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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Meraki vMX

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/ACisco's Meraki Virtual MX (vMX) is a virtual instance of a Meraki security & SD-WAN appliance, dedicated specifically to providing the simple configuration benefits of site-to-site Auto VPN for customers running or migrating IT services to an Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).N/A

    Microsoft Azure

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Azure is a cloud computing platform and infrastructure for building, deploying, and managing applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters.

    $29

    per month

    Pricing
    Cisco Meraki vMXMicrosoft Azure
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Developer
    $29
    per month
    Standard
    $100
    per month
    Professional Direct
    $1000
    per month
    Basic
    Free
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Meraki vMXMicrosoft Azure
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—The free tier lets users have access to a variety of services free for 12 months with limited usage after making an Azure account.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Meraki vMXMicrosoft Azure
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    12 Answers
    92%
    Would buy again
    34 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    12 Answers
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    31 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    92%
    Happy with the feature set
    11 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    35 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    92%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    11 Answers
    89%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    24 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    12 Answers
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    34 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Meraki vMXMicrosoft Azure
    Virtual Private Network
    Comparison of Virtual Private Network features of Cisco Meraki vMX and Microsoft Azure
    Feature
    Cisco Meraki vMX
    8.8
    9 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Microsoft Azure
    -
    Ratings
    AES 256-bit Encryption10.08 Ratings00 Ratings
    Kill Switch10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-Platform Support9.97 Ratings00 Ratings
    Split Tunneling9.57 Ratings00 Ratings
    IP Address Masking9.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    No-Logs Policy7.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple Server Locations9.07 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automatic Wi-Fi Protection6.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Simultaneous Connections8.68 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customer Support Services9.08 Ratings00 Ratings
    Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
    Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Cisco Meraki vMX and Microsoft Azure
    Feature
    Cisco Meraki vMX
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Azure
    8.4
    27 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime00 Ratings8.126 Ratings
    Dynamic scaling00 Ratings8.725 Ratings
    Elastic load balancing00 Ratings8.624 Ratings
    Pre-configured templates00 Ratings8.225 Ratings
    Monitoring tools00 Ratings8.326 Ratings
    Pre-defined machine images00 Ratings8.424 Ratings
    Operating system support00 Ratings8.926 Ratings
    Security controls00 Ratings8.626 Ratings
    Automation00 Ratings8.224 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Meraki vMXMicrosoft Azure
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    IBM Cloud Object Storage
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    IBM Cloud Bare Metal Servers
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    SAP on IBM Cloud
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Meraki vMXMicrosoft Azure
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.1
    (12 ratings)
    8.7
    (96 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (17 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.3
    (36 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.8
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (27 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    7.6
    (12 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Meraki vMXMicrosoft Azure
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    I think for us in our deployment model where it spoke to the hub, it certainly makes ideal sense. I would probably say with anyone that's signed in Azure or a cloud platform, obviously VMX appliance may not be suited. Anyone on Old Legacy MPLS may struggle to see a purpose for SD-WAN overlay of the top. But I think if you really want to introduce network communications that are low cost effective, solid in terms of availability and performance, a Meraki sdwan solution with the VMX appliance in the cloud is ideal.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Azure is particularly well suited for enterprise environments with existing Microsoft investments, those that require robust compliance features, and organizations that need hybrid cloud capabilities that bridge on-premises and cloud infrastructure. In my opinion, Azure is less appropriate for cost-sensitive startups or small businesses without dedicated cloud expertise and scenarios requiring edge computing use cases with limited connectivity. Azure offers comprehensive solutions for most business needs but can feel like there is a higher learning curve than other cloud-based providers, depending on the product and use case.
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • It handles load really well.
    • It brings simplification to the whole piece of networking network, so it makes it simple for us to diagnose and troubleshoot issues put in place as changes.
    • It has pretty good site to site firewall control.
    • It works well in Azure, so it ticks all our boxes.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • Microsoft Azure is highly scalable and flexible. You can quickly scale up or down additional resources and computing power.
    • You have no longer upfront investments for hardware. You only pay for the use of your computing power, storage space, or services.
    • The uptime that can be achieved and guaranteed is very important for our company. This includes the rapid maintenance for security updates that are mostly carried out by Microsoft.
    • The wide range of capabilities of services that are possible in Microsoft Azure. You can practically put or create anything in Microsoft Azure.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • Client VPN: Cisco Meraki vMX in general needs to implement multiple VPN profiles/ group policies for client VPN
    • Alerts: Cisco Meraki vMX in general should be more consistent in sending alerts. We should receive alarms instantly.
    • Event logs: More in-depth event logs for all Meraki products, such as system crashes, etc.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • The cost of resources is difficult to determine, technical documentation is frequently out of date, and documentation and mapping capabilities are lacking.
    • The documentation needs to be improved, and some advanced configuration options require research and experimentation.
    • Microsoft's licensing scheme is too complex for the average user, and Azure SQL syntax is too different from traditional SQL.
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Moving to Azure was and still is an organizational strategy and not simply changing vendors. Our product roadmap revolved around Azure as we are in the business of humanitarian relief and Azure and Microsoft play an important part in quickly and efficiently serving all of the world. Migration and investment in Azure should be considered as an overall strategy of an organization and communicated companywide.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    As Microsoft Azure is [doing a] really good with PaaS. The need of a market is to have [a] combo of PaaS and IaaS. While AWS is making [an] exceptionally well blend of both of them, Azure needs to work more on DevOps and Automation stuff. Apart from that, I would recommend Azure as a great platform for cloud services as scale.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    It has proven to be unreliable in our production environment and services become unavailable without proper notification to system administrators
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    We were running Windows Server and Active Directory, so [Microsoft] Azure was a seamless transition. We ran into a few, if any support issues, however, the availability of Microsoft Azure's support team was more than willing and able to guide us through the process. They even proposed solutions to issues we had not even thought of!
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    As I have mentioned before the issue with my Oracle Mismatch Version issues that have put a delay on moving one of my platforms will justify my 7 rating.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    Cisco Meraki vMX is great for small to medium businesses. It is easy to use with little out-of-the-box configuration. There is an easier learning curve on the Cisco Meraki vMX than on the SonicWall devices. We went with the Cisco Meraki vMX because we had the physical appliances already in place and the virtual appliance tied into our system seamlessly.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    As I continue to evaluate the "big three" cloud providers for our clients, I make the following distinctions, though this gap continues to close. AWS is more granular, and inherently powerful in the configuration options compared to [Microsoft] Azure. It is a "developer" platform for cloud. However, Azure PowerShell is helping close this gap. Google Cloud is the leading containerization platform, largely thanks to it building kubernetes from the ground up. Azure containerization is getting better at having the same storage/deployment options.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Cisco
    This question is hard. A chain of retail or gas stations hypothetically that have simple networks in nature would flourish and scale quite well with Meraki. A chain of banks or something more complex that has more complex requirements doesn't scale very well or at least presents many caveats. Routing has always been a big setup with Meraki but I've always managed to 'get by'.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Standardizing: We can use the same "template" setup for multiple customers
    • Management: Easy to manage along with the rest of the Meraki products
    • Stability: Using Cisco Meraki vMX instead of VNGs in Azure provides better stability with auto-VPN between the Cisco Meraki vMX and other networks
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • For about 2 years we didn't have to do anything with our production VMs, the system ran without a hitch, which meant our engineers could focus on features rather than infrastructure.
    • DNS management was very easy in Azure, which made it easy to upgrade our cluster with zero downtime.
    • Azure Web UI was easy to work with and navigate, which meant our senior engineers and DevOps team could work with Azure without formal training.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots