Cisco Meraki vMX

Score8.7 out of 10

21 Reviews and Ratings

What is Cisco Meraki vMX?

Cisco's Meraki Virtual MX (vMX) is a virtual instance of a Meraki security & SD-WAN appliance, dedicated specifically to providing the simple configuration benefits of site-to-site Auto VPN for customers running or migrating IT services to an Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).

Categories & Use Cases

Kill Switch
Automatically disconnects the device from the internet if the VPN connection drops unexpectedly, preventing data leaks and exposure of sensitive information.
Category average: 9.5
AES 256-bit Encryption
Utilizes Advanced Encryption Standard with a 256-bit key to secure data and communication, ensuring high levels of confidentiality and protection against cyber threats.
Category average: 9.7
Simultaneous Connections
Allows users to connect multiple devices to the VPN service under a single subscription, ensuring all devices are protected concurrently.
Category average: 9

Multi-Platform Support
Offers compatibility with various operating systems and devices, allowing users to protect their data and privacy on multiple platforms.
Category average: 9.1
Split Tunneling
Permits users to route some of their device's traffic through the VPN while allowing other traffic to access the internet directly, optimizing performance and efficiency.
Category average: 8.9
No-Logs Policy
Ensures that the VPN provider does not store or track users' online activities, guaranteeing privacy and anonymity while using the service.
Category average: 7.9

David Fenech

ICT Manager for infrastructure and Service Delivery in Information Technology at Goodstart Early Learning (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have almost 700 locations across Australia, so for us being able to put in place an SD-WAN solution that has really solid hub appliances is crucial by having the VMX appliances in our Azure ancy allows us to get TC four NBN grade services to all our centers, provide that connectivity into our data center.

Pros

It handles load really well.
It brings simplification to the whole piece of networking network, so it makes it simple for us to diagnose and troubleshoot issues put in place as changes.
It has pretty good site to site firewall control.
It works well in Azure, so it ticks all our boxes.

Cons

That's a good question. In terms of seeing things stand differently for VMX appliances, it's great to see that over the last month or two. We have now the VMX large appliances available in this U. It would've been great to see that expedited a lot quicker. We've patiently been waiting for that.
Probably a bit more granular control in terms of seeing the endpoint from the spoke site at the hub would probably be great, but we're exploring ThousandEyes to help us a bit what we've monitored as well.

Return on Investment

I would say as a positive impact, it's simplified our network stack. It's almost brought a cartoon version of our network into play where service desk team members can really get in and troubleshoot a network related issue. It's really only the critical issues that are getting escalated to our managed service provider.

Other Software Used

Webex Calling

Ining Yang

VP of Engineering in Engineering at Axelliant (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using Cisco Meraki vMX in our Azure environments in USA. We are looking for a simple way to connect Azure with our offices around the world and also a way for developers to use AnyConnect to directly connect into Azure securely and utilize our common security policy. It is quick and easy to deploy.

Pros

Anyconnect VPN
Easy to Deploy
AutoVPN with remote offices works like a charm

Cons

AnyConnect functionality (certificate based authentication)
Support for more bandwidth
Easier to setup redundancy without two licenses

Return on Investment

Easy to use with AnyConnect
Quick and deploy and Auto VPN works like a charm

Malte Bredevang Zielinski View profile

Network and Security Consultant in Information Technology at TD-K A/S (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Cisco Meraki vMX for customers with an Azure tenant instead of using VNGs in Azure. This solution is more stable, and we can standardize our setup with a full-stack Cisco Meraki vMX solution. We really want to use the Cisco Meraki vMX for AnyConnect client VPN with different group policies/ VPN profiles as well, but this doesn't seem to be an option (yet) in Cisco Meraki vMX. Cisco Meraki vMX is easy to set up and manage, just like any other Meraki product.

Pros

Stability: Using Cisco Meraki vMX with auto-VPN instead of non-Meraki peers toward Azure
Management: Easy to manage on the Cisco Meraki vMX Dashboard
Centralization: With Cisco Meraki vMX, we can centralize/ standardize our setups

Cons

Client VPN: Cisco Meraki vMX in general needs to implement multiple VPN profiles/ group policies for client VPN
Alerts: Cisco Meraki vMX in general should be more consistent in sending alerts. We should receive alarms instantly.
Event logs: More in-depth event logs for all Meraki products, such as system crashes, etc.

Return on Investment

Standardizing: We can use the same "template" setup for multiple customers
Management: Easy to manage along with the rest of the Meraki products
Stability: Using Cisco Meraki vMX instead of VNGs in Azure provides better stability with auto-VPN between the Cisco Meraki vMX and other networks

Other Software Used

Cisco Meraki MX, Cisco Meraki MR, Cisco Meraki MS, Cisco Meraki MG

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using Cisco Meraki vMX as VPN concetrator in our DataCenter. It acts like hub for our branches.

Pros

Simple deploy

Cons

Stability on NFVIS

Return on Investment

We dont have to build physical boxes in DC

Other Software Used

Cisco Meraki MS, Cisco Meraki MR, Cisco Meraki MX

Matt Painter, CASP CCNP View profile

Sr. Network Engineer in Information Technology at Network Perception (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Over the last couple of years, Meraki has revamped the vMX to resolve many of the issues I'd be writing about now, there are no currently ongoing issues I face. My only frustration is beta IKEv2 and the Meraki world of living in beta for key features. A couple of years back it was quite a beast to install Cisco Meraki vMX but in recent versions, it has been streamlined quite a bit better, in my opinion. I have deployed Cisco Meraki vMX to several retail chains where POS/DB etc lived in both Azure or aws settings and had to terminate 100+ small spokes to connect back and I never had any problems or issues with the Cisco Meraki vMX. For a good majority of users, this works well. There have been some quirks of who supports Cisco Meraki vMX or the cloud provider etc as there was a line of how far the tac users would go to troubleshoot but I believe that was resolved.

Pros

Mesh vpn
Set and forget
Simplicity

Cons

Kill beta concepts
System performance metrics that end users can see

Return on Investment

Some users it knocks down on maintenance labor/cost
Negative would be if you didn't really vet the feature set to the customers needs and end up having to replace it short notice.

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Cisco Meraki vMX

What is Cisco Meraki vMX?

Categories & Use Cases

Key Features

Top Performing Features

Kill Switch

AES 256-bit Encryption

Simultaneous Connections

Areas for Improvement

Multi-Platform Support

Split Tunneling

No-Logs Policy

Reviews

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Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Return on Investment

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