Meraki Cloud Architecture

Data Centers

Customer management data is replicated across independent same-region data centers in real time. The same data is also replicated in automatic nightly archival backups hosted by in-region third-party cloud storage services. The Meraki cloud does not store customer user data. More information about the types of data that are stored in the Meraki cloud can be found in the “Management Data” section below.

All Meraki services (the dashboard and APIs) are also replicated across multiple independent data centers, so they can failover rapidly in the event of a catastrophic data center failure.

Meraki data centers are located around the world, enabling high-availability local data containment for data sovereignty in sensitive countries and regions, and high-speed connections to facilitate reliable cloud management communication. These data centers hold certifications such as PCI, SAS70 Type II/SSAE, PCI, and ISO27001. More information about cyber security can be found under Hardware and Software Security section below. 

More key data center features include:

• 99.99% uptime service level agreement

• 24x7 automated failure detection

• Real-time replication of data between data centers

• All sensitive data (e.g., passwords) is hashed on servers

To learn more about monitoring, redundancy, disaster recovery, security, etc., reference our data center design page. More details about data center redundancy and reliability is covered in the “Reliability and Availability” section below.

Note: some account and configuration settings are subject to regional export for management. A full list of these settings can be found in our article, Data Stored on the Meraki Primary Controller.

Data Center Locations

Each region (North and South America, Europe, Asia, China, Canada) has, at minimum, a geographically matched pair (for failover) of data centers where any endpoint’s primary Meraki server will be located. The table below details which data centers cover each dashboard region.

Upon account creation, customers can select which region their data is hosted in. For customers with globally dispersed networks, separate organizations should be created for each data storage region (N. and S. America, Europe, Asia, China, and Canada). The hosting region for each account can be found at the bottom of Meraki dashboard pages when a user is signed in.

Data Center Storage

Meraki data centers contain active Meraki device configuration data and historical network usage data. These data centers house multiple compute servers, which are where customers’ management data is contained. These data centers do not store customers’ user data. These data types are covered in more detail in the “Data” section below.

Communication Process

If a device is offline, it will continue to attempt to connect to the Meraki cloud until it gains connectivity. Once the device comes online, it automatically receives the most recent configuration settings from the Meraki cloud. If changes are made to the device configuration while the device is online, the device receives and updates these changes automatically. These changes are generally available on the device in a matter of seconds. However, large quantities of changes may take noticeably longer to reach their devices. If no configuration changes are made by the user, the device continues to periodically check for updates to its configuration on its own.

As the device runs on the network, it will communicate device and network usage analytics back to the Meraki cloud. Dashboard analytics based on this information, in the form of graphs and charts, are updated regularly in the Meraki cloud and are displayed in the dashboard of users when they are viewing this information.

Configuration Containers

Device configurations are stored as a container in the Meraki backend. When a device configuration is changed by an account administrator via the dashboard or API, the container is updated and then pushed to the device the container is associated to via a secure connection. The container also updates the Meraki cloud with its configuration change for failover and redundancy.

Secure Device Connectivity

For devices to communicate with the cloud, Meraki leverages a proprietary lightweight encrypted tunnel using AES-256 encryption while management data is in transit. Within the tunnel itself, Meraki leverages HTTPS and protocol buffers for a secure and efficient solution, limited to 1 kbps per device when the device is not being actively managed.

Configuration Interfaces

Data Center Uplink Connection High Availability

Meraki constantly monitors the connections for integrity using multiple high-speed connections out of its data centers. Meraki network connectivity performs tests for DNS reachability to determine that integrity and data centers will failover to secondary links in the case of a degraded link.

Meraki Server High Availability

A single device connects to multiple Meraki servers at the same time, making sure all data is kept up-to-date in case there is need for a failover. This secondary Meraki server connection verifies device configuration integrity and historical network usage data in the case of a Meraki server failure.

In the event of server failure or connection loss, node connectivity can failover to the secondary server. Upon recovery of the primary server, the connection will be reestablished without noticeable impact to the connecting nodes.

Data Center Backup High Availability

Meraki keeps active customer management data in a primary and secondary data center in the same region. These data centers are geographically separated to avoid physical disasters or outages that could potentially impact the same region. Data stored in these data centers are synced in real time. In the case of a data center failure, the primary data center will fail over to the secondary data center with the most recent configuration stored.

Disaster Recovery Plan

The storage of customer management data and the reliability of its dashboard and API services are primary priorities for Meraki. To help prevent data loss in the event of a disaster, Meraki has multiple major points of redundancy. Each Meraki data center is paired with another data center in the same region. If a data center is completely wiped out, backups can be brought up within minutes at the other in-region data center. Next, if both data centers are impacted, nightly backups hosted in two different third-party cloud storage services, each with their own physical storage redundancies, can be used to recover data.  

Server Data Segregation

User data on Meraki servers is segregated based on user permissions. Each user account is authenticated based on organization membership, meaning that each user only has access to information tied to the organizations they have been added to as users. Organization administrators add users to their own organizations, and those users set their own username and secure password. That user is then tied to that organization’s unique ID, and is then only able to make requests to Meraki servers for data scoped to their authorized organization IDs.

Additionally, the Meraki development teams have separate servers for development and production, so Meraki never uses live customer data for testing or development. Meraki user data is never accessible to other users or subject to development changes.

Network and Management Data Segregation

The Meraki “out of band” control plane separates management data from user data. Management data flows from Meraki devices (e.g. wireless access points, switches, and security appliances) to the Meraki cloud over a secure internet connection. User data (network traffic, web browsing, internal applications, etc.) does not flow through the Meraki cloud, and instead flows directly to the destination on the LAN or across the WAN.

Network Usage Data Retention

Meraki stores management data such as application usage, configuration changes, and event logs within the backend system. Customer data is stored for 14 months in the EU region and for 26 months in the rest of the world. Meraki data storage time periods are based on year-over-year reporting features in the dashboard (12-month periods), plus additional time to ensure data is removed from Meraki backups upon deletion (two months). Meraki uses a proprietary database system to build up easily searchable and referenceable data.

Segregated User Assets

Meraki stores customer-uploaded assets such as custom floor plans and splash logos. These items are leveraged within the Meraki dashboard for only that specific customer network and therefore are segmented securely based on standard user permissions tied to organization or network ID access. Only users authenticated to access the host network are able to access uploaded assets.

Data Security

All data transported to and from Meraki devices and servers is transported via a secure, proprietary communications tunnel (see the “Secure Connectivity” section above). Communications data is encrypted in transit via this tunnel. All client-management connections (dashboard/API) to the Meraki cloud have secure TLS encryption for all application traffic.

Additionally, Meraki data backups are fully encrypted using AES-256 and have restricted access (see the “Physical and Operational Internal Security” section).

Data Privacy

Connecting to a cloud solution entails storing specific data in the cloud for easy use and access. To maintain integrity and security, a cloud infrastructure must take into account the sensitivity and compliance rules of that data. Specific industries and geographies have laws to protect the user data that Meraki addresses through our flexible cloud infrastructure.

Meraki embeds privacy by design in its product and feature development as well as business practices. Privacy is an integral piece of the Meraki design process and is a consideration from initial product design all the way through to product implementation. Meraki offers a full suite of privacy-driven features to all customers globally. These features allow our customers to manage privacy requirements and help support their privacy initiatives. Customers can read more about some of the Meraki privacy features in our Data Privacy and Protection Features article.

Hardware and Software Security

Meraki leverages technology such as secure boot, firmware image signing, and hardware trust anchors as part of the Cisco Secure Development lifecycle to maintain hardware and software integrity.

Physical and Operational Internal Security

Meraki is committed to maintaining user security by providing mandatory operational security training for all employees. Formal information security awareness programs have been put in place for all employees. In addition, all employees and contractors are required to comply with Cisco’s background check policy and are bound by the Meraki information security policy and industry standard confidentiality agreements.

Remote access to Meraki servers is done via IPSec VPN and SSH. Access is scoped and restricted by our internal security and infrastructure teams based on strict rules for business need.

For access to Meraki cloud servers, databases, and code, there are role-based access models for user access and specific permissions in place. Two-factor authentication is enforced for all users who have access to these systems, both internally and remotely.

Physical access to the Meraki cloud infrastructure is secured at all hours, by guard service patrols, and contains external and internal video surveillance with real-time monitoring. For physical access, all data centers have a high-security key card system and biometric readers. Access to these data centers is only given to users with a business need to access, leveraging PKI and two-factor authentication for identity verification. This access is limited to a very small number of employees and user access is audited monthly.
 

Please note that this reference guide is provided for informational purposes only. The Meraki cloud architecture is subject to change.