Security and SD-WAN are two critical aspects of any modern network. Security protects data and devices from unauthorized access, threats, and attacks. SD-WAN refers to optimizing network performance and reliability using software-defined policies and techniques. Both security and SD-WAN require advanced features, intelligence, and management to meet the evolving needs of today’s organizations. The meraki mx is a cloud-managed solution that combines security and SD-WAN in a single device, offering a wide range of capabilities to address multiple use cases.
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Limitations of Traditional and SD-WAN Solutions
However, traditional security and SD-WAN solutions can be complex, costly, and challenging to deploy and manage. They often involve multiple devices, vendors, interfaces, and protocols that create silos and inefficiencies. They also need more visibility, scalability, and flexibility for dynamic and distributed environments.
What is meraki mx?
The Meraki is a cloud-managed solution that combines security and SD-WAN in a single device. It offers many capabilities to address multiple use cases from an all-in-one device. It is great for network managers who want cutting-edge features and easy setups.
Some of the key benefits of Meraki are:
- Cloud management: Meraki is managed through the Meraki dashboard, a web-based interface that provides centralized visibility and control over the entire network. Administrators can configure, monitor, troubleshoot, and update MX devices from anywhere, using any device. They can also leverage cloud-based services such as analytics, machine learning, threat intelligence, and automation to enhance network performance and security.
- Multifunctionality: It is a multifunctional device that can perform various roles, such as firewall, VPN gateway, content filter, intrusion prevention system, malware protection, WAN optimizer, load balancer, cellular failover, wireless access point, and more. Administrators can turn these features on or off without requiring additional hardware or licenses.
- Scalability: Meraki is scalable to meet the needs of any size or type of organization. It supports up to 10 Gbps of firewall throughput and 5 Gbps of VPN throughput. It can also support up to 10,000 concurrent VPN clients and 500 VPN peers. MX devices can be deployed in various topologies, such as hub-and-spoke, mesh, or hybrid. They can also be integrated with third-party solutions such as Cisco Umbrella or AWS Transit Gateway.
- Flexibility: It is flexible to adapt to changing network conditions and requirements. It supports various WAN connectivity options, such as Ethernet, fiber, DSL, cable, cellular, or satellite. It also supports multiple WAN optimization techniques, such as dynamic path selection, application-aware routing, quality of service (QoS), bandwidth management, packet loss mitigation, and jitter buffering.
- Moreover, it supports various security features, such as stateful firewalling, site-to-site VPN (IPsec or AutoVPN), client VPN (L2TP/IPsec or AnyConnect), content filtering (URL or category-based), threat protection (IPS or AMP), group policies (user or device-based), and more.
Conclusion
Meraki MX is a cloud-managed solution that combines security and SD-WAN in a single device. It offers many capabilities to address multiple use cases from an all-in-one device. It’s great for network managers who want an up-to-date feature set while still being easy to implement. Organizations can enjoy improved security, performance, reliability, visibility, scalability, and flexibility by using MX devices in their networks.