Meraki SD-WAN vs VMware NSX comparison

Meraki SD-WAN
Read 61 Meraki SD-WAN reviews
  • 2,053 Views
  • 1,278 Comparison Views
96% willing to recommend
VMware NSX
Read 94 VMware NSX reviews
  • 1,707 Views
  • 1,119 Comparison Views
88% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between Meraki SD-WAN and VMware NSX based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Software Defined Networking (SDN) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

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To learn more, read our detailed Meraki SD-WAN vs. VMware NSX Report (Updated: May 2020).
Buyer's Guide
Meraki SD-WAN vs. VMware NSX
May 2020
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Helped 787,061 peers since 2012
 

Categories and Ranking

Meraki SD-WAN
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
61
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Networking (SDN) (1st)
VMware NSX
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
94
Ranking in other categories
Network Virtualization (2nd), Cloud and Data Center Security (1st), Network Automation (4th), Microsegmentation Software (1st)
 

Market share comparison

As of June 2024, in the Software Defined Networking (SDN) category, the market share of Meraki SD-WAN is 36.1% and it increased by 31.0% compared to the previous year. The market share of VMware NSX is 18.1% and it increased by 75.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined Networking (SDN)
Unique Categories:
No other categories found
Network Virtualization
50.0%
Cloud and Data Center Security
17.4%
 

Q&A Highlights

PW
Jul 06, 2020
What is the biggest difference between VMware NSX and Meraki SD-WAN?
We are currently reviewing various SD-WAN vendors for our infrastructure and what I found lacking with Cisco Meraki is that you cannot use Active/Active HA with two MX devices. Only HA is available with one device which introduces a single point of failure for any network. There is also up to 5 minute failover time for Active/Active circuits which in my opinion is quite long compared to other solutions which are nearer instant.
See all answers
 

Featured Reviews

TT
Mar 12, 2024
Flexible, secure, easy to use, and the site-to-site connectivity is very good
The solution reduces the cost for the customers. They need not buy a separate Ethernet line from an ISP The solution provides a lot of benefits to the customers. Its functionality is very good. The tool is easy to use. The site-to-site connectivity is very good. The product is flexible. It has…
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MM
Jul 29, 2022
Integrates well with Palo Alto and is reliable but lacks standard security features
It's intermediate in terms of ease of setup. It is not so straightforward, and it's not also complex. It integrates with certain vendors like Palo Alto very well. That said, other vendors, like Fortinet or others, do not have the same level of integration. I'd rate the process a there out of five in terms of ease of setup. The deployment took three weeks the first time we did it. The strategy is mainly segmenting between operational virtual machines which have, for example, the database and the application front end on the same VLAN. If I need to segment this traffic, it wouldn't be possible without NSX. We have two people that can handle deployment and maintenance tasks. We need someone who understands the schema of the solution itself, the software itself, the front end and the database, and so on. Then, we also need one person from the security team.
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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The solution is pretty reliable."
"Having to set up a closed system singlehandedly and a lifetime guarantee on the equipment is a valuable part of this solution."
"Meraki SD-WAN is scalable."
"The solution has many features available."
"This product contributed to a huge benefit in our bottom line on operational costs."
"If there are multiple network connectivities in an organization, Meraki creates an AutoVPN. It creates a channel automatically."
"Zero touch configuration onsite based on the manager system's pre-configuration and the VPN automation set."
"The most valuable feature is the single management plane dashboard. Our organization has a global site, we have separated the area, and we have more than five hundred small sites around the world."
More Meraki SD-WAN pros
"During our experience, the solution has been stable."
"The solution is very good at micro-segmentation."
"The initial setup is easy and takes between one and five days."
"The most valuable feature of VMware NSX is the DFW (distributed firewall)"
"I really like the management dashboard, the tailor-made assurance, the telemetry, and the ease of integration with all other solutions of VMware, such as vSphere."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The most valuable feature of VMware NSX is the ease of use and its user friendly. For example, it is simple to change the subnet masks."
"The most valuable features are the micro-segmentation and integrated security options."
More VMware NSX pros
 

Cons

"The tool has challenges with features like multiple-link support, which currently only supports up to three links. Additionally, it doesn't offer router integration, and forward error correction is another missing feature. The scalability of Meraki SD-WAN is good, but there are limitations to the performance of the concentrator devices, especially in larger deployments. While the cloud scale is not an issue, the performance of the devices in branches and data centres is limited."
"The area I think this solution should improve is the pricing."
"The granularity could be improved."
"Warm spare is a good failover solution but Meraki could do something more to handle failovers better."
"The solution needs a multi-use provider portal."
"Some systems use some applications with the wrong data application. It bypasses the network, and you need to block that application on Meraki. We first try to put in passwords to do it and the network is not really safe. It's not 100%, the network can be bypassed."
"I'd like to see improvements in the client VPN area. Currently, we use L2TP over IPSec, which, while widely supported, can be buggy on Windows due to Microsoft's implementation, not Meraki's."
"The VPN client could be improved."
More Meraki SD-WAN cons
"The solution could benefit from improvements in its pricing and scalability."
"The vendor should integrate a basic load balancer in future versions"
"VMware NSX can improve the migration tools from the older environments to the new environment. For example, the NSX-V has become a legacy solution, it's out of support, but customers are able to keep using it. For migration purposes, it's better for them to provide a proper tool. It will be easy to migrate from an old environment to a new one."
"It still needs to grow. There are still some features that it doesn't do, like it doesn't do multicasting."
"They could branch out to the physical layer."
"The feature it can improve is essentially application-based load balancing with intelligent load distribution for applications that require redundancy and high availability."
"Occasionally the licensing is not very clear. They should make it easier to understand."
"The solution is complex but for the key user, it's not really complex. You just need to learn the standards and mechanics for your specific product."
More VMware NSX cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing fees are approximately $1,000 USD annually."
"The price of Meraki SD-WAN could improve, it is expensive when compared to other solutions on the market, such as Aruba."
"Meraki solutions come with a choice of several different subscription options including one year, three years, five years, seven years, and ten years."
"The pricing is reasonable and we can choose the software or the feature."
"I am not aware of the licensing fees."
"The solution is a bit expensive when compared to other products."
"The license model may need improvement."
"The licenses cost a fortune."
More Meraki SD-WAN pricing and cost advice
"The pricing model for VMware NSX is good."
"The price is significantly high and it can be a hurdle for many potential users."
"All the institutions have to pay monthly for the services in the cloud. They have to pay $30,000 every month for this service every three years."
"The pricing is higher than other options from Palo Alto, Fortinet, and Cisco because it is sold in a bundle."
"The price of VMware NSX is very good compared to other solutions."
"The price of VMware NSX is optimal. Additionally, the price of the solution can be negotiated with the vendor. Many areas of the solution can impact the cost, such as features, time for onboarding, and support needed."
"We haven't had to hire a dedicated network engineer because NSX handles 90 percent of it. The reduced overhead in terms of managing networks has been the biggest plus."
"If five is a good price and one is a high price, I would rate the price a one out of five."
More VMware NSX pricing and cost advice
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Answers from the Community

PW
Jul 6, 2020
Jul 6, 2020
What is the biggest difference between VMware NSX and Meraki SD-WAN?
We are currently reviewing various SD-WAN vendors for our infrastructure and what I found lacking with Cisco Meraki is that you cannot use Active/Active HA with two MX devices. Only HA is available with one device which introduces a single point of failure for any network. There is also up to 5 minute failover time for Active/Active circuits which in my opinion is quite long compared to other s...
2 out of 6 answers
GaurangPatel - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 12, 2020
Well, both products are very good but if you are looking for only SD-WAN Feafure than Cisco Meraki is the perfect solution: it's easy to manage, easy to deploy and deep insight at the packet level. VMware NSX is the complete package of comprehensive features like Application Load Balancing, routing, switching, micro-segmentation and many more but at a cost! It's very easy to manage from a single pane of glass. in a nutshell, if you want Application-Aware Load balancing and wan optimization which should be easy to manage and deploy than Cisco Meraki is the right product and if you are looking for a fully integrated solution and have a deep pocket then you should choose VMware NSX.
Read full answer
DF
Mar 12, 2020
VMware NSX is all about Software Defined Networking ie virtualizing the 7 layers of switches/routers that we know in the physical HW world. VMware is very successful with this technology acquired from NICERA. SD-WAN stands for Software-Defined WAN which is about networking but NOT at the local level, it is a wide area network. For this VMware made another acquisition which is VeloCloud. Cisco Meraki SD-WAN and VeloCloud are both in the magic quadrant and therefore competing.
Read full answer
See all 6 answers
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
22%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Retailer
6%
Construction Company
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Meraki SD-WAN?
The auto VPN feature is important because it automates many tasks, making things simpler and faster. It helps with setting up devices and changing configurations without manual effort.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Meraki SD-WAN?
Regarding pricing, Meraki SD-WAN is quite competitive, especially compared to solutions like Fortinet. However, it's essential to consider that Meraki requires cloud orchestration, which adds to th...
See all answers
What needs improvement with Meraki SD-WAN?
The tool has challenges with features like multiple-link support, which currently only supports up to three links. Additionally, it doesn't offer router integration, and forward error correction is...
See all answers
What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
There are some very major differences between both the Products and to name a few. -Cisco ACI have physical network gear (9K Switches) where the Code runs in ACI Policy Mode & the UCS server wh...
See all answers
What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
Once you know your way around the Cisco ecosystem, using Cisco ACI is not so difficult. It is a global product, so when you change one interface, changes are automatically reflected on every switch...
See all answers
What do you like most about VMware NSX?
The product has valuable features for security and network extension.
See all answers
 

Comparisons

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Cisco SD-WAN vs Meraki SD-WAN
Compared 31% of the time
VMware SD-WAN vs Meraki SD-WAN Logo
VMware SD-WAN vs Meraki SD-WAN
Compared 18% of the time
Omada Cloud SDN vs Meraki SD-WAN Logo
Omada Cloud SDN vs Meraki SD-WAN
Compared 14% of the time
Cradlepoint NetCloud vs Meraki SD-WAN Logo
Cradlepoint NetCloud vs Meraki SD-WAN
Compared 11% of the time
More Meraki SD-WAN Competitors
Nutanix Flow Network Security vs VMware NSX Logo
Nutanix Flow Network Security vs VMware NSX
Compared 18% of the time
Illumio vs VMware NSX Logo
Illumio vs VMware NSX
Compared 15% of the time
Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs VMware NSX Logo
Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs VMware NSX
Compared 11% of the time
Cisco ACI vs VMware NSX Logo
Cisco ACI vs VMware NSX
Compared 11% of the time
Cisco Secure Workload vs VMware NSX Logo
Cisco Secure Workload vs VMware NSX
Compared 8% of the time
More VMware NSX Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Meraki SD-WAN
May 2024
Meraki SD-WAN reportDownload Meraki SD-WAN product report
Buyer's Guide
VMware NSX
May 2024
VMware NSX reportDownload VMware NSX product report
 

Also Known As

No data available
VMware Nicira
 

Learn More

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Cisco
VMware
 

Overview

Software-defined WAN is a new approach to network connectivity that lowers operational costs and improves resource usage for multi-site deployments, allowing network administrators to use bandwidth more efficiently and ensure the highest possible level of performance for critical applications without sacrificing security or data privacy. For more information on deploying and configuring SD-WAN on the Meraki MX Security Appliance, see the Meraki SD-WAN Deployment Guide.

VMware NSX enhances network security through micro-segmentation and automation within virtualized environments. It simplifies network management and improves efficiency with centralized policies and robust virtualization capabilities. Users report increased productivity, better collaboration, and valuable insights from detailed analytics and reporting.

 

Sample Customers

École Jeannine Manuel
City of Avondale, Lumeta, Kroll Ontrack, Heartland Payment Systems, Baystate Heallth, Exostar, Tribune Media, iGATE, NTT Communications, Synergent, California Natural Resources Agency, Bloomington Public Schools, Columbia Sportswear, Join Experience S.A, Schuberg Philis
Buyer's Guide
Meraki SD-WAN vs. VMware NSX
May 2020
Free Report: Meraki SD-WAN vs. VMware NSX
Find out what your peers are saying about Meraki SD-WAN vs. VMware NSX and other solutions. Updated: May 2020.
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