ExtremeCloud IQ Reviews

Their distributed model - they call it cooperative control - rather than a controller-based system, has permitted a centralized management control plane with HiveManager while data flows just as it does over any LAN. They also have robust troubleshooting tools available.

We have been able to deploy complex wireless solutions to our users with minimal difficulty.

Aerohive's new version of HiveManager, known as NG, while offering new features, still needs development and an ability to migrate from "classic" versions of HiveManager.

NG is a step in the right direction towards both an improved interface (interface being a deficit noted by other reviewers) and SDN. After years of development on "classic" versions of HiveManager, NG is still a work in progress. As of 2016, they have yet to add support for their line of BR routers and CVG VPN Gateway to HM NG. HiveManager 6 is still required to centrally manage these devices. As a result, we are currently running both HM "classic" and NG in our environment.

I have been assured support is on the way, but other features, such as open API support, seem to be taking precedence in development.

We have used it since 2008.

There have been minimal issues, usually when updating to new versions of Hive OS.

One HiveOS release, we downgraded until the next revision was released.

We have never hit a ceiling, although I feel confident we would have if a controller-based solution had been deployed.

They have been very eager to please us.

As with any other IT vendor I've worked with over 20 years, some are better than others. Again, they seem eager to please and resolve any issues we've encountered.

I previously used Symbol/Motorola. We switched due to scalability and management issues.

It can be as simple or complex as you wish.

An in-house team implemented it.

Without needing to pay for controllers, we were able to invest in better wireless hardware. License and maintenance costs were minimal.

Before choosing, we also evaluated Cisco, Aruba, Meru, Meraki, Ruckus, and Motorola.

We integrated Aerohive into our Cisco-centric environment in 2008 and never looked back. Subsequently, when Aerohive offered other layer two devices, specifically switches, we opted to begin to upgrade our older Cisco access switches with Aerohive devices.

The most valuable feature for me is the ability to operate in a controller-less fashion. Allowing the APs to function if connectivity is lost to the controller can be very valuable.

These devices have allowed our wireless network deployment to go from a 'best-effort' nicety to an 'expected' accommodation. The dependability is definitely appreciated.

The area that I would like to see improved is searching within Hivemanager. There have been several occasions where I was attempting to delete an 'unnecessary' or 'unused' configuration item and was advised by the system that it was still in use by another policy. Trying to find that policy was very time consuming.

We have had Aerohive deployed in our environment for over eight years.

We did not encounter any issues related to deployment of the Aerohive access points.

We have not encountered any issues related to stability of the Aerohive access points.

We have not encountered any issues related to scalability of the Aerohive access points.

I would rate customer service around 8/10. We have not had any significant problems necessitating a call to customer service. They have always been willing to help.

I would rate technical support at 8.5/10. The technical support teams seem to be pretty robust. Our main needs for technical support have been for hardware failures rather than software or configuration issues.

We did not have any previous solutions in our environment.

This system was set up before I began managing the environment. I cannot say if there were issues in the initial setup, or speak to it being straightforward or complex.

This was implemented via an in-house team with the assistance of an Aerohive engineer.

Our return on investment has been positive, overall. It is very difficult to gauge this statistic in our environment due to this product being used 'in addition to', rather than 'in place of' a wired infrastructure.

Concerning Aerohive, this topic is not one that I have been involved with and, as such, I do not wish to give advice regarding.

This system was set up before I began managing the environment. I cannot say which vendors, or even if other vendors were evaluated.

The controller-less device management, built-in captive web portal, and reporting.

We moved from 6 individual consumer-grade APs to the Aerohives.  Keeping the devices up to date and obtaining usage info from them was a never ending ordeal.  I didn't have 1 controller to deal with I had 6.

The reporting, while a great improvement, is limited, at least in my experience, to the preconfigured charts and templates for those charts.  Obtaining raw data from the Aerohive units for use in other applications requires Tech Support intervention.

The Charts are nice for the circumstances for which they are developed. We just happen to be slightly outside of that so we have to hand write the data to enter elsewhere. 

To start with I work at a Library watching and running reports on clients is not really in our best interest.  So  many of the charts don’t help much at all and only if we are making a presentation to the board or something like that.  Which doesn’t happen very often.

We are really just after usage numbers to justify the money being spent.  To be very specific all we need is the number of unique clients we get per day totaled up for the month.  There is one report that gives us a bar graph showing unique clients each day of the month.  However, since we can’t get those numbers in any other form we have to total them up by hand to get the total for the month.

Not very difficult I admit.  However, we need to do this every month for 7 different libraries.  It would save us several minutes on the first of each month if we could just pull a report that could sum up those numbers for us or transfer the numbers into a preconfigured spreadsheet and then just send that to each library.  The first of the month is typically so busy every extra minute helps.

I can also imagine where some places would not want graphs or charts at all, just the raw data.  They could then use the data they need in reports or other applications that they already use.

The way it is now is still do-able and much better than it was.  That was merely the only gripe I really had about Aerohive for which I have yet to find a resolution.  

We've had no issues with deployment.

We've had no issues with stability.

We've had no issues with scalability.

We primarily use this product for wireless control.

We didn't have wireless service available before implementing this product, so it has improved things quite a lot.

The most valuable feature is the centralized management capability.

Overall, the wireless control features are good.

The licensing model could be improved.

This is a stable solution.

This product is scalable and we have approximately 125 people using it.

We don't go directly to the vendor. Rather, we get our technical support from a third party, and they have been good so far.

We did not use another wireless solution before this one. We purchased it because we needed to provide wireless service within the organization.

The initial setup was easy.

We had another company do the implementation. They showed us how to use it and handed it over. I have no complaints about the deployment.

I do the maintenance on it.

We don't operate such that this product would provide a return on investment. We're a school and we put this system in place to provide wireless access to the pupils.

The price was okay. However, there are different licensing models and it would be helpful if more of the features were in the lower licensing bracket.

Overall, this product does what we've asked it to do.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We sell this solution to customers. In terms of deployment, some customers require an on-premise solution, and some are okay with the cloud solution. It is a mix of both environments. We provide the latest version of this solution.

What our customers like the most is that this device is so rugged. It has very good performance and throughput. 

Its console is very easy to use and has many features, which makes it different from its competitors. Cloud IQ has all the features built into the console, whereas other solutions require you to integrate multiple solutions with their consoles. You don't need to add anything extra with Cloud IQ. With this single solution, you can do almost everything.

Its price could be lower. It is a simplified solution, but it has price challenges. It is costly as compared to other solutions. 

It has almost everything. The only thing is that MAC is not possible on the cloud, and it has to be on-premises.

I have been using this solution for approximately one and a half years.

It is a very stable solution.

It is very much scalable. It supports more than 100K access points in one console.

We got good support from them.

It has a very straightforward setup. There is not much to do. We just have to configure the console. That's it.

The deployment duration depends on the configuration that a customer wants, such as how granularly they want to configure the policies and whether they want to configure it as a WiFi. It is a cloud-based solution, so it generally doesn't take long. If you want to connect the API and make it live, it is a one-day job. Once you configure the controlled access, the API will connect to it, and you have to just push the policy on that API.

It is costly as compared to Meraki, Aruba, Juniper, and Cisco. Cloud IQ is an enterprise solution, whereas Meraki is specifically a single solution.

I would definitely recommend this solution. It is very good and stable. You don't have to go with multiple consoles and their integration. 

I would rate ExtremeCloud IQ a ten out of ten. It is a perfect solution.

Aerohive's Hive Manager allows you to control all aspects of your WiFi network, from anywhere. The dashboard shows you the heavier users, the problem spots on your network, and the general health of your WiFi system, at a glance.

One can easily set up and take down new networks for testing, or long term visitors, or easily set up temporary access for visitors.

Not really. I'm not sure what more to say except that I can't think of any areas for improvement. The 120 character requirement for reviews is unnecessary.

5

No issues with deployment. Again, I'm not sure what to say except that I didn't encounter any issues with deployment.

Have had no issues with stability. Again, and again, I'm not sure what to say except that I don't have any issues with stability.

The adapters have scaled to meet the needs of our students without issues. Which means that I didn't encounter any issues with scalability.

Excellent service. Yes, the service was and is excellent. And again, and again, the one hundred and twenty character requirement for reviews is unnecessary.

Excellent support. Yes, the support was and is excellent. And again, and again the one hundred and twenty character requirement for reviews is unnecessary.

Mikrotik, impossible to manage these devices. Mikrotik requires that you know their proprietary system to get it to work.

Very easy to set up. Much easier to set up than to meet the requirements for this review, the one hundred and twenty character requirement is very onerous.

Installed and set them up myself. If you can string wire and find an electric outlet you can install these WiFi adapters. The software is a breeze to use.

I don't calculate that. These just work and fit our needs. Again, I don't calculate the return on investment. If the device makes my life easier, and it works, I judge it a positive move.

In education, install via e-rate to make the product quite affordable. They are similar in price to most competing brands.

Yes (ruckus, cisco, meraki, etc.) but this had the easiest interface to set up. Again, the interface is very easy to set up. A general knowledge of networks is all you need.

No. No. No. I have no additional comments or advice, but I do have a suggestion, that the 120 character minimum is removed from these reviews.

It's nice to have a single interface to configure, troubleshoot and remediate any issues. It has been a huge time saver, even if the interface is a little "clunky".

Tracking down issues is fairly easy and we're able to identify and rectify the problem from one place.

A redesigned UI with better flow and more intuition would make configuration much easier.

Going on 3 years now.

A little bit of a learning curve at first but with proper training and a better understanding of the system it finally clicks.

No stability issues.

Had some client issues, but nothing with the Aerohive equipment.

Customer service has been great for the most part, haven't had too many interactions with them.

Level 2 support is always top notch.

Nothing enterprise-wide, but we did use some CIsco and Linksys products for a small office roll-out.

Initial setup was a little complex, just needed to think a little differently than with other vendors.

Cisco, Aruba, Meraki (before Cisco purchased).

The ability to manage the wifi from the cloud and not needing to have an on premise controller is great. Great support as well.

With our previous wifi system it was on premise and end of life. We were unable to get any more updates for it and with Cloud wifi there are no hardware limits and we also were able to expand mac authentication to 500 users vs. 125 with our existing system.

There could be better alerts setup for the access points. I also wish there was a way to track users roaming from access point to access point. It would also be great to have better interference assistance.

We have been using it for 6 months.

We did run into an issue where there was a lot of interference when we launched the new APs. We ended up also with issues that were compounded by firmware that was having issues as well. After working with support and an SE we were able to get the APs stable and working properly.

We haven't had any stability issues yet. The access points have been running smoothly since the initial deployment issues we had which has been great.

We had to tweak some power for some of our APs so they would not pick up the access points from our lower floors after we launched. After tweaking that we didnt have any issues scaling.

Customer service has been great. Any issues I have had were answered quickly and we were able to resolve things quickly. The demo we were setup with was long enough to meet our testing needs and we were given enough APs to test with.

Support was great to work with. Each tech I have worked with was very knowledgeable and easy to get ahold of. They were quick to escalate if our issues needed the next level of support. They would keep in contact.

We previously used Ruckus. We switched due to our equipment being end of life and we wanted to move to a cloud solution. Aerohive was able to meet both of those needs. We also wanted something that worked good with our noisy environment and was able to provide a stable connection with a lot of interference.

The initial setup was pretty easy. We did run into some issues due to some of our access points were initially registered to the HiveManager and not NG. Once I contacted support, they were able to get everything switched and I was up and running. The network profiles were a little difficult to setup to use Mac authentication.

We purchased through a vendor but didn't use them to implement the solution. They were very helpful with the trial and working with Aerohive on pricing and things. They are continuing to be helpful with a hardware switch out we are doing for different country access points.

Our return on investment so far has been more stable wifi that is future proof and faster than our old system. We don't have to worry about a controller going end of life and have the ability to manage the whole company from one central dashboard.

The pricing and licensing is a great structure and fairly priced. We looked at a few different solutions and they were right in line with competitors and cheaper. There is no per user license which is nice.

We evaluated Aruba and Meraki. Meraki was not our choice due to not being able to get a stable Wifi connection due to it being unable to handle the interference here in our office. Aruba was nice and the pricing was similar to Aerohive but I felt their cloud interface wasn't as user friendly.

I think this is a great solution and as more and more technology changes come out it should only get better. They are priced right and fairly user friendly to setup for someone with not much wifi experience.