Aruba Networks Wireless WAN Reviews

We have used Aruba Networks Wireless WAN a lot for retail, manufacturing, and deployments on educational campuses. Most of the deployments I've done are enterprise-grade across multiple sites, utilizing the ClearPass solution so that all the enterprise sites are managed at one location. The use cases can vary.

The most valuable feature of Aruba Networks Wireless WAN is centralized management capability. You don't have to have wireless LAN controllers at every location.

Aruba Networks Wireless WAN could improve the solution availability. The selection of mounting hardware for the various radios is limited and poor. Often, you have to create and manufacture your own mounting hardware in certain situations. 

The specific information available for external dB gain antennas is virtually non-existent or poor. You have to do a lot of research to find out what external antennas are going to suit your environment. Aruba Networks Wireless WAN doesn't do a good job of helping, and that's one of their downfalls.

If you're using external antennas, you want to accomplish some gain by using external antennas. There's not a lot of information specific to Aruba Networks Wireless WAN, even on the Aruba platform, that provides you with solid information and recommendations about antennas that would best suit their solution.

I have been using Aruba Networks Wireless WAN for approximately 10 years.

Aruba Networks Wireless WAN stability is good. It has a low failure rate. I don't typically do service, but the failure rates are less than or equal to their largest competitors. It's a pretty stable environment.

I have found Aruba Networks Wireless WAN to be scalable. If you use either the ClearPass or the AirWave, it's very easy to scale.

I typically don't use technical support of Aruba Networks Wireless WAN. There's been a few instances where I've had to make a call, and they were fairly responsive.

The initial installation of Aruba Networks Wireless WAN is easy. The enterprise-level deployments are straightforward. 

The maintenance of Aruba Networks Wireless WAN depends on the size of the enterprise solution that you have deployed. However, typically, it's relatively easy, because if you use ClearPass or AirWave, you can have one person monitor an entire enterprise. It's not difficult.

Different sectors have their own set of ROI indicators that they follow. For example, retail has a set of ROIs and manufacturing and another different set than retail. You can make your own algorithms to determine our ROI, I typically don't focus on that.

The price of Aruba Networks Wireless WAN depends on how you buy it. From a pricing perspective, if you choose to buy Aruba Networks Wireless WAN as an MRC, it's dependent upon the radio and the solution that you choose what your MRC is. If you choose to buy it outright, they're competitive with their competitors, and they're probably four percent or five percent lower than their largest competitor.

I rate Aruba Networks Wireless WAN 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. 

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.

Warehousing and manufacturing are the primary ones that I've been in, but we also do campuses, schools, and healthcare.

I believe their Adaptive Radio Management (ARM) in its current form provides the best automated management of transmit power and channel. It does a really good job of managing proper design and wireless environment.

It is a little bit cumbersome to configure. If you're designing a WLAN and you want to do and cover certain types of clients, you really have to know different settings and how they interact with one another. If they could automate that so that if you are designing for one type of equipment, you could, in essence, run a wizard. That would certainly save on a lot of calls to tech support.

I have been working with this solution for 10 years.

Its stability is good. I've not seen major failures.

It is absolutely scalable.

It is pretty straightforward. Setting up the environment is fairly straightforward, adding access points to the environment is fairly straightforward, and the upgrade process is relatively straightforward. It comes down to when you're doing something specific in the design for the client that you're trying to deal with. That's where it becomes a little bit more complex. You need to know where to go and look, but the standard setup is very straightforward.

That's really subject to the type of environment you're deploying. If you're doing a full controller model with 200 APs, the initial deployment could be 150 grand. Maintaining that or maintaining support for that per year could be something like 10 to 15 grand per year.

In the cloud sense, the cloud is by the number of APs. So, everything is readily available.

I would not hesitate to implement it. It is a good product. I would rate it a 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.

We use Aruba Networks Wireless WAN for logistic purposes.

Aruba Networks Wireless WAN is stable and good.

The issue is that we are unable to update it because we lack the necessary permissions. We set up the website, but we don't have permission to download the software.

I would like to have the option, to log in by clear code.

I have been working with Aruba Networks Wireless WAN for five years.

Aruba Networks Wireless WAN is a stable solution.

The scalability of Aruba Networks Wireless WAN is very good.

We have 11 controllers, 300 access points, and possibly 300, 350 clients.

For the newer release, we contacted technical support for the operator.

I would rate the technical support a five out of five.

Positive

Previously, we did not use another solution.

There was a seller who suggested Aruba, and we started using it from that time.

The installation is a mix of the two. It's neither easy nor difficult.

Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis.

I would rate the pricing a three or a four out of five.

We are currently using Aruba and researching new features in similar solutions.

Overall, I am pleased with the solution.

We are partners.

I would rate Aruba Networks Wireless WAN an eight out of ten.