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Cisco Meraki MX

Score9.2 out of 10

277 Reviews and Ratings

What is Cisco Meraki MX?

Cisco Meraki MX Firewalls is a combined UTM and Software-Defined WAN solution. Meraki is managed via the cloud, and provides core firewall services, including site-to-site VPN, plus network monitoring.

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Categories & Use Cases

Product Demos

Cisco Meraki MX Key Features

Learn about the best (and worst!) features Cisco Meraki MX has to offer, as determined by TrustRadius' reviewers.
Based on 277 ratings of Cisco Meraki MX's features
View all Cisco Meraki MX features

Top Performing Features

  • High Availability

    Built-in capacity to prevent exposure if primary firewall stops working

    Category average: 9.4

  • VPN

    VPN's implement encryption and anonymize IP addresses

    Category average: 9.2

  • Visualization Tools

    Visualization tools present administrators with data on applications traversing the network, who is using them, and the potential security impact.

    Category average: 8.3

Areas for Improvement

  • Stateful Inspection

    Stateful inspection analyzes packet headers and contents of packets

    Category average: 8.9

  • Proxy Server

    A proxy server changes your IP address and masks the origin of your network traffic

    Category average: 8.6

  • Firewall Management Console

    Either command-line or web-based interface for centralized control and management

    Category average: 8.2

Who Buys & Uses Cisco Meraki MX

Cisco Meraki MX Reviews

What users are saying about Cisco Meraki MX.
View all Cisco Meraki MX reviews

Pros

  • Ease of deployment and configuration, including zero-touch provisioning
  • Intuitive cloud-managed dashboard for remote configuration and visibility
  • Robust network security and firewall capabilities

Cons

  • Complex and inflexible licensing structure
  • Cumbersome granularity for Layer 7 firewall rules
  • Mixed performance for SD-WAN when using multiple circuits

Meraki MX-Securing your infra.

Incentivized
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (201-500 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

In my organization, Meraki, we are using it for all AMP and IDS/IPS. Apart from this, we utilize features such as content filtering, threat detection, and application blocking. A major use case for MX is as a VPN concentrator, connecting all my branches and providing them with the necessary resources.

Pros

  • AMP is very advanced.
  • Layer 3 firewall rules and layer 7 firewall rules are very good in mx.
  • Features like content filtering and traffic shaping are awesome in it.

Cons

  • Improvement in providing direct blockage for the application instead of going through the category.
  • Non-Meraki VPN configuration should be based on the network instead of the organisations.
  • The appliance must be designed to physically mount in a rack, which is currently not feasible for the smaller version.

Return on Investment

  • Considering cost and feature it is very good.
  • We get all updates and new features day by day in MX as Meraki keeps improving its security features.
  • Very easy to deploy in any environment.

Alternatives Considered

Fortinet FortiGate

Other Software Used

Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers, Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller, Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points, Cisco Meraki MS, Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points, Cisco Meraki MV, Cisco Meraki MT, Cisco Routers, Cisco Catalyst Switches

Meraki MX - Simplifying Connectivity Across Branches

Incentivized
Verified User
Engineer in Customer Service (51-200 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Cisco Meraki MX as our main solution for connecting branch offices and securing our network.

It provides SD-WAN, we use two WAN links that can be configured to run together as a load balancing or 1 active and other backup, VPN capabilities also, all managed directly from the cloud.

The deployments are simple and reduces on-site complexity.

Pros

  • Quick and simple setup between branches.
  • Smart traffic routing
  • Cloud Centralized control

Cons

  • Detailed Reports
  • More integrations with third-party tools
  • More policy customization

Return on Investment

  • Faster branch deployments
  • Centralized cloud management
  • Scalability allows growth without major infrastructure changes.
  • Limited reporting may require additional tools for deep analysis.

Alternatives Considered

Cisco Catalyst Switches

Other Software Used

Webex Meetings, Webex Calling, Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE)

Create and control your traffic with Firewall rules

Incentivized
Mustafa LajamView profile
Network Engineer in Information Technology at Fakeeh Medical Group (1001-5000 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Cisco Meraki MX is a game-changer for our enterprise and remote sites. Having a Security appliance that connects multiple WAN links provides stable connectivity and a High availability feature for your remote sites. Meraki MX connects your branch site with your HQ site while providing Firewall rules to control the traffic in the network.
We have established our Meraki MX 68 and recently connected with our Ms130. The Meraki dashboard provides a friendly GUI to manage the MX and its connected appliances.

Pros

  • Connect Multiple WAN links for HA and Load Balancing
  • Create and control your traffic with Firewall rules
  • Create SVI and VLANs to segregates the network and traffics.

Cons

  • Licensing can be a bit confusing and need focusing
  • Uplinks ports need sometime to be UP
  • Security appliance takes time to connect to cloud
  • Meraki Dashboard a little slow

Return on Investment

  • Relaying on med internet speed and let Meraki MX manage the traffic saved cost to use manager SD wan appliance.
  • Fast deployment and easy saved time and man power.
  • single GUI to manage save time to travel to remote site for support.

Alternatives Considered

HPE Aruba Networking Switches, Cisco SD-Branch and Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series

Other Software Used

HashiCorp Terraform, Cisco IP Phones, HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass Policy Manager, Cisco Umbrella, MobaXTerm

Cisco Meraki MX review

Incentivized
Shayne Caffrey
Sales and Marketing Director in Sales at LeeShanok Network Solutions (11-50 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We implement Cisco Meraki MX devices both in our own IT practice and in our client's businesses. Cisco Meraki MX devices are the standard firewall that we recommend for making sure that all of our client networks are protected and that our team can easily manage remotely for our clients.

Pros

  • The Cisco Meraki MX series is phenomenal at allowing us to remotely manage networks. So the devices usually act as the brain behind our client's networks, which makes it really, really easy for our team to take a look at what's going on in those client network environments, resolve any issues, and make sure that our client's networks are staying secure.

Cons

  • They are well, they're very, very easy to use. They also lack some of the more complex customizability and complex functionality that other networking devices offer.

Return on Investment

  • It's been a very positive impact in terms of our operational efficiency. Because we can standardize all of our clients on the Meraki platform, and because the Meraki platform is so easy to use, deploy, and manage, it's really improved our taxability to respond to tickets, reduce downtime all in a way that's very simplistic and consistent across all of our different client networks.

Alternatives Considered

SonicWall NSA Series and Fortinet FortiGate

Other Software Used

Datto Autotask PSA, Datto RMM

Great stuff

Incentivized
Eastico Culbreath
NSOC Manager in Engineering at Cox Enterprises (5001-10,000 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

FW used for remote locations.

Pros

  • Firewall protection for remote locations
  • Distribution switch for remote locations
  • Hub for all remote locations devices

Cons

  • Better syslog access

Return on Investment

  • Because deployment has been simple we save money

Alternatives Considered

Alchemy Catalyst

Other Software Used

CATALYST Enterprise, Cisco ThousandEyes

Cisco Meraki MX Alternatives

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