Meraki Debuts First Cloud-Based Application Traffic Shaper

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 11. Meraki, the cloud-based wireless networking company, today announced the launch of Meraki Traffic Shaper, an application aware bandwidth control system integrated with Meraki's wireless networking solutions. Traffic Shaper is the first cloud-managed traffic shaper, as well as the first intelligent bandwidth control to be integrated into a wireless LAN. It enables administrators to see precisely how their network is being used, and to reserve bandwidth for critical applications while restricting recreational network usage.

  Traffic Shaper enables administrators to:
  --  Analyze network traffic by application or application class
  --  Enforce traffic shaping policies (e.g., limit each user's peer to peer
      traffic)
  --  Stay up to date with hundreds of constantly updated application
      signatures
  --  Prioritize critical applications using QoS policies

Wireless LANs have become a critical part of a network infrastructure. Yet mission-critical applications increasingly compete with bandwidth-intensive recreational applications like video streaming and peer-to-peer file. The result? The ability to intelligently control wireless traffic translates directly to business application performance.

While dedicated traffic shaping appliances are available, they come at a considerable cost - often tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars - and require yet another solution to be deployed, maintained, and managed. Integrating Traffic Shaper directly into the wireless LAN provides intelligent bandwidth control with no additional cost and complexity.

Traffic Shaper's cloud-based signature database is constantly updated, enabling Traffic Shaper to identify new and changing applications without requiring the administrator to download and install software updates. Meraki's cloud-based architecture also enables Traffic Shaper to continually learn from Meraki's 15,000+ networks and millions of users, increasing the accuracy and precision of application fingerprints.Traffic Shaper operates through a custom-built layer 7 packet inspection engine running on each Meraki 802.11n access point. Meraki Traffic Shaper recognizes hundreds of applications, including recreational applications such as YouTube and BitTorrent, and business applications like Salesforce.com and Google Apps. Traffic Shaper provides extensive visibility and control into network usage. Administrators may view and control bandwidth consumption by application, by content type (e.g. video, audio, text), and by user. Meraki Traffic Shaper runs at line rate, with no loss of performance.

Traffic Shaper has been beta-tested by a number of Meraki Enterprise customers, including Stanford University's Computer Science department, Foster Pepper PLLC, and Sweet Briar College.

"For wireless-heavy campuses like ours, this is an essential tool for managing bandwidth," said Aaron Mahler, Director of Network Services at Sweet Briar College. "As we move critical applications for staff and faculty to the cloud, we have to ensure uninterrupted access to these tools while maintaining a quality experience for recreational users. Traffic Shaper empowers us with detailed knowledge of how people are actually using the network so we can make educated decisions when it comes time to add bandwidth."

"With the proliferation of business-critical web applications, and bandwidth-intensive recreational applications spilling over to business and campus networks, application-aware bandwidth control is a key to a high-performance wireless network," says Meraki CEO Sanjit Biswas. "Traffic Shaper is a huge step forward in enabling administrators to understand and control what is flowing over their networks Our cloud-based architecture lets us deliver features like Traffic Shaper without adding cost or complexity to our customers' networks."

Traffic Shaper will be available for use by all Meraki Enterprise customers, with no additional hardware or software, and at no additional cost. Traffic Shaper is currently in beta, and will be generally available September 30.