??Let's Get Physical, Physical ?? with Meraki Things (MT)
Gary Daly ?
Helping UAE & Gulf Enterprises & Governments build digital resiliency at scale, using the industry’s largest AI-driven networking platform ?? ?? Cisco Networking .?l?.?l?.
I was reading about Blockbuster vs Netflix recently, and it said that Blockbuster sat in a room back in the day to talk about the threat of their competition (i.e. Netflix). According to their data, it showed that people liked going to their stores at the time. The report said they liked the experience of going to their stores because they liked the ability to open, close and read the back of the DVD cases. They enjoyed the serendipity of possibly running into their neighbour. And finally they really liked picking up popcorn on the way out!
Then the Netflix experience came along with the ultimate user experience - Push one button on your smart TV control and it works!
This made me think about Meraki's new product line Meraki Things (MT) and our signature simplicity message to help businesses get to grips with collecting and optimising data in the physical world with our new line of sensors.
The "T" in MT stands for Things, so think Internet of THINGS (IOT).
Meraki Things are designed to protect existing Meraki customers equipment in the server room and/or the network closet and monitoring their critical IT infrastructure.
We have seven models of cloud-managed sensors:
1. MT10 - Cloud-managed temperature and humidity sensor
The MT10 sensor detects temperature and humidity changes to help protect your critical infrastructure from failed HVAC systems, adverse weather conditions, or humidity issues to reduce network downtime and lengthen equipment life expectancy.
2. MT11 - Cloud-managed temperature probe sensor
Monitor refrigerated environments to proactively identify equipment issues and prevent the loss of perishable goods.
3. MT12 - Cloud-managed water leak detection sensor
The MT12 water leak detection sensor helps protect your critical infrastructure from failed HVAC systems, adverse weather conditions, and leaky pipes that can cause network downtime and equipment failure.
4. MT15 - Tamper-resistant indoor air quality and CO2 sensor
Manage visibly healthy environments for places where focus matters: classrooms, offices, and meeting spaces.
Vape Detection is also a use case with this sensor.
5. MT20 - Cloud-managed open/close sensor
The MT20 open/close sensor detects intrusions, protecting access to critical infrastructure or assets.
6. MT30 - Cloud-managed smart automation button
Want to automate common tasks and trigger actions? No problem––just press the button.
7. MT40 - Cloud-managed smart power controller
Monitor and alert on power usage and remotely control power for connected devices.
The reason Meraki is now operating in this space is simple, and it goes back to our mission statement:
Connecting passionate people to their mission by simplifying the digital workplace.
Work Simple.
We eliminated the need for a physical controller with our WiFi access points and for our Smart Cameras we got rid of an NVR/VMS. The IOT space is our next market to disrupt!
The market is saturated with endless IOT products. Our Director of Product Management, George Bentinck, was at an IOT roadshow and saw a LoRaWAN, wireless connected moustrap ??????!!!
The solutions in this space are complicated to install, unreliable, not scalable and difficult to use.
Customers have to jump through too many hoops! They often have to stand up their own on-premise server and a lot of these will run on old versions of Windows or Linx. And these IT teams are extremely lean. The last thing they want to do is maintain an on-premise server and if it goes down they will lose all visibility of their sensors and it is a nightmare to get it all back up and working again.
The provisioning and setup is complicated and often needs a dedicated SSID to manage only sensors and no other devices can live on that SSID. You have to manually provision IP addresses for the sensors - thats a lot of headache and adds to an already busy work load.
Meraki MT sensors use a network’s existing Meraki MR Wi-Fi 6 access points and the majority of Wi-Fi 5 wave 2 APs or MV smart cameras (2nd generation) as gateways (BLE), automatically connecting and speeding up deployment timeframes (no manual pairing or wiring required).
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BLE gives flexibility in terms of where an IT team wants to move the sensors and of course MT sits on the Meraki dashboard meaning its all under one roof - Sensor, Gateway and Dashboard.
MT sensors use field replaceable AA batteries ?? with up to 5 year battery life. Battery levels are also displayed in the dashboard, making it one less thing to worry about. Each sensor can hold up to 5 days of readings, ensuring that data isn't lost in the event of an outage.
Customers can use the API to access real-time and historical sensor readings. They can automate analysis outside of the dashboard, link to third-party services, and aggregate MT data with information from other business systems (more on that later).
Our sensors have built-in Security. Each Meraki MT sensor features a Trust Anchor module (TAm), which securely authenticates the device and encrypts all communication with the sensor gateways. Combined with automated firmware updates, Meraki MT sensors pack a powerful security punch in a smart package.
Protecting the network closet is the key use case here:
1) Harsh Operating Environments: Dust, lint, smoke and other residue can negatively impact equipment.This can cause unplanned network outages, which lead to downtime and severe business disruptions.
2) Unreliable HVAC Systems: Specific temperature and humidity levels are needed for optimal performance of networking equipment and employee or guest comfort.
System malfunctions can cause outages or premature equipment failure, and poor customer satisfaction.?
We often picture amazing offices with modern HVAC systems and neatly dressed server racks but a lot of businesses can have networking equipment in cabinets and the janitors closet!
High temperature can lead to performance degradation. High humidity can lead to condensation build up which leads to electrical shorts on equipment that could destroy it and low humidity can promote the risk of electrostatic discharge! I won't lie when I heard that I wasn't familiar with it so I googled it and the definition is below:
Electrostatic discharge?(ESD) is the sudden flow of electricity between two electrically charged objects caused by contact, an electrical short, or dielectric breakdown. A buildup of?static?electricity can be caused by tribocharging or by?electrostatic?induction.
3) Extreme Weather: Things like severe weather or leaking pipes can lead to loss of inventory, or network equipment failure.
You claim the serial numbers in the dashboard (scan them on the new app even), push a button and they appear on the dashboard.
4) Distributed and Remote Sites: Remote or distributed sites can make it challenging to monitor equipment, especially without local IT. Lack of visibility makes hard to identify and mitigate issues that could cause equipment failure and network downtime.
Some of our early field trials and BETA customers gave us some of their stories. Todd Shipway is the Director of IT at Bossa Nova. They are the leading provider of real-time, product data for the global retail industry. Now scaling to 1000 stores.
They had an existing sensor solution but they wanted something closer to their existing infrastructure which includes an internet connected HVAC system i.e auto turn on/off HVAC using API integrations.
They are an existing Meraki customer, so this was ideal. They told us a story recently of a power outage. When all the systems came back up and online, the HVAC systems failed to do so and it had a cooling failure. Our MT sensor spotted this and alerted them to it. When they visited the facility, the problem was obvious and they had to open all the windows and doors such was the temperature.
Meraki alerted them to an issue that could have led to $30,000 worth of damage to the equipment and worse still could have lead to downtime and fixing the problem which of course is time and money and we are talking into the hundreds and thousands in terms of cost (Official Case Study Here).
Some additional MT case studies below:
And finally, do you want to see how seamless it is to onboard these MT sensors onto the Meraki dashboard? Take a look at me doing just that. Give me your attention for 3 minutes and I'll onboard a sensor for you! Click play below :-)
You claim the serial numbers in the dashboard (scan them on the new app even), push a button and they appear on the dashboard. Customers can receive alerts via SMS, push notifications, email, or use webhooks to connect to their platform of choice.
This is what the modern day consumer likes and the MT delivers!
Meraki is bringing the simplicity game to IOT and you can trial our MT sensors for free. Go to https://meraki.cisco.com/products/sensors/ for more information.
This post was inspired by Episode 37 of the Meraki Unboxed podcast as well as training from Joe Weiss, our Global Practice Lead - Smart Cameras and Things at Cisco Meraki.
If you got value from this, please share this on LinkedIn!
P.S. More information on the Cisco OT Sensors can be found here: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/cloud-systems-management/industrial-asset-vision/index.html
P.P.S. Sustainability is super important and this Total Economic Impaact (TEI) of the Meraki Sensors is a great read. Click HERE to read it.
Warmest regards,
GD
Cisco Meraki?reduces the skills and overhead needed to manage your IT network through one dashboard. Our networks simply work. Are you working on a networking project? Need to run a proof of concept? Want to see all this in action? Visit?https://meraki.cisco.com/form/trial
Cisco Networking- Healthcare and Local Government
4 年Great article Gary! ??