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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:
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.8
Customer service for Cisco ACI is mixed, with good responsiveness overall but inconsistent support and regional variations.
No sentiment score available
 

Room For Improvement

Sentiment score
3.9
Cisco ACI needs better training, intuitive setup, improved GUI, enhanced security, flexible policies, and better tech support and integration.
No sentiment score available
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
Cisco ACI is highly rated for scalability, ease of expansion, flexibility, centralized management, and adaptability for medium to large enterprises.
No sentiment score available
 

Setup Cost

Sentiment score
4.0
Cisco ACI is costly but valued for quality in data centers, with mixed pricing opinions and concerns about licensing costs.
No sentiment score available
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.9
Cisco ACI is considered highly stable and reliable, especially from version 4.2, with minor, manageable bugs and high user ratings.
No sentiment score available
 

Valuable Features

Sentiment score
8.4
Cisco ACI enables centralized management, streamlined configuration, and seamless VMware integration, excelling in scalability, automation, and low latency.
No sentiment score available
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco ACI
Ranking in Software Defined Networking (SDN)
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
99
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
73
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Software Defined Networking (SDN) category, the mindshare of Cisco ACI is 12.6%, up from 4.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Meraki SD-WAN is 25.0%, up from 22.5% 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.
Daniel Brunnquell - PeerSpot reviewer
Handles key elements with Dynamic bandwidth allocation
Meraki did the job for what I needed. The key principle to follow is to let the problem drive the solution. Don’t pick a solution and try to force your problem into it. In our case, our needs drove the solution, and Meraki fit those needs best. If I were looking for more throughput, there would be better solutions. For example, Palo Alto and Fortinet can offer higher bandwidth capacities. I sized the solution based on the bandwidth available, which we likely won’t exceed. The main feature we needed was maintaining the system with minimal staff and without outsourcing support. Defining our needs led us to AutoVPN, which fits our requirement for minimal support. Meraki was the right product to meet these needs. If your priority is backend traffic and bandwidth, and you don’t need to filter traffic and scan for malware, geofence, or mesh networks, there are better options with more capacity. But that wasn’t our need. The real issue is that many people pick a solution and try to adapt their business model, which is the wrong approach. In the long run, that limits you.
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816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
24%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
22%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Construction Company
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 pricing of Meraki SD-WAN is a little bit on the pricey side. However, it is still a valuable product despite the cost.
What needs improvement with Meraki SD-WAN?
Meraki did the job for what I needed. The key principle to follow is to let the problem drive the solution. Don’t pick a solution and try to force your problem into it. In our case, our needs drove...
 

Comparisons

 

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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: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.