Best Enterprise Routers by Role: Cisco, Juniper and Meraki

An enterprise router connects your sites to the internet, to each other and to your data center. Compared with a small-office router it handles far more traffic, several internet links at once, VPNs to many sites, routing protocols like BGP, and redundant power, and it’s built to run for years without a reboot.

The best enterprise router depends on where it sits. A branch office, a headquarters internet edge and a service-provider core need very different hardware, even from the same brand.

Best enterprise routers by role

	Cisco	Juniper	Meraki
Small branch: one or two internet links, VPN to headquarters	ISR 1000 series (C1111-8P)	SRX300 and SRX320	MX67, MX68
Large branch or headquarters: several links, more users, plug-in modules	Catalyst 8200 and 8300	SRX340, SRX345, SRX380	MX85 and up
Internet and WAN edge: high throughput, BGP, 10G and 100G ports	Catalyst 8500	MX204	MX450 (VPN hub for many sites)
Service provider and data center core	Cisco 8000, ASR 9000	MX960, PTX

What makes a router “enterprise”?

• Throughput with features on. Enough capacity to route, encrypt and inspect traffic at your internet speed, not just to forward it.
• Several WAN links. Two or more internet or private circuits, with failover or load sharing between them.
• Routing protocols. BGP to your internet providers, OSPF inside the network, and VPN or SD-WAN between sites.
• Redundancy. Dual power supplies on larger models, and pairs of routers that take over for each other.
• Modularity. Slots for extra ports, fiber or cellular modules as the site changes.

Cisco enterprise routers

Cisco’s current enterprise routers are the Catalyst 8000 family, which replaced the ISR 4000 and ASR 1000 series. For small sites the ISR 1000 series fills the branch role: the Cisco C1111-8P has two WAN ports and an 8-port switch built in. The Catalyst C8200-1N-4T is a 1U branch router with four Gigabit ports and a slot for an extra network module. Above that, the Catalyst 8300 adds more slots and throughput, and the Catalyst 8500 handles aggregation and internet edge at 10G and 100G.

All of them run Cisco IOS XE and can be managed device by device or centrally with Cisco SD-WAN. Plenty of ISR 4000 routers, like the ISR4321, are still in service and easy to replace like for like.

Juniper enterprise routers

Juniper splits routing across two families. At branch sites, SRX firewalls do the routing too: the SRX320-POE covers a small office and powers its phones and access points, while the SRX340, SRX345 and SRX380 cover larger branches. At the WAN edge and in the data center, MX routers take over. The MX204 packs 400 Gbps into one rack unit, with four 100G and eight 10G ports, and is a common choice for an enterprise internet edge running BGP.

Everything runs Junos, so one configuration style covers the whole network. More in our guide to Juniper routers. Link US is an authorized Juniper reseller.

Meraki: the router is the firewall

Meraki doesn’t sell a separate router. Its MX security appliances route, firewall and run SD-WAN in one box, and connect every site to every other with Auto VPN. A Meraki MX68 covers a small branch; larger MX models cover headquarters and act as the VPN hub for hundreds of sites. Meraki is the easiest way to run many branches, with less control over advanced routing than Cisco or Juniper.

Do you need a router and a firewall?

Often not. At most branch sites one box does both: an SRX, a Meraki MX or a Cisco router with security features turned on. Separate routers make sense at the internet edge of a larger network, where you want BGP with your providers on one device and security policy on another, or where traffic is too heavy for one box to handle both.

How to choose an enterprise router

1. Size it on the right number. Datasheets lead with plain forwarding throughput. With VPN, firewall and threat inspection turned on, real capacity can be a fraction of that, so size on the figure for the features you’ll use.
2. Count your links. Every internet circuit, private line and cellular backup needs a port, and fiber links need SFP ports.
3. Decide how you’ll manage it. Command line (Cisco IOS XE, Junos), central SD-WAN, or the Meraki dashboard.
4. Plan for failure. Dual power supplies at headquarters, and a second router or a cellular backup where an outage would stop the business.
5. Match what you run. Staying with the same brand keeps VPNs, management and your team’s skills consistent.

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