Item: Cisco Meraki MX
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

So we started off using it at mobile Command Center as a way to provide connectivity through different methods would be cell phone or satellite or driving up to a company and getting connect to the internet there. So we use that to kind of be able to encrypt, put a VPN, do those things and be able to easily connect as well, so not have to do a lot of configuration in order to make that work

Pros and Cons

So I think the ease of use, being able to easily form that secure connection as well as the web of interface as well, being able to access it basically from anywhere.

So a couple of things that are missing. So it doesn't do everything that Cisco, the main Cisco Catalyst Switches do, but it's pretty comparable. We found a couple features that it just didn't have, it didn't have a particular multicast version. There's a couple little things it didn't do, but overall it's good. I mean, for our use case it works well, but there are some limitations.

Key Insights

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

Return on Investment

Simplified Management

So it's been really easy. I think anybody who knows how to do the Cisco Catalyst switches, it picks it up really, really quickly. So, it's definitely very easy. Again, the management, the portal works really well. We don't have to do a lot of carrying feeding, that's kind of built into the platform, so we don't have to do any upgrades. I mean, it will upgrade the devices, but we don't have to upgrade the backend. So it's been really easy to use

Integrations with other Cisco products

Well, for instance, there was a use case where we didn't have that version of multicast. We are able to put a catalyst switch in the 9300 and it was able to do that for us within that whole system. And the 9300, I believe now integrates to the Meraki portal, so we'll be able to see that on our portal. So we were able to integrate other switches into the same system as well.

Scalability

In the portal, we have in different offices we can label what the office is and know where kind of phones home all the time. So keeping track of everything's really easy. We kind of know where things are, I can even put on a map so. That part all works really well.

Alternatives Considered

I think this one, especially for our use case, it's much more economical than the other ones were, it met the needs, our main needs for, our main requirements. There are use cases where the other ones are going to be better, they have more features. They're also more costlier, but for the use cases for small offices, for that particular, mobile command center use case, I think it worked out really well.

Likelihood to Recommend

Our mobile command center, it's good because a lot of times they're on the network. So when they deploy it, if we have a new configuration, if they need to get updates, it's going to do that right away. I don't have to worry about sending somebody out there, I got to configure it on the fly, it's already built into the product on how it configures. The second part was things that didn't do. For an SD-WAN type system, there are better ones out there if you're really trying. So again, ease of use, smaller, installations. I think it's a key spot. Bigger installations wanting to get more out of the internet circuits. There might be better solutions.

Cisco Meraki MX Review

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Meraki MX