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Meraki SD-WAN vs VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

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)
VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (7th), WAN Edge (7th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (11th)
 

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 23.9%, down 24.5% compared to last year.
VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN, on the other hand, focuses on Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions, holds 10.5% mindshare, up 8.6% 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.
Sami-Isoaho - PeerSpot reviewer
To fully utilize cloud vendors' hardware networking, Microsoft and VMware support everything
To improve the product, the company, alone or with a good partner, should manufacture their own hardware brand with boxes to make the product more shippable. Implementing VMware is much more difficult, time-consuming, and expensive than implementing Fortinet or Check Point. With Fortinet, you pay a couple of hundred dollars for hosting and a low-cost firewall, there's only one box to ship to each site, and it's much easier to manage. Moreover, it would be easy for the large telecom operators and system integrators to sell the solution. It would also be a good fit for customers with multiple small offices, who I currently advise to choose hardware-vendor SD-WAN solutions over VMware.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature for me is the security functionality."
"This product has a simple configuration that can be accessed through a web interface or the API."
"Zero touch configuration onsite based on the manager system's pre-configuration and the VPN automation set."
"Meraki SD-WAN is user friendly."
"The tool is easy to use."
"The redundancy feature of Meraki SD-WAN has most significantly enhanced network performance."
"I have found the dashboard very useful, you can configure all of your devices at the same time by just changing some menus."
"Meraki SD-WAN is scalable."
"We define the quality of service layer to improve their application service experience globally."
"The most valuable feature is the Dynamic Multipath Optimization (DMPO), which allows the customer to maintain and monitor their link quality in real-time."
"VMware is the only SD-WAN solution that integrates with Azure Virtual WAN."
"The cloud gateway is a very good feature for scaling purposes, etc."
"The product is consistent and is one of the best despite the competition."
"The service they provide is very stable and is the main influencer of why customers purchase this solution."
"The most valuable feature of VMware SD-WAN is security. Additionally, the integration and configuration are easier to do than with other solutions, such as Cisco."
"Some of the best features are the SD-WAN platform for VMware and the NSX network virtualization."
 

Cons

"In some cases, like an Internet outage, this can make the solution unmanageable."
"Perimetral security for new requirements on financial networks and DRP systems, like SAP."
"The integration with other tools must be improved."
"There is still some work to do when it comes to AI."
"It should be easier to install BGP and it should have a better backup."
"There is a point in a very large organization where you hit the VPN limit, or tunnel limit."
"It's a matter of cost and expenses that we may take some issue with."
"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."
"There is room for improvement with respect to security."
"The firewall can be more advanced."
"VMware SD-WAN is complicated to configure."
"Implementing VMware is much more difficult, time-consuming, and expensive than implementing Fortinet or Check Point."
"There is room for improvement in the pricing."
"The only thing that I'm having issues with is on one of the sites, I can't see the location on the map."
"VMware SD-WAN doesn't have the best built-in firewall."
"If you don't have an Internet connection, you can’t control it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of this solution is good, it is not expensive."
"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."
"Meraki's pricing is on the higher side, which may limit who can afford to use them."
"This solution is more expensive than competitors."
"The product's price falls under the mid-range category, especially if we consider the new licensing model. The tool is not cheap anymore."
"Any license you buy until January 2021 gets you an extra year for that purchase."
"The solution's pricing is in line with what we expected."
"One of the most valuable aspects of Meraki SD-WAN is the price. It is highly cost-effective."
"VMware SD-WAN provides competitive pricing."
"The cost of VMware SD-WAN is high, but I think you can still get better pricing if your volume is high."
"Price would be a challenge for customers, because it is expensive."
"The price of this solution should be lower."
"The price is reasonable for this solution, but the only challenge for us is that the Rand currency fluctuates to the dollar and provides some complexities. The price might go up just because the Rand has actually lost value."
"We make monthly payments toward the licensing costs of the solution."
"The pricing is very comparable to Fortinet."
"The solution's price combines the license and the bandwidth you used."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Retailer
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
7%
 

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 are the biggest differences between Fortinet Fortigate and VMware SD-WAN?
One of our favorite things about Fortinet Fortigate is that you can deploy on the cloud or on premises. It is a very stable, reliable, and consistent solution. We like that we can manage the entire...
What do you like most about VMware SD-WAN?
One of the key use cases for VMware SD-WAN was assisting a customer in the industrial zone. They required virtualized servers and wanted to enable VMware SD-WAN to connect their sites in Japan or C...
 

Also Known As

No data available
VMware SD-WAN, VeloCloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

École Jeannine Manuel
Redmond, Coca Cola, Roka Bioscience, MetTel, Deutsche Telekom, Rockford Construction,  The Bay Club, tru Independence, Triton Management Services, DevCon, AXPM
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Aviatrix, TP-Link and others in Software Defined Networking (SDN). Updated: March 2025.
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