Case Study: Essex Property Trust achieves centralized, secure network management and seamless site-to-site VPN with Cisco Meraki

How Essex’s cloud-managed WiFi streamlines property management multi-site network

Essex Property Trust, a REIT managing over 160 apartment buildings and roughly 36,000 units, needed better centralized management and security for its corporate offices and dozens of leasing offices. Director of IT Matt Clark evaluated firewall options from WatchGuard and SonicWALL and selected Cisco Meraki for its MX Security Appliances and cloud-based dashboard to simplify setup, monitoring, and site-to-site connectivity across distributed sites.

Cisco Meraki deployed 180 MX security appliances, 170 MR wireless access points and MS switches, enabling plug-and-play installs via the Meraki dashboard, zero‑configuration site-to-site VPN, and segregated guest Wi‑Fi with Active Directory authentication. The Meraki solution delivered faster, easier rollouts, proactive network visibility, WAN optimization that cut interbranch bandwidth use and sped application performance, and the ability to support growing device counts without increasing IT staff.

Essex Property Trust

Matt Clark

Director of IT