Meraki SD-WAN vs VMware NSX comparison

The compared Cisco and VMware solutions aren't in the same category. Cisco is ranked #1 in SDN , with an average rating of 8.8, and holds a 23.2% mindshare in the category. VMware is ranked #2 in NV , with an average rating of 7.7, and holds a 45.9% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Meraki SD-WAN

Read 77 Meraki SD-WAN reviews

1,592 Views
1,029 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

VMware NSX

Read 102 VMware NSX reviews

874 Views
611 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Meraki SD-WAN

VMware NSX

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Meraki SD-WAN and VMware NSX 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 Meraki SD-WAN vs. VMware NSX Report (Updated: May 2020).

Buyer's Guide

Meraki SD-WAN vs. VMware NSX

May 2020

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Helped 849,686 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Meraki SD-WAN

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Defined Networking (SDN) (1st)

VMware NSX

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

102

Ranking in other categories

Network Virtualization (2nd), Cloud and Data Center Security (3rd), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (8th), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (9th), Network Automation (5th), Microsegmentation Software (1st)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Networking solutions, they serve different purposes. Meraki SD-WAN is designed for Software Defined Networking (SDN) and holds a mindshare of 23.2%, down 25.1% compared to last year.
VMware NSX, on the other hand, focuses on Network Virtualization, holds 45.9% mindshare, up 45.8% since last year.

Software Defined Networking (SDN)

Network Virtualization

Q&A Highlights

Paul Wright

Head of Infrastructure Services at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jul 06, 2020

What is the biggest difference between VMware NSX and Meraki SD-WAN?

We are currently reviewing various SD-WAN vendors for our infrastructure and what I found lacking with Cisco Meraki is that you cannot use Active/Active HA with two MX devices. Only HA is available with one device which introduces a single point of failure for any network. There is also up to 5 minute failover time for Active/Active circuits which in my opinion is quite long compared to other solutions which are nearer instant.

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Featured Reviews

Martyn Walker

Business development manager at Virgin Media

Enables productivity in terms of users and has ease of management

Scalability could be improved. Yes, you can add more than 300 or 400 sites onto it, but because it's not a true SD-WAN and, effectively, it's just a Multi-VRF, it's all hub and spoke at that point. That's the nature of the design, but that's what keeps it simple to administer. So, it's a trade off.

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DanielBass

Senior IT Strategy Consultant at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Improves network security with micro-segmentation but setup is complex

I value the ability to dynamically configure our network on the fly using VMware NSX. This flexibility is a huge advantage because it allows us to avoid static configurations that come with traditional hardware setups. Additionally, the micro-segmentation feature is beneficial for adhering to strict security regulations from our security department.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Meraki makes you believe that anything is possible."

"The most interesting feature is the amount of information you can get from overseeing the system from a centralized place."

"Having to set up a closed system singlehandedly and a lifetime guarantee on the equipment is a valuable part of this solution."

"Meraki SD-WAN is a very stable and scalable solution with good technical support."

"They're known for their ease of use and ubiquitous management platform that covers everything. Meraki really excels in plug-and-play solutions. You just plug it up, and everything works. All of the components—the firewall/router, the switches, the access points, the cameras—work very nicely together, and they all can be managed from one platform. That is probably their biggest selling point. Everything comes in one ubiquitous package, and you don't have to manage different components from different platforms. You can see everything from one platform."

"I like the entire set of features and the analytics."

"If there are multiple network connectivities in an organization, Meraki creates an AutoVPN. It creates a channel automatically."

"The most valuable feature is application awareness."

More Meraki SD-WAN pros

"NSX extends Layer-2 scalability on Layer 3, covering the vRO and extending the capability on Layer 3 by decapsulating using a new mechanism. NSX-V was designed to use with VMware products and Success 360, providing more flexibility toward different levels of cloud, containers, and components. NSX-T gives you the ability to stretch your network across different view locations. If you have multiple sites, you can connect them using NSX-T."

"The initial setup was straightforward. It follows a certain structure and you won't miss a step. It's all on the same level, step by step."

"From a security standpoint, the customer was able to better secure critical workloads while routing L2/L3 worked normally, giving them more confidence that they would be ready for any potential security incident mitigation or outage (DR)."

"This is a good firewall and overall it is rich in features."

"The solution is easy to use and is good for management control."

"The microsegmentation allows me to sleep at night. My job is reducing risk, plugging security holes, and working with the automated layer security. Even if somebody spins up a new server, it has to have a tag in NSX."

"It provides a single pane of glass. You can do the switching, routing, load balancing, IPS, IDS, etc. Everything is under one umbrella. So, there is no vendor dependency over there."

"Though I haven't been working a lot on VMware NSX, it's good to have. What I like the most about it is that its console is good, and it doesn't take a lot of effort in terms of doing my daily tasks on it or what it's meant for. VMware NSX is still a preferred product in the market."

More VMware NSX pros

Cons

"Meraki could make better use of virtual connect."

"The only area for improvement in Meraki SD-WAN is its licensing model, as well as its cost structure."

"I'd like to see improvements in the client VPN area. Currently, we use L2TP over IPSec, which, while widely supported, can be buggy on Windows due to Microsoft's implementation, not Meraki's."

"Some advanced networking features are not currently available in the Meraki product but are on their roadmap."

"This vendor has issues with the supply chain that need to be improved."

"Meraki SD-WAN could be improved by including full feature routing functions similar to a normal Cisco router."

"Meraki is lagging behind in using a single pipe from service providers. That is, it would be good if they could use both the internet leased line and broadband connectivity."

"Overall, we are satisfied with the support, although I cannot state this unequivocally."

More Meraki SD-WAN cons

"We would like better integration with the standards on the market. For example, with OSPF, their integration in NSX is very low. It's not a full OSPF integration. It is too thin from a protocol perspective."

"I would rate this product an eight because it's a good product but it needs more work. They should fix some of the bugs."

"One aspect that needs improvement is the need for further automation."

"The scalability is not perfect."

"We've have had good and bad experiences with them. We don't always find them to be so impactful. Sometimes the support guy isn't so on top of resolving the issue and it can take a while to sort out."

"The feature it can improve is essentially application-based load balancing with intelligent load distribution for applications that require redundancy and high availability."

"A faster resolution time would be beneficial."

"Traffic flow introspection topology visibility is definitely needed because at the moment, NSX-T lacks in this area."

More VMware NSX cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I am not aware of the licensing fees."

"Our clients pay Meraki an annual licensing fee and the pricing is not too bad when compared to other products in the Cisco portfolio."

"The license model may need improvement."

"One of the most valuable aspects of Meraki SD-WAN is the price. It is highly cost-effective."

"The price of this solution is good, it is not expensive."

"The solution offers yearly licenses and product lines or prices are readily available on their website."

"The price of Meraki SD-WAN could improve, it is expensive when compared to other solutions on the market, such as Aruba."

"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. While Meraki's solution might be pricey for them, there aren't many cheaper, reliable options."

More Meraki SD-WAN pricing and cost advice

"We can't go without NSX, so it's invaluable from this perspective."

"The price is pretty high."

"VMware NSX is a cheaper product compared to its competitor, Cisco."

"Our customers have definitely complained about its cost. It's expensive. I'd rate it a nine out of ten in terms of pricing where ten represents a high price. There are other products out there that are equally expensive."

"VMware NSX is expensive and everything is licensed. We have to pay for each individual feature."

"We are using a perpetual license to use the solution and we have support."

"The product pricing ranges from medium to expensive. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten."

"There is a license required for this solution, we pay annually."

More VMware NSX pricing and cost advice

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Answers from the Community

Paul Wright

Head of Infrastructure Services at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jul 6, 2020

What is the biggest difference between VMware NSX and Meraki SD-WAN?

2 out of 6 answers

GaurangPatel

Technical Director at Allot Group

Mar 12, 2020

Well, both products are very good but if you are looking for only SD-WAN Feafure than Cisco Meraki is the perfect solution: it's easy to manage, easy to deploy and deep insight at the packet level. VMware NSX is the complete package of comprehensive features like Application Load Balancing, routing, switching, micro-segmentation and many more but at a cost! It's very easy to manage from a single pane of glass. in a nutshell, if you want Application-Aware Load balancing and wan optimization which should be easy to manage and deploy than Cisco Meraki is the right product and if you are looking for a fully integrated solution and have a deep pocket then you should choose VMware NSX.

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Denis FERRAND

Head of EMEA Strategic Alliances at Arrow Electronics, Inc

Mar 12, 2020

VMware NSX is all about Software Defined Networking ie virtualizing the 7 layers of switches/routers that we know in the physical HW world. VMware is very successful with this technology acquired from NICERA. SD-WAN stands for Software-Defined WAN which is about networking but NOT at the local level, it is a wide area network. For this VMware made another acquisition which is VeloCloud. Cisco Meraki SD-WAN and VeloCloud are both in the magic quadrant and therefore competing.

Read full answer

See all 6 answers

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

21%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Meraki SD-WAN?

The auto VPN feature is important because it automates many tasks, making things simpler and faster. It helps with setting up devices and changing configurations without manual effort.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Meraki SD-WAN?

The price is a little bit higher than local vendors, for example, Huawei ZTE or H3C. However, some customers require the best quality and performance, thus needing solutions and products from Cisco.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Meraki SD-WAN?

They have to ask us many questions about configurations. It could be improved with some automation to trigger, for example, telemetry data, so we can determine the state of the deployment as of day...

See all answers

What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?

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 wh...

See all answers

What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about VMware NSX?

The product has valuable features for security and network extension.

See all answers

Comparisons

Omada Cloud SDN vs Meraki SD-WAN

Compared 21% of the time

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Meraki SD-WAN

Compared 21% of the time

VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs Meraki SD-WAN

Compared 16% of the time

Prisma SD-WAN vs Meraki SD-WAN

Compared 15% of the time

Cradlepoint NetCloud vs Meraki SD-WAN

Compared 7% of the time

More Meraki SD-WAN Competitors

Illumio vs VMware NSX

Compared 20% of the time

Nutanix Flow Network Security vs VMware NSX

Compared 19% of the time

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs VMware NSX

Compared 16% of the time

Cisco Secure Workload vs VMware NSX

Compared 8% of the time

Cisco ACI vs VMware NSX

Compared 7% of the time

More VMware NSX Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Meraki SD-WAN

April 2025

Download Meraki SD-WAN product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware NSX

April 2025

Download VMware NSX product report

Also Known As

No data available

VMware Nicira, Lastline Defender

Overview

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.

Cisco

VMware NSX is a sophisticated solution utilized for micro-segmentation, network security, software-defined networking, and private cloud construction. It aids in the transition from physical to virtual infrastructure, ensuring efficient network virtualization and security of production workloads.

VMware NSX empowers organizations to manage network functions, implement distributed firewalls, and enhance security within virtual environments. Crucial for disaster recovery and load balancing, it supports cloud-native application development and enterprise clients. Its ease of use, scalability, and seamless integration with existing VMware solutions ensure streamlined network management and swift deployment. Despite its extensive features, areas like pricing, routing functionality, and compatibility with certain platforms require attention.

What are the key features of VMware NSX?

Ease of Use: Simplifies network management with an intuitive interface.
Scalability: Adapts to growing infrastructure needs seamlessly.
Micro-Segmentation: Enhances security by dividing networks into smaller, manageable segments.
Integration: Seamlessly works with existing VMware solutions and third-party applications.
Dynamic Routing: Optimizes network traffic efficiently.
Security Options: Offers robust firewall features and security measures.
Automation: Facilitates quick deployment through comprehensive automation capabilities.
High Bandwidth: Ensures high-performance network operations.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Enhanced Network Security: Superior protection for virtual environments.
Efficient Disaster Recovery: Reliable support for business continuity.
Reduced Deployment Time: Fast implementation and configuration.
Improved Network Management: Centralized and streamlined control of network resources.

VMware NSX is widely implemented across industries such as finance, healthcare, and manufacturing. Organizations in these sectors utilize it to bolster security, enhance network efficiency, and support cloud-native applications. By extending on-premise networks into provider spaces and managing virtual access networks, VMware NSX significantly optimizes infrastructure operations.

VMware

Sample Customers

École Jeannine Manuel

City of Avondale, Lumeta, Kroll Ontrack, Heartland Payment Systems, Baystate Heallth, Exostar, Tribune Media, iGATE, NTT Communications, Synergent, California Natural Resources Agency, Bloomington Public Schools, Columbia Sportswear, Join Experience S.A, Schuberg Philis

Buyer's Guide

Meraki SD-WAN vs. VMware NSX

May 2020

Free Report: Meraki SD-WAN vs. VMware NSX

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