Aruba Switches Reviews

The most valuable Aruba switch feature is the lifetime warranty. It is a plus point in the budget. Aruba some switches have a menu, so we can configure them without CLI. In addition, configuring is easier when using the menu.

In my opinion, Aruba's new features, like the new firmware, the Operating System CX, some of the security profiles and the security protocol, need to be improved. When we want to gather some information from the switches, we should be able to use Aruba. We need more options in the outsourcing and open source environments. We often struggle to connect with Aruba.

In the next release, I'd like to see more security protocols.

I have been working with Aruba Switches for around two years.

I would rate the stability of this solution a seven, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. Sometimes my switches get struck by lightning through the electricity and this is where the lifetime warranty comes in and helps fix and replace them.

I would rate the scalability of this solution an eight, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. There are around 70 or 80 users of this solution in our company right now.

I would rate their technical support an eight, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

Positive

My impression was that the initial setup was quite simple.

I would rate the pricing of this solution a five, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

Overall, I would rate this solution an eight, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

We use this product for network access, including setting up VLANs.

The most valuable feature is that it's very easy to configure. Aruba is comparable to Cisco in this regard, and we are comfortable with them. Huawei Ethernet Switches are also easy to configure but we are less comfortable with them.

We can easily connect access points to these switches, and there are no major issues.

The delivery time for this product is slow and is something that needs to be improved. This is the biggest challenge in the market right now.

We have been using Aruba Switches for between 10 and 12 years.

This is a stable product.

Aruba Ethernet Switches are scalable. We have approximately 200 users.

The technical support for Aruba is good.

I also work with different models of Cisco Ethernet Switches, such as the Catalyst 2960-X series, and the Catalyst 2960-X-24TS-L.

Another product that I have experience with is Huawei. We are most comfortable with Aruba and Cisco switches, configured for use as VLANs.

The cost of Aruba switches is higher than that of Huawei and many other brands.

Aruba switches are easy to set up and we have had no issues with them.

Aruba switches cost between $500 and $600 more than similar products by Huawei, as well as many other brands. 

My advice for anybody who is interested in using Aruba switches is that they are easy to configure. In a normal network environment, we have almost zero complaints about them.

Many of their switches support power over ethernet (POE).

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

We are really just using Aruba Switches for ourselves. We're not like a service provider, but if you ask me, I will recommend it to my colleagues or friends.

It allows us to manage the switches through the cloud, which is good.

I mentioned earlier that managing the switches through the cloud is very beneficial.

Maybe the licensing model could be improved. It's a bit of a pain because it depends on when we activated the purchase.

I've been using Aruba Switches for about three to four years now.

The product has been quite stable. I don't have a lot of experience with technical support because we haven't really required engagement.

I think Aruba Switches are scalable and support our organization's growth.

Technical support has been all right. We may have engaged once or twice, and it was satisfactory.

Positive

The deployment was quite easy and straightforward. It took us maybe 30 to 45 minutes to set it up.

We deployed some of the setup ourselves.

It's very hard to justify return on investment because it's something required for the network to function. I'm not sure how to address that.

We don't have a regular payment system because it's a one-off project that lasts for a few years until a refresh is needed. We pay for each Aruba product separately.

I would recommend Aruba Switches; it's a very stable product.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

We primarily use the solution in a hospital setting for switching. 

The newest switches are pretty decent. 

It is slightly more price effective than Juniper and it has a slightly larger range.

The solution could always be a bit cheaper. 

My experience with Aruba's account manager hasn't been the greatest.

Dealing with the server is very complicated. We'd like it to be simplified. 

The setup is complex. 

We've used the solution for three to four months. 

I'm pretty new to the solution. It is hard to gauge stability at this time. 

The solution is scalable. It comes in a range of options. 

The account managers are not the best. They make you do a lot of running around. A lot of the time, they don't even pick up calls. We don't like the way the business side is handled.

The dealers, however, are very responsive. That said, there are just too many rules and regulations when dealing with Aruba. 

As a systems integrator, we work with Aruba, Juniper, and Cisco switches. Aruba has more of a range than Juniper, which is more fixed. 

The initial setup is very complex. 

Typically, the solution is paid for annually.

The price could always be improved upon. 

We are a system integrator. 

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. 

We primarily use the solution for connectivity purposes.  

If you want to connect your network, you definitely need a switch for end-to-end connectivity. The good thing about Aruba switches nowadays is that these particular switches also can be managed through the cloud. You can manage it through the cloud, you can manage it to NMS, and you can manage it to the individual switch also. You can manage it as a cluster. 

We like that it is very easy to manage the product through the cloud. 

If you compare Aruba to other switches like Juniper, Aruba has constantly maintained a Gartner leadership position over the last ten years.

Aruba is a very, very powerful switch in terms of the modular operating system.

It has sensor-based analytical tools. 

They have this multi-tier operative system to manage the data center environment or campus Wi-Fi, et cetera. Whatever the Aruba access point, the Wi-Fi device, and the Aruba switches, are both on a common platform. They have dynamic segmentation. The connectivity and the management are very easy as it is centralized. 

There is a whole product range to choose from. They have a huge portfolio, from 1GB all the way up to 100GB. It offers a wide variety of variations. 

The user interface is very good. 

There are a lot of great features, like dynamic segmentation and a modular operating system, that users can take advantage of. 

Aruba switches are a new generation of switches that allow each access point to carry different user data and have the capability of handling different policies. They can prioritize traffic based on policy or an IP address range, for example. If I have my own device and my work device on the same network, the permissions can be set differently so that my work device has certain access and my home device does not. Or I can request permission for my home device. It can pick up and adjust for authorized and non-authorized users. 

Their hardware has been completely redesigned and has stringer processors and all kinds of different improvements. 

They offer good DRAM and can support a multi-gig PoE.  

There is multi-tier architecture within the switch itself. 

Aruba is still losing out to Cisco, which continues to dominate the space. Aruba needs to continue to improve its product range in order to compete with Cisco's dominance. 

I've used the solution for five to six years. 

The stability of Aruba is very high. It's very reliable. It doesn't crash or freeze. There are no bugs or glitches. I can rate the product nine or ten out of ten in terms of stability. 

The solution is scalable in two ways. You can increase your network with the device, and you can also upgrade your application operating system to increase the usage of new-generation technology. Aruba is great at offering scalability in both areas. The devices also last a long time and have a five or six-year lifetime warranty, and within this period, you're eligible for the latest software that continuously expands the Aruba experience over time. 

We'll likely continue to invest in Aruba and expand usage when the time comes.

Technical support is very good. There is a default lifetime for R&D and it will give you only the troubleshooting and support for the lifetime of the product. That troubleshooting support will identify either if your switch has a hardware fault or if it has any other issues. If it has been diagnosed that it is a software-related issue, they will give you the latest format to upgrade to. However, if you go for the full level of technical support, so you have to purchase the Aruba service agreement. This is called Foundation Care. 

If you don't go with any support, you are only eligible for the hardware replacement. No other support will be provided.

I previously worked with Huawei. That was three or five years ago. I've also worked with HPE as well as the entire Aruba product range. I'm aware of Cisco and Juniper's capabilities as well. 

Aruba is considered a premium product and therefore the pricing is quite high. That said, it is competitive against, for example, Cisco. Based on its vast service offering, the pricing is actually quite fair. 

We've compared Aruba to many switches, including Cisco and Juniper. However, Cisco is more comparable and Juniper has a very limited product profile. Cisco and Aruba are very similar.

We are not a reseller. We are the national distributor of Aruba in India.

I'd rate the product in general eight out of ten. If a company is looking for a future-proof solution, Aruba really is a good choice. If they are looking to build a very sophisticated network, it's great.

We've got switches on-premises, and they're managed by central management.

We primarily use the solution for normal office use. It is for normal networking, including wireless. 

I like that I can cloud-manage my network. This is useful due to the fact that I have multiple offices. 

It's a stable product.

We can scale as needed. 

The initial setup is relatively complex.

There is nothing to improve on in an enterprise environment, however, if you're wanting various  functionalities, you need to know how to do these things. It's not straightforward per se. Some training would be ideal for getting the most out of the solution. I had to learn a lot on the job by myself. 

I've been using the solution for three years. 

The solution is very solid, and very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

The product is scalable. We can expand usage if we need to. 

We have 300 people on average using the solution.

In terms of expanding usage, as a solution, at this point in time, I don't need to. With its wifi capabilities, it can handle a little bit more load, so that's fine.

Since I have the solution through a partner, I use the partner services. It's up to them to get me in touch with support if needed.

We had very low-end build switches or old Cisco switches previously, however, they were relatively minor since we had moved to a new office and the company was relatively young at that point in time. Afterward, we made an investment in Aruba.

The initial setup is not necessarily straightforward. It is complex. 

A service partner did the implementation. It took about a month and a half.

We had a service provider assist us with the setup. 

We pay an annual license for the solution. 

It is an enterprise product, so it's not the cheapest, definitely. I'd rate the affordability between a three and four out of five.

I'd recommend the solution if a company wants an alternative to a Cisco environment. It's a very reliable solution.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

They do have partnerships, and users can get training and insights on how to manage it from a partnership perspective. 

It is very easy to configure. Aruba and Cisco are more comfortable for us in terms of configurations, including VLAN and most technical things.

Aruba is similar to Huawei or any other brand. 

It is very easy to set up. 

The solution can scale. 

It is very stable. 

Technical support has been good. 

The biggest issue right now is the delivery timeline. It takes too long to get the product.

We've been using the solution for ten to 12 years. 

The solution is stable. It's reliable and free of bugs and glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

The product can scale as needed. It's not a problem at all. 

We have two people who directly use the solution in our organization. 

Technical support is good. it's not bad. We are largely satisfied with their level of assistance. 

I'm familiar with Cisco and Huawei solutions.

The initial setup is very simple and straightforward. It's not complex at all. 

The Aruba Switch cost is normally high if it is compared to Huawei and many other brands. Typically it is a $500 to $600 difference in price.

We have a partnership with Aruba.

The solution is deployed at an access level. 

It's a comfortable switch to use and we don't really have any complaints. Normally they have built-in PoE Switches as well. We can connect an access point to them. There's no major issue in that regard.

I would rate them nine out of ten.

The Aruba switch is supporting a doctor's office, so it's an on-premise switch. These particular switches provide the fundamental network for the entire office, including power over ethernet for the security cameras and wireless access points. The solution also provides network switching between databases and clients. I manage the switches using the Aruba Central public cloud. 

Aruba gives me greater network visibility compared to an unmanaged solution. I mostly use unmanaged switches at other locations and offices.

I like the Aruba Central platform. It makes a lot of sense. The switches have a lot of great capabilities. Central can lockdown VLANs and control the apps and protocols. 

There are several built-in security features that I'm not utilizing. However, those capabilities are part of the reason I'm using enterprise switches in a small office. I like knowing that I can do these things when necessary. 

There are some growing pains with Aruba Central. When you first launch the wireless access points or switches, a lot of updates are needed to get Aruba Central ready, especially on the access points, so the initial deployment time could improve. 

I would hope that I could just turn it on and leave the updates until later on. The switches themselves probably did okay. I'm primarily referring to the wireless access points. There was a lot of back and forth before everything was in sync. It took hours. 

I can't think of any missing features, but it would be nice if there were a free version of Aruba Central for my small business clients that doesn't have as many features. 

I got one switch a while back and was using it in a lab situation to play around with it a little bit. I wasn't utilizing it a whole lot. It was more like, "Hey, how do you configure this? How does it work?" In the last couple of weeks, I added a second 6200 S switch and threw it into an actual production environment where it's being utilized.

The scalability is fine. I've got two 6200 24-port switches, so 48 ports total. I Aruba switches are capable of putting trunk groups in between. It's a chiropractic office, so we've got 32 network tables all plugged in between servers and all of the devices, and then there are all the computers hanging on the walls and stuff like that. 

However, in reality, it's typically only four people working at the office at any given time, but they run around from room to room using x-rays, computers, and all that other stuff, so there are a lot of different devices. In total, there are 32 ethernet cables plugged into these two switches.

Some people define a user as a person typing on the keyboard, but In a chiropractic office, you have customers who walk into the adjusting room and scan their little cards. Meanwhile, the doctor kind of walks from room to room. It's really only one doctor.

We'll be bringing additional computers online over the next couple of years as they ramp up that office, so there will be increased utilization of the switches even inside that office. I will also be adding switches for each of my clients. I mean as I'm going in and taking over managed service provider relationships with these clients, I'll be looking at putting those same switches, so I have complete visibility.

I rate Aruba support six out of 10. Like many vendors, Aruba is dealing with staffing shortages or other things. Once you get somebody on the line, they're usually pretty good. It's just a matter of getting to the correct person and the time it takes to respond. 

I'm not trying to bash Aruba because they're not the only ones having this problem with tiered support. It's crucial to learn the equipment, so you can hopefully do most of the maintenance and troubleshooting yourself.

Neutral

My other clients have unmanaged Netgear switches, but it's apples to oranges. They may be switches, but they're not in the same class. It's a home network switch versus an enterprise network switch.

Deploying the switches itself wasn't that complex. You can make it complex depending on what you want to do. You can implement VLANs and do all sorts of wonderful things, but for this particular implementation, I didn't really need that level of complexity.

It took about an hour to take the switches out of the box and onboard the devices on Aruba Central. They work out of the box even without Aruba Central. You can take them out, turn them on, plug them in, and they will function as a basic unmanaged switch. There's not a whole lot that you have to do for it.

I do all of my own stuff. I'm a solo managed service provider. 

The return on investment for me in these switches will come when we start facing network challenges. Some of the applications at this doctor's office rely on old file-based databases. When they start having problems with the application, and the vendor starts saying that's a network problem, that's when I'll get my real return on investment. 

I can pull up the Aruba Central platform and say, "Nope, it's not a network problem, and here's why. You're getting no gig speed. There are no errors on any of the ports or failed packets." Having all that visibility is where the true return on investment is going to come. It's preparing for those types of debates. I'm tired of people blaming the networks. It may be. It could be a configuration or something else, but it's something else most of the time.

I am paying for the hardware and Aruba Central licenses, but I would like a version of Aruba Central to come out with a light version with a few features turned off. Ubiquiti and other vendors have free tools.

I believe they're looking at that, but it's not out yet. I hope they will release that to make it competitive because I'm using an enterprise-class switch for small businesses. We're looking for some of those capabilities, but not all of them. 

Aruba has its Soho class switches, which are instant-on platforms. However, with the instant-on platform, you need to manage everything with individual clouds instead of bringing all of them under one console. 

There's an annual license fee for the Aruba Central cloud management platform for each Aruba device. You don't need licenses for the hardware and other support, but if you don't pay for the Aruba Central license, you will not get firmware updates or technical support. You have to have those at least for probably several years.

When you reach a point where you're managing 100-150 devices in a small business, you suddenly need multiple layers of switches, and then you have to get into campus networks, trunk groups, VLANs, etc. Then, you need segmentation between different levels. 

You have to utilize those additional capabilities and features more than you would for a dozen or so computers. You typically aren't going to create a bunch of VLANs, trunk groups, and multiple switches for a dozen computers. It doesn't make sense.

I think under 250 people would technically be classified as a small business. However, when I say "small business," I mean 10-20 people physically working at a building. Still, the price is reasonable. I'd rate Aruba eight out of 10 for affordability.

As a managed service provider,  I also have access to discounts that help me manage costs better. As I own all the switches, so I keep adding people to the switches I own. Aruba has been good about providing a managed service provider discount to make it competitive. If they didn't, it would be kind of hard to justify spending $4,000 on these switches for a tiny business like a doctor's office.

I looked at Ubiquiti, Cisco, and some other solutions, but I have a friend who works for Aruba. I opted to go with Aruba after chatting with him about where it's positioned in the market. Aruba seems to be a leader, especially in wireless access points and some of the newer capabilities and features. 

I was looking for network switches that could be managed with the same wireless access points in one console, so that gave it to me with Aruba. Some people are fine with having one console for switches and another for wireless access points. As a solo managed service provider, I'm all about simplicity, so I was really looking for one solution that would handle both. 

I rate Aruba Switches nine out of 10. If you're deploying these types of switches, I encourage people to utilize some type of cloud-based management console. If you don't use Aruba, make sure whatever you use has cloud management to give you visibility into what's going on in terms of configuration, errors, etc.