ExtremeCloud IQ Reviews

• Cloud-based controller
• L3 roaming

• Admin UI and Automatic channel assignment algorithms.
• An recurring example, would be where their support engineer would be given remote access to full project documentation, surveys, and planning as well as to the Hive Manager and not find anything wrong. However after much heartache and user frustration, we would find the solution to some major issues was to simply recheck one checkbox that a previous support person had suggested to uncheck.

4 years

Sizing and deployment documentation was geared towards selling hardware rather than a balanced solution. Regional support and training was nearly non-existent and overseas support was always a hot potato with no commitment to solving any issues.

Automatic channel assignment algorithms were creating some serious issues despite turning down power to adjust cell size. Eventually needed a static channel map in the 2.4Ghz.

While the support teams were responsive, they were not effective in solving the issues despite having full visibility of the deployment.

Technical teams ranged from poorly trained techs who simply followed a call tree to highly qualified industry leaders, but who were not willing to take the time to help isolate the real issue until frustration levels are at their highest.

A recurring example, would be where their support engineer would be given remote access to full project documentation, surveys, and planning as well as to the Hive Manager and not find anything wrong.

However, after much heartache and user frustration, we would find the solution to some major issues was to simply recheck one check box that a previous support person had suggested to uncheck.

We now actively service existing Aerohive installs, but are encouraging new sites to consider Cisco Meraki as the sales, training and support efforts are more mature in our region.

Straightforward

We are the vendor team and have attended both Aerohive trainings as well as extensive 3rd party certifications and conferences over a number of years.

The Aerohive solution appeared to be price competitive, however lack of training and support in the region has made it more expensive than other solutions.

Make sure that your regional distributor is truly committed to the product and supporting the solution before buying.

Aruba, Ruckus, Cisco.

Don't believe promises of training. Get your training before you make a purchase commitment, or find another vendor's solution.

The most valuable features so far have been the scalability of the solution, starting with a few access points on HiveManager NG and bringing it up to well over 100; and the reliability of the equipment to provide fast secure wireless for our one-to-one program.

We have been able to easily support the needs of our 2,000+ high school students and staff in our one-to-one program.

The on-premises version of HiveManager NG that we use does not receive updates as soon as the cloud-based version does. It would be nice to receive the updates a little sooner.

The cloud version receives regular updates and the on-premises version receives a cumulative update, i.e., every two to three months. There is version disparity. The cloud version is up to 11.18.03, whereas the highest I can go with our on-premises version is 11.17.06.

We have had HiveManager NG in place since June of 2016, but have been Aerohive customers since 2010.

We have not encountered any deployment issues.

We have not encountered any stability issues.

We have not encountered any scalability issues.

We used to have the greatest inside sales person ever. She would alway get back to us within 24 hours and was always looking to get us the best deals and keep us happy. She left the company and we had another awesome inside sales person; he unfortunately left the company as well, and now we don't have as good of customer service that we did. I would say it used to be a 10 out of 10, and now its more of a 7 or a 6, but this is solely based on our new sales person. Company-wide, we have always received 8 or 9/10 customer service.

I would say technical is an 8 or 9 out of 10. We have always been able to talk to support right away with any level of question. They are always quick to try and resolve any issue, and the problem can be escalated quickly through the tiers of support to find a good solution.

We used unmanaged access points before. We switched to more easily control our wireless infrastructure.

Initial setup was very straightforward, as we had been Aerohive customers in the past. Everything just seems to just work. We were able to get wifi up in our new building within 10 minutes of having internet access, and then were able to install and deploy additional access points with ease.

We had a vendor that was available if we had any issues during our deployment, but did not need to use them as no issues arose.

We also received a bid for this project from Aruba.

Aerohive has been a very good solution for us, and we have always been able to get great service and great support.

Their distributed model - they call it cooperative control - rather than a controller-based system, has permitted a centralized management control plane with HiveManager while data flows just as it does over any LAN. They also have robust troubleshooting tools available.

We have been able to deploy complex wireless solutions to our users with minimal difficulty.

Aerohive's new version of HiveManager, known as NG, while offering new features, still needs development and an ability to migrate from "classic" versions of HiveManager.

NG is a step in the right direction towards both an improved interface (interface being a deficit noted by other reviewers) and SDN. After years of development on "classic" versions of HiveManager, NG is still a work in progress. As of 2016, they have yet to add support for their line of BR routers and CVG VPN Gateway to HM NG. HiveManager 6 is still required to centrally manage these devices. As a result, we are currently running both HM "classic" and NG in our environment.

I have been assured support is on the way, but other features, such as open API support, seem to be taking precedence in development.

We have used it since 2008.

There have been minimal issues, usually when updating to new versions of Hive OS.

One HiveOS release, we downgraded until the next revision was released.

We have never hit a ceiling, although I feel confident we would have if a controller-based solution had been deployed.

They have been very eager to please us.

As with any other IT vendor I've worked with over 20 years, some are better than others. Again, they seem eager to please and resolve any issues we've encountered.

I previously used Symbol/Motorola. We switched due to scalability and management issues.

It can be as simple or complex as you wish.

An in-house team implemented it.

Without needing to pay for controllers, we were able to invest in better wireless hardware. License and maintenance costs were minimal.

Before choosing, we also evaluated Cisco, Aruba, Meru, Meraki, Ruckus, and Motorola.

We integrated Aerohive into our Cisco-centric environment in 2008 and never looked back. Subsequently, when Aerohive offered other layer two devices, specifically switches, we opted to begin to upgrade our older Cisco access switches with Aerohive devices.

The Hive Manager is extremely easy to use and navigate, even for someone with very little network experience. The interface is very logical and easy to manage.

After recently decreasing our tech staff, Aerohive has been a lifesaver. Our network rarely needs attention, and the reports and configurations are easy to run when needed. This has saved us a lot of man-hours!

Pricing is a little high, but I have no complaints with the service or devices themselves. Occasionally, a device needs to be rebooted, but it is rare.

I have used it for two years.

We did not encounter any problems with deployment. Once everything was hooked up, and the configurations were set, it all fell into place seemlessly.

Issues with stability are few and far between. Occasionally, an access point needs a reboot, but our clients have no trouble accessing the network on a regular basis.

We have not had any issues with scalability. As we transitioned to Aerohive, we still had other access points in use, from another manufacturer. We've never had any trouble with increased use, or multiple devices.

Customer service is probably the area I am most happy with. They have it right. Aerohive is easy to get in touch with, quick to answer any questions, and they were very patient with me. I had very little experience, and they walked me through everything I needed to know, checked in frequently, and made sure I was happy.

The level of tech support is fantastic. They are very much in the business of helping customers quickly and efficiently.

We did have another solution in place. I switched because of the ease of use I saw with the Hive Manager. Also, Aerohive had helped with the network at a conference I attended, and it was the best year we ever had in terms of connection.

The initial setup was very straightforward. As someone with very limited network experience, I was able to get the devices up and running myself with just a couple of calls for support.

I implemented through a vendor team. Their knowledge was fantastic, and the collaboration between them and the Aerohive folks was amazing. Both were included in all correspondences.

It's very difficult to calculate the ROI on something like this, but here's what I can say: We were able to layoff our network administrator, and give the network over to someone with very little experience. We saved a salary, and not many of my hours are currently being spent on the network. So I think the return is very high!

The pricing and licensing appear to be a bit high, but you get what you pay for. It's a great product with excellent customer support.

We evaluated Meraki and that was a close second. In the end, I do believe we made the correct decision for our organization.

When you are considering a move to Aerohive, ask if you can get a sample device to run on your network. I did this, played around with it for a while, and it helped tremendously.

No controller is required. Management can be done with either an onsite appliance or a virtual appliance. The heat map is a great aid in choosing the number and location of access points.

It allows our guests to register and accept our terms and conditions without the paperwork that the IT team used to have to do to get someone connected to WiFi.

The firewall inside the AP is a little limited in what it can do. Aerohive support indicated that there are some improvements planned for the next release of software.

I have used it for six months.

Deployment went without any major issues. Most of our issues were with getting cable runs to the AP locations. We wanted an open guest network that would allow access to only our website. That did not work as planned, and we needed support assistance.

Our WiFi has been running without issues since deployment. Changes have been easy to implement. We upgraded the AP software once and the HiveManager NG once without any downtime.

We have not encountered any scalability issues. We added an AP to a new building in a few minutes; had a staffer plug in the AP and it appeared in our manager and received our configuration.

Customer service is excellent. We purchased through a local reseller, and they were our point of contact; took the time to make sure everything was ready for our deployment.

Technical support is very good. We did find a couple of software bugs, and we were escalated quickly through support levels and got resolutions for most within a couple of weeks, with the last pending a major software release. They did assist in a workaround until the update is available.

We previously used Meraki. We looked at TCO for five years and the Aerohive looks like it will be less expensive, especially if purchased with the support up front.

Initial setup was a little complex because of the number of options in configuration. It was a little complicated because we did not find the management interface intuitive about making changes to previously created access groups and SSIDs.

A vendor team of one person implemented it. That was all that was required to get us up and running in one day for 14 APs and 8 SSIDs.

ROI is just under three years. The guest registration allows us to require the user to read and accept terms and conditions before connecting and the basic firewall in the APs made it easy to enforce without extra hardware per site.

There are good discounts for purchasing APs with the support up front. Go for the three- or five-year options if budget allows. The heat map tends to be very conservative so you might be able to use fewer APs than the tool suggests. An extra AP or two is cheaper than a full site survey.

Meraki, Aruba, and Ubiquiti were evaluated along with Aerohive. We had evaluation APs from Meraki and Aruba. We looked at coverage, ease of use, and TCO.

The cloud version of the controller is a little better supported than the on-premises version. Only select the onsite version if there are security concerns.

The ability to manage the wifi from the cloud and not needing to have an on premise controller is great. Great support as well.

With our previous wifi system it was on premise and end of life. We were unable to get any more updates for it and with Cloud wifi there are no hardware limits and we also were able to expand mac authentication to 500 users vs. 125 with our existing system.

There could be better alerts setup for the access points. I also wish there was a way to track users roaming from access point to access point. It would also be great to have better interference assistance.

We have been using it for 6 months.

We did run into an issue where there was a lot of interference when we launched the new APs. We ended up also with issues that were compounded by firmware that was having issues as well. After working with support and an SE we were able to get the APs stable and working properly.

We haven't had any stability issues yet. The access points have been running smoothly since the initial deployment issues we had which has been great.

We had to tweak some power for some of our APs so they would not pick up the access points from our lower floors after we launched. After tweaking that we didnt have any issues scaling.

Customer service has been great. Any issues I have had were answered quickly and we were able to resolve things quickly. The demo we were setup with was long enough to meet our testing needs and we were given enough APs to test with.

Support was great to work with. Each tech I have worked with was very knowledgeable and easy to get ahold of. They were quick to escalate if our issues needed the next level of support. They would keep in contact.

We previously used Ruckus. We switched due to our equipment being end of life and we wanted to move to a cloud solution. Aerohive was able to meet both of those needs. We also wanted something that worked good with our noisy environment and was able to provide a stable connection with a lot of interference.

The initial setup was pretty easy. We did run into some issues due to some of our access points were initially registered to the HiveManager and not NG. Once I contacted support, they were able to get everything switched and I was up and running. The network profiles were a little difficult to setup to use Mac authentication.

We purchased through a vendor but didn't use them to implement the solution. They were very helpful with the trial and working with Aerohive on pricing and things. They are continuing to be helpful with a hardware switch out we are doing for different country access points.

Our return on investment so far has been more stable wifi that is future proof and faster than our old system. We don't have to worry about a controller going end of life and have the ability to manage the whole company from one central dashboard.

The pricing and licensing is a great structure and fairly priced. We looked at a few different solutions and they were right in line with competitors and cheaper. There is no per user license which is nice.

We evaluated Aruba and Meraki. Meraki was not our choice due to not being able to get a stable Wifi connection due to it being unable to handle the interference here in our office. Aruba was nice and the pricing was similar to Aerohive but I felt their cloud interface wasn't as user friendly.

I think this is a great solution and as more and more technology changes come out it should only get better. They are priced right and fairly user friendly to setup for someone with not much wifi experience.

Cloud Management because of the ease of use and Bonjour Gateway to integrate Apple technology. Cloud management enables me to monitor my wireless network offsite and make required changes.

It has provided us with a fast, reliable wireless network. Aerohive has enabled us to roll out a successful BYOD scheme to 3 year groups to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom.

Additional add-ins such as HiveSchool and MDM are a fantastic idea, however they lack functionality at present. It would be great if teachers could manage their class of BYOD devices using Hive Manager.

4 years, over two different roles.

Nothing major. A batch of wireless access points were recalled due to a hardware issue, however they were replaced very quickly with minimum fuss. I had no other deployment issues, it was a very smooth transition!

I have not experienced issues relating to stability. Aerohive is very stable and has been up for over 2 years without a single fault!

None at all. Aerohive is very scalable due to its pricing and licensing model. It gives the consumer the flexibility to expand their wireless network as and when funding is available. It is great to just be able to buy a new AP, plug it in and off you go!!

Aerohives customer service is second to none. They are extremely helpful and friendly. The company really care about the customers experience with the product. They also run a rewards scheme for loyal customers which is better than any I have come across in my professional career.

Technical support from Aerohive has been excellent. I receive technical support through their third party supplier, LAN3 who are excellent also. I have no doubts if I contact them with an issue, it will be dealt with immediately and to a high standard.

Yes, we used HP wireless previously. Switched for several reasons. 1) The controller was unreliable 2) the wireless network was hard to manage 3) The wireless signal was poor 4) I had used Aerohive previously and loved it 5) The school wanted to do BYOD and I would trust no one else with this important task!

Initial setup was straight forward. The GUI is easy to navigate and I was familiar with it as I have been on Aerohive training. Easy to follow wizard for basic setup.

Through a vendor team, LAN3 Ltd. They have been excellent from sales through to technical support. I have attended two training sessions at LAN3 on Aerohive and I found the sessions to be both informative and enjoyable. Support for Aerohive is impeccable.

Secondary School Education. I have worked in the industry for 10 years and have knowledge of various educational software packages, as well as corporate networking and infrastructure.

Pricing of Aerohive Access Points are reasonable. They provide educational discount as well as BOGOF offers when buying in bulk. Licensing is straightforward, 1, 3 or 5 year license per access point. Included in that price is cloud management for that access point.

Yes, I looked at several other options. These included ARUBA, RUKUS, MERU and MIRAKI. None of these solutions came close to Aerohives offering in terms of cloud management and ease of use.

Aerohive is hands down the best wireless network provider I have used. Their products are affordable, realisable and packed with features! The company is excellent in all areas and it is apparent they are about their customers experiences.

Overall management / UI is great. There is a lot to it, but it is well organized and relatively simple to use.

The guest user portal and generation of PPSK's has proven invaluable.

The self-registration guest wi-fi portal and optional approval are very important to the functionality of our environment.

While the UI is great, it could still use some tweaks. The latest revision is heading in the right direction.

Started using it in August 2015, but didn't use it in-depth until about May-June 2016.

The biggest issue we encountered was a bug in the guest self-registration portal, which was minor in the big picture.

Stability is not an issue at all. Since implementation, we have had more power outages than wi-fi outages. I'm even impressed at the coverage during AP updates.

Scalability is not an issue in our environment at all. We have over 100 AP's, some of which are in near Faraday cages in our facility.

Customer service was fantastic. We had to call a few times during implementation and minor troubleshooting and we always got an answer.

Technical support is extremely knowledgeable, responsive, and eager to get answers. If we were unable to get a response on the phone call, we always received a timely call back.

We did not use an enterprise solution previously. We built a new manufacturing facility and needed a solution that would meet our needs.

Slightly complex - we have multiple profiles / classes of users, multiple SSID's, and different types of AP's.

We implemented using a consultant. I'd give them an 8/10 at the start of the project and 9/10 after the project.

ROI is difficult to answer in this situation. Wi-Fi cost was part of infrastructure cost of our new manufacturing facility.

Pricing and licensing is straight forward. Make sure to read appropriate documentation and ASK QUESTIONS. Also be sure to always ask about three-year renewals on licensing, there can be huge savings.

We evaluated Meraki prior to choosing Aerohive. At the time, Meraki did not support PPSK's, which was a requirement for our network.

The overall experience is very good. The best part is that it can be managed with a skeleton IT support team.