Meraki SD-WAN and Cradlepoint NetCloud are solutions in the competitive field of advanced network management. Meraki SD-WAN appears to have an edge due to its ease and efficiency in deployments, while Cradlepoint NetCloud excels in flexibility and offers a robust feature set, supporting higher perceived value.
Features: Meraki SD-WAN integrates seamlessly with existing infrastructure, providing advanced security features and easy scalability. It is ideal for businesses aiming for centralized network control. Cradlepoint NetCloud delivers excellent LTE connectivity options, flexible network configurations, and robust security protocols, appealing to businesses requiring mobile connectivity.
Room for Improvement: Meraki SD-WAN could improve by incorporating more flexible network configurations, enhancing its mobile connectivity features, and further diversifying its security protocols. Cradlepoint NetCloud might enhance its ease of use for beginners, offer more straightforward pricing structures, and improve scalability for larger deployments.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Meraki SD-WAN offers a straightforward deployment process with minimal on-site resources and solid technical support. Cradlepoint NetCloud provides a user-friendly setup with cloud-managed deployment, enabling easy remote configuration. Its centralized support is highly responsive, enhancing customer satisfaction.
Pricing and ROI: Meraki SD-WAN typically involves moderate upfront costs, offering rapid ROI due to simplified management and lower total ownership costs. Cradlepoint NetCloud, though initially more expensive, provides significant returns with its extensive features and mobility focus, making it appealing for businesses needing dynamic network environments.
I have worked very closely with Cradlepoint for several years and would rate their customer service as being among the best.
We raised it in TAC, and they were very approachable and supportive.
Cradlepoint products support scalability very well in medium to large enterprise environments.
Scalability depends on the model number of each switch, but generally, it is scalable according to need.
Sometimes it is not working in Azure or GCP as it has interoperability only with some clouds, so that part needs work.
The company realizes that there's a need for affordable connectivity products, especially for lower-end medium enterprises or larger small enterprises.
VeloCloud provides much more detail and many more tabs for troubleshooting everything, such as ARP, IPv4, IPv6, TCP dumps, routing, and switching.
I work with Fortinet where with a single command you can deploy the entire SD-WAN along with FortiGuard within minutes.
Cradlepoint's pricing is viewed as market competitive, offering good value for the money invested.
If the license expires in FortiGate, the basic functionality will work, but in Meraki SD-WAN, the entire system will shut down.
Cradlepoint supports the option for wireless to be a primary means of connectivity, rather than just a backup.
The real-time visibility and analytics capabilities of Meraki SD-WAN are very good for troubleshooting ports, especially when viewing traffic running on these ports in real time.
The architecture allows us to see whether the physical cable is connected or disconnected.
Cradlepoint’s NetCloud is an integrated platform that connects modern enterprises from the Edge to the cloud to ensure pervasive connectivity and greater availability. It combines advanced Enterprise Software-Defined Network (SDN) and Software-Defined Perimeter (SD-P) technologies that enable dynamic connectivity and network management of fixed branch locations, vehicles, and M2M/IoT deployments within one pane of glass platform.
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.
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