Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN and Aruba Instant On Access Points compete in the wireless networking category. Cisco Meraki seems to have the upper hand due to its rich enterprise-grade features and robust cloud management capabilities, while Aruba shines with affordability and ease of use.
Features: Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offers robust cloud management capabilities, centralized control for multiple infrastructures, seamless connectivity, SSID creation, and advanced networking configurations. Aruba Instant On Access Points focus on user-friendliness, offering a Virtual Controller for flexible management, ease of setup, and clustering capabilities.
Room for Improvement: Cisco Meraki users highlight high costs, restrictive licensing, scalability issues, and lack of advanced features as areas for improvement. Aruba Instant On Access Points could enhance security, integration, and support for more access points for larger deployments.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Meraki is versatile with public cloud, on-premises, and hybrid solutions, simplifying deployment. Customer service is comprehensive but occasionally costly. Aruba predominantly offers an on-premises setup, ideal for small to medium setups, with a straightforward support approach but could improve advanced troubleshooting.
Pricing and ROI: Cisco Meraki has a higher cost structure with recurring licensing, making it expensive for smaller businesses but justified for its features. Aruba Instant On Access Points offer competitive pricing without ongoing fees, appealing to budget-conscious users but may not match the ROI for larger, complex deployments.
The technical support from Aruba is rated seven due to limitations, such as support issues when the controller is on the VM side.
There are still issues with the language barrier and the overall quality of support.
It would be better if the SLA of technical support was less than four hours.
Meraki is not scalable enough since it straightforwardly maps its products to segmented specifications.
The stability of Aruba Instant On Access Points is generally good.
We have experienced many instances where we have experienced a lag in our network, and I am not sure if it is due to their devices or our network.
Stability is not an issue for me because it comes with Cisco's proven manufacturer quality.
The default configuration can be overridden to enhance performance beyond the default settings.
In future updates, more AI for intelligence and the option for a separate network could be beneficial.
There is not enough focus on security across networking vendors, and they often add features without testing them thoroughly.
The most important improvement needed is to eliminate the limitation of uplinks.
Some of the newer models of the Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN access point have encompassed the new wireless protocols and increased the strength of their antennas.
The pricing of Aruba Instant On Access Points is competitive compared to Cisco, and they are actually cheaper.
Aruba Instant On Access Points work without a list price, suggesting that they are open source and no additional licensing costs are incurred.
The cost of Aruba Instant On Access Points is reasonable;
Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is on par with other devices in that category, offering competitive pricing.
The pricing of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is not competitive enough for the SMB market compared to other brands.
Customers choose Aruba because it is more stable, has superior radio management, and offers features like mesh and a stateful firewall.
The product is incredibly stable and meets our needs excellently.
The virtual controller feature is very beneficial because it removes the need for a physical controller.
It also manages security clients and switches, providing a single dashboard to manage multiple network infrastructures.
The ability to program all access points from the Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN dashboard, view the status of all of them, and examine the individual devices connected to each access point is very valuable.
Ingredients for success.
Fast 802.11ac Wave 2, secure employee and guest access, easy-to-use web, and mobile app management.
Say yes to secure Wi-Fi access.
Pre-built access control lists (ACLs) and built-in firewall in the access points prevent malicious traffic from entering your network – we call it “hassle-free” security.
Never drop an important call.
With Instant On, voice and video business applications are automatically prioritized, so you stay connected with your peers.
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