Our primary use case is to break out the traffic at the local location and for the center line management. We want to have these two main objectives, breakout traffic, local traffic, and single management.
Senior Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Good performance, great for smaller business, with excellent user interface
Pros and Cons
- "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."
- "I would like to see more flexibility in our choices of customization for our needs."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see more flexibility in our choices of customization for our needs.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Meraki SD-WAN for several years.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There is definite stability with good performance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There is good scalability. We have a variety of users. Generally from five to two hundred.
How are customer service and support?
When we consider technical support I would rank them an eight out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward and easy. The deployment could take anywhere from one day or longer depending on the integration that was necessary.
What about the implementation team?
We did the implementation through the in-house or internal team.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is reasonable and we can choose the software or the feature.
What other advice do I have?
I think Meraki SD-WAN is good for five hundred end users or smaller. If they are larger than this I would recommend other solutions for enterprise scenarios. I would rate Meraki SD-WAN an eight on a scale of one to ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Network and Cyber Security Presales Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Offers good optimization, load balancing, and auto VPN features
Pros and Cons
- "The Meraki SD-WAN solution is simple to deploy."
- "They stopped doing WAN optimization as a feature set, which is lacking. They need to relook at that and consider WAN optimization as an option."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case of this solution is for optimization, load balancing, and the different end links. We have a variety of customer enterprises that consist of small, medium, and large-size enterprise customers. More of our clients are moving to direct internet access, so we are getting rid of the current MPLS solutions.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are the traffic shaping, the security that is built into the routers on MX, they have a lot of customer performance classes, the visibility, and the auto VPN features.
What needs improvement?
They stopped doing WAN optimization as a feature set, which is now lacking. They need to relook at that and consider WAN optimization as an option.
I know that they have improved the security and have taken that off and that to me is critical on the MX. That's where they lack.
The reporting needs to be looked at. It needs to be more granular. The reporting on the actual solution isn't what the customers are wanting to get.
Scalability could improve to accommodate a larger enterprise.
In the next release, I would like to see the WAN optimization.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for twelve years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable and I have not found any issues in particular.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is scalable. It is not complex. On the Mx side, it could be a room for a high-end device and the highest you get is MX 450. It is scalable but it could improve for a larger enterprise.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of this solution is easy. It is very intuitive when it comes to setups.
The deployment is very quick. We managed to roll out one hundred and sixty branches in a matter of a couple of months.
What was our ROI?
I don't deal with technical support directly, as I am on the design and retail side of things. As far as I understand, the technical support has been fairly competent. There haven't been any issues.
What other advice do I have?
The Meraki SD-WAN solution is simple to deploy.
You have to plan well and look at creating policies and create your templates prior to the installation.
What we found, was that while we were doing the implementation we were doing a lot of work. If we had planned before the actual implementation, then the entire rollout would have been much simpler.
The setup is simple but it terms of deployment, it is better to create your policies and the planning needs to be done prior to the actual deployment.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller.
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Meraki SD-WAN
December 2024
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Head of Digital Solutions at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Useful dashboard, remote configuration, and easy device control
Pros and Cons
- "I have found the dashboard very useful, you can configure all of your devices at the same time by just changing some menus."
- "You need to have internet access to configure the solution. You cannot do it locally, there should be a local option."
What is our primary use case?
I have been using this solution in my house for testing security devices.
What is most valuable?
I have found the dashboard very useful, you can configure all of your devices at the same time by just changing some menus. It is configurated virtually on the cloud and it can send the information to the device when it connects to the internet.
What needs improvement?
You need to have internet access to configure the solution. You cannot do it locally, there should be a local option.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
When comparing this solution to Fortinet, the firewall and reports that you can deliver and control relating to blocking and access are better on Fortinet. Additionally, you can only have two WANs on this solution and with Fortinet, you can have at least six. However, I prefer this solution.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Meraki SD-WAN an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Director de PMO at cibergenius
A very user friendly solution that is well priced
Pros and Cons
- "Meraki SD-WAN is user friendly."
- "I would like to see more functions added to the next release of Meraki SD-WAN."
What is our primary use case?
We are partners with Cisco Meraki. Our clients need to centralize the administration.
We have seven engineers assigned to maintain and deploy this solution.
What is most valuable?
Meraki SD-WAN is user friendly.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see more functions added to the next release of Meraki SD-WAN.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Meraki SD-WAN is a scalable solution.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support is very good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy to configure.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of this solution is good, it is not expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this product a 10 out of 10.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
System and Network Administrator at a pharma/biotech company with 501-1,000 employees
Manageable from the cloud, very stable, and easy to set up
Pros and Cons
- "The centralized console manageable from the cloud is one of the advantages."
- "There should be a few more options for security parameters. It is currently not very customizable. It should be a little bit more customizable."
What is most valuable?
The centralized console manageable from the cloud is one of the advantages.
What needs improvement?
There should be a few more options for security parameters. It is currently not very customizable. It should be a little bit more customizable.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for around four years. I am currently using its latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Their support is good.
How was the initial setup?
It is very simple.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate it a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Simple and clear to use, and the technical support provides quick assistance
Pros and Cons
- "In my experience, Meraki is very easy, simple, and clear to set up and use."
- "There is a point in a very large organization where you hit the VPN limit, or tunnel limit."
What is our primary use case?
We are a reseller and Meraki SD-WAN is one of the products that I design and offer to my customers.
Meraki SD-WAN is used to connect office branches.
How has it helped my organization?
When I design solutions for my customers, I prefer to offer them a Meraki product to use in their environment.
What is most valuable?
In my experience, Meraki is very easy, simple, and clear to set up and use.
From my clients, I've heard that the most valuable feature is the simplicity.
What needs improvement?
There is a point in a very large organization where you hit the VPN limit, or tunnel limit.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Meraki SD-WAN over the course of approximately five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The feedback that I have received is that it's a pretty stable solution.
How are customer service and support?
When you log a support case with Cisco, they provide quick assistance.
I have not dealt with technical support myself but from the technical staff that we have, it sounds like the support is good.
How was the initial setup?
The feedback that I have received is that it's pretty easy to deploy.
The orchestrator is hosted by Cisco and the platform is hosted by Meraki.
What about the implementation team?
We have an in-house team that is responsible for deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing model is a fair one, although having the hardware means nothing without the license. You need to continue to pay licensing fees.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for anybody who is considering this product would vary depending on the environment. I would make sure that if the customer is using a more mature firewall capability, to verify that Meraki can address some of those features. I would want to see what the customer is accustomed to in terms of functionality and that they don't downgrade.
I would rate Meraki SD-WAN and eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
Head Of Technology at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
Easy to configure and offers cloud-based management, but the price could be improved
Pros and Cons
- "It is easy to monitor and manage."
- "This vendor has issues with the supply chain that need to be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We are a system integrator and Meraki SD-WAN is one of the products that we have implemented for our clients.
One of our simple use cases is an ISP environment where they required redundant connectivity.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the ease of configuration.
The management can be done through the cloud.
It is easy to monitor and manage.
What needs improvement?
This vendor has issues with the supply chain that need to be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Meraki SD-WAN for approximately a year and a half.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
For the small environments that we have used it in, this has been a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not really used this solution in any big deployments. As such, we haven't needed to scale it up.
We have set it up for approximately four clients of varying sizes.
How are customer service and support?
We have never had to contact technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have also been working with the Fortinet SD-WAN for the past two to three years.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is pretty straightforward.
In the environment that we most recently set it up in, the deployment took perhaps half a day.
What about the implementation team?
We implement this product for our customers.
We also offer after-sales support. Each customer has what we call technical account managers. These are engineers with a post-sales function.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Our clients pay Meraki an annual licensing fee and the pricing is not too bad when compared to other products in the Cisco portfolio.
What other advice do I have?
This is a product that I recommend. My advice for anybody who is interested in this product is that if you want a simple to configure SD-WAN deployment that's easy to monitor and manage, Meraki is a good fit.
That said, the price could always be better.
I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Technical Lead at Yssy
User-friendly interface and available in the cloud or on-premise
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of Meraki SD-WAN is its user-friendly interface."
- "Some of the on-premise security features of Meraki SD-WAN are on the cloud and some of my customers do not want to use the cloud. They should have on-premise security features for those that do not want to use the cloud."
What is our primary use case?
Meraki SD-WAN can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud.
I am using Meraki SD-WAN for small to medium-sized customers.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Meraki SD-WAN is its user-friendly interface.
What needs improvement?
Some of the on-premise security features of Meraki SD-WAN are on the cloud and some of my customers do not want to use the cloud. They should have on-premise security features for those that do not want to use the cloud.
In a future release, Meraki SD-WAN should improve the integration with other solutions.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Meraki SD-WAN for approximately six months.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Meraki SD-WAN a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
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Updated: December 2024
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