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Aruba Airwave vs Cisco Catalyst Center comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.5
Aruba Airwave significantly boosts ROI by enhancing efficiency, reducing costs, and optimizing engineer time from 60 to 15-20 minutes.
Sentiment score
7.4
Cisco Catalyst Center simplifies network management and enhances efficiency, providing positive ROI and performance, despite high initial costs.
They have a long life.
The best feature is its availability, easy deployment, and good support for the solution.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Aruba Airwave support is reliable with strong ratings, though slower escalation compared to Cisco is noted by some users.
Sentiment score
7.7
Cisco Catalyst Center's efficient, timely support is highly rated, though hardware replacement delays occur, especially in complex cases.
Angie was very kind and communicated well in both Spanish and English, making it pleasant to connect with her.
I had a situation where they were present with us overnight to fix an issue for a customer, demonstrating their dedication.
I would rate technical support nine to nine and a half out of ten.
The software platform is very easy to use.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Aruba Airwave is scalable and adaptable, supporting medium to enterprise businesses with adjustable resources for varying infrastructures.
Sentiment score
8.2
Cisco Catalyst Center is lauded for scalability, flexibility, and efficient device management, with high ratings for its adaptability.
Aruba Airwave is fully scalable, as we have a large number of tenants using the network with approximately six thousand end users.
They have a feature that allows stacking switches together.
Cisco Catalyst Center is scalable and quite flexible, allowing for specific model choices like the 9,000 or 2,000 series based on the clients' performance requirements and bottlenecks.
It effectively manages all the devices I have, demonstrating its capability to scale.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Aruba Airwave is highly rated for stability, reliability, and integration, though minor performance issues occur in crowded environments.
Sentiment score
7.9
Cisco Catalyst Center is praised for its reliability in networking, boasting strong stability and robust security for critical workloads.
I have found Aruba Airwave to be stable.
They are very stable, not power cycling, and basically maintaining their stability.
They provide a robust and secure solution for critical workloads.
Cisco Catalyst Center is stable, and I would rate it a nine out of ten for stability.
 

Room For Improvement

Aruba Airwave needs improved GUI stability, integration, and cost-effectiveness, with better scalability, support, and device compatibility to meet customer demands.
Cisco Catalyst Center struggles with compatibility, setup complexity, cost-effectiveness, user interface, documentation, threat detection, and mixed vendor support.
When upgrading hardware, there were technical issues with network interfaces and Red Hat, which required escalation to developers.
When attempting to copy a floor plan, it does not copy well, so I often have to redraw the walls.
My customers often complain about numerous software bugs requiring frequent software patches and updates to resolve these issues.
In the current setup, incidents are always reactionary, and it would be beneficial if Cisco Catalyst Center could proactively handle issues such as bandwidth crunches and packet drops.
Cisco Catalyst Center lacked intelligence in this area and required reliance on third-party appliances like firewalls or threat protection devices.
 

Setup Cost

Aruba Airwave offers flexible yet complex pricing, cost-effective compared to competitors, with trials to evaluate features and manageability.
Cisco Catalyst Center, while costly, offers value with high quality and ROI, positioned as a premium networking solution.
They are also facing competitive pricing challenges from Huawei.
Cost is a major factor when any company is buying, and Cisco's products are pricier even compared to other US-based solutions.
The setup can be somewhat expensive.
 

Valuable Features

Aruba Airwave provides comprehensive multivendor network management with real-time monitoring, orchestration, troubleshooting, and robust reporting features.
Cisco Catalyst Center provides robust automation, management, and security for large networks, enhancing functionality and ease of use.
It provides near real-time monitoring using AIMON and AURO protocols, which is robust with multiple models and brand support.
Aruba Airwave provides good visibility, offering extensive data on network dynamics, such as access point connections, usage, signal strengths, and potential interference from neighboring Wi-Fi networks.
The most helpful feature I noticed, yet did not utilize, allowed us to add our Cisco switches for monitoring.
There is a very wide user base providing support, so I almost never have to contact Cisco support due to the vast accessible knowledge base.
Their threat intelligence platform is excellent, including Talos Intelligence, which provides a good database and strong threat insights.
This dual functionality is crucial for monitoring large enterprises, providing a robust solution for IT teams.
 

Categories and Ranking

Aruba Airwave
Ranking in Network Management Applications
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Catalyst Center
Ranking in Network Management Applications
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Prashant-Patel - PeerSpot reviewer
The solution has multi-vendor support, and it can be used for network management
Aruba Airwave is an on-prem solution, so you have to manage it with your servers to be deployed. You can also deploy it on the cloud if you have your own private cloud. All the configuration guides and the different types of designs you need are available from Aruba Airwave's portal. I would recommend Aruba Airwave to other users. Overall, I rate Aruba Airwave ten out of ten.
Ahmad Attal - PeerSpot reviewer
Delivers strong analytics and integration capabilities but requires regular updates and training
My customers often complain about numerous software bugs requiring frequent software patches and updates to resolve these issues. Furthermore, the complexity of the solution can be challenging for some customers as they often require extensive training to fully understand and utilize the product. They have concerns about the high number of software bugs and the need for regular updates to address these bugs.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
9%
University
8%
Government
17%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Healthcare Company
10%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Aruba Airwave?
I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.
What needs improvement with Aruba Airwave?
When attempting to copy a floor plan, it does not copy well, so I often have to redraw the walls. It's somewhat annoying since other Wi-Fi design software we use is easier for drawing walls and inc...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Catalyst Center?
The cost is relative and depends on the market and one's budget provision. While Cisco provides a good return on investment, they are also facing competitive pricing challenges from Huawei.
What needs improvement with Cisco Catalyst Center?
If they can add a layer of portable hotspots with some licensing flexibility for 20 to 50 users, it would be a great feature.
What is your primary use case for Cisco Catalyst Center?
We use Cisco Catalyst Center ( /products/cisco-catalyst-center-reviews ) for managing switches in our IT infrastructure. Our primary focus has been on utilizing Catalyst ( /products/cisco-catalyst-...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Henkel, University of Findlay, University of Minnesota Duluth, University of Iowa
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Airwave vs. Cisco Catalyst Center and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.