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To all you people that have, work with, sell or install Aruba. I would like your opinions on why you chose Aruba over the other WLAN makers such as Cisco, HP/Colubris, Meru, Ruckus, Xirrus.

Opinions, facts, data, results are all welcome here.

If you were to sell someone on Aruba - now would be a chance.

~K

Well crud...you left us out of that list. :)

Aerohive (see banner to the right of your screen) is the most scalable, most resilient, and most cost effective architecture available in today's market. It's Wi-Fi that Works - Period. Lest ye think that is so much idle chatter, give us the opportunity to come see you and prove it to you in-person.

And just in case any of the competitors send you some crappy test paper showing that we don't perform, we're happy to bake-off against any other vendor at your facility to prove our stability, performance, and security. :) How's that for confidence?

Devin K. Akin
Chief Wi-Fi Architect
Aerohive Networks
E: Devin [at] Aerohive.com
W: www.Aerohive.com

I thought Dev promoted vendor neutrality!! guess he is all aerohive now funny how jobs (fat salaries) change people.
Aruba is a rock solid platform with some neat features thats why companies like microsoft, the pentagon and US air force to name but a few use it.
I believe each vendor has a place in the wi-fi arena and each is as good as another in different scenarios
personally I think Aruba and :D Xirrus blows aerohive away but thats just my two pennies.

acse45 Escribi?3:

I thought Dev promoted vendor neutrality!! guess he is all aerohive now funny how jobs (fat salaries) change people.
Aruba is a rock solid platform with some neat features thats why companies like microsoft, the pentagon and US air force to name but a few use it.
I believe each vendor has a place in the wi-fi arena and each is as good as another in different scenarios
personally I think Aruba and :D Xirrus blows aerohive away but thats just my two pennies.

It's been a few months ago, but Devin chose to go to Aerohive. That should mean something.

By no means am I taking something away from Aruba as they do have a very solid and secure system.

Have you truly evaluated Aruba vs. Aerohive vs. Xirrus?

The truth is, almost every vendor has an advantage over another vendor. I originally made a list here, but it isn't fair to list the pros without the cons and that's what system evaluations are for.

In my never humble opinion, making blanket statements as one being one better than another isn't recommended without knowing where and in what situations it will be installed.

That is why Devin said that Aerohive would love to participate in a bake off and not that Aerohive was better. He believes that it is better and is willing to show you. If I were implementing a large Wi-Fi network tomorrow, I'd have every vendor that wanted to play come in and show off their warez. Only then could I make an informed decision.

GT

Feel free to message me off thread for reasons why we, Ohio State University, chose and continue to use Aruba Networks over Cisco, Meru, and Xirrus.

I don't know a lot about Aerohive, but Devin's choice to go there is intriguing. However, a controller-less architecture in a large environment such as ours makes me a tad skeptical. I'm sure there is reasoning for this, and perhaps their NMS negates the need for a controller... again, don't know much about them.

I do hope CWNP continues to be vendor neutral. This thread is starting to sound like it's leaning towards "a vendor". Let's all hope that is not the case.

rholland Escribi?3:

Feel free to message me off thread for reasons why we, Ohio State University, chose and continue to use Aruba Networks over Cisco, Meru, and Xirrus.

I don't know a lot about Aerohive, but Devin's choice to go there is intriguing. However, a controller-less architecture in a large environment such as ours makes me a tad skeptical. I'm sure there is reasoning for this, and perhaps their NMS negates the need for a controller... again, don't know much about them.

I do hope CWNP continues to be vendor neutral. This thread is starting to sound like it's leaning towards "a vendor". Let's all hope that is not the case.

None of the people in this thread work for CWNP. I am an independent contractor and Devin is the Chief Wi-Fi Architect for Aerohive.

You chose Aruba because it is a good product and that is why you continue to use them. They have things that they do very well.

I also know with great confidence that you could install Aerohive, Ruckus, Cisco, Meru or Moto and have a great Wi-Fi network. These are all great products that are differentiated in different ways. You will find problems or gripes with every vendor and things you love about every vendor.

There are reasons that the "innovators" (Aerohive, Meru, Ruckus) do things they way they do. They found fault (in their opinion) with the "normal" (Aruba, Cisco, Moto) way of doing things.

Which is better? That is why large organizations looking to make these choices do and should go through an intense vetting process. I know of a university (very, very large) that is finalizing their independent bakeoff and the results are intriguing. I can't say more until it is public.

As far as your questions about Aerohive's controller-less architecture, I know that they would be happy to show you how it works and site examples of its use in large deployments today.

GT

Personally, I'd choose Cisco. Hehe... just kidding. I'm vendor-neutral, so I can't say things like that. Seriously though, CWNP is, and will always be, vendor-neutral. The Devinator says he doesn't drink "kool-aid", but that doesn't make him vendor-neutral, as his response clearly indicates. Just to remind everyone, Devin is still a good friend of everyone at CWNP, but he works at Aerohive and does not represent the views of CWNP... so please don't interpret his vendor preference as an indication of any vendor bias by CWNP. Same goes for GT and anyone else that is not a CWNP employee.

As a CWNP representative, I am happy to see vendor-specific debates on the forum. I do agree with the perspective that most--maybe all--vendors have an area where they excel above others, so the differentiation comes in three ways: 1) what are your needs as a customer, 2) how convincing are the vendor reps, and 3) what does the data, collected at the bakeoff, say? These three factors are all for the customer to decide, but I'm happy to have CWNP facilitate the discussion, or argument, so that customers can decide who to entertain in the first place.

From my vantage point, we are providing a forum that should highlight praiseworthy technologies/vendors and expose bad ones (in this competitive market, there aren't many), and this is all for the benefit of the customer and the industry. Every vendor has an equal right to come and champion their virtues. Being the number 2 vendor, there are plenty of praiseworthy things about Aruba... I'll start by saying something nice about them to get the conversation rolling.

Role-based policy and firewall features are top notch.

That's all I can give, lest I offend my vendor-neutrality. :)

GTHill Escribi?3:

rholland Escribi?3:

Feel free to message me off thread for reasons why we, Ohio State University, chose and continue to use Aruba Networks over Cisco, Meru, and Xirrus.

I don't know a lot about Aerohive, but Devin's choice to go there is intriguing. However, a controller-less architecture in a large environment such as ours makes me a tad skeptical. I'm sure there is reasoning for this, and perhaps their NMS negates the need for a controller... again, don't know much about them.

I do hope CWNP continues to be vendor neutral. This thread is starting to sound like it's leaning towards "a vendor". Let's all hope that is not the case.

None of the people in this thread work for CWNP. I am an independent contractor and Devin is the Chief Wi-Fi Architect for Aerohive.

You chose Aruba because it is a good product and that is why you continue to use them. They have things that they do very well.

I also know with great confidence that you could install Aerohive, Ruckus, Cisco, Meru or Moto and have a great Wi-Fi network. These are all great products that are differentiated in different ways. You will find problems or gripes with every vendor and things you love about every vendor.

There are reasons that the "innovators" (Aerohive, Meru, Ruckus) do things they way they do. They found fault (in their opinion) with the "normal" (Aruba, Cisco, Moto) way of doing things.

Which is better? That is why large organizations looking to make these choices do and should go through an intense vetting process. I know of a university (very, very large) that is finalizing their independent bakeoff and the results are intriguing. I can't say more until it is public.

As far as your questions about Aerohive's controller-less architecture, I know that they would be happy to show you how it works and site examples of its use in large deployments today.

GT

GT

I think it is biased to say that Cisco, Motorola and Aruba do not innovate. That is not objective at all. It also makes everyone who has to maintain a product by those vendors feel that CWNP or their contractors cannot be relied on to recommend individual product. Users will respect product evaluation if you give specific examples that everyone can debate fairly, instead of making blanket statements that devalue vendors and their customers.

The net effect will be to drive anyone who works with those products away from participating on CWNP because they cannot get vendor-specific answers to their RF questions.

cjoseph Escribi?3:

GT

I think it is biased to say that Cisco, Motorola and Aruba do not innovate. That is not objective at all. It also makes everyone who has to maintain a product by those vendors feel that CWNP or their contractors cannot be relied on to recommend individual product. Users will respect product evaluation if you give specific examples that everyone can debate fairly, instead of making blanket statements that devalue vendors and their customers.

The net effect will be to drive anyone who works with those products away from participating on CWNP because they cannot get vendor-specific answers to their RF questions.

You are correct that it was a bold and possibly incorrect statement, however, here is the basis for my statement.

All three vendors that I listed (Moto, Cisco, and Aruba) are all MCA's with a controller. Not wrong, but it is "normal". They each innovate in their own way (Cisco with TxBF, Moto with Distribution and Core mesh, WIPS, and Aruba with security as Marcus mentioned).

New companies on the block must differentiate themselves. If Aerohive, Ruckus or Meru came to market with the same architecture, they would be doomed for failure.

Ruckus, Meru and Aerohive have all fundamentally changed the way we think of Wi-Fi so to me they are the ones innovating because they have to.

CWNP doesn't go through some kind of vetting to make sure we contractors are vendor neutral. We don't have to be, but many of us are.

Vendor neutrality with me is a lot like my children. I don't really have a favorite, but I really appreciate each of their unique characteristics. If I wanted to build something out of Legos I'd ask my son. If I needed the latest fashion advice, I'd ask my 5 year old daughter. It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

GT

GT, I agree with what you and others say (except your simplistic innovators vs traditional list of vendors)--every vendor has strong points and neutral points and weak points. But the fact remains that Devin's comment, quoted here: "Aerohive (see banner to the right of your screen) is the most scalable, most resilient, and most cost effective architecture available in today's market. It's Wi-Fi that Works - Period." is really overly-dripping with marketing bias fluff. Tasteless was my first impression given Devin's involvement with Planet3 throughout the years. But maybe that's harsh. After all, a man's gotta make a living.

Still, it's one thing to say that he's disappointed that the poster didn't include Aerohive in the list of vendors and offer up that they'd like to be included in any bake-off, but quite another to make a blanket statement like that. Sheesh.