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Cisco Meraki Z3 Teleworker (discontinued)

Score9.9 out of 10

10 Reviews and Ratings

What is Cisco Meraki Z3 Teleworker (discontinued)?

Cisco Meraki Z3 Teleworker is an enterprise class firewall, VPN gateway and router. Each model offers five gigabit ethernet ports and wireless for connectivity. Cisco now recommends the Meraki Z4 Teleworker.

Cisco Meraki Z3 Teleworker for your remote workers. No VPN client needed!

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The Cisco Meraki Z3 Teleworker allows you to extend your network to the home office. It makes it easier to control and understand the networking experience of critical employees. Allows for an "always on" experience that makes PC management easier. You can deploy handsets and other components in order to mirror an "in office" type of user experience.

Pros

  • Provide visibility into user home network.
  • "Always on" type of network experience without VPN.
  • Managed and provisioned through the Cisco Meraki dashboard.

Cons

  • Certain functions are not available from command line.
  • Pricing could be lower.
  • Availability varied through the covid pandemic.

Return on Investment

  • Simplified remote network access experience for remote users. No VPN authentication is needed.
  • Additional tools for IT staff to view connectivity from the remote users side.
  • Reduced time to resolve issues for IT staff and the users they support.

A Zero Touch Provisioning Device

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As you know there are a lot of challenges that you need to solve when you have a teleworker. Some of them are: 1.- Zero onsite IT Support 2.- No access to VoIP Telephony (you need VPN) 3.- SaaS Application Performance I would say Cisco Meraki Z3 Teleworker solved these Challenges and others.

Pros

  • Zero Touch Provisioning
  • VPN Device
  • Gateway Device
  • Firewall capabilities

Cons

  • When Internet is lost and come back we need to reset the Z3 device from the dashboard in order to register the IP Phone to CUCM
  • It would be nice to manage the Z3 device to a local web portal just for TS
  • Max Speed 100Mbps. It would be nice if it could run up to 1GB

Return on Investment

  • Good visibility for IT team so we can monitor and validate the teleworker traffic
  • Zero Touch Provisioning so we do not need to send a Engineer to configure it.
  • Consumer-grade network security

Alternatives Considered

Cisco 800 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 800) and Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 4000)

Other Software Used

Cisco 1000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 1000), Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 4000), Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers

Versatile way to connect remote workers to corporate network

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Great product to connect teleworkers to a safe and secured network. The versatility with dual uplink features, utilizing a SIM Card and the existing WAN connection, is a great way to ensure consistent connectivity for remote workers. If you prefer to connect via cable - you got it. If you prefer to connect via WiFi for more flexibility - you got it. Everything is managed and monitored via a single Management Dashboard.

Pros

  • Easy setup for remote worker
  • Versatility with WiFi and cable connections
  • Safe to outages with dual wan setup

Cons

  • No roaming between MR Access Points and Z3
  • No 5G connectivity (already fixed by Z4)

Return on Investment

  • Secure connection for remote users
  • Less connection troubles for remote workers