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Aruba Airwave vs Cisco Prime [EOL] comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Aruba Airwave
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (2nd)
Cisco Prime [EOL]
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Prashant-Patel - PeerSpot reviewer
The solution has multi-vendor support, and it can be used for network management
Aruba Airwave is an on-prem solution, so you have to manage it with your servers to be deployed. You can also deploy it on the cloud if you have your own private cloud. All the configuration guides and the different types of designs you need are available from Aruba Airwave's portal. I would recommend Aruba Airwave to other users. Overall, I rate Aruba Airwave ten out of ten.
ZeeshanAli1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Robust, cost-effective, and provides good visibility, but the scalability could improve
We are extremely satisfied with the reliability and robustness of Cisco Prime Infrastructure, which we have been using for many years. Compared to newer products such as DNS centers or others, it has proven to be much more stable, which is important for large-scale operations. Stability is a primary concern for us, and we are glad that Cisco Prime Infrastructure meets our expectations in that regard. Furthermore, in regards to Legacy Plus new hardware, Cisco Prime has proven to be a reliable and adaptable solution thus far. Not only can it support older hardware, but it also has the capability to handle new features with the latest updates. If we consider new solutions such as DNS Center, we may have to sacrifice some legacy features that we still rely on. We may need to continue using these legacy features for a few more years due to various reasons such as budget constraints or the site not being a high priority. However, if we switch to a new product at this stage, we may lose a lot of the monitoring and other capabilities that we have with Cisco Prime. We have a close relationship with Cisco and understand that they are not prioritizing investments in Cisco Prime as they are encouraging customers to adopt the Cisco DNA Center. This means that we don't anticipate many new features to be added to the product in the future. While we know that we will eventually have to transition to a new solution, in the meantime, we plan to do a quick refresh of our legacy products.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"AirWave definitely helps us troubleshoot and get to the root cause of the issues. It gives you an excellent indication of what's going on within your network at different locations. You can get to the area, take a look at the AirWave analysis, and make informed decisions."
"What I like best about Aruba Airwave is its orchestration feature because it saves configuration time. I also like that it allows you to do ZTP installations for new Aruba equipment."
"It contains valuable features for engineers to C-level executives, who want visibility, performance, statistics, and a platform which can take action for them without manual intervention, saving time and money.​​"
"The solution's most valuable features are its usage, bandwidth existence, device capacity, and utilization."
"It has improved my organization by increasing troubleshooting opportunities which makes things more efficient."
"This solution gives you a lot of reporting capabilities, and it has a very good interface."
"It can interact with other vendors better than Cisco, which is a good point of AirWave. It is easy to use, and its reporting is good."
"The solution is not overly expensive."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is the heat map."
"Cisco Prime, from a management perspective, has good reporting."
"We use Cisco Prime for network mapping and surveys."
"Cisco Prime is a good tool for inventory monitoring and wireless management."
"The dashboard is a valuable feature. It's very clear, and the metrics make it easy to see the current network situation."
"Cisco Prime allows us to do a lot of functions with the users and it is flexible."
"The product's most valuable features are monitoring and configuration."
"Cisco Prime allows us to manage all the wireless controllers and access points."
 

Cons

"Pricing for Aruba Airwave could be cheaper, which is an area for improvement in the solution."
"The integration with other platforms like Cisco needs to be improved."
"Its pricing and support could be improved."
"When upgrading hardware, there were technical issues with network interfaces and Red Hat, which required escalation to developers."
"We sometimes have problems with troubleshooting between the GUI and the CLI manipulation."
"We're looking for more device compatibility. Like compatibility with third-party devices."
"When attempting to copy a floor plan, it does not copy well, so I often have to redraw the walls. It's somewhat annoying since other Wi-Fi design software we use is easier for drawing walls and including floor plans."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"I rate Cisco Prime seven out of 10 for affordability. All Cisco solutions are expensive."
"The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."
"I would love for Cisco Prime to show bandwidth usage and consumption, but I can't monitor bandwidth usage at a given time."
"The user interface of Cisco Prime could be more user-friendly and increase its performance."
"The product's pricing can be cheaper."
"Cisco Prime could improve the notifications in the system. Having more details about what is happening would be useful, such as traffic numbers or who is connected. We can see them through the firewall controller, but it would be better if you can see them from one place."
"The solution has issues with real time monitoring of devices and NetFlow such as inadequate visualization for reports, sources, and destinations."
"The reporting feature of Cisco Prime should be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an expensive solution."
"This product is not expensive."
"Aruba Airwave's licensing cost is not that expensive."
"Aruba Airwave is an expensive solution."
"The cost is perfect because the devices have a lifetime warranty, and the licensing is good as well."
"I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten."
"We must buy a new license to connect more devices to scale up the solution."
"Licensing and pricing are extremely straightforward."
"I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"The cost is quite high."
"If we have a license for Cisco DNA, we can use the same license for Cisco Prime."
"Cisco Prime is an expensive solution."
"I would rate the pricing of Cisco Prime a seven out of ten."
"We update the license every five years."
"The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive."
"I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
9%
University
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Aruba Airwave?
I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.
What needs improvement with Aruba Airwave?
When attempting to copy a floor plan, it does not copy well, so I often have to redraw the walls. It's somewhat annoying since other Wi-Fi design software we use is easier for drawing walls and inc...
What do you like most about Cisco Prime?
The most valuable features of Cisco Prime include its comprehensive functionality as a one-stop solution for basic SNMP port management.
What needs improvement with Cisco Prime?
The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive.
What is your primary use case for Cisco Prime?
We use Cisco Prime for centralized configuration management backups and monitoring.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Cisco Prime Infrastructure
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Henkel, University of Findlay, University of Minnesota Duluth, University of Iowa
Mohawk Industries, Universidad EAFIT, Halton Healthcare
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Fortinet and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.