Aruba Instant Reviews

Our primary use case of this solution is to control our networks.

We've been using Aruba since 2014 from my office but in our country we've now deployed a couple of sites. We're actually now working on a project to deploy one of the biggest hotels in Zimbabwe.

The features I have found most valuable is that the solution creates a guest portal for guest networks, and setting up SSID authentication to the regular server. I also like the settings and the roles on the profiles, like where you can block some sites etc.

The only issue that I have encountered was the captive portal through Facebook. I found that it wasn't working, so I created a couple of cases through the Aruba portal.

Aruba Instant is stable and it's easy to manage.

The solution is scalable. I've deployed it in different multiple environments. My office has less than 50 users. I've recently deployed it at a school, which has about 300 users. So we have quite a few sites. We do have plans to increase our usage at our hotel site, where we are working on a mobility master.

We do have some challenges here and there, and then we have to seek support from Aruba. They are good.

No, we haven't used a different solution before.

The initial setup was straightforward but when I did the authentication, the capture portal wasn't coming up. Deployment took me about a day. I did everything myself, which was an advantage at the office.

We only pay for the support and the contract licenses from Aruba Instant.

We did compare it to other solutions because our computers are Ruckus. We have compared Ruckus and Cisco, which became weak. Cisco, from my former research, is good in switching and dropping, but in terms of Wi-Fi, Aruba Instant is the best portal.

Aruba is a great product. I've used it for a couple of years and it's been working well. I haven't used Ruckus but from what I've seen, licenses for Ruckus should be renewed annually. You have to purchase the license to use the product. But with Aruba, you buy the product through the distributor, so it's yours and you don't have to buy any additional licenses. The only licenses that you buy are for AirWave, which is the monitoring software, or ClearPass, which is for guest access or onboarding.

I rate this solution a nine out of ten. I would like to see an improvement with the captive portal connecting to Facebook, but the rest of the program works perfectly well. A guest portal will also be great. Some schools have a system that we're trying to integrate with Aruba, it's called 24online and it is where you create voucher systems.

The roaming feature is the solution's most valuable aspect.

Technical support needs improvement. We use the forum for technical support assistance, but it's not enough. If you're talking with a technician, they're in India. They cannot give you the service that you need. Sometimes have problems with some personal services and technical support is not helpful in this area.

The solution needs to be more compatible with IoT and smart devices.

The stability of the solution is very good.

The scalability of the solution is excellent.

We aren't satisfied with technical support. If you open a ticket, it's 24 hours at least before they get back to you. If you're in the enterprise-level business you can wait, you can come in next day. However, a small or medium business cannot handle the cost of the delay.

The initial setup is straightforward.

We're an Aruba reseller. Our clients are typically small and medium-sized companies.

It's a good product. If you are an enterprise business, you have your own team for every service and you have time to research, but for small companies, support is not good and you don't have the resources of an internal team that could mitigate that. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.