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Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points vs. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/ACisco's Meraki MR Series is a wireless LAN solution.N/A

    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint (formerly Microsoft Defender ATP) is a holistic, cloud delivered endpoint security solution that includes risk-based vulnerability management and assessment, attack surface reduction, behavioral based and cloud-powered next generation protection, endpoint detection and response (EDR), automatic investigation and remediation, managed hunting services, rich APIs, and unified security management.

    $2.50

    per user/per month

    Pricing
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Academic
    $2.50
    per user/per month
    Standalone
    $5.20
    per user/per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    Chose Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points are very easy to install, configure, and manage. Centralized management offers excellent features, and especially if you have multiple locations where the access points are installed, they're very easy to manage, saving you a lot of time. …
    Incentivized
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    158 Answers
    96%
    Would buy again
    157 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    145 Answers
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    146 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    161 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    155 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    140 Answers
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    130 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    99%
    Implementation went as expected
    153 Answers
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    140 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
    Endpoint Security
    Comparison of Endpoint Security features of Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
    Feature
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
    8.7
    79 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Anti-Exploit Technology00 Ratings9.075 Ratings
    Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)00 Ratings9.179 Ratings
    Centralized Management00 Ratings8.679 Ratings
    Hybrid Deployment Support00 Ratings7.110 Ratings
    Infection Remediation00 Ratings9.077 Ratings
    Vulnerability Management00 Ratings8.774 Ratings
    Malware Detection00 Ratings9.278 Ratings
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    User Ratings
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (176 ratings)
    8.9
    (169 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.5
    (7 ratings)
    8.4
    (10 ratings)
    Usability
    8.5
    (12 ratings)
    8.6
    (40 ratings)
    Availability
    7.7
    (2 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.9
    (28 ratings)
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.2
    (3 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    7.1
    (2 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    7.1
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.9
    (112 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    7.7
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.1
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access PointsMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    There is no doubt that these access points are objectively some of the best in the industry. If you need reliability, stability, range, and something to "set and forget" these are an easy choice for those things alone. However, these are most appropriate in high demand, large environments where you can take advantage of the RF tuning, wireless stability, and overall robustness of the platform. Another important note is the SUPPORT as well. There are competitors that I won't mention that simply don't have the level of support and expertise for complex troubleshooting if you ever need it, and that alone counts as significant factor when considering the product too. Merak has that covered.
    To wrap up, the cost for large deployment makes far more sense than at a small operation where you need something like 5 APs in a small/medium office for basic Wi-Fi needs. That includes potential cost of time spent troubleshooting future network issues too by IT personnel.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    If you have multiple endpoints in your environment, if you're looking to understand what your environment looks like, if you're trying to identify the health of your environment, or identify any risks or vulnerabilities in your environment pertaining to your endpoints and devices.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • It's cloud based, so as long as we have an internet connection, we can access it. Whenever we push a change, it's one stop like a single pane of glass to manage all our equipment. And so that's what I liked about it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • The big thing for us is on endpoint, it kind of integrates with everything else that we already have because we use Microsoft completely. And so that helps us with being able to integrate, and send things over to Azure Sentinel as we need to as well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • Internet connection dependency for management. Management is cloud-based, requiring a strong internet connection. Local management is not possible in the event of network problems or internet outages.
    • Limited in-depth configuration options. Some more detailed configuration settings are missing or difficult to configure, such as RF tuning and QoS. These are available in some other Cisco products.
    • License costs: an active license must always be present in the environment, otherwise the product won't work. It's easy to purchase, but if you're going to be expanding regularly, the costs will add up considerably. Ultimately, it's wise to factor this into your purchase.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • I'd say building out summaries and log reviews for analysts reviewing incidents. So, pivoting from the alerts themselves to actually getting the detail underneath. Trying to understand what caused an alert, where they went from there, et cetera, et cetera. And then trying to get into deeper log review to take that investigation further can be a pain point.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    It is a solution that works very well. It is almost like setup and forget, since the solution works. When issues occur, documentation is available with detailed steps on how to solve this problems you are facing, of course Technical Support is always ready to help. We have had instances where an Access Point fails and within 2 days we have the replacement
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Cost add-ons for Security features is nickel and diming the process to keep pace with cybercrime. Limited Education budgets require us to be more pro-active in finding cost-effective measures to protect our devices, staff and students. Defender is a strong, well-featured product that is pricing itself out of the education market
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Cisco
    To get basic functionality doesn't take long. Set up a new Meraki Dashboard activate the licenses and get internet connection for the APs and you are more or less done. The Dashboard will find your items and you're good to go.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Because it's hard to find things sometimes. I can find things now because I know where they are. But you have to work with it a little while to figure out how. I'd basically say it was a security tool designed by developers. So you have to get that mindset to find things. So a new hire, a new person in the SOC would have a difficult time. I know that's sitting in here, or that screen is in here somewhere. So it's gotten better.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    We have been deploying Meraki since last 8 years and even the first one deployed seems to be working fine till now!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint chugs along just fine no matter what we throw at it and what systems it's running on. It doesn't take up a lot of resources either, so that's welcomed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is easy on memory and resources on clients.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    We have not had any issues with the Meraki WiFi Access Point hardware but we did encounter a problem with a Meraki LAN switch that failed to power up. Upon a email into the Meraki Support, they promptly called back and we went over some quick tests to determine a power supply problem. A replacement LAN switch was sent to me the next day.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    The first time I tried to onboard my macOS endpoints to MDE I struggled for quite a bit. I had to reach out to Microsoft's MDE support team. The tech was very helpful in walking me through the steps during a screen share session
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    There were documents that detailed how the WiFi Access Point was to be installed and mounted. The only issue was to cable the device, we use a third party for this type of work and typically has to be performed after normal business hours. Other than that, the installation was easy.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Deployment was handled by our team here and everything went pretty smoothly. We did have a few hiccups in our test group, but that only took a bit to get ironed out.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    The Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points fare really well against HPE Aruba AP. The cost difference is minimal on the hardware although things get more expensive on support and subscription cost (on going cost). Speed and throughput seems to be better on Cisco Meraki (user feedback and experience not technically measured). User connectivity is better with HPE Aruba primarily because of the Clearpass solution on top of its generic software management.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Particularly, we're evaluating Symantec Endpoint Protection, the commercial version. We've looked at eSet, a couple of the others, and it's much too heavy or difficult to manage, things like that. Ease of use, ease of integration. It's already there. It's super easy to update it with the regular OS updates and everything. So we can manage it whether we're using SCCM or Intune or Dato, it's very easy to deploy updates and manage things.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Cisco
    As far as I know, it's 10. I mean, because like I said, I manage stuff in the south. I have coworkers that manage it in the north. And so the scalability of it to be able to be go in and see the configurations of the ones in the north as well as they can see in the south. So across the board, it works really well for how widespread out it is.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is easily scaled from small orgs to giant enterprises.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Uptime has improved significantly. The dashboard automatically keeps devices up to date by scheduling upgrades at remote times (say 2am on a Sunday)
    • Swapping to Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points has reduced the management overhead. No more long controller software hardware upgrades and obviously no more need for beefy central controllers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • I think the positive impact overall is that we do a lot of sitting in front of assessors- federal assessors, government assessors. And it really comes down to when the assessor has to think about another product that you're bringing in that's not Microsoft, it creates a lot of confusion, more paperwork, more explanation. But the positive impact is that they know it, everybody kind of knows Microsoft. And so when you tell them you have this endpoint for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, they're like, okay. The questions go away, and it makes the overhead a lot less during an assessment.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points Screenshots

    Screenshot of MR57 Cisco Meraki Access Point

    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Screenshots

    Screenshot of blocked activitiesScreenshot of Detects & respondsScreenshot of discovers vulnerabilityScreenshot of Eliminates blind spotsScreenshot of Risk management