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Cisco Meraki MX

Score9.2 out of 10

277 Reviews and Ratings

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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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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: 9.3

  • VPN

    VPN's implement encryption and anonymize IP addresses

    Category average: 9.1

  • Visualization Tools

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

    Category average: 8.2

Areas for Improvement

  • Stateful Inspection

    Stateful inspection analyzes packet headers and contents of packets

    Category average: 8.8

  • 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

Create and control your traffic with Firewall rules

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

Cisco Meraki MX Review

Incentivized
Jim Bouplon
Executive Director of IT in Information Technology at Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Used for infrastructure in 4 statess

Pros

  • security
  • uptime
  • ease of use

Cons

  • AI

Return on Investment

  • greater uptime
  • better visibility

Alternatives Considered

Extreme

Other Software Used

Microsoft 365, Adobe Advertising Cloud

We've experienced reduced network downtime with Cisco Meraki MX

Incentivized
Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Cisco Meraki MX to gain visibility into end-user devices and ensure consistent network uptime. It allows us to centrally manage and troubleshoot the network from anywhere, which has greatly improved connectivity performance and response times across the organization and has saved us a great deal of efffort and time on multiple occasions.

Pros

  • Centralized cloud-based management from a single pane of glass.
  • Detailed visibility into devices, clients, and network usage as well as performance.
  • Reliable and simple remote access for end users (VPN).
  • Content filtering and threat protection all built-in.

Cons

  • It's a bit limited in advanced customization options, compared to our on-site WatchGuard Firebox, as well as other security appliance/firewall solutions.
  • Reporting and analytics could be more detailed and flexible, although this is a weak point for our primary firewall as well.
  • Licensing is a bit pricey, compared to other SMB options out there.

Return on Investment

  • We've experiences reduced network downtime as the MX at our remote location has improved visibility and has enabled faster issue resolution, which in term has increased employee productivity.
  • ALthough the licensing costs are fairly high, compared to our other appliance, it has reduced the costs associated with on-site visits to the remote location due to the straightforward access and management of the MX.
  • The relatively high ongoing licensing costs have slightly reduced our overall IT budget flexibility (SMB), despite the obvious operational benefits. We've considered a Unifi appliance as a result.

Alternatives Considered

WatchGuard Firebox Cloud

Other Software Used

WatchGuard Network Security, Webroot Endpoint Protection, HPE Networking Instant On Access Points

Meraki MX-Securing your infra.

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

Cisco Meraki MX Alternatives

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View all Cisco Meraki MX alternatives
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