Meraki SD-WAN vs VMware NSX comparison

The compared Cisco and VMware solutions aren't in the same category. Cisco is ranked #1 in SDN , with an average rating of 8.8, and holds a 24.8% mindshare in the category. VMware is ranked #2 in NV , with an average rating of 7.8, and holds a 46.7% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Meraki SD-WAN

Read 75 Meraki SD-WAN reviews

1,740 Views
1,142 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

VMware NSX

Read 101 VMware NSX reviews

1,151 Views
774 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Meraki SD-WAN

VMware NSX

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.

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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Categories and Ranking

Meraki SD-WAN

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Defined Networking (SDN) (1st)

VMware NSX

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

101

Ranking in other categories

Network Virtualization (2nd), Cloud and Data Center Security (2nd), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (8th), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (8th), Network Automation (5th), Microsegmentation Software (1st)

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 24.8%, up 22.8% compared to last year.
VMware NSX, on the other hand, focuses on Network Virtualization, holds 46.7% mindshare, up 45.8% since last year.

Software Defined Networking (SDN)

Network Virtualization

Q&A Highlights

Paul Wright

Head of Infrastructure Services at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees

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.

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Featured Reviews

Premnath Jaganathan

Product Manager at Uop Ipl

Manage enterprise network traffic seamlessly but security features need enhancement

The security integration in Meraki SD-WAN is not as good as the competition, such as Fortinet. Customers are moving away due to this reason, as Meraki lacks in offering advanced security features, which is crucial for many enterprise clients. Cisco's AI capabilities and Meraki are about seventy percent caught up with competitors like Juniper Mist in terms of AI integration.

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Santi-Lara Garcia

Key Account Manager - Catalonia and Baleares Islands at Red Heart

Integrates perfectly but must be purchased as part of a bundle package

The solution is only sold as part of a bundle and not as an individual product. Some customers only need vSphere or NSX for their use cases, but account executives focus on bundles so this is a problem. Account executives need to talk with both systems and security staff to get a full picture of the environment's requirements. For example, systems staff have no need for the solution so they will never deploy it.

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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 product's initial setup phase is very easy."

"The management system is one of the best available."

"I like the entire set of features and the analytics."

"The most valuable feature is application performance monitoring and being able to browse packets dynamically based on priorities."

"The solution operates via zero-touch configuration."

"t is very stable based on our experience and the application performance has been superb."

"I have found the dashboard very useful, you can configure all of your devices at the same time by just changing some menus."

"SD-WAN is a complete enterprise solution for securing traffic."

More Meraki SD-WAN pros

"The solution is very stable and reliable."

"I have found VMware NSX to be easy to use."

"The microsegmentation allows me to sleep at night. My job is reducing risk, plugging security holes, and working with the automated layer security. Even if somebody spins up a new server, it has to have a tag in NSX."

"The micro-segmentation and the ability to create policy rules are valuable."

"The stability is great. That's one of the things that we can quantify and leverage through NSX, because it's less complex. We have the availability to manage multiple things at the same time. You can identify problems before they manifest."

"The alert features are the most valuable."

"From a security standpoint, the customer was able to better secure critical workloads while routing L2/L3 worked normally, giving them more confidence that they would be ready for any potential security incident mitigation or outage (DR)."

"This solution comes with an API that can easily integrate with other solutions."

More VMware NSX pros

Cons

"In Meraki SD-WAN, we have some limitations with the traffic shaping capabilities."

"I would like to see more functions added to the next release of Meraki SD-WAN."

"The solution could be improved if it added more features, especially monitoring and reporting features."

"We have had some problems doing the implementation."

"It's a matter of cost and expenses that we may take some issue with."

"People are struggling a little bit with the lead times right now. It’s hard to actually get the hardware."

"The interface in the VPN management system can be a bit complex for users to understand."

"The blocklist on the Cisco Meraki side isn't complete or very large. We'd like to see them update and expand this."

More Meraki SD-WAN cons

"The training costs a minimum of $3,000, which is expensive and should be reduced."

"If you're worried that NSX is too complex, I would tell you to take another look. If you compare NSX to a similar solution you might find it to be a bit more complex. Usually, the guy that comes in to implement NSX isn't the network guy and will lack the knowledge for the program. He can lack the knowledge for this program and will therefore think it's complex. You need somebody with network experience."

"Occasionally the licensing is not very clear. They should make it easier to understand."

"The next release of NSX should try to make Kubernetes and container integration a little easier than it is now. It's quite a complicated process."

"Migrating from V to T is very tricky, complicated, and there are a lot of parameters to account for."

"Their licensing model should make it easier to purchase licenses."

"A room for improvement in VMware NSX is that it has some security vulnerabilities, which means my company has to apply the patches every once in a while."

"Since most people are very much used to physical networking, they find it difficult to use VMware NSX in the initial stage."

More VMware NSX cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is costly. I rate the tool's price as a ten out of ten since it is very expensive."

"The pricing is reasonable and we can choose the software or the feature."

"The solution offers yearly licenses and product lines or prices are readily available on their website."

"There are no licensing costs for the product subscription."

"The price can vary depending on the challenges that you need to address. When you look at the stability and reliability against the price, you absolutely get the value for the price."

"The price of this solution is good, it is not expensive."

"The licensing model is a fair one, although having the hardware means nothing without the license. You need to continue to pay licensing fees."

"From the perspective of the customer, the price is not terribly cost-effective."

More Meraki SD-WAN pricing and cost advice

"If five is a good price and one is a high price, I would rate the price a one out of five."

"We are using the free version of the solution."

"This solution requires a licence."

"We can't go without NSX, so it's invaluable from this perspective."

"Our customers have definitely complained about its cost. It's expensive. I'd rate it a nine out of ten in terms of pricing where ten represents a high price. There are other products out there that are equally expensive."

"The price is based on the virtual desktop infrastructure(VDI) side and also is dependant on the size of the environment. The price is expensive and it could attract more purchasers in smaller organisations if it was reduced."

"There is a license required for this solution, we pay annually."

"The subscription is on a yearly basis."

More VMware NSX pricing and cost advice

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Answers from the Community

Paul Wright

Head of Infrastructure Services at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jul 6, 2020

What is the biggest difference between VMware NSX and Meraki SD-WAN?

2 out of 6 answers

GaurangPatel

Technical Director at Allot Group

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.

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Denis FERRAND

Head of EMEA Strategic Alliances at Arrow Electronics, Inc

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

20%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Energy/Utilities Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

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.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Meraki SD-WAN?

Even though it is more expensive than other options, it's reasonable when factoring in the remote management capabilities which eliminate the need for additional staffing.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Meraki SD-WAN?

From a dashboard perspective, identifying issues can be challenging if one or two individuals experience trouble. Another area for improvement is in wireless management, where external tools might ...

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

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Meraki SD-WAN

Compared 24% of the time

Omada Cloud SDN vs Meraki SD-WAN

Compared 18% of the time

VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs Meraki SD-WAN

Compared 17% of the time

Prisma SD-WAN vs Meraki SD-WAN

Compared 12% of the time

Cradlepoint NetCloud vs Meraki SD-WAN

Compared 11% of the time

More Meraki SD-WAN Competitors

Nutanix Flow Network Security vs VMware NSX

Compared 23% of the time

Illumio vs VMware NSX

Compared 19% of the time

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs VMware NSX

Compared 16% of the time

Cisco Secure Workload vs VMware NSX

Compared 8% of the time

Cisco ACI vs VMware NSX

Compared 7% of the time

More VMware NSX Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Meraki SD-WAN

December 2024

Download Meraki SD-WAN product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware NSX

November 2024

Download VMware NSX product report

Also Known As

No data available

VMware Nicira, Lastline Defender

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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 is a sophisticated solution utilized for micro-segmentation, network security, software-defined networking, and private cloud construction. It aids in the transition from physical to virtual infrastructure, ensuring efficient network virtualization and security of production workloads.

VMware NSX empowers organizations to manage network functions, implement distributed firewalls, and enhance security within virtual environments. Crucial for disaster recovery and load balancing, it supports cloud-native application development and enterprise clients. Its ease of use, scalability, and seamless integration with existing VMware solutions ensure streamlined network management and swift deployment. Despite its extensive features, areas like pricing, routing functionality, and compatibility with certain platforms require attention.

What are the key features of VMware NSX?

Ease of Use: Simplifies network management with an intuitive interface.
Scalability: Adapts to growing infrastructure needs seamlessly.
Micro-Segmentation: Enhances security by dividing networks into smaller, manageable segments.
Integration: Seamlessly works with existing VMware solutions and third-party applications.
Dynamic Routing: Optimizes network traffic efficiently.
Security Options: Offers robust firewall features and security measures.
Automation: Facilitates quick deployment through comprehensive automation capabilities.
High Bandwidth: Ensures high-performance network operations.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Enhanced Network Security: Superior protection for virtual environments.
Efficient Disaster Recovery: Reliable support for business continuity.
Reduced Deployment Time: Fast implementation and configuration.
Improved Network Management: Centralized and streamlined control of network resources.

VMware NSX is widely implemented across industries such as finance, healthcare, and manufacturing. Organizations in these sectors utilize it to bolster security, enhance network efficiency, and support cloud-native applications. By extending on-premise networks into provider spaces and managing virtual access networks, VMware NSX significantly optimizes infrastructure operations.

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

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