We have multiple corporate customers here in Oman. We provide support to the customers for implementations and service issues.
There are many use cases. There are a lot of customers who are using the Huawei network. For one customer, we implemented the campus and the data center network with Huawei.
I like the real-time location monitor or RTLS feature. It is similar to the monitoring feature in Cisco Prime.
eSight has many features and options, but sometimes, we feel that it should be more advanced, like Cisco. It would be good if they can enable some automation part in eSight. Most of our customers want automation in their network. They don't want a dependency on everything. That's why the automation part must be improved in Huawei. It will be beneficial for customers.
Cisco has different products, and there are multiple products for monitoring, automation, etc. In the software-defined network, Cisco has ACI, and VMware has NSX. Such options must be there in Huawei to move to a software-defined network. Unlike Cisco, in the case of eSight, there is only one product. I am not aware of any other product. It would be good to enhance it with at least some automation options so that we can use it effectively in the campus network or big data center environment.
When I implemented this Huawei solution, I faced some limitations in particular areas like wireless scanning. This is another part that they can improve. Wireless reporting option is not as effective as other monitoring solutions. For a particular use case, if a customer is asking for some reports, sometimes they are not 100% satisfactory. The reporting structure must be improved.
It is stable. We didn't face any problem when we implemented this product, and we also didn't face any major issues after the installation.
It is scalable. However, we are not able to install it with an auto-redundant node. We are not getting that option of redundancy or scalability. We have the option to install it in one single node.
Technical support is good from Huawei.
It is not always straightforward. It is sometimes complex, but we get good support from the documentation. We were able to achieve this because of the documentation support.
Its pricing is better than any other Huawei product. Some products are cheaper in Huawei, and some products are cheaper in Cisco. Cisco has more benefits and options than Huawei if you consider different network environments.
I would recommend this solution depending upon the budget and requirements of a customer. If a customer is asking for automation, I have some Cisco products for automation. If a customer is asking for some low priced and cheap device, I have solutions in Huawei. It also depends on the network environment and the efficiency to handle the network in a particular technology. If a customer is very happy with Huawei and he is more knowledgeable about Huawei devices, he would prefer Huawei. Those having the Cisco devices would only prefer Cisco. Similarly, an HP customer would prefer HP. As a technical person, I have all the options. I am not bound to one option.
I would rate Huawei eSight a six out of ten.
