Meraki Overview

Meraki MX Firewall Series 

Sections: 

MX Data Sheet: 

Overview: 

  • Meraki MX firewalls are part of Cisco Meraki's family of security appliances that combine firewall, routing, VPN, and security services onto a single device
  • Lets go over some of the key features and types of Meraki firewalls available 

MX Firewall Features

Firewall Protection

  • The Meraki MX line of products offer a variety of protection features including traditional stateful inbound and outbound traffic policies in addition to layer 7 next-generation capabilities
  • With layer 7 firewall rules, Meraki allows us to control traffic based on applications, enabling you to prioritize important traffic while limiting non-essential applications
  • The MX series also includes IDS and IPS features providing protection against known threats and vulnerabilities by detecting and blocking malicious traffic

Unified Threat Management (UTM)

  • Content Filtering, a UTM feature, is a feature that blocks unwanted websites based on categories, keywords, or custom policies
  • UTM also provides Advanced Malware Protection (AMP), to detect and block malicious files, aiming to protect the network from zero day threats
  • Another key UTM feature in the MX series is the ability to incorporate Anti-Virus and Anti-Spam protections, protecting against common email and web based events

VPN (Virtual Private Network)

  • The MX line of firewalls supports Site-to-Site and Client VPN configurations
  • Site-to-Site VPNs allows multiple remote sites to securely connect to each other over the Internet
  • Client VPNs offer secure remote access for individual users connecting from outside the network

SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network)

  • Meraki MX firewalls use SD-WAN technology to improve the performance and reliability of branch office networks
  • They enable automatic failover between different internet link circuits and optimize traffic routing based on real time conditions
  • Traffic prioritization is a common measurement factor to incorporate with SD-WAN
  • This allows you to prioritize critical applications over less important traffic to ensure optimal performance

High Availability (HA)

  • With a Meraki solution, you can deploy Meraki MX firewalls in a high-availability configuration for redundancy, ensuring that the network remains up and running in case one firewall fails

Cloud Management

  • The Meraki MX series of firewalls can be managed remotely through the Meraki Dashboard providing centralized management and eliminating the need for on-site hardware management

Automatic Software Updates

  • Meraki MX firewalls receive automatic software updates, ensuring devices are always up to date with the latest security patches and feature improvements

MX Firewall Types 

Meraki offers different models of MX firewalls to suit various network sizes and requirements including the following:

Entry Level Models

The entry level models are best suited for small to medium sized businesses with up to 50 users for the MX67/68 series and 200 users for the MX75:

  • MX67
  • MX68
  • MX75

Mid-Range Models

The mid-range models are best suited for larger deployments or branch offices with up to 250 users for the MX85 series and 500 users for the MX95:

  • MX85
  • MX95

High-End Models

The high end models are best suited for larger enterprise environments ranging from 750-10,000 users: 

  • MX105
  • MX250
  • MX450