Wireless LAN Report From IT Central Station 2015-10-12G43

Wireless LAN
A PEEK INTO WHAT REAL USERS THINK
2015
IT Central Station helps tech professionals by providing...
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enterprise level Wireless reviews from tech you choose the best vendor
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ABOUT THIS REPORT
This report is comprised of a comprehensive list of enterprise level Wireless LAN vendors. We have
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VENDOR (BY RANKING) SOLUTION
Rating: 8.7
Cisco Cisco Wireless (11 reviews)
Rating: 8.5
Aruba Networks Aruba Wireless (9 reviews)
Rating: 8.62
Aerohive Aerohive Wireless (8 reviews)
Rating: 9.0
Hewlett Packard Enterprise HP Wireless (4 reviews)
Rating: 7.0
Adtran Adtran Bluesocket Wireless (3 reviews)
Rating: 8.66
Juniper Juniper Wireless (4 reviews)
Rating: 8.0
Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess WLAN (3 reviews)
Rating: 5.0
Avaya Avaya Wireless (1 review)
Rating: 10.0
Cisco Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN (1 review)
Rating: 1.0
Ubiquiti Networks Ubiquity WLAN (1 review)
D-Link D-Link Wireless
Dell Dell Wireless
Huawei Huawei Wireless (1 review)
Meru Meru Wireless LAN
Ruckus Ruckus Wireless

Wireless LAN
According to the IT Central Station community, when selecting a WLAN tool, three main factors come
into play: reliability, availability, efficiency. Furthermore and especially in recent years, the ability to
maintain security of the data in WLAN solutions has become extremely relevant. Having efficient
network engineers can ensure that your wireless network will be able to handle what comes along for
many years down the road by using generic switches, easily replaced modules and being able to
program or write good code to manage the system. Read more

Top Wireless LAN Vendors
Over 106,877 professionals have used IT Central Station research on enterprise tech. Here are the top
Wireless LAN vendors based on product reviews, ratings, and comparisons. All reviews and ratings are
from real users, validated by our triple authentication process.
2183 3118 9 Re 951 F A

1. Aruba Wireless View Com vi ollow verage R
s paris ews ers ating
ons : 8.6
1539 2617 11 R 960 F A

View Com e ollow verage R
2. Cisco Wireless s paris views ers ating
ons : 8.8
1992 1523 9 Re 941 F A

3. HP Wireless View Com vi ollow verage R
ons : 9.0
1191 2092 8 Re 945 F A

4. Aerohive Wireless View Com vi ollow verage R
ons : 8.6
418 V 1035 3 Re 940 F A

5. Juniper Wireless iews Com vi ollow verage R
paris ews ers ating
ons : 8.6
267 V 894 C 3 940 F A

6. OmniAccess WLAN iews ompa Reviews ollow verage R
rison ers ating
s : 8.0

527 V 1565 3 Re 937 F A
7. Adtran Wireless iews Com vi ollow verage R
paris ews ers ating
ons : 7.0
Chart Key
Views: Number of total page views
Comparisons: Number of times compared to another product
Reviews: Total number of reviews on IT Central Station
Followers: Number of followers on IT Central Station
Average Rating: Average rating based on reviews

The total ranking of a product (i.e. bar length) is based on a weighted aggregate ranking of that product's Views (weighting
factor = 17.5%), Comparisons (17.5%), Reviews (17.5%), Followers (17.5%), and Average Rating (30%).

TOP 5 TOP 5
Based on Views Based on Views of Comparisons
2183 Aruba Wireless 3118 Aruba Wireless
1992 HP Wireless 3082 Cisco Meraki Wireless WAN
1539 Cisco Wireless 2617 Cisco Wireless
1336 Cisco Meraki Wireless WAN 2092 Aerohive Wireless
1191 Aerohive Wireless 1697 Avaya Wireless
TOP 5 TOP 5
Based on Followers Based on Rating
960 Cisco Wireless 10.0 Cisco Meraki Wireless WAN
951 Aruba Wireless 9.0 HP Wireless
945 Aerohive Wireless 8.8 Cisco Wireless
941 HP Wireless 8.6 Aruba Wireless
941 Dell Wireless 8.6 Aerohive Wireless

Cisco Wireless
Vendor: Cisco
Overview: With Cisco Wireless you will successfully plan, deploy, monitor, troubleshoot, and report on indoor and
outdoor wireless networks - all from a centralized location.
Top Aruba Wireless vs. Cisco Wireless Compared 21% of the time.
Comparisons:*
Huawei Wireless vs. Cisco Wireless Compared 12% of the time.
HP Wireless vs. Cisco Wireless Compared 12% of the time.
Top Industries:* Financial Services Firm 16%

Legal Firm 15%
Comms Service Provider 10%
Wireless Company 10%
Company Size:* 1-100 Employees 42%

100-1000 Employees 15%
1000+ Employees 44%
* Data is based on the aggregate profiles of IT Central Station Users researching this solution.

CISCO WIRELESS REVIEW BY A REAL USER
SnrConsultant360 Verified by IT Central Station WHAT REAL USERS
Senior Consultant at a tech services company with 1-100 ARE SAYING...
employees
"There's no logical order to
setup what you need, but
Valuable Features: with some reading, it's
totally feasible."
Security features
"The monitoring system
Improvements to My Organization: has room for improvement
however centralized
We can deploy a simple guest captive portal to allow guests to connect to the management is a valuable
internet. feature"
Room for Improvement: "Guest WiFi is an option

but older WAP's can be an
More languages on the captive portal. issue as the firmware
makes them problematic"
Use of Solution:
"Pros: certificate
I've been using Cisco WLAN Controller 2106 for about one year. authentication, ACL for
Guests. Cons: Reporting,
Active Passive Failover on
Deployment Issues: Controller."
I had to reboot the controller a couple of times to force correct EAP key exchange. "Central control of all APs
is a valuable feature.
Stability Issues: Better training is needed."
I had to reboot the controller a couple of times to force correct EAP key exchange. "The ability to group APs to
specific VLANs gives us a
Scalability Issues: lot of flexibility. The GUI
needs work."
Since it's a very small controller, I was already prepared for a small deployment.
Customer Service:
Not used at all.
Technical Support:
Not used at all.

Previous Solutions:
No previous solution used.
Initial Setup:
A bit complex. There's no logical order to setup what you need, but with some
reading, it's totally feasible.
Implementation Team:
I implement it myself. I work for a Cisco partner.
Other Advice:
Plan the network first and decide if this box is big enough for your deployment.

CISCO WIRELESS REVIEW BY A REAL USER
SnrNwkEng644 Verified by IT Central Station
Senior Network Engineer at a government with 100-1000
employees
Valuable Features:
From a technical perspective, the ease of centralized management and

provisioning. Also the possibility of a single breakout point to the LAN which helps
confine user traffic without additional setup.
Improvements to My Organization:
Before 2008 all hosts were connected to the wired infrastructure. Introducing a
wireless infrastructure is probably the biggest single improvement in the network
area we have had over the last few years. For example, employees can access
their documents during a meeting, suppliers can give a presentation, and visitors
can access the internet, etc. without going through the process of wiring and
reconfiguring switches.
Room for Improvement:
The monitoring system has room for improvement. All the pieces of data are
collected but it is not always easy or possible to present it the way you like it.
Use of Solution:
For about six years with the initial single controller setup. We moved to a dual
controller setup in active/standby mode two years ago.
Cisco WLC 5508 with Cisco Wireless Control System and 2600/3600 series
access points
Deployment Issues:
We did not have any issues with the deployment of the single controller setup. Later
on, with the deployment of the second controller, we have had some minor issues
which were swiftly resolved by the supplier team with some help from the vendor.
Stability Issues:
No issues so far.
Scalability Issues:
The product is scaled for 500 APs. At this moment we have little under 450 APs
connected without any scalability issues.

Customer Service:
8/10 for both the vendor and supplier.
Technical Support:
9/10 for both the vendor and supplier.
Previous Solutions:
No, the Cisco WLC is our first wireless solution.
Initial Setup:
Initial setup was straightforward. Then again, initially we started with only the very
basic capabilities of the Cisco WLC.
Both implementations were performed by a supplier team with support from an in-
house team for integration into the local network. I would rate the expertise of the
supplier team a solid 8/10.
ROI:
We are a non-profit organisation. ROI was not the main drive to buy this product as
manageability and reliability were.
Alternate Solutions:
We are bound to a supplier and therefore can choose from a limited number of
vendors. We use Cisco for our wired equipment, it is then reasonably to first have a
look a Ciscos wireless solution.
Other Advice:
The Cisco WLC has many features. Plan carefully which to use before you start to
implement.

Aruba Wireless
Vendor: Aruba Networks
Overview: Aruba deliver superb Wireless performance and multi-user MIMO aware ClientMatch to boost network
efficiency and support the growing device density and app demands on your network.
Top Cisco Wireless vs. Aruba Wireless Compared 17% of the time.
Comparisons:*
Avaya Wireless vs. Aruba Wireless Compared 12% of the time.
Aerohive Wireless vs. Aruba Wireless Compared 11% of the time.
Top Industries:* Non Tech Company 21%

University 15%
Financial Services Firm 13%
Comms Service Provider 10%
Company Size:* 1-100 Employees 44%

100-1000 Employees 24%
1000+ Employees 32%

ARUBA WIRELESS REVIEW BY A REAL USER
Sami Karimaa Verified by IT Central Station WHAT REAL USERS
System Architect - Networks at a university with 100-1000 ARE SAYING...
employees
"The initial setup required
a lot of work however the
Valuable Features: scalability is the key for the
solution"
The scalability is the key here. We operate in a multi-vendor environment, running
proprietary and open source software as well as pretty much every OS in it. We
have to be able to adjust features as we need them throughout the WLAN. "Spectrum Analyzer and
the WIP are my eyes in the
sky. It would be good to
Improvements to My Organization: have more than 4GB for
the firewall."
WLAN is one of the major functions that allows employee movement without re-
doing cabling etc.
"We are using older AP-
61's that still work well, but
Room for Improvement: it's beginning to show a
few cracks as it ages and
I haven't encountered an area for improvement and am quite satisfied with the more devices
product. simultaneously access the
network."
Use of Solution:
"The new centralized
We implemented WLAN 4 years ago. licensing have made
scalability easier than it
Deployment Issues: was in the past. "
We haven't encountered any major issues with the deployment. Normal minor "Easy to deploy. I
glitches as usual, but nothing major. I'd expect to face the same issues with any especially like the Adaptive
brand of WLANs. Radio Management
feature."
Stability Issues:
"We don't need to visit
each AP locations for a
All stability issues have been due toconfiguration changes. Currently as the WLAN
expands we are starting to have some issues that aren't directly dependent on code upgrade or
Arubas' solution, but issues in aggregate and core network layers. troubleshooting but some
went bad over time."
Scalability Issues:
We have no issues in scalability.
Customer Service:
8 out of 10.

Technical Support:
8 out of 10.
Previous Solutions:
I'm familiar via my career with other manufacturers solutions and have worked with
those too. In my current position we have used Arubas' WLAN from the start.
Initial Setup:
As always in complex systems, initial setup required a lot of work that might be
seen as complex. On the other hand it was also logical and among the
professionals, straightforward. Initial setup of single equipment is easy, but it only
allows you to start configuring it.
We did the implementation in-house with a technical person from the manufacturer.
ROI:
Every AP implemented takes out around 3 switch interfaces. Also work can be
done away from the desk, and much faster in certain positions. I'd say that it took
about three years to get an ROI.
We did a massive comparison with most of the WLAN vendors and from those we
chose Aruba.
Other Advice:
Main thing is to have a clear vision of what is needed from the WLAN and of
course, the expertise of the staff is one key factor. Pretty much, the rest is just
pricing of the solution, acquisition and running costs.

ARUBA WIRELESS REVIEW BY A REAL USER
Engineer71990 Verified by IT Central Station
Engineer at a tech services company with 1-100
employees
Valuable Features:
The Aruba Adaptive Radio Management (ARM), Spectrum Analysis and Wireless
Intrusion Protection are the most valuable capabilities for me. ARM is helpful
because it manages my network for me basically. The Spectrum Analyzer and the
WIP are my eyes in the sky, so to speak.
First of all we use to have standalone APs and we had to manage each one
separately which was very time consuming for me but now we have a centralized
management network with the Aruba 3400 series platform that saves me time in
managing. Secondly we had a lot of issues with clients hogging all of the airtime
and causing other clients to have to wait but now with Aruba Adaptive Radio
Management (ARM) all of our clients have a fair share of airtime and the
adjustments are automatic in the controller.
Theymay have already improved on this but it would be goodto have more than
4GB for thefirewall. I think this is the only thing I can think of for improvements.
Use of Solution:
Just over one year
Deployment Issues:
I didnt have any issues when I deployed to Aruba 3400 series platform. The
process was smooth and exciting.
Stability Issues:
I didnt have any issues with stability. We have been up and running for over a year
now and the users are very happy with our network.
Scalability Issues:
I havent had any issues with scalability. We havent had any growth or additional
things since we deployed the Aruba 3400 series platform.

Customer Service:
On a scale from 1 10 I would say a 7. I havent used the customer service enough
to give a higher rating.
Technical Support:
On a scale from 1 10 I would say a 7. I havent used the customer service enough
to give a higher rating.
Previous Solutions:
Yes I previously used a Cisco Solution. We changed products because Aruba was
better in cost.
Initial Setup:
The initial setup was straightforward. We deployed all of the hardware and
configured the controller and watch the APs authenticate and associate with the
controller.
We used a vendor to the deployment. The deployment went absolutely well. I will
have to give the vendor a 10 for their expertise and work they did.
ROI:
My ROI is 125%. We have better production for the workers and IT team.
No! We only evaluated Aruba.
Other Advice:
If you are interested in a solution that is straightforward in configuring and

deploying choose Aruba solutions. If you want features that will open up more time
for you as a network admin Aruba solutions is for you. If you are looking to improve
your WLAN performance, scalability, stability, and security Aruba solutions is for
you.

Aerohive Wireless
Vendor: Aerohive
Overview: Aerohives Enterprise Wireless LAN Access Points are engineered with the security, reliability, and
simplicity to meet your mobility needs with the sophistication and performance to blow past your
expectations.
Top Aruba Wireless vs. Aerohive Wireless Compared 17% of the time.
Comparisons:*
Avaya Wireless vs. Aerohive Wireless Compared 12% of the time.
Dell Wireless vs. Aerohive Wireless Compared 11% of the time.

AEROHIVE WIRELESS REVIEW BY A REAL USER
Daniel Gonzalez Verified by IT Central Station WHAT REAL USERS
Network Administrator at a university with 100-1000 ARE SAYING...
employees
"A bit pricey but worth it
because of the features
Valuable Features: and support"
Since these APs are controller-less they are very dependable and easy to
configure. Other features that add value to our institution include deployment
"Allowed us to take the
planning tools, load-balancing, auto-channeling, auto-power, Cooperative Control guesswork out of
Protocols, Firewalls, QoS, to mention a few. managing a wireless
network. Ease of setup and
deployment could be
Improvements to My Organization: simplified. "
Easeof use and features are its strongest points.
"Stability could be
improved but the multitude
Room for Improvement: of features is valuable"
Sometimes, packing a wide array of feature into these APs might overtax them. "Very easy to configure
They would benefit from creating more powerful APs (Processing-wise) with a private and guest
SSID although the UI
Use of Solution: needs improving"
4 years "A better UI is needed as

it's more complex than
Deployment Issues: other vendor's interfaces. "
We started with a small deployment of 300 APs in 2010. Our campus now has "Initial deployment is very
~1400 and we plan to expand to 2000 in the next 2 years. easy but tuning and
understanding can take
Stability Issues: some time"
When we installed the latest firmware versions on these APs, sometimes we

encountered major/minor bugs that would force us to roll back until an appropriate
patch was released. Also, with some bleeding-edge AC units we had some
problems when they were under high client-loads were new clients would be unable
to associate to the APs.
Scalability Issues:
Not really. We simply had to buy a more powerful Hive Manager appliance when
we went over the 1000 AP mark, but other than that, this product scales very easily.

Customer Service:
I would rate it at 10 out of 10as their staff is very polite with customers.
Technical Support:
I would rate their TAC team at 9 out of 10 as some of theirTier 1 engineers needed
more experience and/or training.
Initial Setup:
The initial setup is very easy. the APs automatically find our local Hive Manager
and make it very straight-forward to configure.
Pricing Advice:
Day to day cost is minimal, as these APs don't fail very often. The initial setp was a
bit pricey as well as our expansion (if you calculate at around $1200 per newly
deployed AP, including wired lines)
I'd highly recommend this product if they're looking for feature-rich APs that are
easy to deploy & manage.

AEROHIVE WIRELESS REVIEW BY A REAL USER
Eric K. Johnson Verified by IT Central Station
IT Director at a recruiting/HR firm with 1-100 employees
Valuable Features:
The HiveManager reporting features are extremely valuable for quick glance at
network and application usage of your wireless network.
Aerohive Wireless solutions have allowed us to take the guess work out of
managing a wireless network. The single pane of glass view into your wireless
network allows you to manage all of your access points and clients in one location,
greatly reducing the amount of time it may take to isolate and resolve issues.
The initial learning curve when first deploying Aerohive is less than some larger
competitors, but still significant when compared to other cloud controlled wireless
products such as Meraki. Ease of setup and deployment, as well as tasks such as
application access management, bandwidth throttling, and QoS could be greatly
simplified.
Use of Solution:
3 years.
Deployment Issues:
Some initial reading and/or training is likely required before successfully deploying
Aerohive Wireless products, however once you have a firm grasp of where things
live in the HiveManager issues should be few and far between.
Stability Issues:
We have not had any issues with stability or the hardware itself. Some issues were
seen with older wireless standards (B/G) and needed to be addressed by modifying
radio strengths, etc..
Scalability Issues:
None so far.
Customer Service:
I believe Ive called Aerohive support 3 or 4 times and each time I had someone on
the phone in less than 5 minutes. No hoops to jump through like Cisco and no basic
tier 1 style questions. Just good engineers ready to help.

Technical Support:
The level of technical support is excellent.
Previous Solutions:
Ive used both Cisco and Meraki extensively and have found Aerohive to offer the
best mix between stable hardware and software and ease of setup, deployment,
and management.
Initial Setup:
Initial setup can be more complex than a home office or small business wireless
solution and does require some initial training or reading at the very least. Its less
complex than something like Cisco WLC.
Ive implemented Aerohive several times both in house and as a IT Consultant for
small to mid size businesses.
ROI:
Hard to estimate with a wireless network solution, but time saved by keeping your
workers connected to your network instead of running down obscure connectivity
issues with SOHO solutions is time well spent.
Pricing Advice:
All in, our deployment was under 5K for a medium size office of about 75. There
really is no day to day cost associated with using Aerohive. Its been cruising along
without issue since deployment, with minimal time spent making configuration
tweaks and updating firmware on occasion.
Yes. Meraki, Cisco, and Arbua networks were all evaluated.
Other Advice:
For any wireless network implementation, a wireless survey of the space is key to a
successful deployment. As for Aerohive specifically, stay away from older B/G
devices if you can keep them off your network, and keep the radio power as low as
you can manage to avoid issues with surrounding wireless networksespecially in
congested areas/cities.

HP Wireless
Vendor: Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Overview: Today's users need fast and reliable access to information and resources from wherever they are-
regardless of the connection method-wired or wireless. HPs wireless LAN solutions , enable you to
improve productivity, simplify management and reduce costs with a secure and reliable network that
unifies access, scales as needed, and optimizes your wireless performance to handle a growing number of
mobile devices.
Top Aruba Wireless vs. HP Wireless Compared 20% of the time.

Comparisons:*
Cisco Wireless vs. HP Wireless Compared 20% of the time.
Ruckus Wireless vs. HP Wireless Compared 11% of the time.

HP WIRELESS REVIEW BY A REAL USER
Matthew Patrick Verified by IT Central Station WHAT REAL USERS
IT Specialist at a healthcare company with 1-100 ARE SAYING...
employees
"Allowed us to have one
controller at our central
Valuable Features: location and still provide
wireless to our outlying
The main reason I chose to implement the HP WLC was due to the limitations of clinics."
our previous Sonicwall WLC not being able to have layer three provisioning. I would
say that feature is the most valuable.
With our old wireless network, we had to put controllers at every location to have
wireless access. This product allowed us to have one controller at our central
location and still provide wireless to our outlying clinics.
The user interface on the product isnt terribly intuitive in some areas, especially
when setting up VSCs.
Use of Solution:
I've been using HP MSM 720 Mobility Controller and 40 HP since April 2014, so
approximately 10 months.
Deployment Issues:
I experienced a few issues while deploying the controller. Getting the product to
work correctly with a back end RADIUS server proved to be a bit of a task and the
lack of documentation didnt help either.
Stability Issues:
Stability wise the product has been fairly rock solid. I cant think of any time I have
had to even reboot it since I implemented it.
Scalability Issues:
The particular model (MSM 720) doesnt provide much in terms of scalability. It
only allows for 40 Access Points which my company has about that number.

Customer Service:
Customer service on the phone I would rate fairly poorly. On more than one
occasion I could not understand the agent or would get disconnected, however,
online customer service is much better.
Technical Support:
I have only used the HP forums for technical support and it has a pretty good
following and a lot of knowledgeable users.
Previous Solutions:
We previously used a Sonicwall NSA3500 for all our needs. We switched due to
the lack of Layer three provisioning at the time plus I wasnt a fan of one device
controlling so many aspects of our network and security.
Initial Setup:
I would say complex, mainly due to the lack of good documentation. All together, it
took me about a week to fully get the product in a production state. Coming from a
Cisco background it seemed much more cumbersome than their products.
We used an in house team (me).
ROI:
I am not sure of the ROI at the moment. It has not been implemented long enough
for any significant ROI.
Pricing Advice:
Original setup cost for this implementation was around $30,000. Day-to-day the
product costs nothing.
Any time we have a project we must have three viable options to choose from. We
looked at HP, Cisco and Meru.
Other Advice:
Have a strong knowledge of your internal network
Study the manual as much as possible

Focus on VSCs and Vlan configuration
If you come from a Cisco background keep in mind you wont use an access port
on the switch port connected to the AP like you would in a Cisco WLC setup, but
instead either a trunk or tagged port

Adtran Bluesocket Wireless
Vendor: Adtran
Overview: ADTRAN wireless solutions are allowing businesses to streamline and improve operational efficiencies,
speed network deployment, expand customer service offerings, and increase flexibility for employees.
Top Cisco Wireless vs. Adtran Bluesocket Wireless Compared 18% of the time.
Comparisons:*
Aruba Wireless vs. Adtran Bluesocket Wireless Compared 14% of the time.
Aerohive Wireless vs. Adtran Bluesocket Wireless Compared 13% of the time.

ADTRAN BLUESOCKET WIRELESS REVIEW BY A REAL USER
Cweinholtz Verified by IT Central Station WHAT REAL USERS
Manager - Data Engineering at a comms service provider ARE SAYING...
with 1000+ employees
"AP performance could be
improved but it has
Valuable Features: allowed our SMB team to
provide an easy wireless
Options of Private or Public Cloud. solution"
Improvements to My Organization: "The entire system can be

managed through a few
It has allowed our SMB team to provide an easy wireless solution. VMs. Additional features
other vendors have might
Room for Improvement: be useful."
AP performance. "The routing and switching

are the backbone/staple of
this build but the AP160 is
Use of Solution: dated"
Two years, very lightly though.
Deployment Issues:
No issues encountered.
Stability Issues:
No issues encountered,
Scalability Issues:
No issues encountered,
Customer Service:
Moderate.
Technical Support:
Moderate.

Previous Solutions:
Initial Setup:
It was simple to set-up.
We used a vendor called Adtran Aces
Yes we also looked at Cisco and Merak.
Other Advice:
Aces program is nice for simple pass through SMB solutions.

ADTRAN BLUESOCKET WIRELESS REVIEW BY A REAL USER
NetEng72782 Verified by IT Central Station
Network Engineer at a university with 1000+ employees
Valuable Features:
Being able to centralize the wireless environment using virtual machines and
having all AP management in the same place (our data centers). This is very big
because now we don't have to manage multiple devices out in the field. Costs also
go down because now you don't have to worry about maintenance on those
controllers.
Instead of having 100 controllers scattered around through the organization, the
entire system can be managed through a few VMs at a centralized location.
Additional features other vendors have might be useful as well as an MDM

integration.
Use of Solution:
5+ years
Deployment Issues:
No, deployment was very simple to additional sites once the main system (VM) is
up and running.
Stability Issues:
No issues were encountered on my end.
Scalability Issues:
I believe as we kept adding more and more locations to the system, we began to
outgrow the recommended resources, but since management is VM based,
resources (memory, CPUs) were easily bumped up. New recommendations on
their end appear to also have changed according to our experience.
Customer Service:
Excellent. The customer service teams are very responsive and don't mind
dropping by the office for meetings if needed.

Technical Support:
Engineers who assisted us with the setup and the various random questions we
threw at them for various scenarios over the years were very attentive and
knowledgeable.
Previous Solutions:
No previous solution used
Initial Setup:
The initialset-upwas fairlystraightforward because of the instructions provided.

We also had assistance from support engineers as well with best practice
suggestions.
In-house engineer took care of the work with vendor suggestions, but mostly in-
house.
Other Advice:
To support scalability, ensure the product is used with a VM solution so resources

can easily be added if needed.

Juniper Wireless
Vendor: Juniper
Overview: WLC Series Wireless LAN Controllers deliver and manage wireless local area networks with the highest
level of reliability, performance, security, and management in the industry. They integrate secure, wireless
LANs with any size wired infrastructures, from small branch offices to the largest enterprise or university
campus.
Top Aruba Wireless vs. Juniper Wireless Compared 21% of the time.
Comparisons:*
Cisco Wireless vs. Juniper Wireless Compared 17% of the time.
Adtran Bluesocket Wireless vs. Juniper Wireless Compared 15% of the time.

JUNIPER WIRELESS REVIEW BY A REAL USER
ITEng693 Verified by IT Central Station WHAT REAL USERS
IT Engineer at a tech services company with 1-100 ARE SAYING...
employees
"Provides a sound Wi-Fi
infrastructure"
Valuable Features:
"Do a proof of concept to
Client load balancing
make sure you like the
product then go for it"
Multiple SSID support
"Start small then grow"
Provides reliable and effective Wi-Fi to our clients and it is very scalable for high
density installations.
Use of Solution:
Two years. (WLA522 AP)
Deployment Issues:
Deployment in conjunction with WLC and ringmaster caused no issues.
Stability Issues:
No issues with stability.
Scalability Issues:
No issues with scalability.
Previous Solutions:
Changed solution as the demand for Wi-Fi grew.
Set-up was was in conjunction with third-party vendor and it was fairly
straightforward.
ROI:
High.

As always other options were looked at during the initial phases of the project.
Other Advice:
Suited our needs
Fairly straightforward to set up
Provides a sound Wi-Fi infrastructure

JUNIPER WIRELESS REVIEW BY A REAL USER
SeniorITAdmin590 Verified by IT Central Station
Senior IT Administrator at a energy/utilities company with
100-1000 employees
Valuable Features:
The Scalabilityit has hasto add up to 256 Wireless Access Points for future
expansion.
Allows end users to roam the office and be productive wireless without being
plugged into an Ethernet cable
Use of Solution:
Juniper WLC880R - one year
Deployment Issues:
No deployment has issues everything went great
Stability Issues:
No as long as you upgrade to current software release from Juniper
Scalability Issues:
No as it can handle 256 wireless access points
Customer Service:
10 out of 10
Technical Support:
10 out of 10 asthey stay with you until they fix the problem
Previous Solutions:
Initial Setup:
Straightforward

Through vendor team very professional consultants and very knowledgeable about
the product.
I was not part of the choosing of the product.
Other Advice:
Do a proof of concept to make sure you like the product then go for it.

OmniAccess WLAN
Vendor: Alcatel-Lucent
Overview: The Alcatel-Lucent OmniAcces WLAN Switch/controller product family provides the industry's strongest
integrated security feature set with a comprehensive line of WLAN switch/controllers, each designed for a
specific environment such as the enterprise campus, building or branch office environments.
Top Aruba Wireless vs. OmniAccess WLAN Compared 19% of the time.
Comparisons:*
Cisco Wireless vs. OmniAccess WLAN Compared 15% of the time.
Aerohive Wireless vs. OmniAccess WLAN Compared 14% of the time.

OMNIACCESS WLAN REVIEW BY A REAL USER
David Fialho Verified by IT Central Station WHAT REAL USERS
Network Administrator at a government with 1-100 ARE SAYING...
employees
"I switched to OmniAccess
as it is centralized, and has
Valuable Features: great scalability but they
need to simplify the config
Scalability, process"
Centralization "I like the voice-over
WLAN QoS features but
Redundancy. some features could be
made for mobile WLAN
These featuresallows us to control and deploy configuration for all remote OAW corporate access "
allowing centralized management.
"Some very difficult radio
Improvements to My Organization: issues can be solved with
very little effort but the GUI
We needed a solution to provide internet access for the majority of 317,68 KM is a little bit slow. "
square siteand assure authentication, authorization and accountability compliance
of users. OmniAccess has enabled us to do so.
Simplification of the configuration processes and improvement of the maintenance

software OmniVista 3600.
Use of Solution:
4 years.
Deployment Issues:
Yes, I had bugs when deploying with different Internet Browsers.
Stability Issues:
No issues encountered.
Scalability Issues:
No. We currently have >100 users and increasing.

Customer Service:
5/10
Technical Support:
7/10
Previous Solutions:
Yes, I used solutions based on different Access Points, with independent

management. I switched to OmniAccess because it is centralized, and has great
scalability.
Initial Setup:
We used the wizard for initial configuration andit wasstraightforward.
I implemented it myself after doing training with Alcatel.
ROI:
Our RO`i isn't money related, since it is used to a community service.
Pricing Advice:
We don't have any costs related to this product.
Yes, one solution based on Cisco.
Other Advice:
Good planning, before implementing this solution.

OMNIACCESS WLAN REVIEW BY A REAL USER
Daniel Dobrioglo Verified by IT Central Station
Senior Support Analyst at a tech services company with
1000+ employees
Valuable Features:
AAA with Radius and digital certificates
Voice-over WLAN QoS Features
Built-in WLAN site-survey and planning tool
Built-in Guess Access feature
We deployed them in two hospitals, they benefit from the access of users via Guest
Portal and the use of VoWLAN Phones for mobile internal communication.
Maybe some features could be made for mobile WLAN corporate access and
Access Point survivability when issues with the WLAN Controller and/or
communication link issues.
Use of Solution:
I used this solution for three years, I deployed it for several customers.
Deployment Issues:
Yes, some issues are related to firmware bugs or firmware instability.
Stability Issues:
Yes, some of them are related to VoWLAN QoS and voice stability.
Scalability Issues:
No, when we need to scale up, we follow the vendor instructions and directions for
adding more devices of same type and some configurations in CLI.
Customer Service:
9/10 and we have a great relationship with Alcatel-Lucent,

Technical Support:
Great 10. They are very commited and helpful.
Previous Solutions:
No, we studied others solutions but none of them were deployed by us.
Initial Setup:
A little bit complex, because the devices have a big set of caveats that are
mandatory to deploy.
No other options evaluated.
Other Advice:
Because of the long list of technical caveats, I would strongly advise people to take
the official OmmniAcces WLAN course before deployment.

Avaya Wireless
Vendor: Avaya
Overview: With Avaya Wireless you can fully support the wide array of personal and mobile devices thats pouring
into enterprises. Cater to BYOD with a highly scalable, real-time optimized wireless networking solution
that features a truly unified wired/wireless architecture.
Top Aruba Wireless vs. Avaya Wireless Compared 23% of the time.
Comparisons:*
Cisco Wireless vs. Avaya Wireless Compared 17% of the time.
Aerohive Wireless vs. Avaya Wireless Compared 15% of the time.

AVAYA WIRELESS REVIEW BY A REAL USER
Jayaratnam Vinthan Verified by IT Central Station WHAT REAL USERS
Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1-100 ARE SAYING...
employees
"Signal frequency can be
problematic however, it is
Valuable Features: a low cost and high
performance solution"
High performance with low cost is very valuable as is the ability to have high quality
calls on wireless phones usingVOIP.
After completing the firstproject the company got many other WLAN
implementation projects.
Use of Solution:
I've used theAvaya WLAN Controller8180 and WLAN Access Point8120 for2
years.
Deployment Issues:
No issues at all.
Stability Issues:
No issues at all.
Scalability Issues:
Signal frequency can be problematic, especially when compared to other brands

such as Aruba, HP, and Cisco.
Customer Service:
Very good service, 9/10.
Technical Support:
Very good service, 9/10.
Previous Solutions:
No this is the product we installed first and it is running smoothly.

Initial Setup:
Very straight-forward as it is similar to Cisco's configuration.
We implemented it ourselves for a hotel.
ROI:
Good technical and service support and a warranty replacement service.
No, this was the product we wanted from the first meeting.
Other Advice:
The product has good stability & deployment, and is easy to configure. Because of
this, we can implement awireless solution anywhere.

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN
Vendor: Cisco
Top Ubiquiti Wireless vs. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN Compared 31% of the time.
Comparisons:*
Aerohive Wireless WAN vs. Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN Compared 31% of the time.
Aruba Networks Wireless WAN vs. Cisco Meraki Wireless Compared 11% of the time.
LAN

CISCO MERAKI WIRELESS LAN REVIEW BY A REAL USER
Bartosz Kowalski Verified by IT Central Station WHAT REAL USERS
Systems Engineer at a tech company with 100-1000 ARE SAYING...
employees
"We can use a single
dashboard to manage our
Valuable Features: 5 offices in different parts
of the world."
Centralized management
Easily configurable
We implemented Meraki APs across our 5 offices in USA, UK, and India, and we
can manage all of them from one dashboard. We have great metrics for bandwidth
usage,easily finding out who is downloading movies.;-)
Using Radius server for user authentication is very simple to configure, creating
new SSID, and it has agreat alerting system.
Use of Solution:
2 years
Deployment Issues:
Deployment is very simple- just add the device to your dashboard, connect to
thenetwork, and it will automatically connect, update firmware, and update
configuration to match with your others APs.
Stability Issues:
Nope
Scalability Issues:
No
Customer Service:
10

Technical Support:
10, to get help you can open the case or just call them directly, give them your
customer IDandboom, you are talking to the tech who can see all your devices.
Previous Solutions:
Aruba, Ruckus - they are ok, but you need tospend more time to configure and
theirsupport is not even close to Meraki.
Initial Setup:
Can't be more simple
In-house
Pricing Advice:
I think the Meraki APs are very cheap, I am using them even at home.
Other Advice:
Don't waste time and money for the other solutions, only Meraki!

Ubiquity WLAN
Vendor: Ubiquiti Networks

UBIQUITY WLAN REVIEW BY A REAL USER
Cristian Camilo Forero Daz Verified by IT Central WHAT REAL USERS
Station ARE SAYING...
CTO, CIO at a university with 100-1000 employees
"I don't think it has valuable
features. "
Valuable Features:
I don't think it has.
Use of Solution:
2 years
Deployment Issues:
Yes, Ubiquiti uses a concept called adoption. AP's disappear from management
software frequently and the only way to re-adopt AP's is to do a hard reset of the
device.
Stability Issues:
Yes, with some users, the internet connection drops.
Previous Solutions:
3bumen, but it's worse.

Join the IT Central Station Community
This report features just a few of the Wireless LAN reviews on IT Central Station. If you would like to
read more about what real users are saying about the many Wireless LAN solutions on the market, visit
the Wireless LAN page at IT Central Station:
There are a number of ways you can participate in the IT Central Station community. Write a review,
read a comment, or just follow a product. Either way, well be sure to let you know when people are
talking about the solutions you care about!
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share your expertise with us as well. Please expect to be contacted shortly by an IT Central Station
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Wireless LAN

A PEEK INTO WHAT REAL USERS THINK

IT Central Station helps tech professionals by providing...

A comprehensive list of A sample of real user Specific information to help

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User reviews, candid discussions, and more for enterprise technology

We commit to offering user-contributed information that

244 5th Avenue, Suite R-230

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D-Link D-Link Wireless

Dell Dell Wireless

Huawei Huawei Wireless (1 review)

Meru Meru Wireless LAN

Ruckus Ruckus Wireless

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2183 3118 9 Re 951 F A

1539 2617 11 R 960 F A

1992 1523 9 Re 941 F A

1191 2092 8 Re 945 F A

418 V 1035 3 Re 940 F A

267 V 894 C 3 940 F A

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Comparisons: Number of times compared to another product

Reviews: Total number of reviews on IT Central Station

Followers: Number of followers on IT Central Station

Average Rating: Average rating based on reviews

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2183 Aruba Wireless 3118 Aruba Wireless

1992 HP Wireless 3082 Cisco Meraki Wireless WAN

1539 Cisco Wireless 2617 Cisco Wireless

1336 Cisco Meraki Wireless WAN 2092 Aerohive Wireless

1191 Aerohive Wireless 1697 Avaya Wireless

960 Cisco Wireless 10.0 Cisco Meraki Wireless WAN

951 Aruba Wireless 9.0 HP Wireless

945 Aerohive Wireless 8.8 Cisco Wireless

941 HP Wireless 8.6 Aruba Wireless

941 Dell Wireless 8.6 Aerohive Wireless

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Top Industries:* Financial Services Firm 16%

Company Size:* 1-100 Employees 42%

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Room for Improvement: "Guest WiFi is an option

Not used at all.

Not used at all.

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No previous solution used.

I implement it myself. I work for a Cisco partner.

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From a technical perspective, the ease of centralized management and

Room for Improvement:

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8/10 for both the vendor and supplier.

9/10 for both the vendor and supplier.

No, the Cisco WLC is our first wireless solution.

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Top Industries:* Non Tech Company 21%

Company Size:* 1-100 Employees 44%

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We have no issues in scalability.

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Room for Improvement: