I replaced Cisco Meraki SD-WAN in three branch offices with MikroTik RB5009. Hardware $537. Old Meraki bill $4,200/year. MikroTik ran 14 months zero outages.
Why Ditch Expensive SD-WAN
SD-WAN solved broadband vs MPLS but licensing caught up. Meraki MX68 is $615/unit plus $345/year. Five offices = $4,800 annual just for SD-WAN. MikroTik does same on $179 hardware with free software.
Build Requirements
Two sites: RB5009 at $179 each. Two internet connections per site. RouterOS v7. Two hours config. Total $358 vs Meraki $1,920 first year.
Configuration Steps
ECMP Multi-WAN Load Balancing
Configure both WAN connections. ECMP distributes traffic across providers. PCC for connection-type distribution keeps sessions stable.
Automatic Failover
NetWatch monitors gateway via ICMP and DNS. Failover under one second for TCP. BFD for sub-50ms detection with VoIP.
Site-to-Site WireGuard VPN
WireGuard tunnels between sites with unique key pairs. Persistent keepalive=25 for NAT traversal. Faster and simpler than IPsec.
QoS Traffic Engineering
Mangle rules mark traffic by type. Queue trees prioritize VoIP and web over bulk transfers. Calls stay clear during Windows updates.
DIY vs Meraki
Cost 5 years: MikroTik $358 total vs Meraki $4,680. The 13x difference matters.
Features: Meraki prettier dashboard. MikroTik more routing control.
Reliability: 14 months zero MikroTik outages. Branch internet is limiting factor.
Bottom Line
Meraki charges for dashboard. MikroTik gives features to build your own. For 2-20 offices with IT staff, the switch saves approximately $23,000 over five years.
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