Aruba Networks Wireless WAN Reviews

I use the solution for cloud operations.

It's just a normal tool. I would really say nothing is valuable to me about its features. It's not special.

It had been working in the past few years, but after aging, it has dropped down.

The solution has bugs. It really has bugs, and you have to wait until it happens, then you realize it. The aforementioned area can be considered for improvement.

I have been using Aruba Networks Wireless WAN for five years. I am a customer of the solution.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a five, six, or seven out of ten. It's not bad.

I rate the support an eight out of ten since it is good.

Positive

Regarding the initial setup, if one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate its setup a three to five. You have to be a big technical person to deploy the solution.

I rate the solution a six or seven out of ten.

We've built out a new office and we use Aruba as our wireless system. Regular workers at our company use it. 

We built the office for about 500 seats. In the end, it should be able to seat roughly 500 people. If each person has at least three devices, that's close to 1500 devices on the network. That's the capacity that we're planning to use.

I'm coming from a Meraki environment, which was also cloud-based. I feel that Aruba allows for more flexibility when it comes to configuration and deployment. Aruba gives you the same feeling as using a controller on-prem, whereas Meraki seems to be hiding a lot of the configuration behind the scenes and forces you to actually call them and ask them to enable certain features. So far, using Aruba Central is more like using an actual controller based on the amount of configuration you can do.

Meraki just came out with profiles, but as far as I know, they don't have profiles for how your device connects to the actual physical LAN. They might have that now, or maybe with some of their devices that have multiple interfaces, but with Aruba, I could actually set up different interfaces on the actual access points depending on how they're connected to my network. This is an example of the granularity of the configurations that they allow you to configure.

Because it gives me more ability as an engineer to design the network, I'm hoping that it's going to be a little bit more predictable based on the fact that I have more features that I can change or set.

It's hard to say to be honest. I just started working through all of the different features they have. It's just up and running right now; we haven't finished really fully-configuring it. So far, I like the way that it integrates with the ClearPass security system on-site. It's just an authentication engine. Also, the web GUI for the wireless controller of Aruba Central provides us with a lot of different options. We can do a lot more with it than we could with Meraki. 

Not too long ago, Aruba was purchased by Hewlett-Packard. They must be still going through the integration because their websites are not really integrated together well, so it makes it hard to find documentation. I'm assuming it's going to get better, but right now, the integration between the support that you are getting from Hewlett-Packard, which is the parent company, and Aruba, they're not meshing together. That's one problem that I found. 

Aruba Central, because it's cloud-based (you're going to have this all the time with cloud-based solutions), there's going to be some sort of a lag between what you're seeing on the screen and what you're experiencing on-site.

With Aruba, you have more ability to see what's going on, but because you have more ability to see what's going on, it exacerbates the physical distance and the time-distance between what you're seeing in the cloud, and what you're seeing on-site. For example, they have a lot of tools for dynamic channel and power-out allocation. When you're dealing with something on-site, what you're seeing is more real-time. Maybe as I get used to working with Aruba, I'll be able to get in sync with what's happening in real-time, and with what I'm actually seeing on the product and the cloud.

This is a new deployment so I've only been using it for roughly six to eight weeks.

The stability and the scalability are both good.

The customer support is pretty good. 

The initial setup is as straightforward as you want it to be. To get it mostly set up didn't take that long, but to get it the way that you want it to be can take a little longer. For me, because I'm new to this service (not wireless infrastructure, but Aruba in general), the initial setup is pretty quick, but to get it fine-tuned, it takes a long time.

We have done most of the implementation, in-house. We have a sales rep that we call upon, but we're just using general support, that's about it.

As we're still currently in the process of deployment, I can't say exactly how long it takes. As this whole office is brand new, we hired people to run the cables and actually mount them. We didn't actually do the physical install of all these APs.

Two employees (including myself) handle all maintenance-related issues with this solution.

Overall, I think Aruba Central will produce a good return on our investment.

I don't know much about the licensing, but you license the APs to be able to use or to be configured in Aruba Central. I don't know how much it costs but I believe it's on a yearly- basis.

We evaluated Cisco Meraki again, and we also looked at Ruckus — in reality, we just read some of their documentation. We settled with Aruba because it seemed like it had more security features.

I only have experience with the controller-less environment, which is Aruba Central. When I do searches on Google, most of the information regarding that is for a controller-based or controller-less. I think Aruba Central is a newer way of deploying this solution, so because of that, there seems to be less information for it.

I would probably recommend talking to your representatives in order to get as much information about Aruba Central as you can before investing in it. If you can use a controller, it could be better or easier to find out information and learn how to configure it. 

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Aruba Central a rating of eight. If they improved their documentation and the other issues I mentioned, then I would give it a rating of ten.

In terms of performance, I don't have any issue with Aruba Networks Wireless WAN.

My company wants to use Aruba's SASE solution since we want to move everything into the cloud, and we believe that ArubaOS 10 could also be a part of the process. In general, it is about the roadmap the company wants to follow and not what I want personally.

Sometimes, the configuration part of Aruba Networks Wireless WAN can be complex, and if you fail to understand the product at once, you may not even know about some features that you can apply to your network, and they may go unused. The guidance part of the solution is not clear.

I believe that Aruba has released a new OS called ArubaOS 10. The guidance part of the product regarding what makes it different from others and what its benefits are for users are areas that are not really clear.

I have been using Aruba Networks Wireless WAN for three years. My company has a partnership with Aruba.

It is a stable solution.

There are no issues with the performance or the connection offered by the product. Sometimes, when in our company, we want to trade it with the new access points and use Aruba's RMA process, we have seen the process could be completed in just a day, but there have been occasions where it could take, like, three or four days, meaning there are inconsistencies like that in Aruba's RMA process.

Considering no issues, I believe the product's stability is a nine out of ten.

I don't really have an issue regarding the product's scalability. I rate the product's scalability a seven or eight out of ten.

Around 400 to 500 people in my company use the solution.

Sometimes, the management of the escalation process by the solution's technical support team is too slow. With the highest level of engineering of the product, sometimes, the purpose of the solution is not really relevant to our networks, making it a solution that we can apply to our network at the end of the day. Sometimes, there is some issue that doesn't really get resolved by the technical team, and my company just tolerates it.

I rate the technical support a six out of ten.

Neutral

My company has past experience with Cisco. My company switched from Cisco to Aruba because, at times, if you try to upgrade it using Wi-Fi 6, you would realize that Cisco doesn't support Wi-Fi 6.

The initial setup of Aruba Networks Wireless WAN can be done quickly, and everything functions smoothly.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

The product's deployment phase was completed in about three to four weeks.

I rate the product's price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is the lowest ,and ten is the highest.

Cisco, Huawei, and Ruckus were the solutions my company considered during the evaluation phase, but we chose Aruba since it was more cost-friendly than the others.

I rate the overall product an eight out of ten.

I like the solution's ability to add multiple SSIDs on different levels such as enterprise and guest networks. 

Aruba Networks Wireless WAN is expensive. 

I have been working with the product for five years. 

I would rate Aruba Networks Wireless WAN's stability a ten out of ten. 

I would rate the tool's scalability a ten out of ten. We have 542 clients using the products. 

The product's lifetime warranty is second to none. They will replace a system that has gone down with an identical unit. 

The tool's setup was easy. 

You will need to pay an annual subscription cost. 

I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. Try to negotiate the best price that you can get. 

We primarily use the solution to control viruses. It's for security to protect access points.

The pricing is decent. The warranty is very good. 

It is easy to use.

The security features are good. It offers nice protection. 

It's stable and reliable.

The solution is scalable.

I don't have anything to complain about. 

We'd like to have more security.

If they provided more updates that would be ideal. 

I've been using the solution for two to three years. 

I'd rate the stability nine out of ten. It's pretty stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It's reliable enough for now. 

The solution can scale well. I'd rate the scalability eight or nine out of ten. It's easy to extend it.

We have two technical individuals that have Aruba certification that use it.

We do have plans to increase usage - if we increase users. 

I haven't really used technical support. We tend to be able to troubleshoot ourselves. So far, we haven't had any issues. 

I'm also familiar with Cisco, however, their warranties are not as good. We used to use Cisco Meraki. Aruba is less expensive. 

It is straightforward to set up. It doesn't take long to deploy. Usually, it takes one to two weeks. However, it depends on the company. How many people you need to deploy the solution depends on the size of the project.

We had an internal team that was able to deploy it. 

The pricing is good, and they offer very good warranties on the product. They offer permanent warranties - not just one or three-year warranties.

A key advantage for Aruba is that we pay for it outright and do not have recurring licensing costs. 

I'd recommend the solution to others. I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. 

We're basically using the solution to replace our StarVPN connectivity. Prior to this, we had a bunch of VPNs that were creating our WAN that would link back to our central office. It simplified our network. That's what we used it for. We installed one in every office to create the WAN between offices. In the potential next phase, we were looking to then possibly decrease our internet connectivity to each site, however, we didn't do that quite yet.

The two most valuable features for us were the fact that we were able to simplify and recreate our WAN with a similar security presence and also the ability to run a single WiFi SSID across the entire company with authentication.

It worked as delivered, and therefore, there's nothing to really add. If you were asking me what they could do better, unfortunately, I quite honestly can't think of anything right now. It doesn't mean that if I was in the middle of using it, there isn't something that would be annoying to me. However, right now, it’s absolutely fine.

The integration, pricing, and configuration could always be improved upon.

I’ve used the solution for two years.

It's quite stable. It didn't come down yet. We didn't have any issues for the past year or so. We did execute a couple of updates. Those were clean and it worked just fine. It’s reliable. The performance is good.

It worked for the scale that we asked it to. That said, we installed it and we didn't grow it. The whole company, about 175 people, use the product.

The technical support was great. We’ve been satisfied with their service.

I’ve also dealt with Cisco and found Aruba more affordable with better support.

It was straightforward to set up. It worked as advertised. I didn't do the actual deployment myself. However, my deployment team was able to roll it out earlier than projected. Prior to making the selection, I had estimated more time than it took for us to deploy. In that sense, it was fantastic. The deployment was very quick.

We've got five people supporting all of our networking and hardware requirements. We don't have any one person dedicated to it.

I’m not sure of the exact pricing of the product.

This solution is more than worth considering. I've used Aruba in different organizations. It historically has, to me, been an easier install than Cisco wireless solutions have been. It consistently gives similar services at a lower price point. I have found that their pre-sales teams and support have been better than similarly situated Cisco WiFi and WAN products.

I’d rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We use the solution to access the internet connection.

The solution's most valuable feature is the ease of use.

The solution's technical support service could be better.

We have been using the solution since 2011.

It is a very stable solution.

I rate the solution's scalability as an eight or nine.

The solution's customer service team needs to be more responsive.

Negative

The solution's initial setup process is a little complicated. But it gets easier after a certain point. I rate the process as an eight or nine. It takes half an hour to complete.

We implemented the solution with the help of our in-house team.

The ROI for the solution is over 50% for us.

It is a costly solution. I rate its pricing as a nine or ten.

The solution is easy to set up. I rate it as a seven.

The primary use case of the solution is to provide wireless access while protecting our data transfers.

The solution can be deployed on-premise and in the cloud.

Aruba makes use of "Direct Tunnel" as its best security feature. The feature creates a direct tunnel from the endpoint to the controller, ensuring that all data is encrypted. This prevents the possibility of a man-in-the-middle attack compromising the AP since the data from the endpoint to the Aruba Access Controller is encrypted.

The Aruba Network solution offers centralized management, integrated compatibility with other equipment, and enhanced security features.

Aruba's technical support has room for improvement. Currently, their response time is slow.

I have been using the solution for seven years.

The stability is quite good. The stability relies on complete network deployment. If the network deployment is not good, and all the features are not used correctly, any solution can provide instability if not implemented correctly.

The scalability is very good. I give the scalability a nine out of ten.

The technical support is slow at responding.

The initial setup is straightforward and simple. The deployment takes up to one week, or only one or two days for a testing environment on the POC.

From a deployment standpoint, my CTO and I have created a comprehensive plan for installing the APs at various locations in the customer's environment. I will go on-site and provide guidance to the customer's technical team to ensure a successful deployment.

The implementations are completed at the customer sites with our assistance.

The licenses are available as both perpetual or yearly. 
The prices of Aruba are fairly reasonable, and they can be adjusted to meet the specific needs of the customer. Everything required for a deployment is included with the license.

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

We currently have three clients using the solution and have proposed it to multiple clients.

I highly recommend Aruba Networks Wireless WAN due to its exceptional security features, which are essential for any wireless network.