Meraki's New Offerings Spotlight Growth of Ultralight Branch

Privately held Meraki, in extending its line of cloud-managed router/security appliances to include application delivery optimization (ADO) functionality, underscores the rising importance of the ultralight branch. Those responsible for branch IT infrastructure are increasingly interested in Internet-only, low overhead (from a network installation and configuration perspective) branches, to reduce WAN spending and make their branching strategies more agile. Meraki uses a “software as a service” (SaaS) model for management of its branch router/security/ADO appliances, as well as its WLAN switching. By compressing hardware stacks and using SaaS to speed deployment, it clearly hopes to capitalize on growing enterprise interest in ultralight branches.

Impacts:

Enterprise: Look for ways to use SaaS to simplify reduce complexity and cost at the branch.

Vendors: Enterprises love SaaS and deploy it broadly, and expect to deploy a lot more. How can you use it to improve your services and offerings?

Investors: In addition to Meraki, watch privately held Aerohive and PowerCloud.