Meraki - a super stable yet expensive cloud platform
April 20, 2022
Meraki - a super stable yet expensive cloud platform
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Modules Used
- MX64W
- MX68
- MX84
Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Meraki MX
We have three locations and we have a Cisco Meraki MX device at the edge for all of them. We have an MX84 Pro at two locations and a newer MX68 at one. Two of these locations are busy retail stores with point of sales and credit card machines that talk over the internet. Perhaps my favorite feature is the hub VPN - you can't ask for a simpler setup of an active VPN between locations. The single pane of glass view of my entire organization is simply priceless.
- Hub VPN
- Single pane of glass view
- Platform Stability - 0% downtime
- Edge protection
- Port forwarding could be more intuitive
- Client refreshes could be quicker
- License prices could be lessened
Do you think Cisco Meraki MX delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Cisco Meraki MX's feature set?
Yes
Did Cisco Meraki MX live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Cisco Meraki MX go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Cisco Meraki MX again?
Yes
- For retail, Cisco Meraki MX helps keep us PCI compliant, so we save a bunch on the compliance fees we don't have to pay
- Cisco Meraki MX also saves us on endpoint costs - we are able to use the Microsoft 365 Premium subscription which includes Windows Defender - instead of a high-priced solution because the edge is so well protected.
- The greatest negative impact is the license fees - they are expensive!
Once your root organizational account is set up, adding these devices to your deployment is very simple. The license management is also simple with a clear view of the license life for each device. Single pane of glass - I can see my entire organization along with each specific location with all the Cisco Meraki MX devices I have deployed in one portal - so management is a breeze from that perspective. Logs are readily searchable, so I can trace events as needed and remedy situations as they may arise. The list goes on.
We have Cisco Meraki MR wireless devices at two locations. The biggest benefit is obviously the ability to manage the WiFi in the cloud and under the single pane of the glass portal. License management is part of the same portal. WiFi network deployment is simple and automatically extends to each new device as added. Mesh was a hidden gem that really puts this solution over the top. No network wire - no problem - these MR devices mesh automatically when they are near each other!
I have deployed the Ubiquiti Networks Dream Machine Pro, and I have to say that the only reason I would ever choose that platform over Meraki is the price of the Meraki licensing. Ubiquiti does not have ongoing license fees, and their devices are seriously less expensive than Meraki, so when the budget is tight, you go with Unifi. The Meraki system is 99.999999% uptime. The Unifi is probably 95% comparatively - so you can understand why I would always choose Meraki!