Cisco Meraki vMX vs. VMware NSX

We are a heavily invested Meraki environment, from our corporate locations to APs. Using a vMX as apposed another solution is a no brainer. It integrates well, has the same benefits as the rest of the Meraki stack, and you can leverage your favorite cloud platform

Incentivized

With proper design, VMware NSX can and should be deployed to virtually any VMware virtualization environment, but the deployment should be tailored to the needs of that environment. There isn't really a one size fits all deployment design for all environments. That versatility is what provides its greatest strength to a business.

Incentivized

• Works well with physical Meraki MX devices
• Site-to-Site VPNs are easy to set up with other Meraki devices
• Cisco Meraki vMX provides a great solution for a virtual environment, like Azure

Incentivized

• End to end encryption on the wire.
• Micro-segmentation.
• Integrates well with existing VMWare environment.
• Integrates well with our existing network.

Incentivized

• 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

• Interoperability in multi-vendor environments
• Advanced networking and packet acceleration options can be improved

Incentivized

I've used the FortiGate VM appliance many times and this was much better to use, it was a full feature set and had no setbacks ever. But people use Meraki for different reasons likely so it's not 100% apples to apples. As an SR engineer, I demand deep feature sets, etc, while some users strive for simplistic networks that are very visually appealing.

Incentivized

We use both Cisco ACI and VMware NSX, and while they have different strengths and capabilities, I would recommend VMware NSX, as it can be used in all VMware environments, without costly physical infrastructure changes. Cisco ACI provides some of the same capabilities, but not all. It's focus relies on physical networking changes.

Incentivized

We have over 350 locations and growing. We chose Cisco Meraki vMX because of ease of use and how it scales.

Incentivized

• vMX is cheaper than Azure VPN gateway
• there is no native support for HA, so you need to deploy second instance

Incentivized

• Ability to move workloads more easily with the ability to stretch/move networks across multiple physical locations.
• The added flexibility allows you to expedite tech refreshes since you're no longer constrained by the hardware.

Incentivized