Meraki SD-WAN Reviews

We are using it for branch to branch connectivity. We have set up servers and devices all over the DCC to provide local Wi-Fi for all branches to access the server.

It is secure. To connect the other branches to us, that's all it needed.

It's very good, especially for vendors from other countries to reconnect with us. We can control and monitor everything.

Sometimes we face issues with VPN connections when someone connects from a different time zone, like from Georgia to the Middle East. These kinds of issues occur, but other than that, nothing major.

I have been working with the Meraki SD-WAN for almost ten years.

We did not face much downtime. Our business operations have been stable.

I am not aware of any limitations in terms of scalability.

Sometimes technical support response is delayed. I would rate it seven out of ten.

I have not used any other SD-WAN solutions before.

The initial setup was delayed due to shipment issues with the hardware. However, once everything arrived, we could complete it in about one to one and a half months.

We have an in-house team and support from a third-party local vendor. We have contracts with them for periodic testing. We have six people involved in maintenance — three for hardware and three for other areas.

We have seen a return on investment.

There are many cheap solutions available. Local vendors offer their own products, so compared to those, Meraki seems a bit expensive.

It depends on a business's needs. For businesses that need it, Meraki SD-WAN is good, however, there are other cheaper cloud solutions available like SaaS or AWS.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

Meraki SD-WAN enhances connectivity across various business locations. There are around five to six locations, so we have SD-WAN connectivity.

The security features within Meraki SD-WAN support organization because this is site-to-site connectivity. There is no chance of data leaks from our side because it works through a secure tunnel.

Earlier, we used MPLS and switched over to Meraki. 

Meraki SD-WAN is very convenient to use. That’s the reason we adopted it. The configuration is simple, and maintenance is very easy. That’s why we switched to SD-WAN.

If Meraki can add more features on the reporting side, that will be convenient for us because we have to rely on a different product for monitoring and reporting. That is one of the challenges. Apart from that, everything is good.

If I gauge the reporting features, suppose for device performance-related things and transactions, in terms of throughput and the types of issues we receive on the network side. If those can come into the reporting format, it will be very helpful. 

Many customers ask for their performance, transactions, and throughput. It is very difficult to get the report from connected devices. In that case, we have to go for additional management tools or monitoring tools, which can give us good features. Like earlier, we used Cisco Works. In the same way, we need to implement another product.

In the past, I have used it up to a 250 Mbps device. If we add around seven hundred to eight hundred users, the performance degrades. Meraki might have recently added more devices with higher capacity, but I haven’t had hands-on experience with those. 

I have been using it for the last year. 

As a company grows, if there are more sites from the customer side, then we need to implement. But, the scalability has been constant over the last year. I couldn’t see much change in that. 

On the monitoring side, it’s good. 

We have mostly SMB types of accounts. For very big organizations, there are some limitations. Apart from that, it is very comfortable for SMBs.

Technical support is good. We still get prompt support from their side.

Positive

We also deal with Cisco Meraki, Cisco Catalyst, and other Cisco products. Mostly we are dealing with Cisco. Apart from them, we also handle some products from Juniper.

The pricing is reasonable. Compared to other solutions, it is reasonable.

There is a separate licensing fee for the product we are using. Apart from that, we are not seeing anything additional.

We generally recommend Meraki because it is very simple. The configuration and all those things are very simple. If you have the technical knowledge, there is very little chance of making mistakes.

Even I have given training to the L1 team, and they can handle it very well. We do not need highly skilled people to handle these devices.

I would not recommend this tool to very large-scale organizations. I have not recommended it as of now. But for small and medium-sized organizations, where they do not have many transactions and have a strength of around 500 to 600, we recommend Meraki devices.

Overall, I would rate it a ten out of ten. 

Primarily, we focus on small businesses, offering solutions that are not overly large deployment but impactful. For instance, we helped a company with an employee in four locations to implement Meraki SD-WAN after other solutions failed. It worked perfectly. 

We also support a retailer with six locations using SD-WAN, among other small to medium-sized deployments, including teleworker solutions.

Meraki SD-WAN simplified branch network management for the organization.

It's practically a set-and-forget solution. It just works. Once it's configured and designed properly, we just press the button and it just works seamlessly, eliminating the need for continuous adjustments or monitoring. It is extremely simple to use.  

It's greatly simplified our operations. While not the most flexible, it suits the needs of about 90% of our clients perfectly, making it a reliable and straightforward choice for our network solutions.

It has improved the site-to-site connectivity. For instance, there's this hardware store company. They had tried different solutions since they couldn't afford the big names like FibTeller and Olathe. They were looking for cost-effective solutions. 

They had Google WAN at every site and experimented with MicroTik gear, which is very affordable and flexible but didn't suit their needs. We conducted a quick proof of concept between a few sites with Meraki, and it worked flawlessly right from the start. They replaced all the other equipment with Meraki and haven't looked back, continually expanding with more Meraki solutions.

Moreover, its cloud management platform made a difference in managing the network. 

It's made managing our client's networks extremely easy, regardless of my location. Being able to hop on my cell phone to see what's happening on a client's network makes everything much more manageable.

The first feature I like is the SD-WAN. Second is Advanced Malware Protection (AMP), the threat protection. And third, would be the content filters. Those three together work extremely well. 

It's not perfect, but none of the solutions are because the pricing keeps going all over the place. But with the change they did a couple of years back to Talos, using the real Cisco threat protection system and intelligence, that's really worked quite well. And it does work very nicely maybe not for huge corporate rollouts in the thousands. But certainly, in the small media business, it works quite well. 

If you can scan the pricing and the fact that if you don't have a license, they just stop working, which is a kind of a big hurdle you have to get people to understand that you're just basically buying a subscription in that bit. You're not buying hardware; you're buying a subscription.

Moreover, the Auto VPN feature benefited the organization. We've had virtually zero support calls regarding the Auto VPN feature; it just works seamlessly and automatically. 

The only time it requires attention is during the initial setup or when applying special rules, but other than that, it operates automatically without issues.

It is effective and easy to set up, although a bit expensive, but it gets the job done with a simple configuration. 

However, Meraki isn't as flexible for more unique needs but works excellently within its defined scope.

I'd like to see improvements in the client VPN area. Currently, we use L2TP over IPSec, which, while widely supported, can be buggy on Windows due to Microsoft's implementation, not Meraki's. 

Cisco's AnyConnect is an alternative, but it's proprietary. An open-source option like WireGuard or TailScale, especially WireGuard for compliance reasons, would be a valuable addition to Meraki's offerings. 

WireGuard would be a perfect fit due to its simplicity and set-and-forget configuration

I have been using it for five years now. 

It's very stable. I would rate the stability a nine out of ten simply because there have been a couple of outages. And the outages, when they occur, are in the cloud platform, the Meraki platform, as it's all web-based, internet-based, where there have been some issues with client authentication for the VPN because it's RADIUS-based and it's in the cloud. 

So if the cloud is down, those users can't log in to the VPN, and that's created some issues in the past. In other words, about two years ago, we had a couple of outages, and I had some angry calls.

But apart from that, it's been pretty stable.

It's quite scalable. I read a lot on Reddit, YouTube, and all kinds of stuff, but in trade papers, Meraki apparently scales up very well within the confines of what Meraki can do. 

Now there are companies, like mining companies, who think scaling out, that's when they scale out, they have to do some weird stuff. And that's just what Meraki is just not capable of doing. 

But, for example, schools where they have, or universities typically order for small businesses. They don't generally have very strict, very strange configurations that they need to have working. So, the scalability depends on the client, for example, retail. We can go into one company that has 50 retail stores in all different malls and stuff like that, that scales very well. 

You can have one Meraki with one MX in the central site that has everybody auto-VPN into it. And that works fine. No issues there. So, it does scale within the confines of what Meraki could do.

In our clients, we have anywhere from five users all the way up to a thousand users or more (a school) connected at any one time. So, that's kind of the range with schools and hotels. We also have hotels that do that kind of range.

Sometimes, we encounter someone new who might need a bit of explanation on how Meraki works. Usually, if I'm contacting support, it's for something quite unusual because I handle about 90% of the issues myself. The other 10% might be dashboard-related rather than hardware issues.

Positive

We didn't use any other solution, we sort of fell into Meraki. Initially, we were a Wi-Fi-focused shop, starting with Ruckus. As we expanded, we found Cambium Networks offered great value, becoming our go-to for Wi-Fi solutions. 

We mix Cambium Wi-Fi with Meraki firewalls, which has become a highly successful product for us. Cambium doesn't require licensing, which contrasts with Meraki Wi-Fi, where WE're essentially buying a subscription, not just the hardware. 

It is our best selling product. 

On a scale of one to ten, with ten being very easy to setup, I would rate my experience a ten —super easy. However, it's crucial to understand the quirks of Meraki. 

Someone new to Meraki might find it confusing because its simplicity can be misleading. They might expect complexity and get lost. But once you're familiar with Meraki's approach, setup becomes incredibly straightforward.

Our clients mainly use on-premises deployments. While some applications might be cloud-based, significant data centers are locally situated in Chile. Given our geographical location and the absence of native cloud services, except for a recent introduction by Google, reliance on local data centers is more practical. 

Latency becomes an issue when using major cloud services due to the distance from global cloud data centers. So, for our small to medium-sized business clientele in Chile, which differs in scale from what's considered small to medium in the U.S., local data center usage is the norm, and we rarely see hybrid setups.

I deployed the solution. Deployment for a small client takes half a day. 

One technical person is enough for the deployment. 

I handle the maintenance as well. I get the calls when they get decent support, and our philosophy is when people complain, we teach the client. So the client doesn't have to rely on us for support.

Because we are a very small operation, and so, we had support, we have hundreds of clients who can't support them all. So what we do is we train the clients. 

We generally have a training after the install of however it worked and really train them well on the things that they will have to be doing if they are gonna be managing their own. 

But our philosophy is if the client manages their own system, and with Meraki, you have direct support from the company.  

For a pure SD-WAN solution, the pricing is competitive. However, our clients are on the lower tier in terms of budget, viewing IT more as a necessary expense rather than integral to their business. While Meraki's solution might be pricey for them, there aren't many cheaper, reliable options. 

Other solutions claiming to offer SD-WAN don't match Meraki's sophistication and end up costing about the same, making Meraki's pricing reasonable for the service quality, though still a stretch for our client base.

For our clients, I'd rate it around a seven out of ten in terms of pricing. It's not too expensive compared to high-end SD-WAN solutions like Vitello, but it's still a bit pricey for our client base who are accustomed to more budget-friendly options like TP-Link or inexpensive firewalls.

About five years ago, there weren't many affordable options available that suited our client base. They just weren't a good fit for our client base. Our client base is very small. They weren't going to pay thousands of dollars a year to connect their offices. They just wouldn't do it. So they got by with basic firewalls and just doing a straight tunnel, a VPN tunnel, with SD-WAN, we tunnel it and be done with it" mentality. 

But then, all of a sudden, we started looking at Meraki. We played around with it a little bit, and we were just amazed at how easy it was to set up a VPN and the SD-WAN portion. It was fairly simple. We couldn't believe it because we were used to the world of command-line interface (CLI).

You log in, and then you start typing commands. We have been doing a lot with Cisco ASA firewalls, and those are the biggest pains in the neck. With VPNs and all that stuff, it was horrible.

We're Cisco partners, as well as Fortinet, Aruba, and Ruckus partners. We work with a wide range of partners, making us quite versatile in the industry.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten for our use case. For a bank's use case, they might rate it a two, but for small businesses and schools, it's about an eight out of ten. 

Our company is an integration partner with Cisco and we use the solution to provide internet or wireless connectivity for customers. 

One of our clients is a grocery chain with 200 locations in Mexico. They might be called  liquor stores in the USA but in Mexico, these stores are bigger and also provide fast service for groceries such as fruits and vegetables. The stores are located in remote places where internet is not the best option. 

The stores had residential internet with modem or router, no MPLS, and no capacity for more than 10 to 20 simultaneous connections. Wireless internet, cell phones, or POS did not function well but were critical to business. 

The solution provides a great benefit because MLPS is not needed to receive  great connections. MX65s were installed in the stores and the MX105 was installed at the company's headquarters. 

The solution brings a redundancy of cellular internet with management access for security policies and the network at each store via Meraki's software. The customer is able to manage and configure routers remotely. Connectivity is improved for customers, the POS, CCTV, and the bar code reader. 

The remote management system allows customers to create VPN services whenever they need them. 

The management system is one of the best available. 

The licensing price is a bit expensive in comparison to other products that have more capabilities. 

The interface in the VPN management system can be a bit complex for users to understand. The usability could be improved so that users can access things more quickly. 

I have been using the solution for four years. 

The solution is very stable.

The solution is scalable to the licenses. 

Our company provides customers with three levels of technical support. We have our own support teams who are Cisco-certified in engineering, architecture, the cloud, and security. There are not many partners in Mexico with our levels of certification. Our support is trained to solve problems. 

If we cannot solve a problem, then we raise a ticket with the distributor or wholesaler where we purchased the solution. Sometimes this level takes a little longer because some of their staff does not have the knowledge or certifications that we do. There may be one specialty but not all specialties. We sometimes face trouble with this step so would rather work directly with Cisco but have to follow this step first. 

If a problem goes farther to something related to software or frameware, then we bring in Cisco's technical support and ask them to take ownership of the ticket. They are the manufacture so they can solve anything. 

Cisco's technical support is average. It is not the best or not one of the worst like Ubiquiti.

Technical support is rated a six out of ten. 

Neutral

The setup is very easy. The solution is the best for setup in comparison to Aruba and Fortinet. This saves customers a lot of money on installations and deployments. 

I rate setup a ten out of ten. 

Two of our in-house specialists handle implementations for customers. 

The use case dictates the amount of time needed for implementations. The worst cases are when we have to homologate with FortiGate or Barracuda. 

For our grocery customer, we implemented between 1,000 to 2,000 devices across 200 locations within two weeks. Some of that time was spent on technology training because we like to educate our customers on use. 

The ROI for customers is that they save money on field technical support and field configurations. Service-level agreements do not depend on the functionality of the hardware. You reduce the risk of data loss, security, and incident response because issues can be solved quickly with the software. 

It isn't necessary to conduct a huge analysis because the ROI is clear. You can point out how much customers spend on infrastructure, MPLS, management, internet service, and field support.

If customers cannot use the cloud due to compliance, you can still bring good value and options with the solution. 

There is no downtime because notifications automatically alert to issues and can be resolved immediately. You can set notifications for any downfall or device issue. Traditional, field support might take five hours but with the solution you can provide remote support within 30 minutes. You can also configure and visualize the security policies for each device. You have acknowledgement that the network is secure and the policies are clear. All the points of risk management across controls, reactive, and remedial make the ROI very clear. 

The solution is a bit expensive when compared to other products that bring more capacity such as Teltonika. 

The MX65 is $100 to $150 per license, per month. 

The MX80 or MX105 is $200 to $200 per license, per month. 

In contrast, Teltonika charges $2 per license, per month and that is a huge difference. 

The solution offers very stable cloud security and the service is better than other products. The solution is definitely the best option for quality and software when compared to Fortinet, Aruba, and other SD-WAN products. 

Fortinet has made recent improvements to their SD-WAN products. 

Teltonika are big competitors and they offer better prices for devices and software. 

Right now, we are comparing the solution to Chinese and European products that bring better price benefits. Sometimes it comes down to a matter of pricing for customers. 

The solution's lead time for purchase could be a bit better. Right now the lead time is no more than 20 weeks but Teltonika's lead time is eight weeks. Some other products have an 80 to 100 week lead time. The solution and Fortinet are the most demanded products in Mexico so most people don't have trouble waiting for them. 

Read the solution's documentation available on the internet. You don't need to do more than that because it is very easy to use. The solution is the best VPN management tool and one of the easiest technologies to deploy and install. 

Look at documentation for the management system because the value you can bring to customers is great. You can bring good benefits so that the cost of the license is no trouble. 

For example, customers will save a lot of money in field technical support and field configurations because of the remote abilities and incident response. An issue with nodes or devices can be handled remotely and very quickly. 

Documentation and videos will allow you to explain the solution to customers in one minute. The solution is one of the easiest to sell because of its benefits that include ease of installation, use, and management. 

I rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

I use Meraki SD-WAN for multi-site VPN connectivity. It is mainly used for creating a mesh kind of site-to-site connection across different industries.

It offers ease of setup and ongoing maintenance without needing to have a public or static IP on all the sites.

The most valuable feature is the ease of setting up Meraki SD-WAN. It simplifies the process and does not require having a public or static IP on all the sites.

Meraki SD-WAN could be improved by including full feature routing functions similar to a normal Cisco router. It would also benefit from self-healing capabilities, where it can automatically reboot or reset if the VPN stops working.

I have been using Meraki SD-WAN for many years, more than ten years.

Meraki SD-WAN is quite stable, and there have been no significant complaints regarding its stability.

I rate its scalability as eight out of ten.

Customer service is quite good, and there are no complaints about the support.

Positive

The initial setup is very easy, and I would rate it ten out of ten for ease.

We have not conducted a cost-benefit analysis; it is more about ease of setup and maintenance.

The cost depends on the size and the device. It is generally expensive, and the price varies.

I recommend Meraki SD-WAN if the budget allows it. It is important to try it out and see if it suits your needs before making a decision.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

Apart from SQL, I used to work a lot with networking solutions. I am more of a network specialist, and then I started to do SQL after that. I'm experienced with networking rather than application experience for databases.

Meraki SD-WAN has improved productivity greatly. It is easy to deploy and easy to troubleshoot, so problem resolution is quicker.

The redundancy feature of Meraki SD-WAN has most significantly enhanced network performance. Additionally, the security features are good on the MX devices.

The configuration from the firewall side could be improved a little bit more.

I have about four to five years of experience working with Meraki SD-WAN.

I would rate the stability of the solution as eight out of ten. There were no significant troubles with stability.

I would rate the scalability of Meraki SD-WAN as ten out of ten. It is highly scalable.

I would rate the customer service and support eight out of ten.

Positive

We did look at other solutions such as Fortinet and VeloCloud. However, we decided to go with Meraki SD-WAN because we were already a Meraki customer and saw the ease of deployment.

The initial setup was quite straightforward.

The deployment was done through a third-party integrator.

Meraki SD-WAN has contributed to cost savings by being easy to deploy and troubleshoot, making problem resolution quicker.

The pricing of Meraki SD-WAN is a little bit on the pricey side. However, it is still a valuable product despite the cost.

We looked at Fortinet and VeloCloud. We chose Meraki SD-WAN because we were already a Meraki customer and appreciated the ease of deployment.

I would recommend Meraki SD-WAN because it is easy to deploy, highly scalable, and easy to manage.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

I use the solution in my company for the firewall, specifically Cisco Meraki MX, which we use mostly for the wireless and the LAN or switching part.

The most valuable feature of the solution is the auto-VPN functionality, which helps you quickly connect the branch-to-branch kind of scenario is very helpful.

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

There is nothing specific that I want to say, but the solution is improving daily. The tool comes up with new features and new capabilities. The solution is moving away from small business use cases to large-sized enterprise customers.

I am okay with whatever Meraki is currently supporting in the solution. My concern revolves around the WAN part of the solution since if we consider traditional routing, it doesn't support all routing protocols. Right now, my company is very limited in BGP and OSPF scenarios.

I have been using Meraki SD-WAN for almost five years. My company is a gold partner of Cisco.

It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

From a scalability point of view, I would say the tool is not so great. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a seven out of ten. There are some limitations around the WAN protocols.

The product is a good fit for retail customers and offices that opt for a wireless kind of approach. The product is good for office locations. My company has observed that a lot of our customer base belongs to either the retail industry or are just offices.

The solution's technical support is good. I rate the technical support a nine out of ten.

Positive

The product's initial setup phase is simple.

For any new site rollout, as per our company's experience, if everything is planned out, we can get a site up within four to five hours. We require two days of some little bit of planning work over the IPs and all such things. The actual work starts once the box is connected to the internet, after which, it takes not more than four hours. It is less than a day kind of scenario.

The solution is deployed on the cloud.

The product does help with the cost savings part.

The product's price falls under the mid-range category, especially if we consider the new licensing model. The tool is not cheap anymore.

Meraki SD-WAN can be compared with its competitors' products, like Fortinet, which is almost the same as Meraki. The other competitor of Meraki's product is Versa. Versa is a better product when it comes to SD-WAN, especially when compared to Fortinet and Meraki, which are on the same level.

When we compare Meraki SD-WAN with Cisco SD-WAN or the old traditional product CatalystVPN, the tool's traffic shaping capabilities are not fully present.

The automation or UI-based features of the product are easy to operate.

My company has not integrated any AI features into the product. Meraki SD-WAN's dashboard provides my company with good telemetry functionalities. My company has tried using the AI features with Cisco DNA Spaces.

I recommend the tool to those who plan to use it.

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

Our connectivity was pretty good even before we used Meraki. After we used Meraki, everything worked fine and still does. The thing is that once we started using Meraki, our management became simpler. It's simpler for us to become simpler.

We have other solutions, and we wanted one that would integrate with our current ones. This product is pretty good and simple, so we learned the simplicity of a product.

We currently use some features. It is secure, and some features, like work device management, are very useful.

We selected this solution because it needs to be always connected. In some cases, like an Internet outage, this can make the solution unmanageable.

If the network disconnects, we have access to the device but cannot make any changes.

I have been using Meraki SD-WAN for the last six months.

During the initial setup, it wasn't stable. It was very problematic, and we had a lot of issues. Now it's very stable.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

The solution’s scalability is good. 2,000 users are using this solution.

We use the Meraki SD-WAN solution daily as users who consume the network. However, our involvement is very limited if you're asking about managing the devices or connecting to them. We barely manage it because it's largely automatic. It works well, so we typically only intervene about once a week.

I rate the solution’s scalability a ten out of ten.

Technical support is very cumbersome. It's not on point. It takes them a lot of time to understand the problems. It's very complex.

Neutral

The initial setup is easy. However, it took us a lot of time to work with an integrator and to declutter, and it took us weeks to deploy.

Meraki is a combination of cloud and on-prem, but most of our deployments are on-prem connected to the cloud. The management of Meraki is always on the cloud, but the devices are on-prem, and we have deployed multiple devices on-prem.

We use a third party for deployment. It still took us a lot of time. 

The product's pricing is moderate.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

The tool makes it easier for us to communicate with other offices without using an MPLS network.

The solution is easy to use. The product enables us to connect with other offices easily. It provides alerts to notify us if a site is down or up. I haven’t faced any challenges while integrating Meraki into existing infrastructures.

The solution must provide more security features.

I haven’t had any issues with the tool’s stability. That is why we use it.

The tool is scalable. We deal with medium-sized businesses with around 100 users.

The support is pretty good. The support team is pretty knowledgeable.

Positive

The initial setup is straightforward. I rate the ease of setup a ten out of ten. The deployment can be done in an hour if everything is connected properly. We need two network technicians for the deployment. It is simple to use. It does not require any maintenance.

The product is not very expensive. I rate the pricing a five out of ten. The price is not a huge deal-breaker.

I evaluated other products, but Meraki was cheaper.

We configured the VPN feature in our organization. It works well. I will recommend the solution. It is easy to use. Overall, I rate the product a ten out of ten.

I primarily use it to connect sites to each other over an overlay network, with protection from the next-generation firewall in the Meraki ecosystem.

The most valuable feature for me is the security functionality, its integration with Wi-Fi, and the switching approach.

The license model may need improvement because if we need to renew something, we need to completely renew the license model.

An additional feature I would like is the 5G solution. It is not yet there.

I have been using the solution for more than four years. We are using the latest version, which is cloud-based.

The stability of this solution is fine. It has a Fusion version. It does what it prompts.

The solution is scalable. It is scalable for mid-tier deployments, but not for major ones.

The technical support is decent if you open a ticket, but it can sometimes take quite a while. As for product development, it's a much more difficult story, as they have a very lengthy development cycle.

It is a cloud-based solution, so the initial setup is straightforward. Onboarding a customer can be done in a few weeks.

The deployment process is easy. It's a cloud-based system that is activated by attaching the serial number, and then the system goes live. So it's easy to set up.

The license model depends on the customer and can be a yearly license, a three-year license, or a five-year license. There may be additional costs for certain licenses, such as Umbrella licenses or advanced licenses. The pricing ultimately depends on the functionality the customer requires.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.