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.
$595
per appliance
SonicWall NSA Series
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
The SonicWall NSA Series is the company's mid-range next generation firewall (NGFW).
Cisco Meraki MX is a different product targeted at different markets, not exactly a UTM / NGFW. Centralized management and a single pane of glass add a lot of value. Again there are sites where no MX can replace a PA due to the configuration requirements and performance …
So most use cases, this product fits. There aren't that many situations where it doesn't, and I've put it inside of banks. I've used it inside of schools, I've used it at normal businesses, big, bigger, and or small, but very small use cases where it has not, and we could not lead with it was at some banks. They did require NetOver VPN when communicating with higher-fed entities. If in the future Meraki could include NetOver VPN, then this would just be an auto-include for most of our deployments.
SonicWall NSA is best suited for small to mid-size companies or small to medium K-12 school districts. It's less appropriate for larger businesses and schools. This is due to their ease of use and well-rounded feature set but lacks in advanced configuration, performance, and reliability.
As we have it in place now, we will continue to keep it at our remote sites. Future expansion is something we are reviewing, and may well start with some of the larger switches as they seem to offer good performance and management at a reasonable price. Wireless is also something we're investing in and their devices are great for that.
The Cisco Meraki MX series is very easy to use. Setting up user VPN access, site to site VPN to tie multiple locations together and managing all your devices. You can even download the latest firmware and install without ever leaving the dashboard. Meraki is the very definition of easy to use
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
Most of the time, calling SonicWall NSA Support, you get an expert who can help resolve your issues. RMAs are pretty easy once they determine there is an issue with the hardware. Support is available 24x7, which makes emergency calls easy. The only downside is the support engineers may have thick accents; however, their expertise more than makes up for any language barriers.
I have used Sonicwall and Meraki, and they are very similar and functional, but they go about it in different ways. Meraki is a little more user-friendly with less of a learning curve, but it comes at a little steeper price. I do like the online dashboard of Meraki better, though.
We compared the FortiGate to Sonicwall and continued with Sonicwall as we were a mid-size school where the Sonicwall was performing adequately, and the learning curve was steep to switch platforms. The Sonicwall offered everything the FortiGate did, and was not as costly, both in the appliance and in licensing.
Every network we create will allow us to automatically be attached in the mesh network. The ability for the automatic VPN connections is very convenient and allow us to focus on other configuration points without having to worry about if the VPN will work or not. The GUI showing the VPN is kind of confusing, but as long as it has direct connection to the other Meraki MX units, it will be up.
