Cisco Meraki MX Firewalls is a combined UTM and Software-Defined WAN solution. Meraki is managed via the cloud, and provides core firewall services, including site-to-site VPN, plus network monitoring.
The MX is useful for small-medium deployments and for easy, non complex deployments. Catalyst SD-WAN is useful for any size and any type of deployments. It is a lot more flexible
Cisco CVO (MEVO)
As previously mentioned we needed to manually configure each one which would take 15-20 minutes per device and needed to be done on-site. These devices can also go down more frequently after power outages and other incidents, and we've seen them not come back …
Full Meraki stack guarantees perfect interoperability and reduces integration issues. We migrated from competitor products in the past and interoperability was a constant challenge. Being able to standardize configurations across the deployment is extremely valuable and cost …
Z4 Teleworker Gateway is a suitable alternative for very small offices or homework stations. It offers the possibility of SD-WAN, LAN and WLAN capabilities. Functionality is of course slightly limited compared to a full stack Meraki environment, but is still a very viable …
Secure firewall provides a more complete featureset but is challenging to adopt and even that product has some weird limitations (like DHCP scope options being global...).
FortiGate also brings a complete set and e have engineers who are skilled at it. The only thing where …
Main difference is compute / horse power but all the MXs comes with the same feature no matter if we use the smallest appliance or the high end / top of the line model.
Cisco Meraki is cheaper that other next gen firewall and having almost every feature which is required.Apart from that it is fully cloud managed and others are such that we need to have console access or access through ssh to do any changes required in network.cost is major …
The Meraki MX lineup is well suited for organizations that need centralized management of multiple locations, as it allows for both quick deployment and simple/easy remote administration all from a single pane of glass. It also works very well for providing VPN access for remote workers and helps monitor end-device uptime. It does, however, fall a bit short in its firewall's customization, compared to traditional appliances (like our WatchGuard Firebox), so perhaps less suited for organizations that need more customization, as the Meraki MX lineup is primarily designed for simplicity and straightforward cloud-based management.
The Cisco Meraki MX series is phenomenal at allowing us to remotely manage networks. So the devices usually act as the brain behind our client's networks, which makes it really, really easy for our team to take a look at what's going on in those client network environments, resolve any issues, and make sure that our client's networks are staying secure.
Layer seven firewall rules. Just making them more granular. We've been in meetings with Cisco SES where I've said feature requests many times and that's one of the big ones where it's just a little cumbersome to implement layer seven rules right now.
Just making them more granular. We've been in meetings with Cisco SES where I've said feature requests many times and that's one of the big ones where it's just a little cumbersome to implement layer seven rules right now.
The simplicity and ease of use for the Meraki Dashboard make it an easy choice for our organization to renew our Meraki Enterprise Agreement. We will likely continue using the Meraki MC67-C, MX450, and other MX models in their catalog until we shift away from Meraki completely
Some features simply aren't there, but the ones that are there are pretty easy to use. Sometimes it is easy to get lost when trying to find the specific device you want to work on, but that's mostly due to how rarely we have to go into the interface.
Meraki MX devices support high availability (HA) configurations, which ensures minimal downtime if one device goes offline. This feature has helped us maintain a stable and reliable network, even in cases of hardware failures. ince Meraki is cloud-managed, we've noticed that the cloud infrastructure is generally highly reliable, with minimal service interruptions or downtime. This makes it easier to manage the network remotely without significant availability concerns. Meraki automatically pushes firmware updates and patches, which helps maintain system stability without requiring manual intervention. These updates are rolled out in a manner that ensures minimal disruption to service.
The interface is pretty responsive. The lower end devices are easy to overwhelm if you have a lot of throughput. Be sure the model you get is rated for the amount of traffic you will have. Overbuild if possible, otherwise you won't be fully leveraging the connection from your ISP.
I haven't ever had a bad experience with Meraki support. On the few occasions where I wasn't understanding the UI or needed some clarification about what a setting actually would do, I contacted them and they were very quickly able to provide help. Returns are simple and fast, too. We had to return a defective device one time and they shipped the replacement before we had even un-racked the one that was faulty. Unlike many other vendors, they didn't ask use to a do long list of scripted diagnostics, they just took my word for it that the device was broken and sent out a replacement immediately
great when they offered it, really tested your knowledge with hands on and see what your peers from other orgs know. glad to see that we were ahead of the curve of what our peers knew
Implementing Meraki MX devices in phases—starting with a pilot group or select branch offices—was invaluable. This allowed us to identify potential configuration issues, troubleshoot problems, and refine our setup before rolling it out company-wide. It also helped to get feedback from early users and adjust the deployment strategy accordingly. The SD-WAN capabilities in Meraki MX were essential for optimizing our WAN traffic and ensuring better application performance across various locations.
Cisco CVO (MEVO) As previously mentioned we needed to manually configure each one which would take 15-20 minutes per device and needed to be done on-site. These devices can also go down more frequently after power outages and other incidents, and we've seen them not come back online. These devices are also much larger.
We started only with the Main Meraki MX85 in our enterprise for our main hub, then we started adding remote sites with Meraki MX 68 and connected to our Main hub. Adding more sites and scaling the network is easy, and improving our connectivity saves time and cost to manage, or adding manpower with only 1 dashboard can manage all applications. Scaling and flexibility to change or expand our network are easy thanks to Meraki MX features
From a positive impact? Basically it allows us to set up shop very quickly. It allowed us to add sites to our network very quickly. From a negative perspective, I think the only thing is that I can see from a negative perspective is I have a preference to working with ACLI in terms of how I engage with the youth tool At the moment, the only way to actually engage with a tool is on a gui and sometimes what I'd actually like is more detailed information in terms of actual configuration that you'll actually get out of ACLI.
