Cisco Meraki MX

Score9 out of 10

373 Reviews and Ratings

What is Cisco Meraki MX?

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.

Categories & Use Cases

Product Demos

VPN
VPN's implement encryption and anonymize IP addresses
Category average: 9
High Availability
Built-in capacity to prevent exposure if primary firewall stops working
Category average: 8.7
Visualization Tools
Visualization tools present administrators with data on applications traversing the network, who is using them, and the potential security impact.
Category average: 7.6

Stateful Inspection
Stateful inspection analyzes packet headers and contents of packets
Category average: 8.4
Proxy Server
A proxy server changes your IP address and masks the origin of your network traffic
Category average: 8
Reporting and Logging
Custom and summary reports, and log files enabling analysis of security incidents, application usage and traffic patterns
Category average: 7.5

Most Frequent Users

Top 3 industries using Cisco Meraki MX.

Based on HG Insights installation data

View all Reviews

#1 most frequent

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

17.2%

122 installations of 711

“makes a breeze the setup (Zero Touch Provisioning), AutoVPN (for SD-WAN overlays), Next Generation Firewall features (Stateful inspection, IPS/IDS, Content Filtering, AMP, etc.) with very intuitive GUI that doesn't require CCIE skill levels”
— Principal Network Consultant Architect, Kyndryl

#2 most frequent

Information

11.0%

78 installations of 711

“The ease of deployment and management is the entire reason that we've standardized on the Meraki MX platform.”
— Sales and Marketing Director, LeeShanok Network Solutions

#3 most frequent

Manufacturing

10.1%

72 installations of 711

“We have benefited from the simplicity of Cisco Meraki MX when deploying our retail network. We were able to easily deploy new sites using templates and allow non-Engineering resources do site setups and deployment without tying up the Network Team.”
— Senior Network Engineer, Lucid Motors

Pros

Simplified deployment and zero-touch provisioning
Intuitive cloud-based dashboard for remote management
Robust network security features (firewall, content filtering, threat protection)

Cons

Complex and costly licensing structure
Limited customization and advanced feature availability
Difficulties with NAT configuration

Benjamin Gates

Network Security Engineer in Information Technology at Mass General Brigham (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We mainly use the Cisco Meraki MX for remote users connecting into our network. I believe we have an MX450 as our on-site headend which we have never had issues with. We use a variety of Meraki's, but mainly Z3's and MX75's. Both devices have been great and provide sufficient speeds for our Radiologists who require a large amount of throughput to our network for image transfers and review.

Pros

No outages, we rarely have any issues with these devices
Easy configurations that can be done remotely
Management from the dashboard is also easy

Cons

The cellular models that we have tested don't have the best signal with First net. We've tested MX68CW's.
The SIM card seemed to be dislodged after moving the device. This could have been user error, but might have been the device not having good seating for the SIM card.

Return on Investment

This product provided a relatively inexpensive solution to provide faster speeds to WFH Radiologists that have patient critical workloads.
This product also provided sustainable access for other WFH users

Other Software Used

Cisco ThousandEyes, Cisco Secure Access, Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, Cisco Umbrella

Walter Poole

Senior IT Manager in Information Technology at Gas South District (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it to limit traffic coming in and out of our network.

Pros

It's easy to manage, easy to navigate. I want a single pane of glass for me to go through different modules in the product and learn about it.

Cons

Happened last week. The bandwidth limitation. We need more bandwidth. So my firewall is limited to 10 gigs, but if I use the security appliance, it drops down to six gigs of the firewall. I lose four gigs right there just for security. I would like that to be higher.

Return on Investment

Positive is ease of use. So I have another employee that I need to log into the firewall and make changes, and I can just talk them into it over the phone. All right, you go here, you click there. It's right there in front of you. So it's very easy for me to navigate, easy for me to tell someone else how to navigate, but doesn't have a lot of experience in firewalls.

Robert Gower

Senior Network Engineer in Information Technology at Clyde Company (5001-10,000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Cisco Meraki MX at over 150 of our locations around the Western United States and it allows us to get everyone connected and protected.

Pros

Quick setup
AutoVPN
Cloud solution

Cons

Showing upload speeds
Faster reboot times
Faster speed with Intrusion prevention

Return on Investment

It has cut down the amount of time for router build outs
It has been great to have all routers in a pane of glass

Alternatives Considered

Cisco Meraki MG and Cisco Meraki MS

Other Software Used

Cisco Meraki MG, Cisco Meraki MS, Cisco Meraki vMX

Bryan Knauer

Operations Director in Information Technology at LeeShanok Network Solutions (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Internally we have two Cisco Meraki MX firewalls connected through SD-WAN. We also managed over 200+ Cisco Meraki MX firewalls for our clients. The Meraki ecosystem is more approachable for our technicians to supports and lowers the barrier as compared to any CLI heavy hardware. The Cisco Meraki MX firewalls also are manageable through API which helps us push out batch changes.

Pros

Ease of use, simple GUI.
AI augmented event analysis
IDS and advanced threat protection
Warm setup and configuration is simplified

Cons

L7 Geo-blocking rules are limited and not very well logged
Too many changes in the UI
Firmware updates will try to install on devices that don't support the firmware

Return on Investment

Has made us much more efficient supporting our client environments which effectively lowers our cost of services
We're undergoing CMMC 2.0 Level 2 security hardening. Meraki firewalls can meet these controls with a deny all statement.

Alternatives Considered

SonicWall Web Content Filtering Client (CFC)

Other Software Used

Cisco Secure Connect

Kirk Steinklauber View profile

Principal Network Consultant Architect in Information Technology at Kyndryl (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Cisco Meraki MX to support and enable our clients on their journey to go with a simplified solution that are typically more complex compared with other vendors that competes on the same space.

The central management and easy of use are one of the main value proposition to manage large distributed networks.

The SD-WAN, Next Gen Firewall and Assurance features provide a complete package for a robust and secure SD-WAN And a Next Gen Firewall

The single pane of glass from the Dashboard makes easier to remotely manage and administer all the Cisco Meraki MX stack components like the MX appliances.

There are also improvement areas like support of multiple VRF, NAT between LAN interfaces and more complex routing scenarios.

Specifically to business problems is enable our clients to simplify legacy and complex network setups with a technology like the Cisco Meraki MX that provides very easy and straightforward technology for Edge Routers (SD-WAN) and Next Generation Firewalls (NGFW) and also replacing expensive MPLS solutions with cheaper Internet circuits with 10X time the Bandwidth for less financial costs.

Pros

SD-WAN Application Steering (Dynamic Application Routing)
Network transport agnostic and encrypted (Network Overlay)
Next Generation Firewall (IPS/IDS, Content Filtering, AMP)
Router Mode and Concentrator Mode
VPN Remote Access (L2TP/IPSec & Cisco AnyConnect)

Cons

NAT between LAN interfaces for LAN-to-LAN Firewalling
Continue improving BGP
Multiple VRF Support

Return on Investment

Allows to double or triple the Bandwidth by switching from expensive MPLS to Internet
No license cap tiers based on connections or Bandwidth Limits.
Easy to scale and manage with less people and less network skills.
Visibility of network traffic
Automatic Failover (High Availability) to reduce downtime that can impact operations

Other Software Used

Cisco ThousandEyes, Splunk AI Assistant for SPL, Cisco Umbrella

Fortinet FortiGate

SonicWall TZ

Sophos Firewall

WatchGuard Firebox Cloud

Cisco Meraki MX

What is Cisco Meraki MX?

Categories & Use Cases

Product Demos

Cisco Meraki MX Key Features

Top Performing Features

VPN

High Availability

Visualization Tools

Areas for Improvement

Stateful Inspection

Proxy Server

Reporting and Logging

Who Buys & Uses Cisco Meraki MX

Most Frequent Users

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Information

Manufacturing

Most Frequent Users

Small Businesses

Mid-sized Companies

Enterprises

Most Frequent Users

United States of America

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Canada

Most Frequent Users

IT

Engineering

Sales

Cisco Meraki MX Reviews

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Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Other Software Used

Cisco Meraki MX Alternatives