Aruba ClearPass Reviews

We have a wireless network for guests and employees. That is one of the biggest use cases for ClearPass.

These products help you to organize stuff. At the same time, these allow forms of regulatory requirements, for example, how to do, or what to do, what not to do, et cetera.

There are many features. Use case-wise, there are maybe 60% of features that you will choose. We don't have any particular kind of feature usage. Our usage is typical usage for any enterprise.

It is easy to use and more integrated with the Aruba wireless networks. That was the biggest selling point for us. We use Aruba Wireless and the Aruba identity engine as well as ClearPass. That was the whole point of using this product. Technically you can use it anywhere, however, since we already use a lot of Aruba, it made sense to keep using another solution.

The setup is simple. 

After HP, their support is the worst.

When you come into the production part, you want to know how easily you can do the updates or how you can easily you can do the patching. Once it comes to the support, if it is in the middle of the day when you are having some issues, and you don't get it, that's where you start thinking this is not the right product. For me, I mean, overall, it's not the pre-sales experience that needs improvement. It's post-sales. I know Aruba is one of the two products that I always like; however, it's the whole life cycle of the product that makes something good. For example, Cisco is not a good product. No one can beat their support. Aruba is a good product, yet if you need technical assistance, it's not good at all. 

I've been using the solution for six to eight years.

The stability is fine. We have no problems with that. There are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. It is reliable. Peformance-wise, it's good.

The solution is scalable. I'd rate the ability to scale at an eight or nine out of ten in terms of how easy it is to expand. 

We have 5,000 users on the solution. 

Support is not great. It's actually quite bad. 

Negative

We use Aruba ClearPass and we use Cisco.

Aruba is a little simpler. When I say simpler, it means it has fewer knobs to tweak. However, if you have more knobs to tweak, you can control it a little bit differently.

Cisco ISE has been patched up in the last couple of years. It is a very good product and a very stable one. I don't see any real difference between the two products. They are 75% the same. We have the Cisco switching, and we like the Cisco ISE for that. If you have Aruba on the wireless, you want more Aruba.

It's fairly easy to set up. The vendor we work with is good and we are quite familiar with how it works. We use other similar products and don't have issues with the setup. Similar to Aruba and then Aruba Wireless, it is easy to manage with one vendor or one full contractor and you leave it there.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten in terms of ease of setup. 

We spent maybe three or four hours across two days doing the deployment. 

In terms of maintenance, you need to handle patching and vulnerability management sometimes. Historically, maintenance has been fine with the older versions. Recently, it is a little bit challenging.

We have three people who can the maintenance. Typically, one person is needed for the job.

We had a partner who sold Aruba to us. However, we work for other products, so we just sat down for a couple of days and that's it. That is all the time you need to set it up.

Their ROI is good. The ROI may be a bit less than Cisco in terms of the full environment. 

The licensing is almost the same as Cisco ISE. It is a little less, actually. It is a fair price. The only thing is all these products know each other's prices so they keep theirs pretty close to the same. Aruba will typically be a little less than Cisco to make it seem that they show benefit on the cost. However, it depends on how your terms are with the partners. You can maybe get a better discount. It is how your relationship is the principal that dictates the price. We have a fair discount, for example.

Support may be an additional cost.

We're a customer and end-user.

While I'm unsure which version of the solution we're using, it's likely close to the latest.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

I would advise new users to try to get better support lined up with them before buying the product. There's your account manager and support. If you discuss support before purchasing, you won't be alone. In contrast, with Cisco, you are never alone. Even if you call in the middle of the night, you will get assistance. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

We're using Aruba ClearPass for policy management, security health check, and authorization, as well as assistive network by Active Directory or Google mail.

What I like most about Aruba ClearPass is that it has the best enforcement feature for the network. I also like its Guest Captive Portal and virtual security enforcement features, but the virtual security enforcement feature is still under testing by my company.

Aruba ClearPass also has a wonderful UI which I find valuable.

An issue with Aruba ClearPass is the lack of information and poor community support. You can't find the material easily on the internet for any issues. For example, if you're looking for any configuration or exploring any issue, it's not easy to find information, and this is the problem with Aruba ClearPass. Access to helpful information and poor community support could be improved.

Another area for improvement in Aruba ClearPass is that some of its advanced features aren't easy to find. For example, my team needed to apply Google single sign-on, but it wasn't easy to find. Aruba ClearPass is a big solution with a lot of capabilities, and it's a very advanced solution, so you need to either have some experience with it or undergo some training. Aruba ClearPass is a very good solution from the network perspective, but the issue is the poor support you get from the community. When you try using the solution, some areas aren't easy. When you search on YouTube, you'll find very few materials about Aruba ClearPass. It isn't like Cisco where you can find information from hundreds of websites, on YouTube, etc. This is bad for Aruba, so this area should be improved.

Aruba has a training center, but the usual training offered is only for Aruba Wireless and Aruba Switches. If you have another solution, it's not easy to integrate it with Aruba ClearPass, so this is an area for improvement. You need to do some research to successfully integrate your solution with Aruba ClearPass. We integrated Aruba ClearPass with Ubiquiti WiFi, and it's working fine with no issues. My next project is to start integrating Aruba ClearPass with Cisco Switches.

The solution is good, but on the website, there's no book and no video, and you can't find the material on Aruba ClearPass easily. This is one of the issues with Aruba.

I have around one to two months of experience with Aruba ClearPass.

Aruba ClearPass is a very stable solution. My team didn't experience any hangs or any abnormal behavior from it. If you apply the required configuration, Aruba ClearPass works well. Stability is a good point in the solution.

Aruba ClearPass scales well. It's a scalable solution.

The technical support for Aruba ClearPass is good and responds very fast.

The initial setup for Aruba ClearPass isn't complex, but you need the training to set it up.

The deployment for the solution is very easy, and you can install it within half an hour, but this is a NAC solution. In terms of configuration, it's not a switch configuration or an IT configuration. Aruba ClearPass has one thousand scenarios in our network, and the problem is that you need a lot of information, so its configuration isn't as straightforward.

The deployment for Aruba ClearPass was done in-house. I took training classes from the Aruba training center. It was on-demand training.

The licensing cost for Aruba ClearPass is a bit expensive. Its pricing could be better. The license costs around $125,000 for the perpetual license and support for one year. Aruba can give you a license with five thousand endpoint access and one thousand five hundred onboard licenses on one hundred endpoints and two controllers.

My company is evaluating Aruba ClearPass right now. It isn't live, but it's under evaluation or testing currently.

I'm using version 6.10 of Aruba ClearPass.

My rating for Aruba ClearPass is nine out of ten.

Between ten to twenty people use Aruba ClearPass within the company. There's only a small amount of users of Aruba ClearPass currently because the solution is still under evaluation. Once Aruba ClearPass is live, my impression is that there would be no issues with it in terms of connectivity.

My advice to others looking into using Aruba ClearPass is to get good training from the Aruba virtual training center. The training costs extra. The on-demand training costs around $500. I also recommend doing the structured training, but that would cost around $3,000.

My company is a customer of Aruba.

We use Aruba ClearPass for our authentication server and also integrate it with our active directory. We also use the endpoint function of the solution.

Aruba ClearPass has improved our organization because, through it, we have much better visibility in terms of who our users are in our network. We have more insight into the type of devices people are using and their roles. For guests, we can also gather some information from them, for example, their emails, so in most cases, Aruba ClearPass is pretty useful for us.

What I like most about Aruba ClearPass is its access tracker that serves as its monitoring feature. The access tracker is really helpful when you want to troubleshoot authentication failures.

What needs improvement in Aruba ClearPass is just the endpoint context server, in particular, the indication with the context server because sometimes the daily process isn't as smooth-sailing. Sometimes, the information isn't up-to-date. I'm not sure if that's a vendor limitation, but currently, it's the only tricky part of the current configuration.

What I'd like to see in the next release of Aruba ClearPass is a dashboard or a monitoring feature that would allow users to see the integration process with an external server because there's no visibility into that right now.

I've been using Aruba ClearPass for one and a half years.

Aruba ClearPass, in terms of stability, is good. We haven't experienced it shutting down in the last one and a half years of using it.

We've only used Aruba ClearPass for the last one and a half years, and we haven't had any need to scale it up, but it seems to be a scalable solution.

We haven't had any issues with Aruba ClearPass. It's been really quiet in the past year, so we haven't contacted their technical support team.

We used a different system before using Aruba ClearPass, but we heard that the licensing scheme for Aruba ClearPass is permanent. The solution offers a permanent license while our previous system had an annual license that we had to renew and repurchase yearly, so that was troublesome for us. With Aruba ClearPass, we don't have to repurchase or renew every year, so that's one of the main reasons we switched to it.

Installing Aruba ClearPass was quite easy. The deployment process for it was quite easy and quick. It took our partner less than two weeks to deploy the solution, so it was quite quick.

We used a third-party company for deploying Aruba ClearPass.

You can get ROI from Aruba ClearPass after two or three years.

I can't give the exact cost of Aruba ClearPass because that's handled by the purchasing team, but it's on the cheaper side, and on a scale of one to five, I'm rating the cost a four.

Initially, the pricing for the solution is expensive in terms of deployment, but in the long term, for example, after more than five to ten years, the operational cost incurred by the company is quite affordable because you don't have to renew the license. It's a one-time purchase.

My company only uses the standard license for Aruba ClearPass.

My company has eight hundred users of Aruba ClearPass in the IT security team, and about five or six people are required for the deployment and maintenance of the solution.

Currently, my company doesn't have any plans of increasing usage for Aruba ClearPass because it's been scaled up three times more than the current need when it was first purchased, so the solution is only being used at about 30% of its maximum capacity. It could take another four or five years before my company increases its usage.

Aruba ClearPass is a solution I would highly recommend to others looking into implementing it because, in my experience, it's really easy to manage. It has a low production cost, and even if the initial cost for the deployment is quite high, it becomes pretty cheap because you don't have to renew the license. If you need basic captive portal authentication, I would recommend Aruba ClearPass.

I'm rating Aruba ClearPass nine out of ten.

My company is a customer, not a partner of Aruba ClearPass.

Our clients use Aruba ClearPass for identity authentication on their local area network and their Wi-Fi. For one of our clients, we're using the OnGuard function for health checks, and we're also using the Guest Captive portal.

The most valuable thing about Aruba ClearPass is ease of use for security policies, as it has a much better granular configuration on policies for security. It also allows us to do certain functions which we would not be able to do without Aruba ClearPass, particularly with mobile devices and security. The platform has helped us in a lot of ways where there are aspects that we are limited to, and can't be done in our environment without the server.

The only area that really needs improvement in Aruba ClearPass is the onboarding for doing TLS authentication. The biggest problem we've seen in our environment is Huawei not being able to get onto Google Play. No Huawei device can be onboarded via Aruba ClearPass easily.

An additional feature we'd like to see in the next release of Aruba ClearPass is for its OnGuard function, its health check function. We'd like it to have the functionality for installing or copying files that are required for remediation on health checks. For example: if you're using Aruba ClearPass and you do a health check, if the client is missing a file or a particular product such as an antivirus product, we would like the opportunity to have the files copied or installed in the platform, because currently there are some limitations when you want to do remediation.

If the client is missing a file and you want them to install a specific application, we have to provide an HTTP download so they can download the file for the remediation to work. What I would like to see is a bigger storage area in Aruba ClearPass so we can upload those files in the platform, rather than having those files in an external server for downloading, because we've had huge problems with doing remediation to locations that require an HTTP download.

What we'd like is having the ability to put the applications on Aruba ClearPass directly, to make the remediation steps for clients when they're missing software, to get those directly from the platform, because currently, you can't put a big file onto Aruba ClearPass as there are size limitations.

I've been using Aruba ClearPass continuously within the last 12 months.

Aruba ClearPass has always been very reliable. I've always been well-impressed with it as it's a very stable product. The only problems I've experienced with it was because of people doing something else and causing Aruba ClearPass to malfunction. For example: people deleted authentication sources out of the platform without letting us know that they've deleted those authentication sources, creating problems on Aruba ClearPass because they changed the configuration.

I've been working directly with Aruba ClearPass and I've not had any problems with it, it usually works properly. If no one changes anything, it works.

Technical support from Aruba has always been fantastic, especially the support for Aruba ClearPass. I usually get responses from their technical team very quickly, especially for any T1 call. I've never experienced a problem with the technical support for Aruba ClearPass. They've always been exceptional.

Setting up Aruba ClearPass is complex. It's a complex installation.

I work with Aruba ClearPass and Aruba Wi-Fi, and we do have clients who use Aruba ClearPass with their Cisco equipment. I'm an ACPP professional on Aruba ClearPass, so I work with a few clients who use the platform.

I've been working with version 6.9.9 of the platform.

I'm scoring Aruba ClearPass a ten out of ten. If I can score it higher than ten, twelve for example, I would, because it's that good. It's an unbelievable system and it unlocks a lot of limitations on Wi-Fi and LAN, in terms of security.

I'm not the one who deployed this solution. However, there are many use cases.

I've had no problems with it at all. It's been a breeze. Our other guy who left taught me everything, including the basics in order to implement it. 

The dashboard, the monitoring tabs, and the configuration tabs, the admin tabs is all pretty self-explanatory.

The WiFi solution, the ease of use, and the scalability are excellent. We have Infoblox for all that stuff; however, as far as authentication and stuff like that, it is very easy to use. 

The web dashboard and the policy manager are very intuitive and very easy for engineers to use. Finding what you need is pretty simple. 

ClearPass is not something that I have to get into every day, as I do with Aruba Wireless Solution or Central. The only time I really need to get into ClearPass is to troubleshoot, handle authentication problems, or add a device for SNMP access. I can't think of an area where the solution is lacking a feature or a capability. It's fine right now. 

We've used the solution for two and a half to three years or so now. 

The solution is stable and reliable. We haven't had any issues. 

The solution can scale well. It's great. 

I've never had to open up a tech support case on ClearPass. I can't speak to how helpful they would be if you reached out. 

We've used Aruba and Cisco. As opposed to Cisco ISE and their tech act solution, hands down, Aruba is far better. It was far easier to manage. I know that the Cisco ISE solutions that we had before this was a pain. It was just difficult to manage. We had to reboot it three, four times a year just to get it going. And we've had several Cisco tech cases open on it. Cisco never knew how to fix it. That's why we looked at ClearPass. Finally, we convinced the person in charge of everything. We put together a POC and afterward, everyone was like "Wow, this is great. Yeah. Let us do this, please." We switched and we love it. It was no problem at all.

I was not a part of the initial setup, however, Aruba is typically simple to set up. 

I do not deal with the licensing aspect of the solution. 

We have a VMware server that hosts this solution. It is not on the cloud. I'm not sure which exact version we're using. 

I don't know about any other tech act applications out there. That said, I know that this is a breeze if you're working with Cisco ISE. I highly recommend a swap over to ClearPass Policy Manager. It is very, very, very, very easy. That's compared to Cisco ISE. I don't know about any other managers out there or if there may be better ones out there. We like Aruba. That's all I can say.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. 

We use Aruba ClearPass for customers to ensure that whatever devices are entering the network have the correct posture. For example, they have the correct operating system and antivirus, and the firewalls turned on.

The most valuable features of Aruba ClearPass are its ease of use and the general network access controls.

A specific component is part of the solution called ClearPass Onboard, which can sometimes be complex and challenging to set up. If they could simplify the process and make it easier, that would be a benefit.

In an upcoming release, they need to include support for Android devices. Android devices are not fully supported at this time.

I have been using Aruba ClearPass for approximately five years.

The stability of Aruba ClearPass is good.

Aruba ClearPass is scalable. It's very good to scale because you can add additional units and integrate them.

I have used the support many times and they can help remotely which is helpful.

I rate the support from Aruba ClearPass an eight out of ten.

Positive

Aruba ClearPass is very easy to set up.

The time it takes to deploy the solution entirely depends on the customer's needs. Installing the software is very quick which can take about an hour. However, customizing and configuring it with all the different options can take from one day to a week or two depending on what the customer wants.

I do the implementation and configuration of the solution for customers.

You can get Aruba ClearPass either where you purchase it outright or you can be subscription-based. The cost will vary according to what is selected, but it's licensed per device. For example, for a hundred users or a hundred device license, it would cost approximately $2,000.

I have evaluated Fortinet and is good. It is simple and easy to use.

The maintenance could be more user-friendly. If you don't attend a course or if you don't have any technical knowledge of it. If a customer is going to maintain it themselves, they should attend some training.

My advice to others is to make sure they have the skill. Once they have the skills and have done the training, it's fairly simple to use the solution. If they try and do it on their own and try to figure things out, they are going to hate the solution because it's not built for them to figure things out on their own.

The second piece of advice is to make sure they understand what devices are supported and to what level because with smartphones, not all smartphones are supported and you can end up buying the solution to find that certain versions or certain models of smartphones are not supported.

I rate Aruba ClearPass a seven out of ten.

Our clients use Aruba ClearPass since it is a NAC solution.

The most valuable feature, I would say, is the cost-effectiveness of the solution when compared to others.

Regarding the improvement needed in the solution, I remember our technical team stating that the installation front of the solution was a bit difficult when compared to other solutions. So, some of the other solutions, when compared to Aruba ClearPass, are more user-friendly to install.

I have been working with Aruba ClearPass for almost five to six years. My company is a reseller of the solution. I am unsure about the version of the solution I am using since we also deal in other products.

It is a stable solution. I rate the solution's stability a nine out of ten.

It is a scalable solution. I rate the solution's scalability somewhere around seven to eight out of ten. Mostly, our organization deals with medium and enterprise-sized customers.

I rate the solution's technical support team a seven out of ten. There are no issues with the support we are receiving. I will probably have to check with the engineers who have dealt with the technical support team. Since I have never heard a complaint against the support team, I would reconsider my decision over the rating provided by me previously and rate the technical support an eight.

Positive

I rate the solution's initial setup a six on a scale where one is difficult and ten is easy. There are some difficulties when installing the solution. For our company, installation is not difficult since we are system integrators who are well-versed in Aruba ClearPass. However, one of our customers told us that it is difficult to manage the installation part of the solution.

The solutions deployment was quick because our company is well-versed in deployment. So, it took around twenty to thirty days. Usually, four L3 engineers from our company are involved in the deployment process. For the maintenance and deployment of the solution, we have a lot of people in our organization. So, our company has around 28 engineers, and we serve around 120 customers in UAE. Specifically speaking, two network engineers are handling the maintenance part of the solution.

On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is too expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten. So, the price could be lower. The solution has a yearly based licensing cost attached to it.

I want to tell those planning to use the solution that it is a good solution where one needs to have a certain level of expertise to carry out the deployment phase. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I am using Aruba ClearPass for 802.1X and backup indication.

Aruba ClearPass improved security across a diverse network, which is countrywide. It provides extra security so that anybody that gets on the network, belongs there, we know those that have allowed access to the network, get access to the network.

The most valuable features of Aruba ClearPass are the authentication mechanisms and the integration with Active Directory(AD).

Aruba ClearPass could improve the user interface, it is a bit chunky.

I have been using Aruba ClearPass for approximately 18 months.

Aruba ClearPass is stable in my usage.

I have found Aruba ClearPass to be scalable.

We have hundreds of users in different locations using this solution.

I have not used the support from Aruba ClearPass.

I have not used a previous solution.

Aruba ClearPass was installed into the cloud and had the resiliency working. Then we had a test lab environment where we rolled out the configurations, to test it, and then we rolled out the overall configuration for all of the switches and access points around the network. The whole process was straightforward. The whole process took approximately three months from start to finish.

The implementation was done in-house. We used three people for the process.

I felt we did not get a return on investment.

The price of Aruba ClearPass is expensive. When you want to build redundant systems it can be seen as necessary, so the enterprise will manage all of those costs.

There are additional costs because we have implemented it into a cloud environment, there are costs associated with the cloud environment. We didn't go with appliances.

I did some research before choosing Aruba ClearPass. I looked at open NAC and some of the other proprietary systems.

There are additional features that we haven't used, such as fingerprinting and guest reception type scenarios. There are other features we haven't implemented and there's no reason to implement them at this stage.

Planning is the most important aspect of getting started before implementing Aruba ClearPass. Don't jump into it, you need to plan. You need to understand what you're trying to do and plan it and then start off in a small, safe environment for rollout. Once you've tested all the scenarios and it works completely for each one, then roll it out over a long period of time to ensure that the user experience is good.

I rate Aruba ClearPass a seven out of ten.