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.
$595
per appliance
Sophos SG Firewall Appliances
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Sophos SG Firewall Appliances are designed to provide optimal protection for organizations of all sixes from small remote offices, to global organizations requiring high-availability and
We compared VeloCloud. The product seemed fine. Outside circumstances made us not use VeloCloud. We are currently evaluating FortiGate and FortiAP for specific and unique locations along with Sophos SG Firewall and AP. Although we plan to add a competitor we are not planning on …
The MX platform is definitely suited. It seems to be best at the branch locations under a thousand users or so. And then at the data centers, it's been a little bit of a complicated process involving the full stack of the Meraki switches firewall security appliances. It gets a little more difficult within the data centers because the routing protocols aren't built out fully. They're working on, they're adding new features to that. But right now we're still struggling with a little bit of the features that are available within our data centers.
It is a great fit for small to medium enterprises who are low on budget. The pricing is very competitive when compared with other major players like Palo Alto and the features match any NGFW Firewall in the market. However, in my opinion when it comes to massive performance requirements, I would say the Sophos SG Firewall Appliances lacks the sheer power that other devices in the market have.
I'm very happy with their analytics now with the tie in with Thousandeyes, it's been really great insight. We now are SD wan, so insight's been really good. So as you know, everyone blames the network and having that kind of analytics from a single pane glass has been wonderful.
Sophos' support is actually pretty decent compared to Fortinet. We as a customer who uses both have first-hand experience in that. Sophos' way of support is much more hands-on. For instance, if you raise a ticket, they will contact you via chat, email, or phone in a timely manner and based on your SLA.
Sophos antivirus can speak with your firewall natively so that when a threat happens it can be blocked on a network level. We had first-hand experience of this where there was a potential outbreak on the network but the machines were getting isolated and prevented the spreading of malware.
Sophos comes with a whole suite of products like Intercept X, MDM, Antivirus, On-premise, and a virtual firewall. So they are like a one shop stop for all your security needs. We liked Sophos compared to our other firewall, which only had on-premise and virtual firewall boxes.
So I think that what we've noticed is the template, and I don't actually configure the Meraki, so that's done by our network team that works under me. But what I'm getting from some of the feedback is that with the Meraki we're a little bit limited into the template as to what we can set up for each template individually. And I'm kind of getting that it has to be based on region, it's not really what we want. So we end up with different templates that we have right now that aren't quite meeting our needs. I don't know if a newer version of Meraki might have that issue addressed already, but I find the template isn't as diverse as what I would like it to be.
As we have it in place now, we will continue to keep it at our remote sites. Future expansion is something we are reviewing, and may well start with some of the larger switches as they seem to offer good performance and management at a reasonable price. Wireless is also something we're investing in and their devices are great for that.
The Cisco Meraki MX series is very easy to use. Setting up user VPN access, site to site VPN to tie multiple locations together and managing all your devices. You can even download the latest firmware and install without ever leaving the dashboard. Meraki is the very definition of easy to use
I haven't ever had a bad experience with Meraki support. On the few occasions where I wasn't understanding the UI or needed some clarification about what a setting actually would do, I contacted them and they were very quickly able to provide help. Returns are simple and fast, too. We had to return a defective device one time and they shipped the replacement before we had even un-racked the one that was faulty. Unlike many other vendors, they didn't ask use to a do long list of scripted diagnostics, they just took my word for it that the device was broken and sent out a replacement immediately
The biggest selling point for sophos is their vendor support. Those guys put a smile on our faces. There are multiple ways you can contact their support like chat, or telephone or email. They are very responsive and they do have very knowledgable and patient support staff. We have raised tickets at all odd hours and they have been addressed correctly
We're really using the Meraki more and more, everything from the wireless. We started doing some work with the cameras and security. Meraki has been a great product for our company so far. We use it for a lot of our outer campuses as the VPN Tunneling primary with SD wan. So it's working out very well for us.
Both are equally good when comparing the features, FortiGate has a better dashboard while Sophos SG Firewall Appliances has good vpn texhniques.Overall price was better for Sophos SG Firewall Appliances,So we considered this for our Remote Branch Location .
The Cisco Meraki MX is basically a good product, but not perfect. If you compare the Cisco Meraki MX with a Fortigate or Cisco Firepower, you quickly realize that this system can do less than the reference product. The Cisco Meraki MX can be used in small environments, but in large environments you have to check carefully whether it really makes sense to use it.
