Cisco Meraki SD-WAN vs. Cisco Routers

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Meraki SD-WAN
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Cisco Meraki SD-WAN is a cloud-managed solution that simplifies and secures wide area networking across branch, campus, and remote locations. Built on Meraki’s dashboard, it delivers centralized visibility, automation, and traffic optimization without the complexity of traditional WAN deployments. The solution improves application performance by dynamically routing traffic based on real-time conditions, integrating advanced security, and providing seamless multicloud connectivity. With support…N/A
Cisco Routers
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Cisco routers support secure, reliable enterprise connections. These enterprise routers help users implement an intent-based, future-ready WAN that is constantly learning, adapting, and protecting. Deploy routers for the branch, cloud, co-location, or the data center with any type of connectivity, including MPLS, Internet, and 4G LTE. With over 30 years of experience and an end-to-end portfolio, Cisco routing solutions can deliver for today’s networking needs. The vendor promises to help…N/A
Pricing
Cisco Meraki SD-WANCisco Routers
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Meraki SD-WANCisco Routers
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco Meraki SD-WANCisco Routers
User Ratings
Cisco Meraki SD-WANCisco Routers
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(0 ratings)
9.4
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.7
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Meraki SD-WANCisco Routers
Likelihood to Recommend
At our level, we had to optimize our 3 internet links (MPLS and LTE) with applications like O365, SAP, Microsoft CRM Dynamics and our collaborative work tools like Teams. We also had to ensure that both client workstations and servers could communicate with minimal latency with our Microsoft Intune infrastructure.
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We will recommend theCisco Routers if there is requirement of high availability and more reliability. Also it is best for implementing and achieving state of the art technologies in both enterprise and service provider environment. The integrated management and monitoring solutions it comes with makes the routers attractive for all network operations. We don't recommend the Cisco Routers if cost is a concern since all these next generation features are very expensive.
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Pros
  • Give insights in ALL what is happening on the network
  • Trouble shoot in case of a problem
  • Once in the Meraki family, you can expand with for example Cisco Spaces / Thousandeyes / Umbrella, and all that within one dashboard
  • API possibilities are huge
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  • Helps to separate routing information for different networks for different customers.
  • Helps peers with service providers and Customer Networks and starts the exchange of information between them.
  • Helps facilitate internet connectivity for enterprise networks.
  • Helps transferring Internet or Private Data from one place to another.
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Cons
  • AutoVPN sites to site firewall rules needs to be improved
  • there is no logging or any insights which would be able to tell you what are the hit counts or actual usage for site to site firewall rules
  • SD-WAN plus license includes Smart breakout which has only few applications and those do not work properly, so it is quite useless
  • VPN exclusions (local internet breakout) for TCP/UDP type of traffic can not be specified with port ranges
  • VPN exclusions (local internet breakout) can be defined only for destinations, but not the sources. It is policy based routing which should support also Source definition
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  • I have had the opportunity to work with different vendors of routers and simply from my point of view they are the best equipment in the market. Perhaps the unfavorable point is the costs compared to other manufacturers, but they are still the best option
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Likelihood to Renew
We implemented Meraki in most of our organization sites, so we are always looking for ways of improving its usage, add more features and discover characteristics that we do not know we already have. As it is an easy to use tool and we are growing, hiring new employees, it is really simple to onboard the new joiners.
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We are extremely likely to renew, as we have been very happy with our Cisco Routers for over 10 years. Their uptime as well as stable nature makes them ideal for us, as we are an industry that cannot afford downtime. We trust our partner to recommend our next model Cisco, when the time comes.
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Usability
Its usable very well
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The best thing about Cisco products is their presence in community. When you have a problem you can do quick search and find whoever else had the same question and expert answer for that question. Other thing is there are Cisco certified people we can find very easily if want some help with comissioning these products
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Support Rating
Fast and efficient. The only issue currently is that the support is only overseas support and not in South Africa, which causes delays in resolution for some cases. Escalating issues is quite simple and the opening of new cases from the dashboard is easy. I have never had a support issue that could not be resolved.
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Cisco support is very good. Of course, sometime you will run into support guy that isn't up to the task. Buf overall, the support system is well structure. You know if this support isn't able to help, you can esclate the situation to find another help. Also, their documentation is well developed and can be very useful.
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Alternatives Considered
We did a very stringent valuation a few years ago. And we evaluated probably about a dozen suppliers on paper that we evaluate just by capabilities. And, we of some other business criteria, and we whittled that down to a list of five. And out of those five, we brought four of those into our lab environment where we ran approximately 350 different test cases on, we really beat on it pretty heavily. And some of those other suppliers would've been companies like Fortinet Versa Networks Silver Peak, which is now owned by Hewlett Packard.
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Cisco Routers are the most reliable and stable internet edge routers ive used. They' have also always offered high performance for the most demanding traffic workloads. Lastly, from all of the various vendors I've used, Cisco routsrs have the best TAC support.
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Scalability
Being a cloud-first solution, Meraki Dashboard will scale as needed without any effort for the client. The Meraki cloud will provision (upscale and downscale) the resources as you grow or shrink in size. You only have to physically install the MX on your site, all the management is one through the Internet via Meraki Dashboard. Worth noting that you can fully-configure the MX prior to the physical installation on site.
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Return on Investment
  • It was mostly around logs. I mean I understand because the aim is to provide the simplified solution to the people as an end user, be it an IT manager or the oil team. So I understand where you don't have lots of tools assigned where you can actually take help from the track. But in terms of having that logging information, I think that's where it's been a bit of a kind of journey where struggling, we have been struggling there.
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  • Network management has become easy and fast with cloud based portal.
  • Network policies could be rolled out quickly across the devices.
  • Improvement in Network security.
  • Stable internet connection has lead to less downtime and more productivity.
  • Stable internet connection in each location within the organization.
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ScreenShots