users. JumpCloud heavily focuses on the "One-User-One-Device" type of use, and does lack some of the features things like Active Directory is better suited for when having multiple users accessing one machine. Their Powershell APIs are fantastic and getting only more powerful. Lots of features are hidden behind these APIs, so admins not as familiar with Powershell would have more issues leveraging these tools. BYOD deployments are amazing, especially for macOS devices that are using Apple Business Manager and can leverage Zero Touch deployments. It is especially good at handling mixed systems, whereas other options, such as Jamf, are really suiting only for macOS, or Intune is more suited for Windows; JumpCloud managed to handle both systems well.

• We can create templates for our mobile devices that make new hardware deployments a breeze.
• Pushing out new with Apple Business Manager is easy and efficient.
• We get tons of real-time information on our devices and useful historical information and logs.
• Kiosk and Single App mode is great for single purpose tablets.

Incentivized

• User Management - The ability to control our users and set password/polices is made easy in the JC console
• Device Management - Using JC each user is assigned to their own device with only the rights to do their job - When elevated rights are required, this is done simply via the JC console for the period of time required
• SSO - Using JC's SAML SSO integrations we are building out our SSO offering and this is making for a much simpler daily user experience

Incentivized

• Currently the application addition to Meraki has gone through some changes that make it not as user friendly as it used to be but has improved some areas of the function such as easy of deployment.
• It would be nice to have the ability to reset a users password from the control panel. This function is currently missing.
• Some of the navigation within the panel is not the best. It is a little obscure at times where you need to go for certain functions. For instance, to manage users, instead of a nav feature just saying, Manager Users, you have to know to click on a link simply called, "General". This could be improved.

Incentivized

• SSO via OpenID - Opening up their SSO from just SAML to including OpenID (OAuth) would allow us to make more use of the service and to also incorporate it into some internal testing suites
• Time Limited User Elevation - The ability to time limit a users elevation of privileges would be a great addition
• Extending device management to include LPA - Least Privilege Access is becoming a bigger ask from our external auditors - Being able to do this via JC would be amazing

Incentivized

It has is easy to use overall and is very powerful. The learning curve for the system is very small and I have found it easy to train members of our team to use it. It can fit any size organization and the support is excellent. The ROI is well worth it. If you have a multiplatform ecosystem, this tool is near perfect.

Incentivized

It's simple. I like how JumpCloud keeps things simple. Similar to Apple's ecosystem, they give you what you want with some extra features and bells and whistles but it doesn't take a large instruction manual to use it. They have the support system and KB articles to back up their product and learn about a feature and how to implement it

Incentivized

We have found that Cisco Meraki has always had very good customer support. In the rare case, when we have needed assistance they have always been quick to respond and solve the issue.

Incentivized

We have their premium support. Not only is the support great, but our SAM / Account manager directs any questions or updates to the proper channels and gets us the needed info and solution quickly. Due to this, we find JumpCloud to exceed our expectations and puts us at ease that our Foundation Tech Solution is VERY reliable.

Incentivized

Being responsible for choosing the product after a POC and pilot we found the process to be simple and effective

Incentivized

I used TechPilot to manage mobile devices which was a great product and had some useful features. I say had, because after it was purchased by Securly the software support and functionary went downhill fast. Securly MDM is an inferior product.

Incentivized

Incentivized

It’s scalable up to a point and will scale well from small to a medium business, however, as a business grows and policies get more mature or detailed, you might have to later upgrade to a more appropriate enterprise solution such as MaaS360 or AirWatch. This solution however, will last quite a long tome for a growing business.

Incentivized

• It has come in handy several times, especially when it comes to remotely wiping a device that was lost or stolen.
• This has allowed us to push applications to devices, which helps our employees to have easy access to tools related to Healthcare and Business Expense tracking.
• Meraki Systems Manager is excellent at allowing us to remotely administer our wireless access points, but has been a source of frustration (at times) when trying to use as an MDM solution.

Incentivized

• Very easily add, or disable employee logins
• Reduce "password fatigue" by being able to reduce password expiration requirements, and having single sign on
• Higher security and visibility of security issues
• Reduced onboarding time from days to minutes
• Enabled easy reassignment of user accounts to another user via groups when employees leave
• Quick securing of terminated users, or otherwise compromised accounts
• Reduced user disablement time from previous manual methods requiring days, to literal minutes