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Cisco ACI vs Meraki SD-WAN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Cisco ACI
Ranking in Software Defined Networking (SDN)
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
101
Ranking in other categories
Network Virtualization (1st), Cloud and Data Center Security (4th)
Meraki SD-WAN
Ranking in Software Defined Networking (SDN)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
77
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Software Defined Networking (SDN) category, the mindshare of Cisco ACI is 13.8%, up from 5.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Meraki SD-WAN is 24.0%, up from 23.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined Networking (SDN)
 

Featured Reviews

Raj Metkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides scalability, ease of migration for future DC moves, multi-tenancy and programmability
Cisco's MSO (Multi-Site Orchestrator) or NDO has room for improvement. Cisco monitors ACI through a product called NDI. I find it very frustrating that Cisco has multiple monitoring platforms. It has DNAC for monitoring Cisco NX-OS, campus switches, and any other routers and switches you would have in the environment. That same thing does not work for Cisco ACI monitoring. MEraki cloudbasd platform for Meraki which will get extended to Campus monitoring, to be honest Cisco never got Monitoring 100% right from days of CiscoWorks to Prime to current platforms. To monitor and manage Cisco ACI, you need to have another platform called NDI and Cisco Dashboard Insights. What frustrates me about Cisco is that it never has a central, single pane of glass platform for all its solutions. It has one thing for Cisco ACI and another thing for campus switches. I would really appreciate it if Cisco came up with something centralized to monitor everything. I haven't thought about anything since the Cisco NDO is quite advanced, and you can deploy your cloud networking through it. I don't know how many people use it. I might explore it as my cloud orchestration tool in the future. We do a lot of cloud automation using our scripts like TerraForm, but I would like to see people using NDO more. We could have more case studies on how many people use NDO for their cloud orchestration. That might be a much easier journey for people when they move from an on-premises data center into a cloud and move from one cloud to another cloud. That is where I personally see an orchestrator being effectively used for multiple deployments.
Martyn Walker - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables productivity in terms of users and has ease of management
Scalability could be improved. Yes, you can add more than 300 or 400 sites onto it, but because it's not a true SD-WAN and, effectively, it's just a Multi-VRF, it's all hub and spoke at that point. That's the nature of the design, but that's what keeps it simple to administer. So, it's a trade off.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has the fastest automation. You can move and deploy services in just a couple of minutes."
"The most valuable features are the automation with the different systems for the software development and the ability to provision switches in hours rather than days."
"It is easy to use because you have all the information coming from the same technology."
"The centralized management of the entire network data center, in this case with ACI, is the most valuable feature. By having access to some powerful APIs you can build your own tool to speak to the ACI controller, then with that, you can deploy things really fast. Having the option to build your own tools and then using the centralized management of the ACI to push the configuration to the network devices is very valuable."
"We use Cisco ACI for perimeter security and threat detection."
"We get a full holistic view of the ecosystem."
"It is a complete re-write of everything that you've ever thought of from a networking standpoint."
"The initial setup was pretty straightforward. We just moved from one platform to another."
"If there are multiple network connectivities in an organization, Meraki creates an AutoVPN. It creates a channel automatically."
"A lot of our customers really enjoy the Meraki Dashboard."
"The most valuable feature of Meraki SD-WAN is its user-friendly interface."
"The seamless end-to-end setup is really what makes it beautiful; that's why Meraki is good."
"The solution's technical support is good."
"Meraki makes you believe that anything is possible."
"SD-WAN is a complete enterprise solution for securing traffic."
"The most valuable feature is application awareness."
 

Cons

"The challenging thing about Cisco ACI was we had to put a lot of effort into providing the customer the full picture, new standards, and new technology that they had to use. This was more challenging than deploying the product."
"It would be great if ACI would include the next generation firewall feature."
"I would like to be able to test the upgrades in a simulation before implementing them in production because not everyone has a lab."
"More how-to videos and instructional information is required."
"The ACI setup is in its initial phases is difficult. The learning curve at the beginning is higher than a normal setup."
"Deploying Cisco ACI was a little complex because we needed to add a lot to the fabric. You need to configure some servers, connect everything, make templates, and deploy switches. It takes five people to deploy and maintain."
"They should make it easier for the network people to do automated solutions."
"Where there is room for improvement from ACI is for Layer 2 and Layer 7 packages. Normally, when you're updating your ACI fabric or you're introducing new Layer 4 to Layer 7 devices, there are some constraints, there are some limitations... When you are doing device packages you will not have the functionality of ASM. It's like WAF, web application firewalls. So you need to configure it manually."
"The security integration in Meraki SD-WAN is not as good as the competition, such as Fortinet."
"Some advanced networking features are not currently available in the Meraki product but are on their roadmap."
"The solution needs to enact more advanced protections."
"Meraki SD-WAN could improve by adding wireless access time-scheduled and overall capabilities."
"In Meraki SD-WAN, we have some limitations with the traffic shaping capabilities."
"The solution lacks controllers."
"A run optimization feature is needed to reduce the bandwidth for any uploaded content."
"I would like improved stability in Meraki SD-WAN."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't believe there is any licensing required."
"Cisco's pricing is very expensive."
"It is quite expensive. It is not at all on the cheap or medium side."
"We have saved time on the provisioning and configuration."
"The pricing is pretty good for new technology."
"Once you sign for the start kit implementation, you have to go all the way through to the implementation, even if you are experiences issues."
"The price could be improved. It is expensive, but then again, it is Cisco. The price is worth what you pay for."
"A big company can automate it themselves or spend a lot of money and buy it."
"They have a baseline software license, and then they've got an SD-WAN software license, and then they've got an advanced security software license. They're low cost, and they'll provide any amount of flexibility that you want from a modeling perspective for payment. Typically, it's either annually or multi-year, but they are a lower-cost company. They're not the most expensive by far."
"The solution's pricing is in line with what we expected."
"The license model may need improvement."
"The price of this solution is good, it is not expensive."
"The pricing is fair, but if they can make it less it would be even more attractive."
"For a pure SD-WAN solution, the pricing is competitive. However, our clients are on the lower tier in terms of budget, viewing IT more as a necessary expense rather than integral to their business. While Meraki's solution might be pricey for them, there aren't many cheaper, reliable options."
"The price of Meraki SD-WAN could improve, it is expensive when compared to other solutions on the market, such as Aruba."
"One of the most valuable aspects of Meraki SD-WAN is the price. It is highly cost-effective."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
23%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Retailer
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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...
What do you like most about Cisco ACI?
The flexibility of adding new components with minimal impact on existing services running in the data center is a key benefit of this ACI-based solution.
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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Meraki SD-WAN?
The price is a little bit higher than local vendors, for example, Huawei ZTE or H3C. However, some customers require the best quality and performance, thus needing solutions and products from Cisco.
What needs improvement with Meraki SD-WAN?
They have to ask us many questions about configurations. It could be improved with some automation to trigger, for example, telemetry data, so we can determine the state of the deployment as of day...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bowling Green State University, du, Qatar University
École Jeannine Manuel
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco ACI vs. Meraki SD-WAN and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.