Apart from SQL, I used to work a lot with networking solutions. I am more of a network specialist, and then I started to do SQL after that. I'm experienced with networking rather than application experience for databases.
IT Manager at a construction company with 51-200 employees
Enhanced productivity and quick resolution through improved security and redundancy features
Pros and Cons
- "The redundancy feature of Meraki SD-WAN has most significantly enhanced network performance."
- "The configuration from the firewall side could be improved a little bit more."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Meraki SD-WAN has improved productivity greatly. It is easy to deploy and easy to troubleshoot, so problem resolution is quicker.
What is most valuable?
The redundancy feature of Meraki SD-WAN has most significantly enhanced network performance. Additionally, the security features are good on the MX devices.
What needs improvement?
The configuration from the firewall side could be improved a little bit more.
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Meraki SD-WAN
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For how long have I used the solution?
I have about four to five years of experience working with Meraki SD-WAN.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of the solution as eight out of ten. There were no significant troubles with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability of Meraki SD-WAN as ten out of ten. It is highly scalable.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate the customer service and support eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did look at other solutions such as Fortinet and VeloCloud. However, we decided to go with Meraki SD-WAN because we were already a Meraki customer and saw the ease of deployment.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was quite straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment was done through a third-party integrator.
What was our ROI?
Meraki SD-WAN has contributed to cost savings by being easy to deploy and troubleshoot, making problem resolution quicker.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing of Meraki SD-WAN is a little bit on the pricey side. However, it is still a valuable product despite the cost.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at Fortinet and VeloCloud. We chose Meraki SD-WAN because we were already a Meraki customer and appreciated the ease of deployment.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Meraki SD-WAN because it is easy to deploy, highly scalable, and easy to manage.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Senior Network Specialist at Al Ghurair Investments
User-friendly, predefined functions with zero-touch configuration
Pros and Cons
- "The solution operates via zero-touch configuration."
- "A run optimization feature is needed to reduce the bandwidth for any uploaded content."
What is our primary use case?
Our company uses the solution for side-to-side or branch connectivity to our data center. We have 70 branches and about 3,000 end users in our environment.
What is most valuable?
The solution operates via zero-touch configuration. We do not have to physically visit branches to configure. We just send the points to our locations for seamless, push configuration from the cloud.
The firewall included in the antivirus protection includes many features such as IPS and traffic shipping rules.
The solution is quite user friendly and has predefined functions that you click to deploy.
What needs improvement?
A run optimization feature is needed to reduce the bandwidth for any uploaded content.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is very good so is rated an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable from a security perspective.
Endpoint security can be managed by the end users or other third-party tools. We use Trend Micro for endpoint security.
Scalability is rated a six out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
Our company is layer one and we have certified experts in-house, so we handle most technical issues.
Responses are not very clear when we escalate issues. Support is located in the UK and we have to get our account manager to connect us with the team in the UK.
Technical support is rated a five out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The setup is easy once you are used to it. Our first setup took a bit of time but now we process setups very efficiently.
The setup time depends on the site, user load density, and network gateway policies. It could date one day to go through all the steps for a more complex setup because you need to create the policies, map them, and integrate the active directory with the policies.
What about the implementation team?
We implement the solution in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution offers yearly licenses and product lines or prices are readily available on their website.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We purchased the solution in 2018 and it is still supported.
The solution does not include a run optimization feature for reducing bandwidth like what is available in other products.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend the solution but would like it to provide better optimization. If it does, then the solution would be considered an absolute star product.
I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Meraki SD-WAN
June 2025

Learn what your peers think about Meraki SD-WAN. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,632 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Products & Solutions Manager at Proximus
Next-generation security functionality
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature for me is the security functionality."
- "The solution is scalable for mid-tier deployments, but not for major ones."
What is our primary use case?
I primarily use it to connect sites to each other over an overlay network, with protection from the next-generation firewall in the Meraki ecosystem.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature for me is the security functionality, its integration with Wi-Fi, and the switching approach.
What needs improvement?
The license model may need improvement because if we need to renew something, we need to completely renew the license model.
An additional feature I would like is the 5G solution. It is not yet there.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for more than four years. We are using the latest version, which is cloud-based.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of this solution is fine. It has a Fusion version. It does what it prompts.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. It is scalable for mid-tier deployments, but not for major ones.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is decent if you open a ticket, but it can sometimes take quite a while. As for product development, it's a much more difficult story, as they have a very lengthy development cycle.
How was the initial setup?
It is a cloud-based solution, so the initial setup is straightforward. Onboarding a customer can be done in a few weeks.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment process is easy. It's a cloud-based system that is activated by attaching the serial number, and then the system goes live. So it's easy to set up.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The license model depends on the customer and can be a yearly license, a three-year license, or a five-year license. There may be additional costs for certain licenses, such as Umbrella licenses or advanced licenses. The pricing ultimately depends on the functionality the customer requires.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Practice Director & Technologies Advisory at Happiest Minds Technologies
Easy to set up with everything under one umbrella and the capability to expand
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is stable."
- "They need to offer proper integration of the security features."
What is our primary use case?
It's for enterprise networking. So some of the customers are from the BFSA domain, and some of the customers are from manufacturing. It's a distributed customer base.
Any customer looking for a single solution that can serve them for network security, which can serve them for the SD-Branch all branch networking. We use it for this purpose. It's used for a combination of SD-WAN and SD-Branch plus security.
What is most valuable?
Everything is under one umbrella. The Meraki dashboard is one of the valuable features which I use. I can control the devices across walls and across the landscape.
It's not difficult to set up the solution.
The solution is stable.
It can scale well.
What needs improvement?
The cloud area and the security area can be improved. Meraki has a limitation, especially on the cloud. If I deploy the services on the cloud and I want to make a site-to-site connection or maybe I have to do some sort of routing, inbound routing, it is not properly working with the Cisco Meraki. It needs to be matured a bit.
They need to offer proper integration of the security features. They talk about the next-gen technology, the next-gen UTM feature. It's not a complete security solution, however.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for about five years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We can easily scale the solution.
We are supporting multiple customers that use this solution. There are approximately 5,000 people using the access.
How are customer service and support?
We are well connected with the RR account manager. He is based out of Australia. Every time, whenever we have some sort of need, he is the go-to guy for us.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We use a variety of SD-WAN technologies.
How was the initial setup?
The solution is very easy to deploy.
How long it takes depends on the kind of site you are setting up. If I'm tiering the site, and have 20 users or 30 users and have a couple of links and the security postures are not very complex, maybe I can do the deployment in a week's time.
I can do two or three cuts over a week if it is small. You can bifurcate. I don't have any ready-made answer as to how long it will take as every setup is different.
What was our ROI?
We do look into ROI and show clients possible ROI if they decide to go with Meraki.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of the solution varies. It depends on the customer. For most of the customer deployments, we tend to do either three or five years of licensing. Having a longer-term give us some discounting in terms compared to one year.
What other advice do I have?
We are partners.
We use the MX64 deployment, although it goes all the way up to 300.
I don't want to be Meraki biased, however, if anyone is looking for the kind of solution that can include the branch office or the network security or even a Cisco Umbrella kind of solution, Meraki is the right choice.
From an SD-WAN perspective, I would rate the solution seven out of ten. I'm just cutting down three numbers due to the lacking of cloud networking and the weaker security posture.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Solution Architect at Posteo
A simple to use and scalable solution that offers easy access to the API
Pros and Cons
- "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."
- "The tool has challenges with features like multiple-link support, which currently only supports up to three links. Additionally, it doesn't offer router integration, and forward error correction is another missing feature. The scalability of Meraki SD-WAN is good, but there are limitations to the performance of the concentrator devices, especially in larger deployments. While the cloud scale is not an issue, the performance of the devices in branches and data centres is limited."
What is most valuable?
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.
Meraki SD-WAN helps save money by monitoring applications and ensuring service levels. This gives businesses a clear view of how well their operations are running and whether service providers meet their needs.
The Meraki SD-WAN has been mainly focused on Wi-Fi in the past, but with the introduction of the client, they're likely to enhance their AI-driven initiatives. This could mean providing more predictive insights to customers, but it might take time to develop fully.
What needs improvement?
The tool has challenges with features like multiple-link support, which currently only supports up to three links. Additionally, it doesn't offer router integration, and forward error correction is another missing feature. The scalability of Meraki SD-WAN is good, but there are limitations to the performance of the concentrator devices, especially in larger deployments. While the cloud scale is not an issue, the performance of the devices in branches and data centres is limited.
This can be an issue for larger customers with high traffic volumes. The roadmap includes plans to improve scalability, but progress may be slow.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate the tool's deployment a ten out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The tool's support is not very good. The process is ongoing while they are not fully integrated with Cisco TAC.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Regarding pricing, Meraki SD-WAN is quite competitive, especially compared to solutions like Fortinet. However, it's essential to consider that Meraki requires cloud orchestration, which adds to the overall cost. Overall, it's one of the most competitive solutions from Cisco for SD-WAN.
What other advice do I have?
Meraki SD-WAN is one of the best and easiest solutions to implement. It's very user-friendly, making it simple for users and partners to sell and deploy. Additionally, it offers a range of security features and the ability to integrate with SaaS platforms. However, compared to other vendors, it lacks some important features, and although they're on the roadmap, they're taking a bit longer to roll out.
The product is successful in various environments, especially in retail and specific industries like finance. Retail accounts for around 30 percent of its usage. I would rate the Meraki SD-WAN a nine on a scale of one to ten. It's simple to use, scalable and offers easy access to the API. However, it's not a perfect ten because it lacks some important features, and it is slow in terms of rolling out these features for customers.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Senior Advisor at a recruiting/HR firm with 11-50 employees
A highly scalable and stable solution to manage traffic with easy configuration
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is pretty easy to configure."
- "Meraki SD-WAN had trouble prioritizing traffic for VoIP calls."
What is our primary use case?
We implemented Meraki SD-WAN to replace our traditional WAN infrastructure, particularly for our email and messaging system (referred to as MLSP).
We have successfully transitioned to SD-WAN. So, it's primarily used for connecting our remote sites.
What is most valuable?
I like it because it works. Moreover, the solution is pretty easy to configure.
What needs improvement?
Meraki SD-WAN had trouble prioritizing traffic for VoIP calls, specifically for Microsoft Teams. They faced challenges for sometime when you set up QoS on Meraki's access points. There are profiles available for different services, such as Microsoft Teams, which effectively put all the rules in place for you. During their SD-WAN deployment, these profiles were not accessible to them. It's possible that Meraki has since introduced them. Therefore, having profiles for different services would be beneficial.
Meraki SD-WAN could make the license cheaper; the licenses cost a fortune.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Meraki SD-WAN for a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We've had a few minor things where it's gone down, but it has been stable most of the time.
I rate the solution’s stability a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Meraki SD-WAN is pretty easy to scale. You just buy more devices; it is easy.
I rate the solution’ scalability a ten out of ten. We have about 150 users using this solution.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support has been very good. The Cisco account manager named, Luke Brennan was really very helpful. If you ring him, he'll answer, and he'll tell you what you need to know. They are good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was pretty simple. We were able to do it in a day.
We did have an integrator to help while setting up.
What about the implementation team?
We've got one person in the team doing the maintenance, although we have somebody else who knows quite well that we do lean on external parties quite heavily, a company called Lixcel. Overall, we have a team of two people for maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is expensive. I rate the solution’s pricing a six out of ten, where one is expensive, and ten is cheap.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Software Engineer at Rich Products
A solution that needs a straightforward initial setup and offers good technical support to its users
Pros and Cons
- "Meraki SD-WAN is a scalable solution because changes are being made to the solution, enabling it to work in different environments."
- "I would like improved stability in Meraki SD-WAN."
What is our primary use case?
Meraki SD-WAN offers a platform where Cisco manages your database. The platform is cloud-based and accessible through the URL. This means that Cisco has access to all of your devices, but it also means that if you need to make changes, Cisco can control it. One of the benefits of this system is that if you experience any loss of connectivity, Cisco can support you.
What is most valuable?
Meraki SD-WAN provides an open platform for users, allowing them to tailor their bandwidth usage. Additionally, it allows you to monitor customer usage and distinguish between different types of URLs they use, which can be non-production, production, confidential, or non-confidential.
What needs improvement?
From my end, I cannot submit any details on the areas of the product that need improvement because I am currently on the audit format.
In terms of additional features that could be included in the next release of the solution, it would be useful to have proxy software that can be managed from a mobile device. As engineers, sometimes we need remote access, which can be a challenge, especially during off-shifts when we can't log in to our environment. If there was a platform that allowed us to access our credentials, it would enable us to provide support to the customer while also improving vendor productivity.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Meraki SD-WAN for three years now, and in my experience, it's one of the best solutions.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability-wise, I rate this solution an eight and a half out of ten. I would like improved stability in Meraki SD-WAN. Also, it is a very user-friendly solution. So, whenever you want to implement a new site, you can get options that are user-friendly and UI-based, which are very straightforward in nature. Basically, there are no complexities involved. So, a person involved in the solution's implementation can understand everything.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Meraki SD-WAN is a scalable solution because changes are being made to the solution, enabling it to work in different environments. In short, the perfect set of decisions is being made for the solution. I have experience working with the solution on a range of user scales, from 500 to 10,000 users.
Since I am a consultant currently, I won't be able to say whether I have plans to increase the solution's usage since I am presently not working on the solution.
How are customer service and support?
Meraki SD-WAN's technical support can be considered a very fast one. I rate the solution's technical support nine and a half out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have previously used Viptela SD-WAN.
How was the initial setup?
Meraki SD-WAN’s setup is straightforward because Cisco has control over everything. The solution is deployed in a cloud environment from the first day, which has been my experience since 2013 when using cloud-based solutions was not as prevalent as it is now.
I won't be able to speak about how many days it took to deploy the solution since I am not involved in its technical part.
To deploy Meraki SD-WAN, you need to connect your devices with the Cisco cloud environment, for which you need to give the gateway from your devices, and that message needs to be connected with the Cisco environment. Once connected, Cisco will provide you with the platform to manage your devices. Since they have admin rights, everything will be managed by Cisco.
Regarding the personnel involved in the deployment and maintenance of the solution, if we consider the operations part, which includes a VCP and a person for DRP, four people are involved, including a lead and a manager.
What other advice do I have?
I believe Cisco offers some of the best solutions. Meraki's routers, switches, and wireless solutions are some of the best.
You need an open platform to work with Meraki SD-WAN, whereas Aruba can be a bit more complex. That's why Cisco Meraki SD-WAN is generally preferred. Overall, I rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Business development manager at Virgin Media
Enables productivity in terms of users and has ease of management
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is pretty reliable."
- "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."
What is our primary use case?
We are using this solution for productivity, in terms of the users, and simplicity in terms of ease of management, although the capabilities of the platforms are a little restricted. As is the resilience, just because of the hub and spoke nature at significant volume. I use the solution a lot in retail stores.
The solution is deployed on-prem and on the cloud. We are using the latest version.
What is most valuable?
The solution is pretty reliable.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for about 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We haven't had any issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability could be better. Typically, when I get beyond 300 or 400 sites, depending on the criticality of service, I will normally move away from Meraki and look at either Viptela or Versa.
We have 4,000 end users and no plans to increase that number.
How are customer service and support?
I can fall back on my service provider if I need any additional technical support.
How was the initial setup?
Initial setup is straightforward. For deployment and maintenance, I have three people that are capable of dealing with it and that is basically just to make sure I've got cover within the team, but typically one person is administrating at any one time.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There are no licensing costs for the product subscription.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution 8 out of 10.
I would recommend this solution, particularly supported by VM02.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner

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Updated: June 2025
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