Cisco Meraki Z3 Teleworker vs. Fortinet on IBM Cloud

The Cisco Meraki Z3 Teleworker appliance was ideal for scenarios where the remote worker spent the majority of their time remote. It alleviates the need for VPN software and gives the IT staff additional visibility into the connectivity of the user. We often encountered scenarios where the users broadband was having issues vs the Meraki network and the tools Meraki provides help to work through these scenarios. The case for the Meraki devices is not as strong for occasional users who cannot justify the cost of the appliance vs just logging in via VPN.

Incentivized

To protect the local network, [FortiGuard] was utilized. To handle communication between networks, FortiWAN was employed. Wi-Fi communication technology, such as FortiAP, was used. As a result of the solution, different business areas now have wireless connectivity. Because it supports simultaneous connections, it can be easily integrated into small and big solutions.

• Easy setup for remote worker
• Versatility with WiFi and cable connections
• Safe to outages with dual wan setup

Incentivized

• Monitoring
• Communication
• Security
• Network

• When Internet is lost and come back we need to reset the Z3 device from the dashboard in order to register the IP Phone to CUCM
• It would be nice to manage the Z3 device to a local web portal just for TS
• Max Speed 100Mbps. It would be nice if it could run up to 1GB

Incentivized

• Sales
• ITOPS
• Financial

At the time of implementation, we were not aware of a comparable product from Cisco or comparative vendor. We had initially deployed the Z1 appliance and had so much success that the transition to the Cisco Meraki Z3 Teleworker was a quick and easy fit for us. The device is easy to deploy and just works.

Incentivized

Although prices are not always affordable, it is a very complete choice that may integrate well with other technologies and gives good technical assistance. Fortinet solutions are ideal for businesses with a significant number of users. It is suggested that you acquire their annual maintenance plan.

The product is very scalable due to its implementation to the Meraki cloud and SD-WAN capabilities.

Incentivized

• Good visibility for IT team so we can monitor and validate the teleworker traffic
• Zero Touch Provisioning so we do not need to send a Engineer to configure it.
• Consumer-grade network security

Incentivized

• Return on investment that is acceptable
• Operating cost reduction