Cisco ACI vs Meraki SD-WAN comparison

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1,342 views|251 comparisons
85% willing to recommend
Cisco Logo
1,986 views|1,256 comparisons
96% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco ACI and Meraki SD-WAN based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Software Defined Networking (SDN) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Cisco ACI vs. Meraki SD-WAN Report (Updated: March 2024).
768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Micro-segmentation is the solution’s most valuable feature.""It is a complete re-write of everything that you've ever thought of from a networking standpoint.""It is very easy to do the configuration after you know how to work with the product. It is global, so you change one interface, and changes are reflected on every switch.""The biggest benefit has been that it has improved communication between my endpoints in the data center.""The straightforward migration of all of the applications and loop balancing are the two most valuable features. Also, the measurement of their customer-wide sources is very straightforward. It's another dimension of the networks.""Centralized management and control of the entire data center environment and its architecture.""It offers multitenancy. The opportunity to install it on the same platform with a huge amount of customers.""The flexibility of adding new components with minimal impact on existing services running in the data center is a key benefit of this ACI-based solution."

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"Meraki SD-WAN is user friendly.""The most interesting feature is the amount of information you can get from overseeing the system from a centralized place.""The most valuable feature is application awareness.""Meraki SD-WAN is a scalable solution because changes are being made to the solution, enabling it to work in different environments.""This product contributed to a huge benefit in our bottom line on operational costs.""What I found most valuable in Meraki SD-WAN is its simplicity. I also like its manageability.""The most valuable feature of Meraki SD-WAN is the Auto VPN.""Using Meraki just solves a lot of problems."

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Cons
"It would be great if ACI would include the next generation firewall feature.""They should improve the GUI, make it simpler. They also need to improve its integration with other automation tools.""We have had two calls with technical support. They are not the best. We opened a case to diagnose issues and it's taken weeks to get someone on the case and to move forward.""Training for this product is available from institutions but it is not available online where you can get users trained easily.""The way the objects are oriented on it are not as straightforward as they should be.""The tool's initial deployment is complex and takes five hours to complete.""From my point of view, troubleshooting issues relating to ACI can be a little bit complicated to perform.""Compared to VMware, it needs more virtualization technologies."

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"The deployment time of Meraki SD-WAN can vary. For someone new to the process, it could take a couple of hours. However, for someone with hands-on experience, such as myself, it only takes approximately two to three hours to set up the entire configuration.""Meraki is more or less intelligent load balancing, although a lot of features are missing that our SD-WAN solutions will have.""The blocklist on the Cisco Meraki side isn't complete or very large. We'd like to see them update and expand this.""The granularity could be improved.""The interface in the VPN management system can be a bit complex for users to understand.""The security could improve in Meraki SD-WAN.""From the vice perspective, they just are not as robust as some of the other vendors. They have limitations in throughput and the number of circuits that they can support on a wide area network. Their higher-end security is all cloud-based. They have some capability with the premise-based solutions, but the higher ends are all cloud-based, and that's via Cisco Umbrella.""The only area for improvement in Meraki SD-WAN is its licensing model, as well as its cost structure."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The pricing is pretty good for new technology."
  • "It saves time and resources."
  • "The price could be improved. It is expensive, but then again, it is Cisco. The price is worth what you pay for."
  • "We have seen time improvement using the product."
  • "The thing that I like the most from Cisco is the support and all the documentation that they have. We do have to pay for it though."
  • "We bought a package for hardware, software, and support. At that time, Cisco was simply selling that package to distributors, then we opted for it directly."
  • "We used Cisco Professional Services for the deployment. They were outstanding, but very expensive."
  • "Price is always an issue."
  • More Cisco ACI Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Meraki solutions come with a choice of several different subscription options including one year, three years, five years, seven years, and ten years."
  • "The licensing fees are approximately $1,000 USD annually."
  • "The pricing is fair, but if they can make it less it would be even more attractive."
  • "Any license you buy until January 2021 gets you an extra year for that purchase."
  • "like everything else, it's negotiable."
  • "If you purchase a Meeraki box, you have to purchase a license, and it's already the basic license, you will have you SD-WAN included."
  • "This solution is more expensive than competitors."
  • "From the perspective of the customer, the price is not terribly cost-effective."
  • More Meraki SD-WAN Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:There are some very major differences between both the Products and to name a few -Cisco ACI have physical network gear (9K Switches) where the Code runs in ACI Policy Mode & the UCS server where… more »
    Top Answer:Once you know your way around the Cisco ecosystem, using Cisco ACI is not so difficult. It is a global product, so when you change one interface, changes are automatically reflected on every switch… more »
    Top Answer:The flexibility of adding new components with minimal impact on existing services running in the data center is a key benefit of this ACI-based solution.
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    1,342
    Comparisons
    251
    Reviews
    19
    Average Words per Review
    444
    Rating
    8.4
    Views
    1,986
    Comparisons
    1,256
    Reviews
    23
    Average Words per Review
    452
    Rating
    8.6
    Comparisons
    Learn More
    Cisco
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    Overview
    Cisco Application-Centric Infrastructure (ACI) reduces TCO, automates IT tasks, and accelerates data center application deployments. It accomplishes this using a business-relevant Software Defined Networking (SDN) policy model across networks, servers, storage, security, and services.

    Software-defined WAN is a new approach to network connectivity that lowers operational costs and improves resource usage for multi-site deployments, allowing network administrators to use bandwidth more efficiently and ensure the highest possible level of performance for critical applications without sacrificing security or data privacy. For more information on deploying and configuring SD-WAN on the Meraki MX Security Appliance, see the Meraki SD-WAN Deployment Guide.

    Sample Customers
    Bowling Green State University, du, Qatar University
    École Jeannine Manuel
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider20%
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Government7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company23%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Government8%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider26%
    Computer Software Company17%
    Venture Capital & Private Equity Firm9%
    Educational Organization9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company22%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Retailer6%
    Construction Company6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise70%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise69%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business44%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise41%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business28%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise59%
    Buyer's Guide
    Cisco ACI vs. Meraki SD-WAN
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco ACI vs. Meraki SD-WAN and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Cisco ACI is ranked 2nd in Software Defined Networking (SDN) with 96 reviews while Meraki SD-WAN is ranked 1st in Software Defined Networking (SDN) with 60 reviews. Cisco ACI is rated 8.0, while Meraki SD-WAN is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Cisco ACI writes "Stable, easy to extend, scalable, and has a host-based routing feature". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Meraki SD-WAN writes "Very stable security, great service, and the best for VPN management". Cisco ACI is most compared with VMware NSX, Cisco Secure Workload, Nuage Networks, Akamai Guardicore Segmentation and Cumulus Networks, whereas Meraki SD-WAN is most compared with Cisco SD-WAN, VMware SD-WAN, Omada Cloud SDN, Cradlepoint NetCloud and Megaport. See our Cisco ACI vs. Meraki SD-WAN report.

    See our list of best Software Defined Networking (SDN) vendors.

    We monitor all Software Defined Networking (SDN) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.