If you manage a Cisco network, you likely have an underused management platform at your disposal. Maybe it came bundled with a licensing agreement. Maybe it was part of a refresh project that moved fast, and the management layer got configured just enough to work. Either way, the dashboard is there. The question is whether it is actually working for you.We see this constantly.
A customer has Cisco Catalyst 9000 switches across their campus and Cisco Meraki access points in their branch offices. They have two management platforms available to them: Cisco Catalyst Center for their on-premises infrastructure and the Meraki dashboard for their cloud-managed devices. Both are powerful. Both are underutilized.
And in most cases, nobody has sat down to figure out which one should be doing what.
That’s the conversation we want to have.
Here is the thing most network teams already know but rarely talk about: Cisco’s networking portfolio is not a single management experience. Catalyst Center and the Meraki dashboard serve different parts of the network, and they operate on fundamentally different models.
Catalyst Center is your on-premises controller. It handles network assurance, policy automation, and software image management across Catalyst switches, routers, and wireless controllers. If you are running a campus with Catalyst 9300 switches and 9800 wireless controllers, this is where your automation and visibility live.
The Meraki dashboard is cloud native. It manages Meraki switches, access points, security appliances, and cameras from a single browser-based interface. If you have branch offices running Meraki MX appliances and MR access points, this is your operational hub.
The complexity shows up when your network includes both. And for a lot of organizations, especially those that have grown through acquisitions, expanded into new locations, or refreshed parts of their infrastructure at different times, that is exactly where they land.
Running both platforms is not inherently problematic. The challenge lies in doing so without a defined operational model for each.
We have worked with customers who have Catalyst Center deployed but are only using it for device inventory. The assurance features, the policy automation, the software lifecycle management: all sitting idle.
On the Meraki side, we see organizations managing hundreds of access points through the dashboard but handling firmware updates manually because nobody configured the maintenance windows.
The missed opportunity is not the technology. It is the gap between what the platform can do and what your team has time to configure. Most IT teams are not short on capability. They are short on hours.
When we work with a customer on their management platform strategy, we start with what is already deployed. Not what could be deployed. Not what a roadmap says. What is actually on the network today.
From there, we map the environment against both platforms’ strengths: Catalyst Center for sites with Catalyst infrastructure where you need automation, assurance, and policy consistency. Meraki Dashboard for locations where cloud-managed simplicity and fast provisioning matter most.
For customers with both, we define the operational boundary: which platform owns which sites, which workflows run where, and how the two coexist without creating blind spots.
The engineering happens before anything changes on the network. We validate configurations, test policy behavior, and document the operational model so your team knows exactly what each platform is doing and why.
What’s Next?
If you’re running Cisco networking infrastructure and are not sure whether you’re getting full value from Catalyst Center, the Meraki dashboard, or both, we can help you figure that out. No pressure, no pitch. Just an honest assessment of where you are and what the platforms can actually do for your specific environment.
LookingPoint is a Cisco Preferred Networking Partner with 16 years of Cisco deployment experience. We support organizations with networking, security, collaboration, and compute, and our engineering team works directly with Cisco platforms every day.
Ready to optimize your network management? Email us at sales@lookingpoint.com to schedule a personalized assessment with our team.