Aruba v Aerohive in customer reviews

When choosing the wireless LAN gear to be used in enterprises, it's important to look at security, reliability and ease of system management, and that's exactly what a group of Aruba and Aerohive customers have done.

The two vendors rank number 1 and number 2 in wireless LAN according to members of the IT Central Station user community in which members share their first-hand experiences with IT products in an effort to help each other out.

This article is a collection of some of these comments about the things customers feel are done will by these vendors but also areas where they see room for improvement.

+Don't miss: REVIW: Mojo wireless intrustion prevention system; IPv6 deployment guide+

Aruba Wireless

Emrah B., a IT infrastructure and security group manager writes about  security features on Aruba’s ClearPass:

“We asked for tenders from Aruba, Cisco, and Meru Networks. At the end of the day we decided, or rather I decided, on Aruba because of its security features. We performed a lot of tests to reduce the number of certificates needed, the access point requirements, IPS features, spectrum analyses, etc. After that, we decided that Aruba would be best for us.”

Room for Improvement

This Network Specialist writes that Aruba Wireless can improve its documentation:

“Aruba’s documentation is pretty good, however there are cases where something is recommended by a TAC or an Aruba engineer that cannot be found in their documentation for the product itself, or their best practices guides (often referred to as Validated Reference Designs – VRD). The things that we've had to change/rethink but weren't in the documentation are: cluster sizes, standard L2 VLAN, disabling L3 Mobility, and client match.”

Aerohive Networks

 Matt V., a network administrator, points out how Aerohive Networks’ mapping and filtering capabilities made a positive impact on his company’s infrastructure:

“Maps and filters are a great way to organize your infrastructure. Makes it easier to work with one building at a time. Having cloud access was great. I didn't need to have onsite equipment. I didn't have to worry about a controller that could max out on devices.

Scott L., a Technology Integration Specialist, writes about how Aerohive helped replace some APs at his company:

“Aerohive was able to replace a few APs quickly and without any issues. I was able to get them into our network easily and with almost no downtime. I also love the hive manager for finding a device that a student has misplaced. I can easily see which APs it has hit and start to identify its location.”

Room for Improvement

 Aaron B., an IT Infrastructure Manager suggests that Aerohive Networks could improve its firewall configuration:

“Their firewall configuration gets funky and it can be difficult to understand. A vendor assisted with our first roll-out. After that initial one, we have done all other implementations ourselves without any issues.”

You can read more Wireless LAN reviews, as well as more reviews for both Aruba Wireless and Aerohive Networks, on IT Central Station.