Aruba Networks Wireless WAN Reviews

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.

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. 

I use Aruba Wireless to give wifi access to customers and office-goers.

Aruba Wireless's best feature is that it's very, very robust.

I've been using Aruba Wireless for three to four years.

Aruba Wireless is very stable.

Aruba Wireless is scalable.

The initial setup is straightforward and only requires a small amount of technical know-how. Deployment can take some time if you haven't planned well.

Aruba Wireless comes with the controller.

I'd recommend anybody looking at implementing Aruba Wireless to go for it - it's a really, very good product. I'd rate Aruba Wireless eight out of ten.

We are a tech consultancy firm and this is one of the solutions that we implement for our clients. When our clients are looking for a local wireless environment, this solution can fit their needs.

The most valuable feature is the ease of setup and deployment.

The dashboards can be made much more useful.

Technical support is important to me and I feel that it is something that can be improved.

I would like to see support for SD-WAN.

The inclusion of firewall features would be an improvement.

We have been working with Aruba Wireless WAN for three years.

We have had no problems with stability.

This is a scalable solution. We have customers of all sizes, ranging from small businesses to enterprise-level organizations.

We have been in touch with technical support and they are good enough, although there is room for improvement.

We have also worked with Cisco wireless solutions. The price of Aruba is better but Cisco's technical support is superior.

The initial setup and deployment are easy. Installing a single device can be done in two or three hours. However, some projects will continue for up to 12 days because there are a large number of devices.

We deploy this solution for our customers. Often, we also deploy switches and other network equipment at the same time.

The price of this solution is better than some other vendors.

This is a good product and my advice for anybody who is considering it is that they can solve a lot of issues with Aruba. I think that it is okay for most of our customers.

I would rate this solution a five out of ten.

This solution provides our wireless network service. We use it as a centralized wireless hub in our network.

The GUI is user-friendly and the dashboards are good.

We have had stability issues with some types of portable devices.

We have been using Aruba Wireless WAN since 2018.

We had some stability issues with wireless devices such as laptops and tablets, but it turned out to be a bug and it was fixed in the latest version.

This solution is scalable and we have approximately 500 users.

We speak with our vendor for technical support and do not contact Aruba directly.

The initial setup is straightforward.

Overall, this is a very good product. It is stable and I recommend it.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

I am a system integrator and this is one of the solutions that I implement for my customers.

My customers use the Aruba Wireless WAN for Wi-Fi connectivity and network connectivity. It is typically used in an industrial setting.

The most valuable features are price, quality, and performance.

This solution needs different models that are more specialized for certain customers.

I have been using Aruba Networks products since they first were available in Spain, many years ago.

The stability depends more on the customers, their environment, and how they are using the product. The product is used frequently.

Our customers are medium-sized and large businesses.

I deal with the technical support team for Aruba and they are nice. The support is fine.

I have used many other similar solutions including those by Extreme Networks, Cisco, Ruckus Networks, and Huawei. Huawei is the market leader in this domain.

The initial setup of this solution is simple and I would say that it works fine. It only takes a few minutes to deploy.

We perform the installation for our customers.

The price of this solution is approximately 1,000,000 ESP ($6,750 USD).

Aruba has good enterprise solutions that I provide to my customers. I would suggest using it with it together with a good network that has the proper security set up.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

I use this solution as an access point for my local Wi-Fi.

The most valuable feature is reliability. Once this solution is installed it works very well.

The pricing for the Aruba Wireless WAN should be improved.

In the next release, the security should be improved by including support for WPA3.

I have been using Aruba Wireless WAN for about two years.

This is very stable and the main reason that I chose this product. It has been running for two years and has always been online.

We have between 20 and 30 devices that are connected.

I have not had to contact support. I just installed it and used it.

It is very easy to install and set up.

This is a very good product that I would recommend for other people.

It has all of the features I need but it could have a lower price.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Our primary use case of this solution is to connect all our end-users to the network via the wireless access point. 

I have found the technical support to be one of the most valuable features.

Something that needs to be improved is the integration.

I have been using Aruba Networks Wireless WAN for more than three years now.

We haven't experienced any glitches so far, so it is a very stable program.

I am more than satisfied with the program's scalability. We've had no issues so far. We have over 500 users, and one person is more than enough for the maintenance.

Yes, we used Cisco before, but we switched to Aruba because of the price. Cisco was too expensive.

The initial setup was really straightforward and the deployment took us a few months to complete. Our team was responsible for the deployment.

I will definitely recommend this solution to others. I would like to see better integration in the next release. On a scale from one to 10, I will rate this product an eight.