A Mist Opportunity

I’ve been trying to broaden my experience with different wireless vendors since taking WiFi seriously. I’ve used Meraki since before they were purchased by Cisco. I remember having a worried call with my AM back when the acquisition was made public pleading with him to reassure me that they weren’t going to get swallowed by them. To be fair to Cisco (and Meraki), Meraki was able to keep some semblance of autonomy and Cisco improved almost everything about Meraki. We currently use Meraki for everything; It’s perfect for us as a VAR/MSP and I’ve honestly never had a major issue with them (admittedly our clients have a majority of Apple clients so they tend to be fairly capable). I also think it helps that the most capable system we’ve used has been Meraki, I don’t know what I’m missing out on from other vendors so I’ve always been happy with what Meraki can do. The only other vendors we’ve used have been ‘cheaper’ alternatives and therefore don’t offer the same level of functionality that Meraki does. Especially when most vendors make it difficult to get to know their hardware. One of the best things Meraki did/does is offer a free AP so you can get ‘hands-on’ experience with their kit. I’ve spoken to lots of Vendors about getting some free kit to test their offerings but none seem to want to let new users explore what they have to offer. Not even an extended trial… often, even if you want to learn about their software and/or hardware you can’t do a free online course you have to sign up for one of their ‘authorised’ training sessions/courses that not only cost money, but more importantly, time during the working week. Vendors really need to start thinking not only about how they can ‘lock in’ existing customers but how they can get in front of new ones. Meraki were/are great at this; free online training - once you want to invest they give you free on-site training (CMNA - also includes a full stack network for your home lab). Other vendors need to pick up the clue phone! It’s ringing and it’s for you!!

Since ‘getting to know’ WiFi I’ve been exposed to extra things that other vendors do. Most of those things (PPSK, Prime, Special Antennas etc.) haven’t been worth the extra setup/maintenance/hassle for me to take the time to invest in what they offer. I’m happy to do this at a later date or if a client has a specific requirement.

Then I heard of Mist…

All aboard the Hype Train!! Choo Choo!!

The first time I heard about Mist was from the Mobility Field Day Videos on YouTube (When I started researching WiFi I devoured almost all the videos on YouTube). The first thing that piqued my interested was the history of Mist and the people behind it. The fact that Bob Friday (formally of Cisco and who was one of the people responsible for Cisco's purchase of Meraki) was at the helm and moving Mist towards all the things I felt Cisco had missed with Meraki (making Meraki ‘truly cloud’ rather than a virtualised controller). By ‘truly cloud’ I mean micro-services and the ability to be agile when rolling out updates etc. The ability to have multiple versions of code running on live instances to see which runs best etc. The ability to use AI and ML to ‘learn’ how things work best and how they can be incrementally improved without big code changes.

So I knew that I wanted to get my hands on some Mist kit. For me, Mist was the evolution of Meraki I’ve been waiting for… I’ve not used Juniper equipment but as soon as Mist can integrate and control their equipment to give us a full-stack controlled by their Micro Services cloud - I think I’ll have what I’ve been looking for! We’ll have to see…

So I dropped a few hints on my blog about wanting to get my hands on their kit. I’ve direct messaged people to get access to Mist kit (thanks @MattStarling for pointing me in the right direction) - I’ve signed up as a reseller with a new Distributor (thanks Nuvius - @nuviasgroup) and completed the Mist University courses.

Eventually, I thought “Screw it, Jussi is a guy that gets S*%t done… I’ll message him!”…

Sure enough, Jussi got back to me straight away and put me in touch with the right people. He was also kind enough to compliment me on my blog and ask if I’d like a free AP to test (because apparently I’m an influencer..). I just wanted to buy one (or three), but a free one sounds amazing! So I finally have an AP41 in my possession… and it’s everything I expected/wanted. I’ll do a more in-depth review of the unit and the dashboard in the near future. It’s replaced the Cambium AP (and the Meraki AP I was using before that) at home and I’ve already noticed a massive change in usability (I was having to restart the Cambium AP quite regularly). Marvis has already alerted me to a few things I wasn’t aware of... I’m also going to purchase a few AP43’s so that I can test them properly and even do some 1:1 tests against the Meraki kit we already use; but so far… I’m very impressed!

If only Meraki hadn’t Mist their opportunity... 😉