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Meraki SD-WAN vs Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform 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

Meraki SD-WAN
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
77
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Networking (SDN) (1st)
Versa Unified Secure Access...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (9th), WAN Edge (10th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (14th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Networking solutions, they serve different purposes. Meraki SD-WAN is designed for Software Defined Networking (SDN) and holds a mindshare of 24.0%, up 23.7% compared to last year.
Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform, on the other hand, focuses on Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions, holds 5.0% mindshare, down 5.2% since last year.
Software Defined Networking (SDN)
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
 

Featured Reviews

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.
PriyankDubey - PeerSpot reviewer
A flexible, stable and scalable solution
I don't have issues with the hardware, as the requisite capacity is visible in the data sheets. All the details in the data sheets are accounted for. But, I find myself confused when it comes to combining this with the software. I have not come across documentation on the Versa website which would provide information about the parameters for selecting the appropriate license. For this we are assisted by the solution's design engineer and the Versa team. I do what I can as a project manager and make the best suggestions I am capable of concerning the competition. Future releases should contain AI for the voice feature. SSL VPN is lacking in the solution. I wish to see this in the near future.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"As long as the LAN is well structured, installations and setup can be complete within forty-five minutes."
"In my experience, Meraki is very easy, simple, and clear to set up and use."
"The dashboard is the solution's most valuable feature."
"Meraki SD-WAN saves costs for our customers and provides better connectivity."
"The most valuable feature is application performance monitoring and being able to browse packets dynamically based on priorities."
"SD-WAN is a complete enterprise solution for securing traffic."
"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."
"It is easy to monitor and manage."
"It is very easy to deploy. The GUI interface is really good, and the security features are also very good. It is also stable and scalable, and their support is also good."
"Versa FlexVNF is a scalable product because it does not have any hardware dependencies. This makes it a versatile solution that can be easily integrated with any firewall."
"The product is very stable with no complaints."
"The flexibility is a great feature."
"The division of Control Plane and Data Plane is most valuable. It can be deployed anywhere, and you can control it and configure it from anywhere. This is one of the good features of this solution."
"Our organization finds the application routing features extremely useful."
"Versa is a good centralized solution, where you're setting up your infrastructure in a data center type thing."
"The initial setup is simple."
 

Cons

"Meraki is lagging behind in using a single pipe from service providers. That is, it would be good if they could use both the internet leased line and broadband connectivity."
"There are currently issues with NAT-Unfriendly situations on G4 networks that should be resolved."
"You need to have internet access to configure the solution. You cannot do it locally, there should be a local option."
"When there is an issue, I find it difficult to figure out what is going wrong because the logs do not provide as much information as solutions from HP."
"The blocklist on the Cisco Meraki side isn't complete or very large. We'd like to see them update and expand this."
"The solution must provide more security features."
"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."
"Meraki is more or less intelligent load balancing, although a lot of features are missing that our SD-WAN solutions will have."
"SASE is the next big thing that is coming up, and it needs to be developed in Versa. This is the only thing that needs to be adapted very quickly by Versa. With the pandemic going on, I would like to see more features for working from home. They have launched Versa Secure Access (VSA), but it is currently immature. They need to tighten it up for work from home and SD-WAN concept."
"The support needs to be improved."
"The web interface can be improved."
"The smaller units lack a lot of functionality."
"The UTM features can be improved. It should offer better functionality."
"The interface could be simpler."
"We are thinking about how to make customers consolidate the loads to an SD-WAN network so that the customers can have bigger chunk from the SD-WAN side so that customers can have critical data be transferred with NPS VPN and non-critical data or some labeled traffic can be transferred by the SD-WAN network. I think it's a very important direction for digital transformation."
"The stability of FlexVNF's controller and devices could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of this solution is good, it is not expensive."
"The license model may need improvement."
"I don't have information on the exact cost of Meraki SD-WAN, but I'd rate it a three out of five just because the licensing model is very much associated with the Meraki solution."
"The pricing is fair, but if they can make it less it would be even more attractive."
"The product is not expensive."
"like everything else, it's negotiable."
"One of the most valuable aspects of Meraki SD-WAN is the price. It is highly cost-effective."
"The licensing model is a fair one, although having the hardware means nothing without the license. You need to continue to pay licensing fees."
"While I cannot provide too much commentary on the price, I feel it to be fair for the moment."
"Price wise, it's more expensive than is the competition. I would give pricing a rating of three out of five."
"It is neither cheap nor expensive. I rate the pricing a five out of ten on a scale where one is cheap and ten is expensive."
"We provide subscriptions for our customers on a yearly, not monthly, basis."
"It is not very expensive because of the white box support. Its hardware is much cheaper than other products. With the support for x86 and white box, it is one of the most cost-effective platforms that are currently available."
"I find Versa a little more expensive than VMware in terms of remote access and secure web gateway elements."
"The price is expensive but it makes sense for the market."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Healthcare Company
5%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
8%
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.
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...
What do you like most about Versa FlexVNF?
Versa is a good centralized solution, where you're setting up your infrastructure in a data center type thing.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Versa FlexVNF?
Both Versa and VMware are cheap in terms of the router. I find Versa a little more expensive than VMware in terms of remote access and secure web gateway elements.
What needs improvement with Versa FlexVNF?
We've had the odd occasional stability issue with software upgrades, etcetera. They don't support certain other third-party applications, which can be a bit limiting at times, whereas VMware seems ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Versa FlexVNF, FlexVNF, Versa Titan
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

École Jeannine Manuel
CenturyLink, RCN Business, Colt Technology Services
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Aviatrix, TP-Link and others in Software Defined Networking (SDN). Updated: February 2025.
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