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."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 best part of ACI is that it can integrate with a lot of virtual environments like VMware, Hyper-V, and KVM."
"It is easy to use because you have all the information coming from the same technology."
"We will improve our organization using the automation."
"The integration with vCenter means that when I create something on the network, it only has to happen one time instead of many times for our many virtual hosts."
"All the features provided by Cisco ACI including orchestration to layer seven, service training, load enhancements and firewalls."
"The product works very well with our virtual environment."
"ACI's most valuable feature is sizing - you can easily find the sizing of the data, which means the data speed, CPU, and virtualization can be determined."
"Using Meraki just solves a lot of problems."
"The advantage you have with Cisco Meraki is that they take a lot of that complexity out of the backend."
"As long as the LAN is well structured, installations and setup can be complete within forty-five minutes."
"I appreciate the cloud-based management feature the most. It's a crucial aspect for me because it allows me to manage the configuration remotely without having to visit the on-premise location. The ability to do this from my home is a major benefit. Additionally, security is good."
"The most valuable feature is the firewall capability. It's also got a very good graphical user interface and is very easy to manage."
"The solution is a whole vertical solution, so it doesn't need any other components in order to provide basic features."
"Tech support is willing to go the extra mile to resolve issues."
"Meraki SD-WAN is a very stable and scalable solution with good technical support."
"It would be great if ACI would include the next generation firewall feature."
"From my point of view, troubleshooting issues relating to ACI can be a little bit complicated to perform."
"Customer support for ACI needs improvement. Many customers prefer HPE because their internal support is different and easier to integrate with existing networks. This lack of awareness of ACI's capabilities makes customers stick to traditional networking."
"Cisco ACI is a highly complex solution. The initial deployment is just a few clicks, but understanding how an ACI works and interacts with routing, switching, and virtualization takes a lot of knowledge. The interface isn't necessarily hard to use, but the technology is complicated. If you want to understand how it works and how to configure it, you should study hard."
"We had issues in the first deployment when we tried to finish the migration from traditional networking to Cisco ACI."
"They should improve the GUI, make it simpler. They also need to improve its integration with other automation tools."
"Compared to VMware, it needs more virtualization technologies."
"Because this is new technology, which requires a different way of thinking, it can be hard to understand. Therefore, I would like more documentation or education."
"With Meraki, it's more of a basic connectivity. It doesn't have all the feature sets that a Cisco SD-WAN solution has. It's limited."
"The solution could be improved if it added more features, especially monitoring and reporting features."
"The default classes should be expanded."
"I think they should enhance the security."
"We have a lot of problems with distribution. The late deliveries likely have to do with the time it takes for the fabrication of components. It is a principal problem at this moment."
"The solution is scalable for mid-tier deployments, but not for major ones."
"It's a matter of cost and expenses that we may take some issue with."
"The interface in the VPN management system can be a bit complex for users to understand."
Cisco ACI is ranked 2nd in Software Defined Networking (SDN) with 97 reviews while Meraki SD-WAN is ranked 1st in Software Defined Networking (SDN) with 61 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, Akamai Guardicore Segmentation, Nuage Networks and Cumulus Networks, whereas Meraki SD-WAN is most compared with Cisco SD-WAN, VMware SD-WAN, Omada Cloud SDN, Cradlepoint NetCloud and Citrix SD-WAN. See our Cisco ACI vs. Meraki SD-WAN report.
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