Cisco Meraki MX68 - security appliance - MX68-HW - Firewalls & VPN

By David Fartouk - Connectez-vous

Reliablity and simple management facilitates seamless solution integration

What is our primary use case? We have other solutions as well; however, since we integrated Cisco switches, specifically Nexus nine thousand switches, we wanted a single solution that could manage all of it. We chose the Meraki solution, and it actually works well together. It is very easy to deploy and manage. What is most valuable? For us, the most important aspect is, first of all, the reliability of the solution. We understand that Cisco solutions are very reliable, and we really like the simple management. It is a very straightforward solution to manage. What needs improvement? For our use case, there is not anything specific that needs to change. We have not found any major problems with it. For how long have I used the solution? It has been less than a year since we have deployed it. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? It is scalable. We have Juniper solutions, and I would say the Juniper solutions can scale better, however, this solution is still very scalable. How are customer service and support? We have not needed support. How would you rate customer service and support? Positive Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? We are still using other solutions. We had solutions from HP Aruba and Juniper as well. Eventually, we plan to remove the Aruba and deploy something else, which is basically the Meraki and the Juniper Mist. We are migrating from Aruba to Meraki. We think the Aruba solution was complex despite being stable. Managing it is cumbersome. There were questions about the company's stability. How was the initial setup? The initial setup for us was very easy. It was very simple for us, like nine out of ten. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? In terms of pricing, I would say it is not the cheapest, but it was comparable to the others. I do not think it is very bad. What other advice do I have? I would rate the overall solution at least an eight out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use? Other Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions. What is our primary use case? We have other solutions as well; however, since we integrated Cisco switches, specifically Nexus nine thousand switches, we wanted a single solution that could manage all of it. We chose the Meraki solution, and it actually works well together. It is very easy to deploy and manage Read more

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By Mayur_Patel - Connectez-vous

Direct connectivity and virtual network capabilities optimize geographical connectivity

What is our primary use case? This is where most of my data is. It includes different geographical connectivity, SD-WAN, PSLAD, ISP load balancing, penetration testing, server spoofing, and active services. What is most valuable? This solution provides a better capability where I can create a virtual network Read more

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By Frankline Wanangwe - Connectez-vous

Offers an easy-to-use dashboard but needs to make the troubleshooting process easier

What is our primary use case? One of our customers is actively running Meraki MX as a cloud solution in their enterprise. They use it for their local area network, and they also use it for their SD-WAN product. It is used for its connectivity purposes. What is most valuable? The solution's most valuable feature is the ease of management of the dashboard. We can see everything from the dashboard, making it easy for us. What needs improvement? Our client is happy with the tool at the moment. We don't have anything bad to say about the product at the moment. We support our clients and the fact that everything is on the cloud, makes it easy for us to troubleshoot. Improvements are required more on the side of troubleshooting. With the logs and considering the fact that we are in the cloud, we lose some of those features that you would ideally see when plugged into a switch. Something like logging and stuff are areas where improvements are required. It gives you more indication on what is really happening with the switch or router. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using Meraki MX for a few years. My company is a reseller and gold partner of Cisco. What do I think about the stability of the solution? It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? Once we set up the tool, we are able to scale the branches to different locations, and most of the time, the central device is able to increase capacity. We do the design work to make sure that we are able to scale in the future. My clients are small and medium enterprises. My clients are banks that probably have 90 branches. How are customer service and support? The solution's technical support is top-notch. I think we had an issue once where we did a misconfiguration, or rather we were trying to migrate and lost the cloud connectivity. When we reached out to the support team, they responded pretty quickly. I rate the technical support a out of ten. I rate the support services as an eight out of ten. How would you rate customer service and support? Positive How was the initial setup? If one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the product's initial setup phase as an eight. The product's installation phase is very easy. The solution is deployed on the cloud. The solution can be deployed in a few hours. Once we are prepared with everything, you just need to go for the plug-and-play option to be able to use it. A team does the deployment. The staging is done in the office, but then we just need a team of guys to run around the different locations for racking and stacking. All the configuration is done probably by one or two people in the office. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The tool's prices are okay compared to the traditional solutions. We find Meraki MX platform to be cheaper compared to the regular tools, like SD-Access. Which other solutions did I evaluate? My company mostly deals with Cisco, and we are really satisfied with its tools. Our partnership with Cisco is good. My company is a gold partner with Cisco, so we have good pricing models. What other advice do I have? AI is a topic that I think we started discussing with our customers towards the end of the last year. AI is here, but I would say not very many customers are using it yet. But it's a topic that we are trying to discuss with our customers. I would recommend Cisco Meraki because of ease of use. I think we are highly compared to other solutions, probably in the market in this region, Cisco Meraki is highly skilled not only in Meraki, but with Cisco products too. The support that the customer would get from the tool and from our company is top-notch. Cisco Meraki is very easy to use. Coming from a traditional background, we had to control the devices and configure them. Cisco Meraki is very easy to use for medium enterprises. I rate the tool a seven out of ten. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner What is our primary use case? One of our customers is actively running Meraki MX as a cloud solution in their enterprise. They use it for their local area network, and they also use it for their SD-WAN product. It is used for its connectivity purposes. What is most valuable? The solution's most valuable feat Read more

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By reviewer2543427 - Connectez-vous

Unified threat management and user-friendly features and competitive costs

What is our primary use case? The primary use case for Meraki MX is to establish a wide Internet drive over the Internet. We use it as a perimeter firewall and also as an SD-WAN device to establish secure tunnels and dynamically route applications over the best available route. How has it helped my organization? Meraki MX provides visibility from the network, especially if the customer has more than just the MX, including APs and switches. It offers a single management platform with visibility of the entire network. What is most valuable? What is valuable about Meraki MX is its unified threat management capabilities. Features are straightforward to use as you switch them on or off, which can be advantageous from a simplicity point of view. What needs improvement? Generally, the feedback is about the visibility of the network. Sometimes you want a little bit more control, and you don't have that control with Meraki MX. For how long have I used the solution? We have been selling the Meraki MX for probably about seven or eight years now. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The stability of Meraki MX is very good. I would rate it as a nine out of ten, indicating it is very stable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The scalability of Meraki MX is quite expansive. They range from smaller Z devices up to the big MX. It's generally scalable with little to no issues. How are customer service and support? Technical support from Cisco is also very good. I would recommend a nine out of ten. The customer service and support have been satisfactory. How would you rate customer service and support? Positive How was the initial setup? It always requires getting our system integrators involved. The initial setup is not overly complex, but it requires someone with experience to do a bit of configuration. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? I would say the costs are fairly competitive. I would rate it as a seven or eight in terms of how competitive it is. Which other solutions did I evaluate? Competitors for Meraki MX include Fortinet and Aruba. What other advice do I have? Yes, I can recommend Meraki MX to other users. It has the Cisco name behind it, which is well-known in the industry. The support is great, and it’s generally competitive from a customer perspective. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner What is our primary use case? The primary use case for Meraki MX is to establish a wide Internet drive over the Internet. We use it as a perimeter firewall and also as an SD-WAN device to establish secure tunnels and dynamically route applications over the best available route. How has it helped my organizati Read more

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By Sarvajith Mony - Connectez-vous

Helps users to save time but needs to improve its integration capabilities

What is our primary use case? The product is useful for zero-touch provisioning and implementation. One can configure the tool with SD-WAN, and we connect it to it from anywhere. What is most valuable? The most valuable feature is EAP-TLS integration with Meraki MX. Other vendors provide other features in the product. Zero-touch provisioning and everything else is very easy. The tool's support is also good. What needs improvement? There is another team in my company that looks into areas associated with the product to figure out where improvements are required. With Meraki MX's integration capabilities, users may face challenges since it does not integrate well with other systems. If you configure Meraki MX with EAP-TLS, then you may face scalability issues since there are a few things that need to be changed in the product. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using Meraki MX for the last three years. My company has a partnership with Cisco. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Meraki MX has been a stable solution so far, and I haven't faced any issues with it. How are customer service and support? The solution's technical support is good. I rate the technical support a seven or eight out of ten. How would you rate customer service and support? Neutral How was the initial setup? The product's deployment phase is easy. If I consider an average deployment scenario for a big project, the product can be deployed in around 15 to 30 days. Two to five people are required for the tool's deployment process. At least five people are required for monitoring purposes. Maintaining the solution is easy. What was our ROI? Using Meraki MX can help people save time, as it helps reduce downtime. From anywhere, the engineers can connect with the product and check the logs, which is a good feature. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? Purchasing the tool's license is easy, but its cost is very high. I rate the tool's price a four on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is very expensive. What other advice do I have? I would like to say that SD-WAN is considered to be one of the market leaders in terms of the tool's SD-WAN capabilities. I did not face any difficulties with the interface of the product. Using the product's interface is an easy task for me. The tool's loading period or waiting period of the tool is high and most of the customers are not ready to wait for too long. If only someone requires Meraki, they will go for it. For the tool's regular model, we need to wait for up to six months, which is the main problem. It can be a good solution for those who can afford it. Iin India, most of the SMBs are not able to afford the tool. I rate the tool a seven out of ten. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner What is our primary use case? The product is useful for zero-touch provisioning and implementation. One can configure the tool with SD-WAN, and we connect it to it from anywhere. What is most valuable? The most valuable feature is EAP-TLS integration with Meraki MX. Other vendors provide other features in th Read more

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By reviewer2401428 - Connectez-vous

Completely cloud-controlled and provide an SD-WAN kind of experience for the customer with multiple WAN provider links to optimize

What is our primary use case? It is a complete network security solution, including switches, routers, and everything else. It's a cloud-managed solution from Cisco. If a customer wants to deploy a remote office and have things managed remotely, and if they want to have control and provide an SD-WAN kind of experience for the customer with multiple WAN provider links to optimize, then the customer will go for a Cisco Meraki kind of solution. How has it helped my organization? In terms of WAN optimization, it's completely cloud-controlled. Anyone, even an IT hitch, can manage their network environment from a mobile phone. That is how easy it is. And users will get an immediate alert if something goes wrong. What needs improvement? There are strong and weak areas for each and every provider. So, when it comes to cost, that's what the pain is. There are other providers, like Fortinet and all those people. They can provide a more cost-effective solution when compared to Cisco. So cost is something they should work on, like, to reduce the price. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using it for ten years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? I would rate the stability an eight out of ten. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten. We also deal with other Cisco products. So, I specifically work with the enterprise-level businesses. How are customer service and support? We provide support for this product. How was the initial setup? Meraki is very easy. It's very easy to manage the setup and all that stuff. I would rate my experience with the initial setup an eight out of ten, with ten being easy. Cloud Deployment: It is a solution where this can be managed through the cloud, Cisco's cloud. Meraki is the solution. You can manage it in Cisco's cloud. Generally, if you look into any router or that kind of thing, you need to put in the local IP, plug in, and do the configuration. Whereas in Cisco, you'll have a user ID and password. All your equipment will be listed in the Cisco Meraki cloud itself, where you can configure everything centrally and deploy it. Deployment time: The deployment took a few hours. Management is easy. It's centrally managed through the cloud. I don't see a challenge. What was our ROI? Everything is fine. But when it comes to the initial CapEx cost, it's really high. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? I would rate the pricing a ten out of ten, with one being cheap and ten being expensive. What other advice do I have? Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. However, my recommendation depends on the use case. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner What is our primary use case? It is a complete network security solution, including switches, routers, and everything else. It's a cloud-managed solution from Cisco. If a customer wants to deploy a remote office and have things managed remotely, and if they want to have control and provide an SD-WAN kind of e Read more

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By Catalin Matei - Connectez-vous

An easy-to-setup tool with a single pane of glass dashboard

What is our primary use case? I use the solution for some simple usage in our office for the people, so there is nothing too much. I am interested in the scalability of the tool. What is most valuable? The solution's most valuable features stem from the single pane of glass dashboard, along with other components of the tool like configuration, administration, monitoring part, integration capabilities with Cisco solutions, and ease of comparison with other Cisco equipment or Cisco Meraki hardware devices. What needs improvement? I don't think I can comment on what needs improvement in the solution because of the usage of Meraki MX in our company. The tool is not complex. For my type of usage, I am satisfied with the results of the product. I think that I may use the product on a larger scale. The fact that the product is a little expensive and how it needs to be made cheaper from an improvement perspective is a debatable topic, in my opinion. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using Meraki MX for a year and a half. What do I think about the stability of the solution? I use only Cisco hardware in my building, where I also have my network with Meraki MX. I don't have any problems, and I haven't tested the equipment in a multi-vendor environment. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? I didn't reach the need to use a relevant scalability test in my company because I am using the tool for the first time for just two users and four guest users. Before I can talk about scalability, I should use the tool's scalability features. I prefer Meraki MX for personal use. In professional terms, I am working with Cisco on a regional basis in Europe. How are customer service and support? I am happy with the technical support for the solution. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten. How would you rate customer service and support? Positive Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? For networking and my personal use, Meraki MX is the first infrastructure I have experience with, but on a professional side, I use Cisco. How was the initial setup? The product's initial setup phase was simple, considering how Meraki's documentation is very intuitive, which explains how to use the platform, its configuration capabilities, and its administration. The solution is deployed on the private cloud. What was our ROI? Depending on the purpose of the solution for the user, it might be worth the money. If a user wants to use extra hardware equipment at its full potential or full features on a long-term basis, Meraki MX is a good choice. If you don't want to have a complex tool with features, workload, and so on, Meraki MX can come across as an expensive solution. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The product is a little expensive. Which other solutions did I evaluate? I did not choose any other solutions in the market since I got familiar with Meraki MX. I wanted to start with Meraki MX because I thought it was the most appropriate hardware that I could use, especially to add access points, some IoT devices, and switches. Meraki MX is a tool that I can build an infrastructure around. Within Cisco, I checked for second-generation MV cameras. What other advice do I have? For sure, I will recommend the tool's potential users to at least do a demo because one of the best parts of interacting with Meraki is that users can use a demo version for a certain period and do their own tests to see if it is okay or not. After I was okay with the functionalities, I went to use the product for myself. I rate the overall tool an eight out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Private Cloud Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions. What is our primary use case? I use the solution for some simple usage in our office for the people, so there is nothing too much. I am interested in the scalability of the tool. What is most valuable? The solution's most valuable features stem from the single pane of glass dashboard, along with other compon Read more

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By ALFRED BABU - Connectez-vous

An easy-to-manage solution that offers great stability

What is our primary use case? I use Meraki MX in my company basically for site-to-site VPN connection, and it serves as a firewall for our normal office environment. What is most valuable? The most valuable features of the solution are the cloud interface for cloud management and the SD-WAN, along with certain features like secure VPN, built-in VPN, SSL, IPSec VPN solutions, and higher availability. It can accommodate carrier support because of which, other than the fiber, I can have one more point to access through a SIM card. What needs improvement? I do not have the kind of feature I need for SSL decryption in Meraki MX. It would be great to see the SSL decryption feature in Meraki MX. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using Meraki MX for three years. I use Meraki MX105. My company is a customer of the product. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? I haven't tried the tool's scalability features, but as far as I understood from the tech sheet I saw related to the tool, I rate the solution's scalability a seven out of ten. Around 300 people in the organization use the solution. How are customer service and support? Very rarely do I contact the technical support team of the solution. I usually contact the technical support team of the product when some update happens in the product. I faced some issues while updating the product once, after which I opened a ticket with the support team, and with their guidance and help, I could resolve the issue. The firewall was configured as active-active with high availability, so when one firewall was down, the other one was working fine. I haven't faced too much trouble with the product. My experience with the support team was fine, and since most of the things are already available on forums, you can manage everything related to the tool by yourself. I rate the technical support a nine out of ten. How would you rate customer service and support? Positive Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? Previously, my company was using Sophos XG Firewall. My company switched from Sophos XG Firewall to Meraki MX. All our company's network devices are from Cisco, and with Meraki MX, we can actually add switches, routers, access points, and everything to the firewall, which in turn offers more stability and secures the network compared to Sophos XG Firewall. Sophos XG Firewall offered an IDPS firewall capable of stopping any kind of intrusion, but I was feeling worried about the switches and access point security. Since our contract with Sophos had expired, we moved to Meraki. How was the initial setup? The product's initial setup phase is very easy. It has a very good web interface that is easy to manage and operate. The solution is deployed on an on-premises model. The deployment was carried out in two sites, which took around two days to complete. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? In my country, the product is cheap compared to the UK because of the differences in taxes. What other advice do I have? If you are looking for a solution that is easy to manage and offers stability, and if you are not really very specific about SSL decryption, then you can go for Meraki MX. I rate the overall tool an eight out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions. What is our primary use case? I use Meraki MX in my company basically for site-to-site VPN connection, and it serves as a firewall for our normal office environment. What is most valuable? The most valuable features of the solution are the cloud interface for cloud management and the SD-WAN, along with certa Read more

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