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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Meraki MX

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ACisco 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.

    $595

    per appliance

    Microsoft Exchange

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Exchange is a secure email / messaging gateway with file archiving and encryption / data loss capability, available as a hosted service (Exchange Online) or installed (Exchange Server).N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco Meraki MXMicrosoft Exchange
    Editions & Modules
    MX64
    $595
    per appliance
    MX67
    $695
    per appliance
    MX68
    $995
    per appliance
    MX84
    $1,995
    per appliance
    MX100
    $4,995
    per appliance
    MX250
    $9,995
    per appliance
    MX450
    $19,995
    per appliance
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Meraki MXMicrosoft Exchange
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    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 MXMicrosoft Exchange
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    For an on-prem system, there's no comparision. Lotus Notes is probably the closest thing but it has some major flaws that we just did not see with Exchange. GroupReady and GroupWise are two products that I've used and/or looked at and didn't come close with the issues we saw.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    96%
    Would buy again
    171 Answers
    94%
    Would buy again
    65 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    160 Answers
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    63 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    167 Answers
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    68 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    145 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    46 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    164 Answers
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    52 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Meraki MXMicrosoft Exchange
    Firewall
    Comparison of Firewall features of Cisco Meraki MX and Microsoft Exchange
    Feature
    Cisco Meraki MX
    7.8
    173 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Microsoft Exchange
    -
    Ratings
    Identification Technologies7.8167 Ratings00 Ratings
    Visualization Tools8.4162 Ratings00 Ratings
    Content Inspection7.7158 Ratings00 Ratings
    Policy-based Controls7.7160 Ratings00 Ratings
    Active Directory and LDAP7.8132 Ratings00 Ratings
    Firewall Management Console7.7158 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting and Logging7.1166 Ratings00 Ratings
    VPN8.6157 Ratings00 Ratings
    High Availability8.5158 Ratings00 Ratings
    Stateful Inspection7.5149 Ratings00 Ratings
    Proxy Server7.188 Ratings00 Ratings
    Secure Email Gateway
    Comparison of Secure Email Gateway features of Cisco Meraki MX and Microsoft Exchange
    Feature
    Cisco Meraki MX
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Exchange
    7.3
    84 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Anti-malware00 Ratings6.567 Ratings
    Customizability00 Ratings8.079 Ratings
    Data Loss Protection00 Ratings8.368 Ratings
    Threat Detection00 Ratings6.566 Ratings
    Sandboxing00 Ratings7.444 Ratings
    End-to-End Encryption00 Ratings6.767 Ratings
    Management Tools00 Ratings8.080 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Meraki MXMicrosoft Exchange
    Small Businesses
    SonicWall NSA Series
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Sophos Email
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
    Score9.6 out of 10
    Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
    Score6.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
    Score9 out of 10
    OpenText Core Email Threat Protection
    Score7.5 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Meraki MXMicrosoft Exchange
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (218 ratings)
    9.0
    (102 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (16 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    9.2
    (13 ratings)
    8.5
    (6 ratings)
    Availability
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.9
    (19 ratings)
    9.9
    (12 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    5.7
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    6.2
    (4 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.9
    (184 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.7
    (3 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.6
    (4 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Meraki MXMicrosoft Exchange
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    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.
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    Microsoft
    Creating and receiving emails is simple. Managing contacts is a nice feature, especially connecting to Active Directory. Calendar management is also helpful and sharing access to others' calendars for scheduling meetings is useful. And reserving resources such as rooms or equipment is also useful. Personal and shared mailboxes are good features, as well. Tasks are a little lacking, but other than that, the features are thorough.
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    Pros
    Cisco
    • 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.
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    Microsoft
    • As we have a large user base of 11,000 users we use MailTips to avoid people getting confused with people with similar names in the organization.
    • The integration between Teams Meeting and Resource booking is generally very good. The Scheduling Assistance makes it easy to scan calendars and find free periods to provisionally scheduled events.
    • Marking yourself as Out of the Office and busy is easy, as is sharing your calendar within the team/organization or individuals.
    • Voicemail integration and the ability to receive missed chats in your inbox are highly used and useful.
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    Cons
    Cisco
    • 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.
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    Microsoft
    • The two main factors for the better reliability & Uptime of internally hosted Exchange Server depends on Exchange Server configuration and the level of investment the organization is willing to provide for hosting the Exchange Server On-Premise Environment. As the data is stored in the organization’s hardware, any disaster may lead to the loss of email and servers.
    • Losing data might affect business continuity and rebuilding it can be costly.
    • Security remains a major concern.
    • Security of data loss is main concern. To ensure that, organization needs to configure networks, systems and Exchange platform against possible threats.
    • Hardware and license costs are high.
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    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
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Email and calendars in a business setting are requirements. And Microsoft continues to be the standard of business applications. Microsoft 365 makes Microsoft Exchange easy to use. Everything is in the cloud. Let Microsoft take care of the hardware, the software, and the security. You just enable your business users with the functionality they need.
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    Usability
    Cisco
    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.
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    Microsoft
    Microsoft Exchange has come a long way over the years and has nowhere near the technical overhead required for support as it did back in 2003/2007 and prior. The integrations with Teams, Defender, Sharepoint, Copilot and many other products make it a solid and well-rounded tool used for many day-to-day tasks.
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    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    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.
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    Microsoft
    Exchange is setup with multiple servers behind load balancers to provide high availability.
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    Performance
    Cisco
    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.
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    Microsoft
    I would say it's the best email product I've experienced.
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    Support Rating
    Cisco
    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
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    Microsoft
    We have a good enterprise agreement with Microsoft which affords us quick phone support. I have found the support staff knowledgeable and prompt with a solution when required. At times it may be difficult to schedule a call back, this is mainly due to our need for calls early in the morning which happens to be during a shift change at Microsoft support.
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    In-Person Training
    Cisco
    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
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    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Cisco
    it was okay as it was moderated but still better than nothing and done via semi self paced webex meeting
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    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    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.
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    Microsoft
    Implementation/conversion can be quite complex and, unless you have certified Exchange administrators in-house, you should strongly consider a 3rd party consultant for this implementation.
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    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    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.
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    Microsoft
    Microsoft Exchange Product The best cloud-based enterprise-grade archiving platform with a host of features that enable files to be securely archived and retrieved with advanced search options. This tool is very easy to use and has a User-friendly interface. It is a highly reliable platform that allows all employees to automatically store their data without any limitations. It offers a cost-effective solution with customized policy management. We are happy that the customer support team is always fast and concerned, and the product's uninterrupted service experience. It is very good that it stores data in real-time without losing it, even in the event of a disaster. The cost-effective solution and integration with other tools are seamless.
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    Scalability
    Cisco
    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
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    Microsoft
    The only time Exchange has failed us is when we did something to cause the failure.
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    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • 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.
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    Microsoft
    • It has been an important factor in allowing seamless communication with clients and scheduling business meetings, which in turn works in the company's favor.
    • Haven't noticed any negative impact Exchange has had on our ROI. The support team is also responsive and helpful.
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