Saturday, October 9, 2021

4 years till Meraki renewal: what would you do?

I work at a nonprofit that got one-time COVID-19 funds from the federal government. It was decided, against my opinion, that the funds would be used to upgrade the network infrastructure of the campus (we have 5 buildings). They bought Meraki switches and APs. We previously had Cisco switches and Cisco APs.

In 2020, 5 years of service were bought for the Meraki switches and APs, so we are good until 2025. We have liked Meraki and its interface.

I've done the math, and our annual Meraki costs will be about $60,000 per year starting in 2025. We cannot sustain that. I would say our networking costs need to be more like $20,000 per year in terms of feasibility.

If we don't renew Meraki in 2025, my understanding is that our network becomes a brick.

Besides panicking and looking for a new job, what would you be doing or thinking right now if you were in this position and you had 4 years to do/think about it?



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