Comments on: Is Meraki as inexpensive and open-source as it seems?

By: Meraki Seeks Money Making Outlet for Free Wi-Fi - GigaOM

Meraki Seeks Money Making Outlet for Free Wi-Fi - GigaOM — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:31:51 +0000

[...] the last year, the startup has changed its business model several times, from trumpeting cheap hardware and charging a fee to access a dashboard, to tripling the price of its hardware and pushing ads. [...]

By: Recent Links Tagged With "meraki" - JabberTags

Recent Links Tagged With "meraki" - JabberTags — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 02:49:09 +0000

[...] public links >> meraki Is Meraki as inexpensive and open-source as it seems? Saved by pleclerc on Thu 25-9-2008 Meraki Raises Pricing again Saved by Hippopottoman on Tue [...]

By: David

David — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:45:21 +0000

Oops, I didn’t mean to use the double negative… the above should read: “[Cisco] doesn’t tend to lock…”

And, to comment further, it is interesting to think that the founders of Meraki used to be the kind of wifi enthusiasts that they now don’t consider their market, if Alex is correct. Which makes me wonder if their change of heart in favor of ’stronger economics’ is more their idea or that of their investors – and if they actually agree with it.

By: David

David — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:32:41 +0000

Alex, I agree. Though, it could be a short sighted strategy as many of these ‘enthusiasts’ are exactly the people building networks – particularly the community, rural, low-incomes variety which Meraki targets.

To me, comparing Meraki with the other companies and products is a bit unfair. Cisco, for instance, doesn’t tend to not lock anyone into a service and usually supports standards and inter-operates whenever possible. WiMax and the other vendors mentioned serve a different market – back-haul and more industrial. And, I don’t think I’d say people are ‘happy’ with those vendors being closed, but there are less alternatives.

This isn’t the case with WiFi mesh…

By: Alex G

Alex G — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:31:14 +0000

This doesn’t seem nuanced at all. Meraki’s making it clear they are a commercial solution and not an open source project.

Motorola Canopy, Tropos, Cisco, etc. all have the same issues with vendor lock-in and closed wireless protocols. Even WiMax gear which claims to be standards-based doesn’t really work if you mix vendors.

My guess is Meraki figured out how the market of community enthusiasts doesn’t have any money, and that commercial operators don’t place a lot of weight on open protocols (and instead are looking for strong economics).

By: Sascha Meinrath

Sascha Meinrath — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:57:30 +0000

There’s been some lively discussion on the original post along with some clarifications from Meraki. The core problem (of additional costs) remains — but is even more nuanced.

By: David

David — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:17:02 +0000

What happens to all those devices should Meraki go out of business or change their business model? I’m also curious what portion of the technology can’t be open-sourced for competitive reasons… the mesh technology? the remote administrative part? Coming from open-source roots, I’m surprised Meraki is so closed (in source and services).

Which is why there is http://open-mesh.com/

By: Sanjit Biswas

Sanjit Biswas — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:56:25 +0000

Hi Esme,
Our $149/$199 products include the cost of the hosted backend service for the lifetime of the product, so there are no hidden fees or charges. We expect most customers will upgrade to newer radio hardware (802.11n, etc.) every 3-4 years, which is what the article is referring to.

Like most other commercial systems vendors, we’re investing millions of dollars in technology development and are not able to make our systems open source for competitive reasons. However, we are able to focus on making our systems as easy to deploy as possible and providing commercial-grade support, which ends up matching our customers’ needs.

Hope this clarifies things,
Sanjit