Amaster's degree and networking for their use is not required toput together a complex network for meeting one's needs. The feedback loop for fixes is not always really relayed back to you. They won't provide you the ability to basically have everybody join the network, regardless of whether or not they share the same network space, the SSID, or the wireless LAN. Actually, towards the end of that, I switched them from Cisco to Ruckus. This is a little bit of control that you give up. So, right now, we're still very much stumbling through the version 8.6 code and just trying to make sure that it is safe before we turn on some of those features. From a purely wireless perspective, I think that Aruba is number one. We can control how much bandwidth a guest user gets versus a corporate user, and who gets priority on there. The solution is extremely scalable. I would say on average, we havepossibly 200 people a day on a slow day using it. The hardware is on par, andits performance is also on parwith anybody else. For example, I told you that Iemailed tech support two or three weeksago. I have been working with Ubiquiti in general for several years, but specifically with WLAN for the past two tothree years. Isimply don't have the time to chase after them right now. You go to Meraki or you go to Aruba or you go to the others, it's a lotmore money. We typically don't have too many problems with the hardware. We did get help, but Ididn't have a good feeling about it. I use them a lot. The configuration and monitoring have been very valuable features. They can drive up in their car, get their assignments, or do work that they need to while they're connected to the school. With the autonomous one, there's no consistency there. We'll have customers that have APs that are going end of life that still work fine, but we can't manage them anymore.
Cisco tech support is one of the best supports I've ever dealt with. I ran into four bugs in one week and was informed that we should just move onto the next one because all of those fixes have taken place. The wireless LAN controllers at the time when we started rolling out, we went with it simply due to the fact that everything else worked that was Cisco. When it came to deciding which route to take, we felt the scalability to be important, asit started with just one access point and then it grew to switches, then tomultiple access points and then toPower over Ethernet devices, etc. Version 10 is their next step of code, and it is geared more towards automating a lot of the setup. The software on offer is not great. That's a terrible product. By comparison, we call Fortinet for technical support more often. It is more like a Ford-GM question. So, the companies that just want to have a very simplified setup or want to make it less complicated, they can just say that we're going to go cloud or just stay on-premises, but now you have to have a combination of both, or you just stay with on-premises. You can go from the usual 10 people on an AP to possibly 40 plus people, all trying to check their internet over the wireless. One of the things that Aruba is trying to do in most of its product ranges to make sure that all of their products now have a fully functioning northbound set of APIs. It's the way to go for sure. And then on an extremely busy day, it could double that. The hardware is on par, and its performance is also on par with anybody else.
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN alternatives and competitors. Therefore, I consider this animportant point, even thoughI don't foresee short term growth. The next version of Wi-Fi 6 is rolling out already. I did a POC and a pilot between Ruckus and Aruba, and Ruckus came out on top because of its simplified approach to wireless networking. ", "While the data throughput does provide us with full insight into data being used, we find that it's not very accurate. They are building features, and you could only make use of these if you extend out and use all the Aruba products like Aruba switches, Aruba ClearPass, etc. Any of their wireless products are end of life by year four. You can segment it down to a specific user role based on any kind of attributes that you like.
The differentiator for me is thatCisco has aproduct, whichis its network access control system, called ISE or identity services engine. It is not like they are adding features that the market wants. We work at a courthouse, however, we manage the data for the entire county. Then, we have a guest SSID just for general public access, and that's basically running wide open. Once you learn it, it's pretty easy to manage. I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten for itsease of setup, ease of scalability, and robustness. One isclose to a thousand and that's the biggest Ihave. The company does a really good job, which is why we've stayed with them. There are45 access points deployed all over a billion square feet. However, I found it to bemuchtoo complex for the building and expanding of the basic infrastructure that we require. I am leaning towards liking Meraki more, but there are some drawbacks. With EnGenius, I never changed anything. 
When I went into the app to create that ticket, all the devices that I had concerns with were still under warranty with a next business day replacement. It's worked out well for us. Juniper's Mist is a recent addition that is hugely popular right now because of a lot of the stuff it does in the cloud.
These could be specific versions of code, but the newer features, such asWPA, WiFi 6, require some of the newer code. They are very, very robust, very rugged, and can handleindoor or outdoor coverage. This would simply be too complex and require more maintenance than would be feasible for a business of our size.
Maybe once a year, if that. Furthermore, the throughput speeds are excellent. Moreover, it is critical that the Insight Management solution saves us from needing to utilize additional cloud controller appliances, network managers, PC servers or to configure and manage our access points. They don't update their firmware too much for the controller. For example, you have two sites. They won't provide you the ability to basically have everybody join the network, regardless of whether or not they share the same network space, the SSID, or the wireless LAN. It always runs, and it's very reliable in terms of performance. Therefore, there are some things that should be beyond reproach, as far as I'm concerned. I go with 50 or 75 feet away,in tight spaces. Overall, I would rate the solution at a nine out of ten. Real time alerts are delivered via email and push alerts. That's their differentiator. It varies widely. They make a good product and offer good training. We only need to scan in a QR code for things to basically beset up. However, youwouldn't be able to deploy the second site in the cloud because you can't put more than 250 APs. Make sure that you have done your homework in terms of the space where it will be installed. People will throw in Linksys, and this other stuff. You can segment it down to a specific user role based on any kind of attributes that you like. Anything past that, you probably need tohave a dedicated support engineer on your camp if you're big enough, or you need to have resources that really know how to do the legwork beforehand. We use it broadly. That's it. I don't understand how one can troubleshoot and exchange a unit when tech support remains inaccessible. I've been doing implementations for a long time. So, if you've got one management session in the cloud and one management session on-premises, you would have to manage them at two places. If I had the time, I would play around with it more and do such things ascaptive portals for guest networks, and make things more fancy.
I have also used Meraki, which is Cisco's cloud-only based AP solution. If you have got lots of experience with the previous version of code, such asversion 6, and then you move to version 8, it is very confusing. They're really focused on that and their underlying key pieces. By comparison, it isn't the level of support that you would get from Cisco or Aruba. We do plan to increase usage, however, it won't necessarily be with this product. You can generally speak to somebody. There are a lot of problems with the 8.6 version code. That's a little bit convoluted and I kind of wished that would just have it one way or the other.
In terms ofCOVID, we've deployed external access points to the outside of a lot of the buildings. The best is if you're replacing the existing solution, you should stillreview the placement. Generally speaking, the solution is a good thing.
", "Currently, the stability of the code is the basic underlying problem for us. They are really moving towards making itcloud-based and less attractive for you to use on-premises. Some of the other devices do it so that they support X amount and you can buy the licenses for zero to 20, 20 to 40, et cetera, and it's a little bit more affordable. I did a lot of research before going this route. We need wireless in this room." Get our free report covering Aruba Networks, Ubiquiti Networks, Cisco, and other competitors of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN. We can onboard guests really easily. Unless there's a critical flaw, or you're running an early release. That bites us every year. We have some great control over the guest and corporate traffic. While Iknowthis to be possible, as we have the infrastructure in place with the access points for the connectivity of thousands of devices, we have no expectation of doing so. The cost of Cisco wireless controllers has always been kind of clunky. Nevertheless, the insufficiently reliable access points made me have second thoughts. That was kind of a pain, however, we just ended up manually going through and resetting everything, which was not too terrible. For many years, I use the EnGenius products for Wi-Fi. Ittook us a single afternoon to do the initial deployment. As far as switching goes, still happy with their switches. You don't want to do that because the way this new code works is that it is hierarchical, meaning that you build your configuration centrally, and then you push it down to your access points or your local controllers. If you need per user, per device, or per port segmentation, you can get that with Aruba. I had heard a lot of good things about Aruba, and then I heard they were bought out by HP, however, it seems like it's still good. If you were brought up in a Ford household, you are probably going to buy a Ford sort of thing. However, it has been months since theInsight app has acknowledged that there areaccess points connected to it. The high point would be that it isstill an industry leader with on parhardware and performance like anybody else. They're their main releases, I want to say year after year, it's been maybe once a year, and then you have to push it out to all your APs. I don't have a lot of strong things to say about version 8.6. It's just that you're doing it on the AP or, alternatively, they have what's called Unleashed, which is controller-less. I often felt like I was being pushed into updates, in spite of it already working.
If I can't answer the question or get them fixed, then we'll get with tech support. There are still a number of limitations with the cloud. The cost could be slightly improved. A lot of shops are all Cisco. If you need some of the advanced stuff, then you're going to have to pick one of the other solutions. You could manage it all from the cloud instance, andyou would have zero hardware and all that kind of stuff. If I've got a Cloud controller there and it's on version 5.1, and I want to go to version 5.2, bdue to the fact that I need to support the new radios coming out, I can't if I have some older radios on that controller. A lot of other systems don't do that. As forthe Insight portal and the Insight app, meaning the part of the app that allows you tosee which clients are connected to the access points and how they're connected, thesedo not work at all. When it is not stable, that's a real problem for me because you lose a lot of confidence in the products. 
They have now brought in things like COVID tracking. For example, if you want to have Tufin, but more in line with things like change management. I have set up and manage multiple sites. I did not evaluate other options prior to choosingNETGEAR. We'll probably like to go with a different product based on price and licensing. So, right now, we're still very much stumbling through the version 8.6 code and just trying to make sure that it is safe before we turn on some of those features. We used to have Cisco's products for one or two years. The downside is the interface changes, where they areconstantly doing firmware updates. The internal ones are far cheaper than that. I was leaning more towards Ruckus based on just how it handles traffic and handles the guest VLANs and that it can do SSI de-scheduling. It is pretty good. But the EnGenius, if you have to do troubleshooting then it is quite a problem because the management is terrible. World-class throughput speeds with the WiFi Six is what we're using in all of our devices. And yet, there area few times where it doesn't.It got to the point where, when I prevent in APs, I just take them directly to the switch that the controller is plugged into and provision them there instead of just plugging them in like you should be able to. As far asCisco Meraki or Ubiquiti access points go,I did research Cisco a little bit online. It's in that middle area, which can be a deciding factor between someone going with this solution versus another one. They will add the ability for you to be able to write things that you want to see so that you can basically do your own SDK, if you like, and more easily be able to tie that into what you're doing. Version 8 was a big change for them. So, if you want to lock administrators there and restrict the type of functions that people can do, you don't have to give them access to the systems anymore. I don't call tech support very often. Cisco is like the other de facto. However, they take them and they end the life of them at four years. They use them in commissary purchases, which is a separate SSI and separate VLAN. We originally started using the solution in 2014. We do a lot of schools, colleges, large civic centers, large arenas, etc. The initial setup of the Insight access points did not require us to have any special expertise or knowledge and there was no need to bring in somebody from the outside. Aruba isan industry leader. We're running the latest software. Also, you have lawyers walking around andyou don't want them tripping over stuff. You want all of them to get the same performance all the time. More recently, I did send them an email about the issues I'm having with the model numbers I mentioned. However,they're all very similar in how they work and react. However, that's something that you're going to fight with through every controller, every different type of device. Re-uploading that configuration was not as easy if that makes sense. ", "The product has some very awesome patents on their radios and their antennas and antenna patterns and how their signaling works. If they have an issue, they can come directly to me or they can go directly to Ruckus, it doesn't matter. Their software's really clunky. Additionally, the solution provides live updates on network status and alerts us when there's an issue. We have lawyers that maybe need to reach back into the network and access their documents when they take a laptop to the courtroom with them. You shouldn't have to go 25 minutes deep to get to some security options for a specific SSID. You candecide to ignore the update, but then if you move the access point then it will update automatically anyway. I don't have anything that big. It's great. So, basically, you would do one way in version 6, and then they completely reversed it in version 8. It provides real-time changes, with real-time monitoring of what's happening and what needs to be changed. We use the2500 wireless controller and all the APs that go with it. We had looked at Meraki before, however, the cost is just astronomical. We can't get things to work the same way. There isn't another vendor who does it. We can't get things to work the same way. When it is not stable, that's a real problem for me because you lose a lot of confidence in the products. The scalability and its potential is great. The group settings are much higher in terms of encryption on the Juniper than on the Meraki. I've been using the solution for the past six years. Cisco is a very close number two, and then Ruckus is actually a distant third. That's the whole thing. I explained that it was not the one giving me trouble, but that Ifelt I had no other meansof getting in touch withthem. I can have a cluster of controllers controlling 30,000 different APS. Ten to one, you just can't compete. You don't need that many.
When they say it's going to do something, it does it.
We have them at the Sheriff's office. So, now you have got to go back to doing it the old-fashioned way, which is to have on-premises controllers or two management suites. We had no problems. I do understand that you can configure that local hardware. We're a local government, so there's no money. We typically do a virtual controller on their systems. Under normal situations, we were probably about 2,000 users a day. In terms of deployment times,we figure for AP it's an hour and a half, so you can just figure in that as the base amount of time you need for each AP and that includes configuration and installation.
That's kind of why I was trending towards Ruckus. I still need to go back and do an in-depth read on the Ruckus option. For us to be able to work with the latest access points, we've got to upgrade our controller, however, we can't. It's not done by SSID. Yet, for somereason, the phone and email support options had expired. That may be just because of COVID, but it is very much dependent on when you call and the type of issue that you have. ", "It always runs, and it's very reliable in terms of performance. I didn't undertake anything in person. The solution is extremely stable. I've had a couple of conversations with them about the next release, which is actually pending. When it comes tothe head-to-head competition, the Ruckus far out-shines them. The basic stuff is really good. They need to be able to allow us to keep some of the older products on the Cloud controllers or any of their controllers longer, and just start supporting the new controllers. I would recommend Aruba Wireless, butit depends on the size and the scope. I find this to be the caseeven though it is not what I wish to be doing with my time. We made a heavy investment to migrate a lot of stuff to take advantage of things like WPA3, Wi-Fi 6, and all that kind of stuff, and we haven't been able to turn those features on because we are not confident that they are going to work just yet. One is autonomous firmware, which they use with their AP line and then lightweight APs. So, you can do 90% to 95% of the stuff you want, and it is a much more stable and capable system. They are pretty good. When it comes to thepain points, the abilityto monitor and address these is one of the best perks of the app. That's to segregate wireless traffic for different groups of people per their needs. It wasthe cloud aspect of Insight and the fact that it didn't need to be managed on site with servers that sold me on the product. There are no bugs or glitches. There isno need forservers or forother equipment beyond what weknow is registered in the inside portal. One can segregate different WiFi networks so that they can simply access other things on the network. The solutioncan be as simple or complex as one wants. Ruckus is way ahead of the game on a lot of stuff like Wi-Fi 6. That's why nobody can touch them. I set it once, and I forgot it, andthere's something to be said for that.
In some respects, one of the things that they focus on is wireless. This is not something you want to be done constantly as it does make downtime, however, I would like to see them more than once a year. I think that Aruba Wirelessis a good product overall. A lot of the automated processes are coming along, such as the ability to tie in cloud-based analytics to look at your reports, training, or data, like Juniper Mist is doing. The Aruba brand really only focuses on wireless, so they're not competing their R&D for switching data center products and cloud security. You needsomebody that knows what they're doing, and knows what questions to ask so that you're getting the right information. We started simple and built it up to be somewhat complex and that has worked out pretty well for us.
They have some code issues with this change as most vendors do when they go through a major change. 
It's money well spent. Cisco lacks in software updates, surprisingly. There are some small businesses that don't want to, or don't need to upgrade their controllers and they're crushing their access points. We implement and deploy network solutions for our customers. And then for the outdoor mesh radios, they're not fully autonomous, yet you have to have the autonomous software on them for the mesh feature to function. There are a lot of problems with the 8.6 version code. Unless one dies or they need one expanded, as far as specific costs go, it's different for indoor andoutdoor ones. They're a solid product. While it doesn't have all the features that you can use with Cisco, it is a standard network application system, which means it will work with any vendor for any system. They're extremely pricey, however, they last forever, and they meet a lot of government requirements that we have.
cisco meraki competitors
