When deciding which Meraki license best fits your business needs, first understand the key differences between the standard Enterprise license and the Advanced Security license: Enterprise covers core networking, SD-WAN, cloud management, basic firewalling, and centralized control, while Advanced Security adds deeper threat protection such as intrusion detection and prevention, content filtering, and advanced malware defense.
The Enterprise License for Meraki provides valuable features involving management, API support, Stateful Firewalling, full-mesh Auto-VPN, High Availability (HA) failover and more. Most of the additional features are centered around security. Security has many layers/aspects so it is important to consider a) the risks that the organization faces, and b) what the Advanced Security Features are and how they might play into the enterprise.
Traditionalists would mostly commonly consider Perimeter Security and Endpoint Security as the two important starting points for protecting data in an environment. However, as time has gone on, companies both large and small are subjected to an increasing quantity and complexity of threats from adversaries. These include DNS Hijacking, Phishing emails with Malware embedded in them or bogus website links, Command-and-Control attacks, Website Redirection as well as Ransomware.
Cisco/Meraki’s advanced feature set helps to deal with many of these issues before they get into the environment, meaning at the edge of the network. It doesn’t mean that one should ignore endpoint protection but that is the subject of another blog.
Advanced Security Features
Let’s take a look at four key features of the Advanced Security Features and what they do:
1. Geo-based firewall rules – If you’ve been in the industry or looked at firewall logs or ACL hits on devices in the cloud, you will see that many access attempts originate outside the country you operate in.Blocking traffic from regions where you have no legitimate business need helps prevent malicious traffic from ever reaching internal services.
2. URL Content Filtering – Built into the Meraki MX firewall, this feature allows you to restrict categories of websites such as:- Abused Drugs
- Malware Sites
- Pornography
- Proxy Avoidance and Anonymizers
3. Intrusion Prevention – Integrated with Cisco Advanced Malware Protection and Threat Grid, this capability detects anomalous behavior, blocks malicious traffic, and provides retrospective malware analysis.
4. Google SafeSearch – Enforces safe search results by blocking adult content in Google and Bing searches.
Our experience is that smaller to mid-sized companies (up to several thousand employees) who are using Cisco Meraki SD-WAN technology leverage the Advanced Security Features about 75% of the time because the security value is significant versus a cost increase that is incremental. Enterprises, however, who are much larger but perhaps utilize Cisco Meraki for remote locations or small offices perhaps, may already have these security features deployed across the enterprise and may instead choose to pay less for the Enterprise Licensing.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Advanced Security includes intrusion prevention, content filtering, AMP, and geo-based firewall rules, while Enterprise offers core networking features. Biotech IT teams often choose Advanced Security for added protection.
Yes. For biotech, clinical research, and healthcare IT environments handling sensitive data, Meraki Advanced Security supports compliance and helps prevent threats like phishing, malware, and DNS hijacking.
Yes. Smaller biotech firms benefit from Meraki’s built-in protections without needing third-party tools. It’s ideal for managed IT services in life sciences startups or labs with limited internal IT staff.
Meraki's security features—including content filtering, intrusion prevention, and AMP—can help support HIPAA and GxP compliance for life sciences and healthcare environments.
Meraki firewalls enable admins to block entire categories of URLs, including malware sites, phishing, and adult content. This protects biotech research environments and clinical networks from unsafe traffic.
Remote or satellite offices benefit from Meraki Advanced Security’s extra automation and protection. It’s ideal for biotech IT teams managing multi-site deployments without on-site support.